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To find out more about the survey, I asked Deloitte LLP chairman of the board Sharon Allen to provide some additional context. Given that my only risk-management concern early this week relates to thunderstorms off the coast of South Padre Island, I asked Sharon to step in as a guest blogger today. Here's what she sent me: When I was a high school student growing up in the small farming community of Kimberly, Idaho, little did I know that a song from that time could serve as an anthem for something happening in the workplace today. The Beatles' 1967 classic "Hello Goodbye" is a study in contrasts, as are the current attitudes about social media. Social media has arrived - and with it, employers and employees are singing very different songs about what constitutes appropriate social networking both on and off the job. Recently, I commissioned the third annual Deloitte LLP "Ethics & Workplace" survey. We polled 500 executives and 2,000 employees outside Deloitte. Our survey found that 60 percent of business executives believe they have a right to know how employees portray themselves and their organizations in online social networks. Perhaps because nearly three-fourths of the employees in our poll agreed that the use of social networks makes it easier to damage a company's reputation. However, more than half of employees polled say their social networking pages are not an employer's concern. That belief is especially true among younger workers, with nearly two-thirds of 18- to 34-year-old respondents stating that employers have no business monitoring their online activity.

"Consumers who have received a data breach notification letter are four times more likely than others to be the victim of identity theft, according to a survey released this week by Javelin Strategy and Research. Approximately 11 percent of U.S. consumers have received a data breach notification letter in the past 12 months with a third of the breaches involving Social Security numbers and 15 percent involving ATM PINs, according to Javelin's third annual survey of nearly 5,000 U.S. consumers, released Tuesday. Of those who have received a data breach notification letter in the past year, 19.5 percent said they were the victims of fraud associated with identity theft, compared to 4.3 percent who have not received a notification but were victimized. "It wasn't just a statistical anomaly," Robert Vamosi, a Javelin risk fraud and security analyst and the author of the study, told SCMagazineUS.com on Wednesday. "In 2007 and 2006, we saw a similar pattern, so this isn't a blip. This is something that has been going on for a while.""

Six out of every 10 employees stole company data when they left their job last year, said a study of US workers. The survey, conducted by the Ponemon Institute, said that so-called malicious insiders use the information to get a new job, start their own business or for revenge. "They are making these judgements based out of fear and anxiety," the Institute's Mike Spinney told BBC News. "People are worried about their jobs and want to hedge their bets," he said. "Our study showed that 59% of people will say 'I'm going to take something of value with me when I go'." The Ponemon Institute, a privacy and management research firm, surveyed 945 adults in the United States who were laid-off, fired or changed jobs in the last 12 months. Everyone that took part had access to proprietary information such as customer data, contact lists, employee records, financial reports, confidential business documents, software tools or other intellectual property.

Financial fraud last year caused 7.5 percent of all adults in the United States to lose money, largely because of data breaches. That's the finding of a survey conducted by Stamford, Conn. research firm Gartner. The survey polled 5,000 U.S. adults and also found that when compared with average consumers, nearly twice as many people who lost money to fraud changed their shopping, payment, and e-commerce behavior. In particular, victims of electronic checking and/or savings account transfer fraud were nearly five times more likely to change banks because of security concerns. "Fraud victims are also more cautious about which brick-and-mortar stores they shop at and how they pay for goods when they get there, demonstrating more awareness of the risk of data breaches," said Avivah Litan, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner, in a news release. High-tech crimes, such as data breaches (which typically involve hacking into enterprise systems) and phishing attacks against consumers, are the most prevalent causes of payment card fraud. Gartner found that financial losses were highest with new-account, credit card and brokerage fraud, with average losses per incident totaling $1,097, $929 and $900, respectively. However, victims of brokerage, credit card and debit/ATM card fraud find it easiest to recover their losses, receiving an average of 100 percent, 86 percent, and 77 percent of the funds stolen, respectively.

