Many information security incidents have occurred through non-technical means by simply and thoughtlessly throwing away printed documents into publicly-accessible trash bins, or even putting computers and sensitive documents out on the streets. I have blogged about this several times, such as here, here, and here.
Archive for the ‘Privacy and Compliance’ Category
Information Security: Laws Require Secure Disposal of Information in All Forms; Using BS 8470:2006 for Compliance
Friday, April 20th, 2007Anonymous Posting on the Internet: Privacy vs. Defamation vs. Information Security
Thursday, April 19th, 2007Over the past few months I’ve discussed with several different organizations the issue of their personnel posting on Internet sites, to blogs, within Internet communities, and various other locations. The issues are many, but few organizations have really thought about them all; the implications of employees posting from the corporate network, using their corporate email address within online postings, the time used while at work to post, the possibility of libelous statements being made that the corporation may have to ultimately end up paying for, and many assorted other issues.
SMBs, Identity Theft & Insider Threat: Bad SMB Security Impacts Organizations of All Sizes
Wednesday, April 18th, 2007There are many articles written about the insider threat, several have been done, and often the focus is on large organizations where those employees with malicious intent are often either in positions of trust way down in the org chart, or the perpetrator is the person at the helm of the organization.
Free Information Security Training Workshops from FISSEA
Tuesday, April 17th, 2007The information security and privacy incidents tally continues to grow every day, the threats and vulnerabilities continue to appear every day, and information security and privacy professionals have a hard time keeping up with them all, not to mention keeping their own personnel aware of the many issues they face in their every day business work. And then to get the resources and time necessary to create an effective program! I know many folks often seem overwhelmed.
Admitted HIPAA Noncompliance at UPMC: Penalties Must Be Applied to Make Laws Effective
Monday, April 16th, 2007On April 13 the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported that the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) admitted to using the records of 80 patients, including names and Social Security numbers, for a presentation they made at a 2002 symposium, in violation of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).
Obscure Email Security Issues: Whitehouse Provides Lessons in Email Management Practices and Using Non-Business Email Accounts to Conduct Business
Sunday, April 15th, 2007So much is in the news lately related to information assurance it is hard to pick which one to share my thoughts about. However, the misuse of email, managing email, and the maintenance of email systems, which I know I’ve already talked about recently, just keeps bubbling to the top of concerns.
Throughout last week and over the weekend while watching the news programs, listening to the political pundits, and reading various news magazines there has been much talk about how perhaps millions of Whitehouse emails have seemed to have vanished, along with discussion about the use of non-Whitehouse systems for Whitehouse business emails.
Data Storage Must Be Secured to Protect Privacy
Saturday, April 14th, 2007Often times privacy breaches occur because the access controls are not configured appropriately for databases, or inadequate processes weren’t even established to protect data within the network perimeter. Too many organizations still focus almost all of their efforts on securing the typically highly fuzzy and porous perimeter to the exclusion of other highly vulnerable areas. Many incidents can be prevented by putting more attention and time to securing the data storage areas.
Obscure Email Security Issue: 5 Lessons About Re-using Email Addresses
Thursday, April 12th, 2007Does your organization ever re-use email addresses whenever someone leaves the company? Do you know that some of your customers‚Äô and personnel’s email service providers re-use email addresses when their subscribers leave? Probably more than you realize.
HIPAA Security Rule and Privacy Rule Enforcement Reportedly Going To Be Pursued In 2007
Monday, April 9th, 2007Something that has bothered me, and many others, for a very long time is how there have been absolutely no enforcement actions for the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) privacy rule or security rule since they went into effect. Passing a law and then not doing anything to enforce it, even after the enforcement agencies have received tens of thousands of complaints reporting noncompliance, makes the law weak and prone to disregard by covered entities (CEs) who see others getting away with noncompliance with just a, “Whoops! Sorry, we’ll try to fix that.”
Security and Legal Implications: NLRB Hears Oral Argument Regarding Employee’s Use of Employer’s Email System
Sunday, April 8th, 2007There are increasing reports of email misuse, malicious use, mistaken use, and just plain bad implementations of email systems that allow the many threats out in the wild and woolly Internet, and the 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 by using scanning and encryption. However, there are many other mishaps and business damage that can occur through the use, or misuse, of email and email monitoring that can have legal implications.
