While Harry Potter’s end may have brought gloom to many, the culmination of hackfest is perhaps something else the world is longing for. Just when everyone thought that LulZec’s shutdown would release the web from the heated summer of hacks, it instead inspired some other groups to disrupt the online equilibrium. The latest casualty of cyber assault was the phone hacking of British tabloid, News of the World—a scandal that could signal the end of Murdoch’s news empire breakdown, as News Corp is being probed by the FBI.

In a phone interview with Businessweek, FBI spokesperson Jim Margolin mentioned that they are now looking into a particular person who may have initiated the attack. He said, “We’re aware of certain allegations pertaining to a possible hacking by News Corp. personnel and we’re looking into those charges.”

The ongoing hacks have all but reminded consumers that they too need to protect their data.  The mylookout.com blog shares some basic-but-always-taken-for-granted tips on how mobile users like you and me could secure sensitive information.

• Set password on your voicemail and avoid relying on voicemail system to detect the call comes from your number.
• Equally important to creating password is making it strong through combinations of letters, special characters and numbers. It’s a taboo to use any of your personal and public information as your codes.
• Do not use any of information in your social networks, especially Facebook, as passwords. Aside from being public, this biggie is not completely secured from hacking.
• While you may have already placed password in your voice mail, you may also ask your mobile carrier to embed additional security by having another password in place before anyone could modify it.

Whether it’s a hardcore IT company, a gaming giant or a global news organization, no one is quite safe from cyber attacks and data breaches. Consumers, on the other hand, should be able to understand the basics on how to safeguard their own gadgets and information.

It’s been quite a summer for hackers, and consumers are reminded of the costs of poor security and vulnerable networks.  As more of our data moves to the cloud and we rely more on connected devices as portals to access that information, we must also keep security in mind.  It seems to have all started with the Sony network hack, which we reminisce on with this infographic.