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Interop: Cloud security raises concerns for auditors - 0 views

  • They will be more strict because there are no clear policies for it,"
  • The rules will come with time, but they don't exist yet, so businesses need to be careful what data they submit to clouds and be sure data subject to compliance standards such as HIPAA, PCI and Sarbanes-Oxley can be provably handled within those standards.
  • "Auditors want to see the guts of the cloud," Richter says, and that is something many cloud providers don't allow. Many keep their physical architectures, policies, security, virtual LAN structure and other essential factors secret. "If they can't see how data flows, how VLANs are segmented, see how your data is partitioned from others', they won't OK it."
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  • Regardless of whether a cloud gains the trust of a business and can earn the approval of an auditor, the responsibility for protecting the data stays with the business; outsourcing the application or the platform or the infrastructure doesn't outsource the responsibility, he says
  • And if a cloud provider is generally deemed compliant with some security standard, that doesn't mean an individual business's use of that cloud will pass muster as well. "It's you the end customer who is responsible for compliance, not the service provider," he says
  • For businesses that plan to use some form of cloud, Richter set down eight steps to follow to make the transition safely from a private traditional infrastructure:
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    LAS VEGAS -- If you think meeting security audits is tough, try passing one if you've got your data in a cloud, Interop attendees were told today.
sandy ingram

Data breach laws, e-discovery increase compliance duties - - 0 views

  • The Massachusetts law applies not only to businesses in the state but to any company that keeps personal data on the state's residents. George examines two parts of the law that are particularly notable because they require action to avoid breaches--not just notify victims after the fact.
  • Businesses are required to have a working information security program for protecting personally identifiable information, and they must submit a written information security program to the state. They also must encrypt data in motion and at rest, including information on portable devices such as USB drives, laptop computers and smartphones.
  • A second complicated--and evolving--area of compliance is e-discovery, which is the process of handing over electronically stored information requested during a lawsuit.
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    States are getting tougher when it comes to trying to protect their residents' personal data from breaches, and a new law in Massachusetts raises the bar by setting a fine of $5000 per record lost. As Randy George at InformationWeek reports, a company could be fined $1 million for losing one laptop with personal data on just 200 residents of the Bay State
sandy ingram

Microsoft Enterprise Content Management (ECM) Team Blog : EDiscovery in SharePoint Serv... - 0 views

  • In this post, I want to highlight three major improvements in SharePoint that support eDiscovery. You can: Manage holds and conduct eDiscovery searches on any site collection Use SharePoint Server Search or FAST Search for SharePoint out of box to search and process content Automatically copy eDiscovery search results to a separate repository for further analysis
  • SharePoint Sever 2010 addresses the Information Management, Identification, Preservation and Collection stages
  • Hold and eDiscovery is a site level feature that can be activated on any site.
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  • Activating this feature creates a new category in Site Settings that provides links to Holds and Hold Reports lists
  • With the Hold and eDiscovery feature you can create holds in the hold list and then manually add content to the relevant hold by clicking on Compliance Details from the drop down menu for individual items.
  • What if you have a large amount of items you want to find and add to a hold? For that you can use the features on the Discover and hold content page, which is a settings page in Site Settings. From this page you can specify a search query and then preview the results. The configured search service (SharePoint Search Server or FAST Search for SharePoint) will automatically be used. You can then select the option to keep items on hold in place so they cannot be edited or deleted, or if you have configured a Content Organizer Send to location in Central Administration you can have content copied to another site and placed on hold
  • When searching and processing, the search will by default be scoped to the entire Site Collection and run with elevated permissions so all content can be discovered
  • In summary, SharePoint Server 2010 contains key features that make it an essential aspect of your eDiscovery strategy. With the new SharePoint Server 2010 capabilities you can easily apply proper retention policies for all content and make it easier to discover content if an eDiscovery event occurs. eDiscovery often prescribes tight deadlines for production. SharePoint 2010 helps you find the right content and deliver it faster.
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    i everyone, I am Quentin Christensen and I work on document and records management functionality for SharePoint. Electronic discovery (commonly referred to as eDiscovery) is an area we are supporting with new set of capabilities in SharePoint Server 2010. In case you are not familiar with eDiscovery, it is the process of finding, preserving, analyzing and producing content in electronic formats as required by litigation or investigations. eDiscovery is an important concern for all of our customers and given that SharePoint has grown to be an integral part of collaboration, document, and records management for many organizations, we recognize the need to support the eDiscovery process for SharePoint content. Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 included a hold feature that could be used for eDiscovery, but it was scoped to the Records Center site template. With SharePoint Server 2010 the eDiscovery capabilities have been greatly expanded to provide more functionality and the power to use these features across your entire SharePoint deployment. In this post, I want to highlight three major improvements in SharePoint that support eDiscovery. You can: Manage holds and conduct eDiscovery searches on any site collection Use SharePoint Server Search or FAST Search for SharePoint out of box to search and process content Automatically copy eDiscovery search results to a separate repository for further analysis
sandy ingram