Identity thieves are getting more clever and are increasingly using stolen information to get driver's licenses, employment and government assistance, according to a new report. The survey by the Identity Theft Resource Center also found that the greater awareness of this problem by the public has led to more people discovering they are victims themselves, through monitoring of their bank accounts and credit card statements. Typically, victims learned of their identity theft when they were denied a job or credit or were informed by law enforcement. "Most of our information is beyond our control," said Linda Foley, co-founder of the Identity Theft Resource Center, which surveys victims each year to see how identity theft is changing. "If a thief wants to get it, he will find a way to get it." The report covers the experiences of around 100 of the 1,500 people who were victimized in 2008 and contacted the center, a nonprofit that helps people recover from identity theft. Stolen personal information is now cheap - identities may sell on the black market for as little as 60 cents each - and thieves churn through them quickly to lower their chances of getting caught, Foley said. Rather than opening 10 or 20 credit card accounts in a victim's name, they now open two or three, charge as much as they can and move on to the next person. This raises the cost of identity theft to businesses, whose average loss to fraud nearly doubled last year to $90,107, up from $48,941 the year before.

More than 50 per cent of internet users say they would be more interested in advertisements if they were tailored to their own interests, according to a new report from Q Interactive. Furthermore, another 50 per cent of respondents said they would view an advertiser favourably if they received personalised ads. Despite a number of obstacles that prevent marketers from obtaining too much personal information, 53 per cent of internet users would rather have free online services and insider information in exchange for relevant targeting data. However, 32 per cent of the respondents said they would accept worse service in exchange for privacy, and 15 per cent would prefer to pay for premium service and view no advertising whatsoever. Last year, a survey from Dynamic Markets on behalf of Coremetrics, found that half of UK consumers were happy for marketers to use behavioural targeting to track their online behaviour.

Likely a bit of bias in the survey, but indicitive that targeted ads are not going away. Like most things digital, doing it safely is important for consumers. - Karl More than 50 per cent of internet users say they would be more interested in advertisements if they were tailored to their own interests, according to a new report from Q Interactive. Furthermore, another 50 per cent of respondents said they would view an advertiser favourably if they received personalised ads. Despite a number of obstacles that prevent marketers from obtaining too much personal information, 53 per cent of internet users would rather have free online services and insider information in exchange for relevant targeting data. However, 32 per cent of the respondents said they would accept worse service in exchange for privacy, and 15 per cent would prefer to pay for premium service and view no advertising whatsoever. Last year, a survey from Dynamic Markets on behalf of Coremetrics, found that half of UK consumers were happy for marketers to use behavioural targeting to track their online behaviour.

Personal profiles on Facebook and other social-networking sites are a trove of inappropriate and embarrassing photographs and discomfiting breaches of confidentiality. You might expect that from your friends and even some colleagues - but what about your doctor? A new survey of medical-school deans finds that unprofessional conduct on blogs and social-networking sites is common among medical students. Although med students fully understand patient-confidentiality laws and are indoctrinated in the high ethical standards to which their white-coated profession is held, many of them still use Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Flickr and other sites to depict and discuss lewd behavior and sexual misconduct, make discriminatory statements and discuss patient cases in violation of confidentiality laws, according to the survey, which was published this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Of the 80 medical-school deans questioned, 60% reported incidents involving unprofessional postings and 13% admitted to incidents that violated patient privacy. Some offenses led to expulsion from school.

The concept of mixed-mode surveys is nothing new, but it seems to be gaining traction in the research community. Among the issues pressing the use of mixed-mode survey designs are the need to reduce coverage bias, increase response rates and lower costs.

ABOUT two-thirds of Americans object to online tracking by advertisers - and that number rises once they learn the different ways marketers are following their online movements, according to a new survey from professors at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of California, Berkeley.

ABOUT two-thirds of Americans object to online tracking by advertisers - and that number rises once they learn the different ways marketers are following their online movements, according to a new survey from professors at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of California, Berkeley.

