@Risk

Here’s a remarkable statistic: Among the more than 900 electronic records breaches that Verizon Business experts investigated last year, a whopping 96 percent could have been avoided if security basics had been followed.

That’s right. Nearly all of these breaches could have been avoided; only 4 percent of the breaches analyzed required difficult and expensive protective measures. In addition, most victimized organizations (87 percent) had evidence of a breach in their security logs, but overlooked these red flags due to a lack of staff, tools or processes.

The new 2010 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report , which for the first time was prepared in collaboration with the US Secret Service, is filled with other fascinating results, too –all of which offer some important perspective about the vulnerability of business data and the most effective approaches for mitigating cybercrime threats.  For instance, the report also reveals that: (more…)

You check email when you’re on vacation. You bring a company laptop on your trips. Taking “the office” on the road has become so commonplace that these days, we generally don’t think twice about it.

But, a new study from Credant Technologies offers some interesting insights and more than a few words of caution. After all, in some cases, accessing company data from mobile devices can seriously impact corporate security.

Consider these findings. Credant polled 1,000 office workers in London and found that: (more…)

Virtually all aspects of our society, business, and government are dependent our information infrastructure, and yet we, as a nation, are extraordinarily vulnerable to cyber threats, according to a new report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

In A Human Capital Crisis in Cybersecurity, CSIS describes a few of the current problems, which seem to portend disastrous consequences if these very real threats are not addressed.

From the report: (more…)

Corporate boards and senior executives are becoming increasingly disconnected from their organizations’ security and privacy decisions, according to new research from Carnegie Mellon University’s CyLab.

That’s more than a little disheartening to hear, considering that cyber attacks are increasingly common and increasingly effective. In fact, Symantec now estimates that attacks like these cost businesses an average of $2 million per year. They cause loss to productivity, efficiency, revenue, and customer trust.

CyLab’s new research, which follows up on a 2008 study, included a survey of 66 business execs at the board or senior executive level from Fortune 1000 companies. Based on the data collected, CyLab was able to uncover several disturbing trends. For example: (more…)

BDO has generated a list of the top 20 risk concerns of U.S. technology companies.

Part of the 2010 BDO RiskFactor Report for Technology Businesses, the list was compiled after an analysis of the risk factors reported in the fiscal year 2009 10-K SEC filings of the 100 largest publicly traded U.S. technology companies.

Interestingly, this year there’s a tie for the number one risk. Nearly all (94 percent) of the companies studied cited “competition and consolidation in technology sector” and “failure to develop or market new products/services” as risk concerns. (more…)