Protect your business from the cybercrime wave - USATODAY.com - 0 views

  • According to Conner, cybercrooks are now targeting small business: "We are in an arms race with sophisticated, high tech enemies who are now concentrating on smaller business bank accounts in addition to their continued efforts to steal from large corporations." To combat the risk, Conner suggests that small businesses employ a "triple threat" security package that would include
  • According to Brian Krebs, a journalist who has covered this issue extensively, "Most companies that get hit with this type of fraud quickly figure out that their banks are under no legal obligation to reimburse them."
  • So how does this type of fraud occur, and what can you do to protect yourself? Typically, the bad guys are able to plant malware on the victim's computer and then use that to access the company's online banking profile. They then use that information to transfer huge sums of money out of the targeted accounts.
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  • unlike consumers, small businesses do not get the same protections afforded consumers who are the victim of online fraud. If your credit card is stolen, and you report it promptly, your out-of-pocket loss is capped at $50.
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    small businesses do not get the same protections afforded consumers who are the victim of online fraud.
sandy ingram

For Small Businesses, Account Fraud Adds Up - 0 views

  • Now, in a survey of more than 600 small business owners and executives, the Ponemon Institute has tried to put a number on the cost of credit card account fraud for those vulnerable targets, comparing the damage with the cost of physical theft by employees or burglars. The result: While identity theft takes less from businesses per incident than either robberies or crooked employees, it hits them often enough that it's an equally costly or even costlier problem. According to Ponemon's study, the median account fraud incident costs a business $5,136. That's much less than the $9,913 the respondents attributed to the median cost of a burglary or $17,517, the cost they attributed to an employee theft case. But take the frequency of those incidents into account, and the pain adds up. About 86% of businesses have suffered from account fraud, more than the 77% who have been robbed or the 63% whose employees have stolen from them. And among those victims, most businesses experience employee theft either once (32%) or zero times a year (41%). Robberies are less costly but more frequent: Most businesses report them either once (29%) or between two and five times a year (38%). Account fraud is far more frequent: 45% of businesses have been digitally defrauded two to five times in the last year, and 38% have been defrauded more than five times.
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    Small businesses, by contrast, don't always share those protections. And that means they often feel the full brunt of cybercrime
sandy ingram