70 percent of UK risk managers have declared that making sure the employees in their organization are risk savvy is their biggest challenge in light of new pitfalls according to research conducted by Aon. "The risks companies are facing, such as increased company insolvencies, less access to credit and increased levels of fraud, need to be dealt with by employees throughout the organization rather than just at senior management levels," said the bulletin. According to the survey of UK businesses the key risk management challenges they face in 2009 are: -- Embedding ERM in the culture of the organization 70 percent -- Keeping 'risk registers' real and relevant 47 percent -- Making the link between ERM and strategic planning processes 34 percent -- Gaining senior executive sponsorship 19 percent -- Making business continuity plans relevant to line managers 13 percent -- Credit rating agency scrutiny of ERM 6 percent Alex Hindson, head of enterprise risk management at Aon Global Risk Consulting commented: "When the markets are literally crashing down around us and we don't know what is just around the corner it is extremely tempting to focus just on the problems of today, rather than look at the issues and factors that are going to help us survive tomorrow, but this short term view can often be counter-productive.

You can't ignore the presence and usage of all the myriad forms of instant messaging, social networking and blogging. The millennial generation won't thrive in companies where Facebook is banned or texting is frowned upon. They think and work so differently from their baby boomer managers that generational clashes are inevitable. The Security Executive Council and CXO Media, producer of CSO Perspectives and CSO magazine, are partnering to probe attitudes toward collaborative technologies like IM and social networking. By participating you will receive a research report based on this survey. Definition of web 2.0 apps: The term "Web 2.0" describes the changing trends in the use of World Wide Web technology and web design that aim to enhance creativity, communications, secure information sharing, collaboration and functionality of the web. Web 2.0 concepts have led to the development and evolution of web culture communities and hosted services, such as social-networking sites, video sharing sites, wikis, blogs, and folksonomies. (Wikipedia)

Goodwin Procter Experts Discuss Data Privacy and Security Best Practices at IAPP Privacy Academy BOSTON, Sept. 15 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- According to a new survey conducted by Goodwin Procter LLP and the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP), companies face three significant challenges - cost, time and number of vendors involved - in complying with new data security rules issued by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts earlier this year. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts has issued rules, which take effect on March 1, 2010, that impose significant data security requirements on entities possessing personal information of state residents, including entities based outside Massachusetts. The intent of the rules is to protect sensitive data and safeguard the public's privacy.

A top affliction of privacy professionals is the growing complexity of privacy laws. The number of jurisdictions regulating data privacy and the number of other laws in which privacy provisions are tucked has increased with no letup since 2000. Like the Lilliputians in Gulliver's Travels, the tiniest jurisdictions are now lassoing their privacy ropes around the mightiest of corporations. Where does this leave those who are charged with keeping their organizations privacy-compliant? Desperately looking for a way to organize news about all of these developments. I recently surveyed the landscape of possible solutions to this problem. What did I find? Three different approaches: free Web sites, newsletters and news feeds; fee-based periodicals; and fee-based databases, such as Nymity's PrivaWorks, Cecile Park Publishing's DataGuidance and law firm Morrison and Foerster LLP's Summit Privacy. What were the pros and cons of each approach? Free sources Privacy leaders with no budget will want to exploit what's free, including these options: * Morrison & Foerster's Privacy Library, probably the most comprehensive and current free online listing of privacy laws in 95 countries. * Law firm Baker & McKenzie's annual Global Privacy Handbook, which is distributed to clients and friends. * Computerworld's own Security Newsletter, which offers a regular look at news about the technical threats to personal data. * The International Association of Privacy Professionals' Daily Dashboard, Canada Dashboard Digest and monthly Inside 1to1: Privacy. These are the best available free news feeds on privacy.

More consumers are growing comfortable with online behavioral targeting, perhaps as a result of an increase in familiarity, but the majority remain uneasy with the practice. That's according to a new study conducted by TNS on behalf of the privacy group Truste. For the study, consumers were asked whether they agreed or disagreed with the statement: "I am comfortable with advertisers using my browsing history to serve me relevant ads, as long as that information cannot be tied to my name or any other personal information." Twenty-eight percent of respondents agreed, up from 24% who agreed when the same study was conducted last year. At the same time, 51% said they disagreed that they were comfortable with anonymous behavioral targeting. While that figure represents a slim majority, it's down from last year, when 57% of respondents said they disagreed. At the same time, more respondents than in the past now say they delete cookies. Almost half--48% of survey respondents--said they erase cookies at least weekly, up from 42% last year. It's not clear how much overlap there is between the respondents that regularly delete cookies and those who say they're uncomfortable with behavioral targeting. Colin O'Malley, vice president of strategic business at Truste, attributed the increase in the proportion of consumers who said they were comfortable with behavioral targeting to increased publicity over the issue. He said the recent attention to the issue in the mainstream media has helped to increase transparency. He added that the increased cookie erasures showed that consumers want to be able to manage their experience. "Cookie deletion is just one more indication that consumers are seeking tools to increase their level of control," he said.

