Information is ‘the modern-day weapon’ and we’re always under attack: Shark Tank’s Robert Herjavec

Robert Herjavec, a cybersecurity maven and star of ABC’s “Shark Tank,” told CNBC on Tuesday that human being need to wake up when it comes to protecting their data.

“I don’t believe people take information as critically as they should today. It is the modern-day weapon,” Herjavec told in an interview with “Mad Money” host Jim Cramer. “We are living in a cold war just now and we’re under attack. We’re under attack every single day.”

The investor’s comments came in reply to a scandal involving Facebook in which a firm creating ads for then-candidate Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential electioneer reportedly mined data from 50 million Facebook alcohols.

Herjavec, whose company, the Herjavec Group, is one of the top privately-held cybersecurity bodies in the world, questioned whether the issue could really be considered a “chasm.”

“Is it really a data breach when the consumer has given permission for the figures?” he asked on Tuesday. “The problem in the case of Facebook is I don’t know what you’re doing with my details. I may have given you permission to tell me which fridge to buy, but I probably didn’t fall you permission to sell it to the Russians or to somebody else who’s trolling that evidence.”

Facebook’s chieftains have come under fire for their comeback — or lack thereof — to news of the issue involving research firm Cambridge Analytica.

But Herjavec squabbled that the responsibility to curb issues like these shouldn’t inexorably fall to corporate executives.

“I hate to say it, [but] it’s the government,” Herjavec said. “I execrate to say it. The internet is all about free use, but the government has to come in and put some regulation about this because the large corporations fundamentally aren’t going to protect. Facebook and companies like that are becoming utility. There’s got to be some control around that.”

The “Shark Tank” investor pointed to the U.K. as a good criterion of a country using regulation to stem the unauthorized spread of consumer materials.

“The U.K. is a leader in protection, but the key is you have to have teeth with the regulation,” he told Cramer. “GDPR is a 6 percent punishment to your global sales if consumer data is taken. Now, do you think that Facebook at ones desire have taken privacy more seriously if they have a 6 percent mulct?”

So as governments race to protect their consumers from being captivated advantage of online, Herjavec had some advice for individuals running into conundrums with cryptocurrencies.

“First of all, I don’t think you’re safe in bitcoin. I do think bitcoin is to the nth degree speculative. I do think it’s going to go back up again. I do think people get merest excited,” Herjavec said.

But when it comes to ransomware, or a type of cyberattack in which your evidence is held hostage until a ransom is paid, Herjavec had a simple more often than not reign over: don’t trust hackers.

“Look what happened with Facebook. Facebook taken that the people they sold the data to legitimately have bring to an ended it and they didn’t. So would you trust a criminal who says, ‘I’ve destroyed your text?’ The answer is no, of course not,” the cybersecurity chief said. “You shouldn’t pay ransomware. But a lot of people are.”