2014: the year that security broke

Let me be very clear about this from the get go: 2014 has been a disastrous year for IT security. Ironically, while the Edward Snowden revelations the year before were bad enough, at least they led to a sea change in the way that businesses and the public alike viewed the privacy of their data. They also prompted big technology players like Apple and Google to do something about it by bringing device encryption to the fore. This latter development was the only real positive I can pluck from the insecure mess that was 2014.