The federal government’s use of handheld communications devices and its practices for disposing of unneeded paper documents and surplus computers could expose the personal information of Canadians to unauthorized disclosure, Privacy Commissioner of Canada Jennifer Stoddart has warned. The findings, stemming from two separate privacy audits conducted by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of…
Category: Commentaries and Analyses
Education sector most affected by malware
Angela Moscaritolo reports: During the first six months of 2010, academia was the sector most impacted by malware, according to a report issued Monday by anti-virus firm Trend Micro. The report, which covers cybercrime incidents from January to June, states that 44 percent of all malware infections hit schools and universities, which often have “complex, distributed…
Verizon PCI DSS Compliance Study: breached entities 50% less likely to be compliant
A new report from Verizon Business shows that following industry security standards can dramatically reduce such incidents. In a first-of-its-kind “Verizon Payment Card Industry Compliance Report,” the company examined compliance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), which was created in 2006 to protect cardholder data and reduce credit card fraud. Company…
One way to avoid lawsuits over risk of future harm?
I recently posed the question about when three years of credit monitoring might not be enough. As it turns out, deciding what to offer those affected by a breach may be a bit easier in light of a new offering from Debix called AfterCare™. Although I generally avoid blogging about commercial products, the timing of this…
Article: Data Protection and Data Security Issues Related to Cloud Computing in the EU
Lawyer Paolo Balboni of the European Privacy Association, Italian Institute for Privacy, and Tilburg University has an article that has been made available on SSRN. Here’s the abstract: We are in the midst of a revolution within computing. It goes under the name of cloud computing. Analysts estimate that in 2012, the size of the…
States unable to protect citizens’ personal, health data from cyberthieves
Byron Acohido writes: This should come as no surprise. State government agencies aren’t devoting nearly enough resources to protect citizens’ sensitive data from hackers and data thieves. Some 49 out of 50 states report that a lack of budget is crippling efforts to manage cybersecurity effectively. One state chose not to participate. That’s the upshot…