US Government Must Enhance Data Breach Responses

On April 2, 2014, the United States Government Accountability Office (GAO) delivered a report on the challenges many US federal agencies face in combating information security problems. According to the GAO, the number of reported information security incidents involving personally identifiable information (PII) has more than doubled over the last several years. This is a dramatic increase that’s unfortunately consistent with private sector organizations. In December 2013, the GAO reported on agencies’ responses to...

On April 2, 2014, the United States Government Accountability Office (GAO) delivered a report on the challenges many US federal agencies face in combating...

Design and manufacturing companies rely on global supply chains to do business. Whether you are in the automotive, electronics or mountain bike industry, you source components and the intellectual property to create them from many organizations. That information is typically in computer-aided design (CAD) files. Companies use AutoCAD, CATIA, Pro/E, SolidWorks and many other applications to create their drawings and models. You many not think about it, but even a company like LEGO uses...

Design and manufacturing companies rely on global supply chains to do business. Whether you are in the automotive, electronics or mountain bike industry, you...

Organizations today are fluid and mobile. Statistics show that an average worker remains in their current job just under 5 years. Advances in mobile technology have changed how and where we work. Having a smart phone, tablet and laptop let people work anywhere and at anytime. Mobility of devices and people make it challenging for an organization to identify its perimeter. Defining and securing the perimeter of a physical building is straightforward. Doing that...

Organizations today are fluid and mobile. Statistics show that an average worker remains in their current job just under 5 years. Advances in mobile...

Improper exposure of your corporate secrets or assets is a problem that every company should be concerned with regardless of your size. Managers should be on the lookout for any areas where confidential information could be intentionally or unintentionally exposed. Managers should be continuously updating security strategies and asking the question, “is our strategy focused on protecting yesterday’s threats?” Our staff just returned from the RSA 2014 Conference in San Francisco. It was a...

Improper exposure of your corporate secrets or assets is a problem that every company should be concerned with regardless of your size. Managers should...

You will experience a data breach. Most of us will take a wait and see attitude and try to do what we can to make this less likely. If you ask IT or an executive in many companies, they assume they have nothing valuable to steal. Organizations continue to think no one is targeting them and if so, it won’t happen to them. Unfortunately this is not the case. It is no longer a...

You will experience a data breach. Most of us will take a wait and see attitude and try to do what we can to...

It’s tax season again and if you’re using an accounting firm to prepare your personal or business taxes you should be asking more questions this year about the security of your information. Over one million cases of Taxpayer ID theft were reported in 2013! There are many ways to compromise your tax data and no one is totally immune to becoming a victim. Most accounting professionals take reasonable precautions to ensure the confidentiality of...

It’s tax season again and if you’re using an accounting firm to prepare your personal or business taxes you should be asking more questions...

It’s less than a week after the annual RSA security conference and the number of data breaches continues unabated. Two small, but significant items appeared in the news, that illustrate the challenges companies face in everyday business operations. One event happened in New Hampshire and the other in the Boston area. The NH event involved a vendor of EMC. Apparently an employee was sending an Excel document to someone and accidentally sent it to...

It’s less than a week after the annual RSA security conference and the number of data breaches continues unabated. Two small, but significant items...

The recent revelations that Edward Snowden stole a coworkers password to gain access to sensitive NSA information should be a wakeup call to business and technology leaders. Using outdated ways of controlling information access may be hurting your business. The practice of using IDs and passwords to control access to information has been around for a long time. Militaries as far back as the Romans used passwords to get past sentries. Passwords and counter...

The recent revelations that Edward Snowden stole a coworkers password to gain access to sensitive NSA information should be a wakeup call to business...

The US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) launched its Cybersecurity Framework, a voluntary how-to guide for organizations to enhance their cybersecurity. The framework provides best practices for voluntary use in all critical infrastructure sectors, including government, healthcare, financial services and transportation. The US government and the private sector spent a year developing these guidelines to help organizations develop information security protection programs. This was a recognition and proposal by President Obama in...

The US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) launched its Cybersecurity Framework, a voluntary how-to guide for organizations to enhance their cybersecurity. The...

I was speaking to a senior executive at a large organization recently and he made a comment that I thought was very timely. He said “we can no longer take the risk of having our most important information in a state that allows someone to intentionally or unintentionally expose it to the wrong people. The time for analyzing options is over. We have to do something now!” Companies have invested millions protecting their data...

I was speaking to a senior executive at a large organization recently and he made a comment that I thought was very timely. He...

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