Linda McGlasson writes: The Hancock Fabrics data breach continues to raise new questions about the security of point of sale (POS) devices at retail stores. In March, the national fabric store chain publicly confirmed the breach it suffered last summer, sending an open letter to its customers, revealing: “PIN pad units at a limited number…
Category: Commentaries and Analyses
As cloud computing grows, customer frustration mounts
Patrick Thibodeau reports: Users who turned to cloud computing for some of its obvious benefits, such as the ability to rapidly expand and provision systems, are starting to shift their focus to finding ways to fix some early weaknesses. Cloud computing today has some of the characteristics of a Wild West boom town, but its…
First Annual French Ponemon Study Shows the High Cost of Data Breaches for French Organizations
Privacy and information management research firm Ponemon Institute, together with PGP Corporation, a global leader in enterprise data protection, today announced the results of the first annual study into the costs incurred by French organisations after experiencing a data breach. The “2009 Annual Study: French Cost of a Data Breach” report, compiled by the Ponemon…
Almost Half of Disclosed Breaches Do Not Include Number of Records Compromised
Perimeter E-Security today unveiled the results of its annual U.S. Data Breach Study, a review of the scope and impact of data security breaches that occurred in the past year. “While 2009 had the fewest number of data breach incidents reported in the last four years, there was a dramatic increase in the average number…
Over a Third of All Data Breaches in Germany Are the Result of Errors by External Partners
In 2009 German companies had to invest more than they did only a year ago when they suffered a data breach with subsequent data abuse. More and more frequently the source of the error leading to violation of data protection is not in the company’s own building but on the premises of external providers who…
B.C. Ferries’ data security system flawed, audit finds
Gary Mason reports: B.C. Ferries customers who pay with a credit card are being put at risk by flaws in the company’s data security system. Recent internal audits conducted by the ferry corporation have identified glaring deficiencies in the way in which the company is protecting sensitive customer credit card information. […] In order to…