Digging Up Dirt on the Competition
“In Virginia, recently,” jokes Conan O’Brien in a recent monologue, “a computer crash wiped out a decade’s worth of U.S. military data. However, this morning the Chinese government called and said, ‘No problem, we backed it up.’” Humor usually has a grain of truth to it; although in cases like these, it’s more like a… Read More
The Weakest Link
It’s often noted that employees, left untrained or unsupervised, can become the weakest link for an organization when it comes to its data security practices. Few incidents offer such a high profile example of this as last year’s breach at Morgan Stanley, in which a former broker in the firm’s wealth management group, Galen Marsh,… Read More
Millennials at high risk for a data breach
Reading the results of a survey conducted by Webroot, it’s pretty remarkable to learn that despite their peerless levels of tech savvy, millennials score lower on security than an older generation like the Baby Boomers. The data speaks to familiar experience, however, when I think about it. Multiple times have I seen friends and family… Read More
Faith in Organizational Security Lacking
Though I should probably change my LinkedIn password more frequently, I think I’m in the clear this time. If you haven’t changed yours recently, however, now would be an optimal time, in light of the latest news out of Mountain View. If you recall, back in 2012 LinkedIn experienced a data breach, in which 6.5… Read More
Calculating the Cost of Healthcare Breaches
The Ponemon Institute continues to do good work. For the past several years it has put out reports that survey the current cybersecurity landscape, taking the measure of privacy and security when it comes to healthcare data. One important constant across these studies since their inception, including the most recent one this month, has been… Read More
New National CISO will have a full plate
Back in February, President Obama announced the creation of the position of a national Chief Information Security Officer (CISO), as part of an administrative Cybersecurity National Action Plan “that takes near-term actions and puts in place a long-term strategy to enhance cybersecurity awareness and protections, protect privacy, maintain public safety as well as economic and… Read More
Security Fundamentals Still a Challenge
At this point, diverse industries have had mounting experience with data breaches; indeed, Verizon’s 2016 Data Breach Investigations Report reveals a significant increase (48%) of confirmed breaches this year among the nearly 70 organizations who participated in their survey. Unfortunately, this experience has not as yet been any guarantee of change, of adaptation and improvements… Read More
A Different Kind of Music Pirate
Pro tip: when the Internet gives you lemons, don’t make #Lemonade, demand for better protection of your data. Music streaming services are more popular today than ever before. Last year, music streams doubled while digital sales continued to fall. At the top of heap, Spotify currently remains king with 30 million paying subscribers as of… Read More
Mistakes still plague health care organizations’ security
The underground markets for stolen electronic medical records must be thriving these days. Medical and healthcare information has been one of the hottest commodities for cyber thieves for the past several years, far surpassing credit card information and Social Security numbers, and its value only looks to keep increasing. Just last year, a measly bundle… Read More
Changing the Game on Wearables Security
Last night in the NBA, a star named Kobe went out like a supernova, while the Golden State Warriors made history with a record-setting 73 wins in a regular season. Fans and analysts alike have remarked all season long how this particular team is revolutionizing the way NBA basketball is played, which has led to… Read More