Saving Money Through Cloud Computing - 0 views

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    I found that the agencies generally saw between 25 and 50 percent savings in moving to the cloud. For the federal government as a whole, this translates into billions in cost savings, depending on the scope of the transition. Many factors go into such assessments, such as the nature of the migration, a reliance on public versus private clouds, the need for privacy and security, the number of file servers before and after migration, the extent of labor savings, and file server storage utilization rates. Based on this analysis, I recommend five steps be undertaken in order to improve efficiency and operations in the public sector: the government needs to redirect greater resources to cloud computing in order to reap efficiencies represented by that approach, the General Services Administration should compile data on cloud computing applications, information storage, and cost savings in order to determine possible economies of scale generated by cloud computing, officials should clarify procurement rules to facilitate purchasing through measured or subscription cloud services and cloud solutions appropriate for low, medium, and high-risk applications, countries need to harmonize their laws on cloud computing to avoid a "Tower of Babel" and reduce current inconsistencies in regard to privacy, data storage, security processes, and personnel training, and lawmakers need to examine rules relating to privacy and security to make sure agencies have safeguards appropriate to their mission.
sandy ingram

Data Security Breaches Cost Real Money - 0 views

  • PGP Corporation, an enterprise data protection company, and the Poneman Institute, a privacy and information management research firm, as part of their fifth annual U.S. Cost of a Data Breach Study, tracked a wide array of cost elements
  • These elements included outlays for detection, escalation, notification, and response along with legal, investigative and administrative expenses, customer defections, opportunity loss, reputation management, and costs related to customer support like information hotlines and credit monitoring subscriptions
  • data breaches caused by malicious attacks and botnets were on the high end of severity and cost responses. These types of breaches doubled from 2008 to 2009.
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  • data breaches involving data outsourced to third-parties, especially those offshore, remain very costly.
  • The study shows that companies are spending more on legal defense costs in the area of data security breaches
  • Furthermore, companies that have a Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) or equivalent high-level security/privacy leader in place who manages data security breach incidents experienced a 50% less per cost of compromised record than companies that do not have such leadership.
  • Somewhat surprisingly, the study indicates that companies that notify victims of data breaches too quickly may incur about 12% higher response costs. The study suggests that moving too quickly through the data breach process could cause inefficiencies that raise total costs
  • companies that engage outside expertise to assist them during a data breach incident tended to have a lower $170 cost per victim than companies that do not seek outside help at $231 per victim.
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    study shows that companies are spending more on legal defense costs in the area of data security breaches. This has been attributed to fears of potential class actions, and other lawsuits resulting from consumer and employee data loss. In fact, companies that engage outside expertise to assist them during a data breach incident tended to have a lower $170 cost per victim than companies that do not seek outside help at $231 per victim.
sandy ingram

Targeting U.S. Technologies - 0 views

  • United States defense-related technologies and information are under attack: each day, every hour, and from multiple sources. The attack is pervasive, relentless, and unfortunately, at times successful
  • Defense contractors with access to classified material are required to identify and report suspicious contacts and potential collection attempts as mandated in the National Industrial Security Program Operating Manual (NISPOM)
  • DSS encourages all Facility Security Officers to use the information in this report to supplement security awareness and education programs at their facilities.
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    United States defense-related technologies and information are under attack: each day, every hour, and from multiple sources. The attack is pervasive, relentless, and unfortunately, at times successful. As a result, the United States' technical lead, competitive edge, and strategic military advantage are at risk; and our national security interests could be compromised. Defeating this attack requires knowledge of the threat and diligence on the part of all personnel charged with protecting classified information, to deter or neutralize its effect. The Defense Security Service (DSS) works with defense industry to protect critical technologies and information. Defense contractors with access to classified material are required to identify and report suspicious contacts and potential collection attempts as mandated in the National Industrial Security Program Operating Manual (NISPOM). DSS publishes this annual report based on an analysis of suspicious contact reports (SCRs) that DSS considers indicative of efforts to target defense-related information.
sandy ingram

