News Year’s Resolution For 2012: Practice Safe Security
Admit it. You follow certain practices within your IT environment you know to be risky from a security perspective. You’re not alone. In fact, the number of IT professionals who routinely and knowingly take such risks is surprisingly high. Often the rationale is reasonable: you have limited resources and more IT projects than your staff…
Post-Password Predictions And What They Mean For You
The list of problems with passwords has been documented over and over again: Users keeping spreadsheets of their personal passwords, using ordinary everyday words, keeping their passwords on sticky notes, or constantly harassing the IT department for help with forgotten passwords–the list goes on and on. Even clever password creation and rating sites have been…
Follow The Leader? Or Face Insider Threats…
It has been nearly six years since the inception of WikiLeaks, yet the U.S. government has just begun to identify methods to combat insider threats within the military. In October, President Obama established an “Insider Threat Task Force” to help prevent potentially damaging and embarrassing exposure of government secrets. He also unveiled new computer security…
Trust Alone Is Not Enough According To Survey
A recent survey done by a BeyondTrust swat team passing out surveys received over 111 responses all to find out if people trust their cloud vendors with their data. If you haven’t read it, we also participated in a great TechDebate with NetworkWorld that put the issue of cloud security to the test. We went…
Gangs Infiltrating Companies As Insiders To Steal Idenities
It was only a matter of time before organized gangs would discover how easy it is for an insider to gain access to sensitive data and realize that if you can’t beat them, join them. A recent blog titled “NY ID Theft Ring Used Insiders, Gang Members” published by Brian Krebs highlights that “Authorities in…
Active Directory Bridge – A Path To PCI Compliance
What is an Active Directory Bridge and how does it help me with PCI compliance? What is an Active Directory Bridge? First, as Gartner discussed at the Gartner Identity and Access Management Summit, Active Directory doesn’t do everything. It is not optimized for UNIX, Linux or Mac OS X and it’s difficult to leverage the…
If I Duck My Head Under This Blankie, The Monsters Can’t Get Me
Remember when we were kids and we’d hear a strange noise from the other room, or the closet. Maybe it was after your parents finally let you watch that movie you promised wouldn’t give you nightmares. Back then nothing could get us, so long as we hid under out blankets. But we had to do…
Microsoft Patch Tuesday – January 2012
Before we get started on this month’s releases, just a quick reminder that Microsoft released an out-of-band (OOB) security bulletin (MS11-100) late last month. That brought their 2011 total to 100 bulletins – so much for keeping it in double digits. To start off the new year, today Microsoft released seven bulletins. Microsoft finally tamed…
Healthcare Data Breaches Thanks To Insiders
A Ponemon Institute report published this month found that healthcare data breaches have risen 32 percent since 2010. Ninety-six percent of all healthcare providers say they have had at least one data breach in the last two years and that most of these were due to employee mistakes and sloppiness, while 46 percent of respondents…
Top 5 Data Breach Excuses Of 2011 (And What They Really Mean): Part 5
DON’T COMMENT AT ALL – EVEN WHEN A GOVERNMENT WATCHDOG OUTS YOUR POOR PRACTICE MUCH LATER – Numerous UK Local Authorities up to Nov 2011 This strategy is used by organisations who know that trying to make an excuse for such widespread poor practice is like pouring petrol on a fire. Best to keep quiet…
