The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has admitted that it does not keep a running total of security breaches committed on its sensitive Customer Information System (CIS) database, prompting accusations that it is not taking adequate steps to protect personal data from intruders. […] The DWP said it did not know how many security…
Category: Commentaries and Analyses
Symantec names the 100 “Dirtiest” websites of the summer
In an effort to determine which sites are safe to visit, security, storage and systems management solutions provider Symantec (www.symantec.com) has identified the “Dirtiest websites of Summer 2009,” a list of the 100 most threatening sites that try to deceive visitors, steal their information or crash their computer. […] Malware is the most common threat…
Stolen credit card data cheap on cyber-black market
The black market economy of the cyber-world is always busy, especially in an age of massive data breaches like the ones that occurred at Heartland Payment Systems and Hannaford Brothers. According to research from Kaspersky Lab posted Aug. 17, U.S. credit cards are not worth as much as you might think. While analyzing malware, Kaspersky…
Risky use of real data in application development
Most organizations in the U.S. and U.K. put their sensitive customer and company data at risk during their application development and testing processes, according to a new study. Although nearly 80 percent of the firms surveyed in the Ponemon Institute report say they have been hit by at least one data breach in the past…
Gonzalez: The Al Capone Of Cyber Thieves?
Evan Schuman and Fred J. Aun have a well-written commentary on the recent indictment of Albert Gonzalez and two unnamed co-conspirators that highlights the questions left unanswered by the indictment, and the apparent contradictions between statements made. As one example, they write: For example, 7-Eleven is a new name in the breach circle, and the…
Audit of Dept of Energy reveals unaddressed problems
From Protection of the Department of Energy’s Unclassified Sensitive Electronic Information, DOE/IG-0818: The Department of Energy and its contractors store and process massive quantities of sensitive information to accomplish national security, energy, science, and environmental missions. Sensitive unclassified data, such as personally identifiable information (PII), official use only, and unclassified controlled nuclear information require special…