Cyber Spies Attack Contractors "Every Hour" - 0 views

  • “United States defense-related technologies and information are under attack: each day, every hour, and from multiple sources. The attack is pervasive, relentless, and unfortunately, at times successful,” writes Kathleen Watson, director of DSS. “As a result, the United States’ technical lead, competitive edge, and strategic military advantage are at risk; and our national security interests could be compromised.”
  • Attempts to gather intelligence information were traced to over half of the countries in the world. After East Asia and the Pacific, the Near East and Europe and Eurasia were of greatest counterintelligence concern. Despite their overall decline, “European and Eurasian cyber actors remain some of the most active targeters of United States technology.”
  • “Facilitated by ever increasing world wide connectivity, the ease of inundating industry with overt email requests and webpage submissions made direct requests a premier vehicle for solicitation and/or collection,” the report states. “While not all direct requests for information or services represent organized collection attempts, exploitation of this medium provides collectors an efficient, low-cost, high-gain opportunity to acquire classified or restricted information.”
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    Defense contractors are under consistent attack by foreign intelligence services attempting to gather intelligence related information, according to a report by the Defense Security Service. Instances of cyber espionage place the U.S.'s competitive advantage, technical lead and military advantage at risk, as well as potentially compromising national security interests.
sandy ingram

Steven Cloherty: Microsoft Online Services Risk Management | Charles | Channel 9 - 0 views

  • The Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS) has recently earned the Statement on Auditing Standard (SAS) No. 70 Type II, Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 140-2 compliance, and the International Organization for Standardization’s (ISO) 27001 standard – among others.  In addition, Microsoft has launched a new dedicated government cloud as part of the Business Productivity Online Suite to meet the most rigorous government requirements for security and privacy, including complying with the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR). Learn how these and other certifications help ensure our customers security, privacy, and business continuity. 
sandy ingram

Nation's toughest personal info law about to take effect -- Government Computer News - 0 views

  • Businesses that hold personally identifiable information on Massachusetts residents have one month to comply with what security experts are calling the toughest data security requirements in the nation. The Massachusetts Data Breach Law, passed in 2007, goes into effect March 1 and requires personal information in networked systems to be protected with strong encryption, firewalls, antivirus and access controls.
  • The law was written in response to the theft of information on more than 45 million credit card accounts from TJX Companies in 2007
  • The law is designed to ensure “the security and confidentiality of customer information,” based on current industry standards, focusing on threats that can or should be anticipated. The regulations take into account the size of a business, the amount of resources available to it, the amount of personal data held and the sensitivity of the data. It covers paper and electronic records and requires physical and IT security.
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  • written information security plan (WISP). “Ninety percent of the clients I deal with on this law do not have a WISP.”
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    "Businesses that hold personally identifiable information on Massachusetts residents have one month to comply with what security experts are calling the toughest data security requirements in the nation. The Massachusetts Data Breach Law , passed in 2007, goes into effect March 1 and requires personal information in networked systems to be protected with strong encryption, firewalls, antivirus and access controls."
sandy ingram

20% of Businesses Will Get Rid of All IT Assets As They Move to Cloud, Gartner Predicts - 0 views

  • But it's not just cloud computing that is driving a movement toward "decreased IT hardware assets," in Gartner's words. Virtualization and employees running personal desktops and laptops on corporate networks are also reducing the need for company-owned hardware.
  • Gartner's prediction was part of a release Wednesday that highlights nine key predictions that will affect IT organizations and users this year and beyond.
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    The shift toward cloud services hosted outside the enterprise's firewall will necessitate a major shift in the IT hardware markets, and shrink IT staff, Gartner said. "The need for computing hardware, either in a data center or on an employee's desk, will not go away," Gartner said. "However, if the ownership of hardware shifts to third parties, then there will be major shifts throughout every facet of the IT hardware industry. For example, enterprise IT budgets will either be shrunk or reallocated to more-strategic projects; enterprise IT staff will either be reduced or reskilled to meet new requirements, and/or hardware distribution will have to change radically to meet the requirements of the new IT hardware buying points."
sandy ingram

Information Security Clauses and Certifications - Part 1 : Info Law Group - 0 views

