@Risk

How secure is your data network? Are you satisfied that both your business and personal information are adequately protected? Can you ever feel completely satisfied about that?

The latest news about Google’s penchant for data collection underscores just how vulnerable our networks can be.

In case you missed the story, Google is in hot water for mistakenly collecting samples of payload data from open (i.e. non-password-protected) WiFi networks.

In a blog post at its website, Google admits that while it was gathering data for use in location-based products like Google Maps for mobile, it inadvertently collected samples of private, non-password-protected information, as well. The data was collected in all the countries where Street View information has been catalogued, including the United States and parts of Europe.

The company says it never used that data in any Google products. Plus, as Google explains it, any information collected was typically only snippets –because the Street View cars gathering the data are “on the move” and use WiFi equipment that automatically changes channels roughly five times a second.

Still, I’m not sure I find that particularly comforting. For me, the questions at the heart of the matter are: How and why was Google collecting the data in the first place? Here’s the company’s response: (more…)

Can you count on your employees to keep confidential corporate information secure?

Probably not, according to the 2010 Trend Micro survey on corporate and small business end users.

The survey, which included 1600 end users in the U.S., U.K, Germany and Japan, found that, in general, employees were much more focused on individual concerns and conveniences than their company’s overall  IT security. For instance: (more…)

Earlier this week, in keeping with the Obama administration’s renewed commitment to transparency, White House Cybersecurity Coordinator Howard Schmidt directed the release of a summary description of the largely classified Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative.

(This initiative, officially known as the National Security Presidential Directive 54 and Homeland Security Presidential Directive 23, was originally established by the Bush administration back in January 2008.)

The five-page declassified document outlines twelve major proposals designed to help secure the United States in cyberspace, and it’s significant that among this list of a dozen priorities there’s recognition of the growing risks associated with today’s complex global supply chains, particularly those in the commercial information and communications technology marketplace.

From the summary description: (more…)

Having a hard time waking up this Monday morning? Here are a few alarming statistics that I think may provide just the jolt you need:

Last month, Symantec  Corp. surveyed 2,100 enterprise CIOs, CISOs and IT managers from 27 countries and found that a whopping three-fourths of them had experienced cyber attacks in the past 12 months. More than one-third (36 percent) rated the attacks somewhat/highly effective, and worse still, more than one-quarter (29 percent) reported attacks have increased over the past year.

These attacks cost enterprise businesses an average of $2 million per year, and when you put all of this information together,  it’s no surprise that the 2010 State of Enterprise Security study also found that 42 percent of the survey respondents rate security as their top issue. (See graphic above.)

In addition, Symantec discovered that: (more…)

It’s a typical good news/bad news scenario.

Results from the 2010 Identity Fraud Survey, released yesterday by Javelin Strategy & Research, show that fraud increased for the second straight year and is at the highest rate since Javelin began this report seven years ago.

That’s the bad news.

But here’s the good: the report also found that protection of data by consumers and businesses and enlisting assistance in resolution are helping resolve fraud more quickly and are also reducing or eliminating costs for the consumer.

This survey is the nation’s longest-running study of identity fraud, and in November 2009, Javelin conducted telephone interviews with 5,000 U.S. adults. Survey questions were designed  to identify and track the methods fraudsters used, the impact of fraud on Americans and how these findings can help consumers most effectively avoid becoming victims of fraud.

Here are a few details from the study that I thought were particularly interesting: (more…)