WPPS C-Suite News

Complying with the Red Flags Rule: A Do-It-Yourself Prevention Program for Businesses and Organizations at Low Risk for Identity Theft

Computerworld - Compared to other key corporate executives, CEOs appear to underestimate the IT security risks faced by their own organizations, according to a survey of C-level executives released today by the Ponemon Institute.

The topic of Cyber Terrorism has been a subject of many debates as to the reality of a significant event-taking place at the click of the button. In recent media coverage we've seen the London & Spain train bombings being triggered remotely using one of the most world's most adopted technologies, a cell phone. Who would ever think that someone would use a cell phone as a trigger point for detonating a bomb? Additionally, who would ever think that a terrorist organization would realize that all cell phones on the same cellular network receives their time/date from the same network timeserver so everyone has the correct time. This has allowed them to conduct simultaneous attacks via sms or speed dial on their phone.

The ID Theft Center found that of the roughly 250 data breaches publicly reported in the United States between Jan. 1 and Jun. 12, victims blamed the largest share of incidents on theft by employees (18.4 percent) and hacking (18 percent). Taken together, breaches attributed to these two types of malicious attacks have increased about 10 percent over the same period in 2008.

specifically how they are required to prove audit compliance with respect to their use of electronic protected health information.

In 2008, 44% of breach incidents were due to third-party handling of data. With HITECH, organizations will now be held responsible for a third party's handling of your data

Heartland Payment Systems chief executive Robert Carr remembers what it felt like when he first heard about the massive data breach at his company earlier this year. "I wanted to throw up. It was devastating," says Carr, recalling how he felt upon realizing that one of his worst fears had come true. "People had asked me for years 'what keeps you awake at night' and I would keep telling them it was the fear of a data breach,"

More enforcement coming SOX 404(b) will matter FCPA compliance Focus on risk management

the creation of Cyber Command will not militarize overall U.S. government efforts to protect American government and private computer systems. That effort will be led by a Cyber Security Coordinator - a new position President Barack Obama says he will soon create at the White House. The civilian effort will involve several agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security, the National Security Agency and the intelligence services, with help from the Defense Department. Lynn pledged it will not infringe on Americans' civil liberties - a concern some experts have expressed.

Over the last few years, both consumers and corporate clients have rushed to move their data to .the cloud,.1 adopting web-based applications and storage solutions provided by companies that include Google, Microsoft and Yahoo. Over 69% of Americans use webmail services, store data online, or otherwise use software programs such as word processing applications whose functionality is in the cloud. This trend is only going to continue. The shift to cloud computing exposes end-users to privacy invasion and fraud by hackers. Cloud computing also leaves users vulnerable to significant invasions of privacy by the government, resulting in the evisceration of traditional Fourth Amendment protections of a person's private files and documents. These very real risks associated with the cloud computing model are not communicated to consumers, who are thus unable to make an informed decision when evaluating cloud based services.

Special interest groups and lawyers claim they are defenders of individual privacy. But all that red tape is causing more harm to consumers than good.

Google's cloud computing services. On its website, Google repeatedly assures customers that their data is secure and private, while published vulnerabilities demonstrate that it is not.

"The White House must lead the way forward with leadership that draws upon the strength, advice and ideas of the entire nation," Melissa Hathaway, acting senior director for cyberspace for the National Security and Homeland Security Councils. Obama administration cybersecurity advisor

Does a bad economy increase crime? Analysts have debated that question for years, according to Mike McKee, senior special agent for the National Insurance Crime Bureau. While it's too soon for statistics to confirm whether recent events like the mortgage meltdown and an increase in unemployment truly lead consumers to commit more crimes, McKee said at least anecdotally the economic recession is affecting insurance fraud.

The first responsibility of any president is to protect the American people. President Barack Obama will provide the leadership and strategies to strengthen our security at home.

The ITRC breach list is a compilation of breaches confirmed by various media sources, notification lists from state governmental agencies.

more than 2,000 businesses laying off at least 50 workers in November alone - and nearly half of all finance executives surveyed by CFO say their companies will reduce their workforces this year.

The CERT Virtual Training Environment (VTE) - A revolutionary resource for information assurance, incident response and computer forensic training, with over 500 hours of material available. VTE blends the best of classroom instruction and self-paced online training, delivering training courses, anytime access to answers, and hands-on training labs all through a standard Web browser.