From the highlights of a newly released GAO report: Twenty-four major federal agencies did not consistently demonstrate that they are effectively responding to cyber incidents (a security breach of a computerized system and information). Based on a statistical sample of cyber incidents reported in fiscal year 2012, GAO projects that these agencies did not completely…
Category: Commentaries and Analyses
Experian notifies consumers of a breach. Again.
Once again, Experian is notifying some consumers of a breach that resulted in their credit reports being accessed by criminals. The breach occurred on May 14. In this case, the client whose login credentials were compromised and used to access Experian’s database was the Bluegrass Community Federal Credit Union in Ashland, Kentucky. Experian and law enforcement…
Colleges Remain Big-Game Targets for Hackers
D. Frank Smith reports: Colleges have consistently been a prime target for hackers. In 2013, the University of Wisconsin sustained up to 100,000 hacking attempts each day, according to The New York Times. And research released May 20by the EDUCAUSE Higher Education Information Security Council shows that the education sector topped the charts in a survey of…
Why Investors Just Don’t Care About Data Breaches
Eric Chemi reports: On May 21, EBay revealed that it had suffered a cyber attack and data security breach, and users’ information—names, account passwords, e-mail addresses, physical addresses, phone numbers, and birth dates—was exposed to hackers. While security experts, the news media, and actual EBay users may have all been alarmed, the stock investors weren’t. EBay’s stock finished…
Audit of Broome County discusses need for control of USB devices
The Office of the NYS Comptroller has released its audit of Broome County‘s information technology for the period January 1, 2012 — August 20, 2013. From their summary: Local governments use and maintain data that contains PPSI. PPSI is any information where unauthorized access, disclosure, modification, destruction or disruption of access or use could severely impact the County’s critical…
Commentary: We need a congressional inquiry into the MCCCD breach
President Truman had a sign on his desk that said, “The buck stops here.” We could use more of that accountability when it comes to data breaches in the education sector. Back in 2006, when I first began blogging about data breaches on PogoWasRight.org, I covered a series of breaches at Ohio University. One of the things that…