  • What contractual information security provisions should you consider, as a customer or as a vendor or business partner, when the contract contemplates the exchange of protected information? What do security standards and audits entail for a vendor, and what do they offer for a customer?
  • With heightened liability and compliance risks associated with handling protected categories of data, it is becoming more common to see contractual requirements holding vendors accountable for information security or requiring them to conform to a specified information security standard
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    Outsourcing business and IT functions often means outsourcing compliance and liability risks as well. When a service contract involves protected categories of personal information, both parties need to understand the security requirements and risks. The contract should allocate responsibilities to prevent and respond to security breaches. The contract may also set expectations more precisely by incorporating a written security policy or referring to a widely accepted information security standard, sometimes accompanied by a requirement for a third-party security audit or assessment
sandy ingram

Obama cyber czar choice worries about smartphones, social networking - Network World - 0 views

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    Schmidt says layoffs from the bad economy will prompt theft of corporate data or damage, aided by the vulnerability of network peripheral devices such as printers
sandy ingram

FTC Announces Expanded Business Education Campaign on 'Red Flags' Rule - 0 views

  • The Red Flags Rule is an anti-fraud regulation, requiring “creditors” and “financial institutions” with covered accounts to implement programs to identify, detect, and respond to the warning signs, or “red flags,” that could indicate identity theft. The financial regulatory agencies, including the FTC, developed the Rule, which was mandated by the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003 (FACTA).
  • The FTC’s Red Flags Web site, www.ftc.gov/redflagsrule, offers resources to help entities determine if they are covered and, if they are, how to comply with the Rule. It includes an online compliance template that enables companies to design their own Identity Theft Prevention Program through an easy-to-do form, as well as articles directed to specific businesses and industries, guidance manuals, and Frequently Asked Questions to help companies navigate the Rule.
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    The three-month extension, coupled with this new guidance, should enable businesses to gain a better understanding of the Rule and any obligations that they may have under it. These steps are consistent with the House Appropriations Committee's recent request that the Commission defer enforcement in conjunction with additional efforts to minimize the burdens of the Rule on health care providers and small businesses with a low risk of identity theft problems. Today's announcement that the Commission will delay enforcement of the Rule until November 1, 2009, does not affect other federal agencies' enforcement of the original November 1, 2008, compliance deadline for institutions subject to their oversight.
sandy ingram

Study Finds U.S. Small Businesses Lack Cybersecurity Awareness and Policies | Reuters - 0 views

  • Small business owners' cybersecurity policies and actions are not adequate enough to ensure the safety of their employees, intellectual property and customer data, according to the 2009 National Small Business Cybersecurity Study. The study, co-sponsored by the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA) and Symantec [Nasdaq: SYMC], as part of this year's National Cyber Security Awareness Month, surveyed nearly 1,500 small business owners across the United States about their cybersecurity awareness policies and practices.
  • The survey shows discrepancies between needs and actions regarding security policies and employee education on security best practices.
  • The study found that while more than 9 in 10 small businesses said they believe they are safe from malware and viruses based on the security practices they have in place, only 53 percent of firms check their computers on a weekly basis to ensure that anti-virus, anti-spyware, firewalls and operating systems are up-to-date and 11 percent never check them.
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  • "The 20 million small businesses in the U.S. are a critical part of the nation's economy. While small business owners may understandably be focused on growing their business and the bottom line, it is imperative to understand that a cybersecurity incident can be disruptive and expensive,"
  • small businesses seem out of sync with some Internet security risks. 75 percent of small businesses said that they use the Internet to communicate with customers yet only 6 percent fear the loss of customer data and only 42 percent believe that their customers are concerned about the IT security of their business.
  • Laptops, PDAs and wireless networks are great conveniences to businesses, yet they carry with them an added responsibility to ensure the data is secure. Today, more than 66 percent of employees take computers or PDAs containing sensitive information off-site.
  • Wireless networks are gateways for hackers and cyber criminals and must be secured by complex passwords
  • "Security threats are becoming more complex and employees of small businesses are increasingly the target of attacks that expose their organizations to data loss,"
  • "Security awareness and education, combined with a comprehensive security solution, can empower small businesses and their employees to protect themselves and their information."
  • The demographic makeup of the small business polled
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    "Small business owners' cybersecurity policies and actions are not adequate enough to ensure the safety of their employees, intellectual property and customer data, according to the 2009 National Small Business Cybersecurity Study. The study, co-sponsored by the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA) and Symantec [Nasdaq: SYMC], as part of this year's National Cyber Security Awareness Month, surveyed nearly 1,500 small business owners across the United States about their cybersecurity awareness policies and practices."
sandy ingram

