Archive for the ‘Information Security’ Category

Laws, Standards, Mapping, and HIPAA

Friday, June 22nd, 2007

Today is the last day of Norwich University’s Masters programs residency week; this afternoon is graduation.
It has been a great week…I have loved chatting with the students and faculty, and I’ve compiled a page full of topics I want to research and blog about!

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Norwich University Residency Week & Thoughts On the Court Ruling on Email Searches

Thursday, June 21st, 2007

I’m a professor for the Norwich University MSIA program, and since Sunday I’ve been here in Vermont for their residency week, culminating in graduation on Friday. It has been a great week! It kicked off with a wonderfully thought-provoking discussion led by Karen Worstell, former CISO for Microsoft, as well as former CEO at AtomicTangerine, and many other high-profile positions.

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Another Study Supports The Need for Awareness and Executive Support

Monday, June 18th, 2007

I’m always interested to read survey results related to information assurance. Of course the readers need to take the interpretations and summaries with a grain of salt; very few surveys are statistically representative of all organizations.

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Another Fun Security Awareness Site

Friday, June 15th, 2007

Here’s another great security awareness site pointed out by Dave Ockwell-Jenner in the Security Catalyst community:
the Security Cartoon site.

You Can Never Really Tell Who Gets Your Wireless Transmissions

Friday, June 15th, 2007

It was interesting to read about an elementary school science teacher in a Chicago suburb whose baby monitor picks up the video transmission from inside the space shuttle Atlantis.

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I Don’t Want Spam, Even If it Is “Certified” To be From a Legitimate Business

Thursday, June 14th, 2007

There are some vendors offering “certifications” to businesses to help get their marketing email past spam filters as well as to help prevent successful phishing exploits.

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OMB Sets Security Configuration Contracts Language for Acquisitions

Wednesday, June 13th, 2007

On June 1 the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) released recommended language for all federal government chief information officers for required common security configurations for Windows computer operating systems that should be included in acquisitions solicitations to information technology providers.

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Greetings from Arizona!

Tuesday, June 12th, 2007

Is it Tuesday already? I’ve lost track of the days…I’ve been here at the CSI NetSec conference since Friday, giving Chris Grillo’s and my “Handling Complex and Difficult Information Security and Privacy Issues” pre-conference seminar on Saturday and Sunday.
We had 16 outstanding participants from a wide range of industries, including government, technology, and retail, just to name a few. I love having this variety; it leads to very good discussions and increased understanding of what information assurance practitioners are dealing with. Thanks again to those of you who attended; your interaction was fantastic!

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Avoid Some Common Email Pitfalls

Friday, June 8th, 2007

There are increasing reports of email misuse, malicious use, mistaken use, and just plain bad implementations of email systems that allow the many outside threats and desperado insiders to exploit vulnerabilities.
It is most common for information assurance pros to be fairly diligent in trying to keep malware out of the enterprise network through scanning and filtering emails, and it is good to see that it is also becoming a growing trend to try and prevent sensitive data from leaving the enterprise, “leaking” is the current buzzword of choice, by using scanning and encryption. However, there are many other email mishaps and business damage that can occur through the use, or misuse, of email that can have negative business impact and legal implications.

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Could I Have a Side of Fries With That Security Please?

Thursday, June 7th, 2007

There’s a pretty good McDonald’s commercial that started running recently. It shows two guys looking down at the office area on the floor below saying something like, “Janet’s so lame. She only buys McDonald’s for everyone so they’ll do her work for her.” Then the other guy says something like, “Yeah, it’s disgusting.” Then they both take a bite of a McDonald’s sausage McBiscuit, and then one says something like, “Well, we’d better get busy doing Janet’s invoices.”

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