Everyday millions of us blindly hand over our bank details, email addresses and passwords. Buying things online is becoming more and more popular by the week, and the convenience of clicking a few buttons appeals to so many of us. But what about when things don’t run so smoothly, and suddenly your credit card number is released online as public information?

That’s exactly what happened last week when Cosmo, a 15 year-old super hacker broke into a billing agency and released 500,000 credit cards number online. He’s also hacked his way through the ‘secure’ systems of Google, PayPal, Amazon, Apple, AOL, Microsoft, Netflix, the CIA and the FBI. Speaking of Netflix in particular, Cosmo describes it as ‘So easy’, telling reporters that all he had to was hack the account through everyday programmes such as Cain & Abel. He then called Netflix and told them the account holder’s name and email address and they gave him the password to the account. Even though he admits that PayPal was more tricky, the use of online aids such as ‘FakeNameGenerator.com’ allowed him to easily break into various accounts and rob them from the inside.

Cosmo is currently awaiting charges after a brush with the FBI. Only this time he wasn’t working alone. Cosmo is part of a group called UGNazi (short for Underground Nazi), that supposedly aim to bring down sites for the Nasdaq stock market and the CIA. This even included removing Papa John’s website for failing to deliver a pizza on time.

Once UGNazi had hacked Google’s verification systems, they posted Michael Bloomberg’s (Mayor of New York City) home address and social security number online. Cosmo does seem remorseful for those who are victims of hacking, but of course he is still just a 15 year-old boy. This begs the question: If Cosmo can hack the FBI at 15 and place people personal information online at risk; what’s he going to be capable of 15 years from now?

Now that online shopping is such a normal part of everyday life, we rarely think twice about typing in our personal details and creating accounts here, there and everywhere online. Whilst we’re assured our information is kept private and safe, incidents like this – and others before it- are terrifying. Not only is our financial information at risk, but a major figure in US politics had his privacy compromised and his location revealed, putting him in very real danger.

It makes you wander, is it really worth risking my bank details to shop online? This isn’t just a scam concerning smaller, lesser-known online retailers either. PayPal is considered the Global Leader in Online Payments, and their tagline: A faster, safer way to send money, promises customers security and safety when making transactions online, when this is clearly not the case. However, is it inevitable that the better and more sophisticated the systems become, the more experienced the hackers get? What seems impossible to many of us was easy work for Cosmo and his UGNazi’s. So, is there really any such thing as being 100% secure online? Or are we inevitably entering a dangerous online world in which our personal information is constantly at risk?