In legislation introduced this week, the U.S. government and companies would be encouraged to share information about cybersecurity threats and hacker attacks.
The process of notifying affected populations in the event of a data breach is complex and littered with potential land mines – handled poorly, the notification can be a black eye for an organization and potentially open them up to regulatory fines or sanctions. Brian Lapidus and his team at Kroll have assembled the following advice for businesses to help them minimize their risk and simplify what has become a very challenging process.
The increasingly sophisticated systems running a car may lead to new vulnerabilities, according to a study from security software provider McAfee in partnership with mobile software provider Wind River and embedded security provider Escrypt. Those systems could allow hackers to take control of the car, track its location, and even access devices that are connected to it, including smartphones and tablets carrying valuable personal data.
The number of tablet owners continues to soar, making it difficult for manufacturers to keep up with demand. New tablet owners are increasingly business users, particularly within industries such as retail, banking, and healthcare. Estimates indicate that 25 percent of tablet sales in 2011 will be made by enterprises, leading some to call 2011 the year of the enterprise tablet. All estimations aside, a tablet’s ability to provide mobility and flexibility is irrefutable, and businesses are noticing. But can tablets be deployed in an enterprise without sacrificing security?
Security breaches can cost organizations millions of dollars, and those costs could be followed by lawsuits, insurance claims, and hefty fines. Just as important are the devastating effects on company reputation and customer trust that could extend far into the future. A 2008 study by the Ponemon Institute, which researches information security policy and data protection, found that after a breach of credit card data businesses lose 31% of their customers.
With market analysis firm International Data Corporation (IDC) predicting $72.9 billion in cloud-related revenues by 2015, the cloud as the preferred storage and application environment is the future. Additionally, the IDC study indicates that by 2015, spending on public cloud services will account for nearly half of the net new growth in overall IT spending. This spending includes money spent on application development and deployment, infrastructure, storage, and servers.
There is no shortage of news stories dealing with cybercrime and data breaches. From Citigroup admitting that computer hackers breached the bank’s network and accessed the data of about 200,000 bank card holders in North America, to the huge data breach at Sony and its Playstation Network, it’s all over the news.
It’s no secret that our computer hard drives contain a lot of things we’d rather keep secret. Because the information security field is my home turf, I’m troubled by some of the loose talk I hear about how to destroy used drives. There is a whole lot of bad advice online, especially.
When it comes to preventing the loss and theft of mobile assets within the enterprise, there is no one-stop-shop security solution. However, the need has never been greater as mobile devices become more prevalent and hold more sensitive data.
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