Leslie Fair of the FTC comments on recent settlements that were reported earlier this month: Of course, no legitimate business would put out a welcome mat for crooks. But as the FTC’s data security cases make clear, that’s the effect when companies fail to take reasonable steps to secure sensitive information in their possession —…
Category: Commentaries and Analyses
UK: Treasury does well out of local data breaches
Taxpayers’ money is being used to pay hundreds of thousands of pounds of fines imposed on councils for data protection breaches. In the past two months, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has fined councils more than £350,000 for falling foul of laws. Defending the decisions the ICO said the purpose of monetary penalties is to…
UK: Police officers and staff broke data laws 67 times in three years
Often, the only way we find out the scope of a problem is when the media or activists file a freedom of information request. Some data revealed thanks to a Freedom of Information request made by the Scunthorpe Telegraph: Humberside Police officers and staff breached data protection laws 67 times in the past three years,…
Identity Fraud Fell 28 Percent in 2010 According to New Javelin Strategy & Research Report
The 2011 Identity Survey Report, released today by Javelin Strategy & Research (www.javelinstrategy.com), reports that in 2010 the number of identity fraud victims decreased by 28 percent to 8.1 million adults in the United States, three million fewer victims than the prior year. Total annual fraud decreased from $56 billion to $37 billion, the smallest amount…
How to Respond to a Data Breach – and Then Some
George Hulme recently wrote about an anticipated WikiLeaks exposure of Bank of America files and used Bank of America’s attempts to prepare for the disclosures as an opportunity to discuss how to respond to a breach. George writes, in part: The idea isn’t to bury the news, or prepare executives how to lie, but to…
NIST formalizes cloud computing definition, issues security and privacy guidance
George V. Hulme writes: Last summer, Federal Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra asked the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to help accelerate the federal government’s secure adoption of cloud computing by leading efforts to develop cloud standards and guidelines. And NIST just delivered. The agency published two new draft documents on cloud computing. The first…