I have heard many information assurance (IA) professionals, when they are feeling frustrated, angry, or whatever other negative feelings we all have at one time or another, say what they are doing is not making a difference, or say they feel they are looked down upon by others in their organization as a “necessary evil.” They often feel that one person cannot make a difference.
Archive for the ‘Privacy and Compliance’ Category
Norman Borlaug: A Great Role Model for the Power of One
Thursday, July 19th, 2007UK Annual Privacy Report: Businesses Need To Give Individuals Access to Their PII, and More Awareness and Training Is Needed
Wednesday, July 18th, 2007An Exemplary Privacy Practice at a University
Tuesday, July 17th, 2007There are many…*MANY*…reports of privacy breaches and security incidents virtually every day. However, I think it is important to point out when organizations do something right with regard to privacy practices, particularly when they are uncommon compared to what other businesses do; perhaps other organizations will see their positive example and follow their lead.
Data Protection & Privacy Noncompliance Fines Increasing in France
Monday, July 16th, 2007The French Data Protection Authority (CNIL) made some interesting statements last week in their annual report, covering June 2006 through June 2007, about some fines they’ve given during the past 12 months for non-compliance with their data protection laws.
HIPAA Violation in Divorce Proceeding?
Friday, July 13th, 2007Privacy: Are You Sure You *REALLY* Have Nothing To Hide?
Thursday, July 12th, 2007During the past few years it has become more common to have phone records, purchase records, and other logged activities datamined and reviewed by various organizations, government agencies and law enforcement groups. One highly publicized example was when AT&T provided access to their customers’ phone records and Internet communications to the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA).
Carnegie Mellon’s Data Privacy Head Urges Development of New Privacy Technologies
Wednesday, July 11th, 2007I enjoy reading Scientific American Magazine. And I especially am interested in reading their articles that touch upon, or directly address, information security, privacy or compliance. It is always nice to see the views of practitioners, educators, researchers and others who are not on the typical information security circuit of publications.
Privacy Not Only Requires Securing PII, It Also Requires Keeping the Trust of Your Customers
Tuesday, July 10th, 2007Recently I was speaking with a client about a new Internet e-commerce application they were testing, and I asked them to give a demonstration. One of the questions I asked while watching was whether there were any ways in which someone could get information about customers’ orders. After doing some various tests, a screen popped up showing a database of names, item descriptions, and other information related to the orders. The billing information, such as credit card number, was *NOT* within this database, but the names and mailing addresses were; these were used for the indexing links to the database.
Trademarks, Virtual Reality Sites, and Creating a Very Aware Next Generation of Information Assurance Leaders
Tuesday, July 3rd, 2007I’ve been working in my home office for around 7 1/2 years, being able to do most of my project work from home, which I’m thankful for. During that time my now 10-year-old and 7-year-old (he’ll remind you he turns 8 next month) sons have been around me quite a bit as I do my work. So I discuss a lot of what I do with them, they ask a lot of questions, and they soak a whole lot more into their brains than I realize. Especially over summer when they are at home with me virtually all day every day.
5 Security Lessons from Non-Compliance with UK Data Protection Law
Monday, July 2nd, 2007I speak with many organizations who have customers throughout the world, often via their ecommerce websites, and an alarmingly large number of these organizations are completely unaware of the data protection laws they must follow in the countries where their customers are from. When the privacy commissioners from these other countries discover the organizations not following the laws, the organizations can have substantial financial impact on their businesses from not only fines, but typically more significantly from bad press, and orders to discontinue business within the country until they have their business activities, policies and processes in compliance with the requirements.
