Fake Big Data: Deceiving Hackers With Tons of Crap

We’ve seen some interesting ideas to thwart cybercrime in our time – for example Kaspersky’s supposedly ‘unhackable’ operating system comes to mind – and most of them inevitably involve the use of super-complex algorithms, ciphers and other encryption methods.

So given this technological trend, it’s a bit of a surprise to learn that a number of companies are now turning to far cruder methods in order to protect their data – using the age old art of deception to confound would be hackers.

A report in the Washington Post earlier this week describes how a number of companies have hit on the novel approach of using fake data as a means of frustrating hackers in their efforts to get hold of the real thing.