NEW YORK With increasing amounts of personal information liable to float around in cyberspace, consumers are deciding whether their data is safe in the hands of some public- and private-sector entities. A BBC World News America/Harris Poll finds a mixed verdict, with social-networking sites faring especially badly. In polling conducted last month, adults were asked to say how much trust they have in various sectors "to handle your personally identified information (such as credit-card information, contact information and so forth) in a properly confidential and secure manner." The poll's best scores went to "health providers, such as doctors and hospitals," with 20 percent of respondents expressing "a great deal of trust" and 55 percent "some trust" in these. Nineteen percent voiced "not much trust" and 7 percent "no trust at all" in this sector. At the bottom of the rankings were "social-networking sites (like Facebook or MySpace)," with 5 percent expressing a great deal of trust and 18 percent some trust in these. Thirty-one percent said they had not much trust and 46 percent no trust at all in these sites to safeguard personal information. (Whether people should direct their distrust to themselves for posting such information there in the first place is a question the survey didn't address.) Respondents were also wary of "search and portal sites (like Google or Yahoo!)" when it comes to keeping personal information secure: Ten percent voiced a great deal of trust, 39 percent some, 29 percent not much and 22 percent no trust at all. Even the federal government fared (slightly) better, with 13 percent expressing a great deal of trust, 41 percent some, 28 percent not much and 18 percent none. The scores were more positive for "banks and brokerage companies": 15 percent a great deal of trust, 43 percent some, 28 percent not much and 13 percent none. That was roughly on a par with the ratings for "my e-mail provider": 14 percent a great deal, 48 percent some, 27 p

The row over the changes Facebook made to its terms has thrown the light on the rights people surrender when they sign up to use a website. It is likely though that until the row over Facebook's Terms and Conditions went public, few people knew what rights sites claim over the content that their members upload and share. "Less than 25% of users are making a specific point of going to the privacy settings and making changes," said Simon Davies, head of digital rights group Privacy International. Most, he said, are so keen to get using a site after registering that they do not take time to learn what will happen to any data that they are surrendering. Only later do they go back and adjust what happens to their data. "A lot of sites do have strong privacy controls," said Mr Davies. Tweaking these settings can help cut down on how much of a person's data is distributed. "It can make a difference," said Mr Davies, "particularly if the default is set in terms of maximum information flow." Blogger Amanda French looked through the pages where sites such as Facebook, MySpace, Flickr, YouTube and others spelled out their policies with regard to the data that members upload. Although the wording was different, she found that sites such as MySpace, Yahoo, Google and Twitter explicitly backed away from claiming ownership over uploaded content. A brief survey of Europe's Top 5 social sites found a similar situation. The text of the terms available on the UK sites of Facebook, Bebo, MySpace, Friends Reunited and Windows Live all back away from claiming ownership. By contrast, she wrote, the changes Facebook made to its terms were "extraordinarily grabby and arrogant".

Here's the paper's abstract: This paper presents a novel technique for authenticating physical documents based on random, naturally occurring imperfections in paper texture. We introduce a new method for measuring the three-dimensional surface of a page using only a commodity scanner and without modifying the document in any way. From this physical feature, we generate a concise fingerprint that uniquely identifies the document. Our technique is secure against counterfeiting and robust to harsh handling; it can be used even before any content is printed on a page. It has a wide range of applications, including detecting forged currency and tickets, authenticating passports, and halting counterfeit goods. Document identification could also be applied maliciously to de-anonymize printed surveys and to compromise the secrecy of paper ballots.