Sunbelt Blog: No anti-virus software or procedures = compliance i$$ue - 0 views

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    "Commonwealth Equity Services LLP of Waltham, Mass., agreed to pay the penalty for failing to have anti-malware software on its reps computers or written security policies to deal with security breaches. Securities brokers and registered investment advisors are required by SEC regulations to have written procedures to protect customer information."
sandy ingram

Bill Gives DHS Lead on Fed IT Security Policy - 0 views

  • The thinking behind shifting responsibility to DHS from OMB is that Homeland Security has the cybersecurity expertise whereas OMB's proficiency is budgeting. "Already, the Department of Homeland Security is the coordinating agency on cybersecurity," the staffer said. "Now, what you're doing is drastically strengthening the role of DHS by putting into law and then also, giving them the ability to say, with FISMA, approve or not to approve agencies plans, controls, frameworks, the way they secure their systems."
  • The bill also continues the role of the National Institute of Standards and Technology as the key government agency to develop IT security guidance, but leaves it to DHS the decision which guidance has priority.
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    The responsibility to oversee information security among federal agencies would shift to DHS from the White House Office of Management and Budget under revisions of the measure, nicknamed U.S. ICE, that updates IT security guidance detailed in the seven-year-old Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA), according to a senior cybersecurity staff member on the Senate Committee of Homeland Security and Government Affairs.
sandy ingram

Cloud Computing Poses E-Discovery, Legal Risks - www.enterprisestorageforum.com - 0 views

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    In a presentation titled "Computing (strike that - Litigation) in the Cloud," Steven Teppler, senior counsel at KamberEdelson in New York, said cloud computing and services are a corporate counsel's nightmare.
sandy ingram

Few businesses are likely to be insured against the result of cyber attacks - Security ... - 0 views

  • Businesses are advised to thoroughly review risk management procedures and insurance programmes to ensure they have adequate and relevant cover in place: “The responsibility to get the house in order should lie with an organisation’s Managing Director or Finance Director, and not the IT department alone,” says Simon. “IT defences whilst vital only react to known problems and are not guaranteed to be 100 percent secure. Protection for the whole business and its sustainability is without doubt the safest option.”
  • “The economic downturn has resulted in people of all levels and responsibilities losing their jobs, and those with a detailed knowledge of their former employers’ IT and operating systems may well present a real potential threat, and turn to extortion as a way of taking revenge on their former employer, and of making some money at the same time.
  • According to The Wilson Organisation, insurers and underwriters are predicting a rise in white collar extortion as the recession continues to bite and unemployment figures increase. Worryingly many businesses do not have insurance cover for data or business loss.
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    According to The Wilson Organisation, insurers and underwriters are predicting a rise in white collar extortion as the recession continues to bite and unemployment figures increase. Worryingly many businesses do not have insurance cover for data or business loss. "According to a DTI Information Security Breaches Survey, a third of UK businesses think general business insurance provides full cover for damage to the business arising from data loss," comments Wilsons' Simon Hoare, "but the reality is quite different, with very few businesses likely to be insured against the result of cyber attacks on its most crucial management and business tool - corporate and customer information, most of which is today held on corporate IT systems. "For public company directors, this is in fact in breach of their duties under the Turnbull Report, which requires them to identify, manage and take an informed opinion on the transfer of risks for the business."
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