There were only two of us on the graveyard shift. "If it's not locked up," a colleague at my first newspaper declared as he snatched a folder of papers from our boss' desk and strode towards the office copying machine, "Xerox it." (Old-tongue for photocopy.) That was long before CDs, and USB drives and, certainly, iPods, but the lesson was the same. If you are stupid about protecting company information, shame on you. I guess that's the message behind the "revelation" released in a survey this week that the majority of people who leave their jobs, voluntarily or otherwise, are taking company information with them. Lots of it. My reaction was the same as when I watched my fellow journalist grab and copy whatever it was that had been so carelessly left in the open. I shrugged. (We are by nature an overly curious species, and that overrides our normally dominant ethics gene.) Data Loss Risks During Downsizing conducted by the Ponemon Institute and sponsored by Symantec, was apparently designed to test the hypothesis that in this dire economy (ominous music in background), former employees are going to take important company information out the door. And, in fact, the poll of 945 former employees who left their jobs or were dismissed in the last 12 months showed that 59% stole company data. What kind of data? Email lists, non-financial business information and customer information, including contact lists. Not the secret formula for Coke, not the clinical trial reports on a cure for cancer, no insider information on proposed mergers and acquisitions. Not even a few thousand credit card numbers. Hardly worthy of shock and dismay. This is what a lot of people do when they leave jobs. Are they supposed to? No. Is it wrong? Yeah, but it's sort of like cheating on taxes. Folks rationalize it in a variety of ways, or it just doesn't weigh heavily enough on their conscience to set off an internal alarm. Most of the people who took data - 79% â

A recent data breach study commissioned by the state of Maine sheds light on the losses banks experienced as a result of the data breaches at TJX and Hannaford Brother's supermarkets. The state's banks said they incurred $2.1 million in expenses related to data breaches since January 1, 2007. The Hannaford breach had the largest impact, affecting 71 financial institutions and incurring $1.6 million in expenses according to the Maine Data Breach Study. Hannaford is based in Scarborough, Maine. The TJX breach accounted for $485,000 in expenses. The report was issued by the Main Bureau of Financial Institutions in November 2008. It studied the impact of data security breaches on Maine banks and credit unions. Fifty credit unions and 25 banks headquartered in Maine responded to the survey. Financial institutions reported more than 18 million records breached last year, according to the Identity Theft Research Center. The San Diego-based nonprofit found that data breach reports across five industry sectors jumped to 656 last year, up 47% from 2007. About 12% of the reports came from financial-services firms, up from 7% in 2007. In Maine, the Hannaford breach resulted in more than $318,000 in gross fraud losses, according to data reported by 22 financial institutions. More than 700 accounts were used to buy items fraudulently, although five of the 22 institutions that suffered a fraud loss did not report the number of accounts, according to the report. The Hannaford breach cost some banks as much as $58,000 to reissue credit cards to customers. Investigation expenses cost nearly $30,000 for some banks. Communication to customers cost nearly $28,000, some banks and credit unions reported. Fraud losses of nearly $45,000 were tied to the TJX data breach. The losses were reported by six financial institutions. The expenses for reissuing credit cards cost some banks as much as $32,000. Investigation expenses were as high as $21,000 for some banks. Communication to custom

While the recession injured many industries in 2008, health care was one of the few bright spots in the employment picture, growing by 372,000 jobs last year, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' January 2009 Employment Situation Summary. The large aging population has health care employers in need of qualified workers: stat. Therefore, despite the current economic conditions, health care employers will continue to increase staff in 2009, according to CareerBuilder.com's annual health care hiring forecast, conducted online within the U.S. by Harris Interactive. Close to one-in-five (17 percent) of large health care employers (50 or more employees) plan to increase the number of full-time, permanent employees in 2009, while 67 percent foresee either making no change in the number of employees or are unsure. Sixteen percent plan to decrease the number of employees. "The health care industry continues to boast high demand for qualified workers. Employers are reacting to this need by continuing strong recruiting efforts this year," says Jason Ferrara, vice president of corporate marketing for CareerBuilder.com. "Half of health care employers, the highest among industries we surveyed, have open positions for which they can't find qualified candidates. In response, health care employers will have to adjust their recruitment and retention strategies to find and keep top talent."