Warnings Of New Phishing Threat Hitting Mainstream

March 7th, 2008

Recently I blogged about getting a phishing scam message that threatened my life.
I was pleasantly surprised this morning to see the Iowa Attorney General’s office and law enforcement warning the public about this scam here.
The general public should made more aware of information security and privacy concerns, risks and scams to help keep them from falling victims to criminal schemes such as this.
What do you do to make those in your community more aware?

My New E-Journal For March Now Available!

March 6th, 2008

Remember when I mentioned in January that I would be devoting more time in 2008 to writing papers to post to this site instead of spending as much time writing long blog postings?
Well, the papers I wrote in February are now available for you to download, FREE, in the form of what will be a monthly E-Journal!
For this month I wrote about the following issues that I see as immediately significant to businesses of all kinds:

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Another Messaging Risk To Keep In Mind

March 5th, 2008

Many of the business folks I’ve talked to in the past year or two are increasingly using text messaging more while doing their business. And they are using their business cell phones more for sending personal text messages.
A few weeks ago I wrote about how sending text messages got the mayor of Detroit in big trouble.
Here’s one more compelling reason to think twice about the text messages you send; whether from your business phone or personal phone:

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Did You Know This Was National Consumer Protection Week?

March 4th, 2008

Here’s another event related to compliance, information security and privacy to put on your calendar…
This is National Consumer Protection Week (NCPW) in the U.S.

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FREE Resource Overflowing With Great Info Sec & Privacy Articles Just Published

March 3rd, 2008

Long time dear friends and colleagues of mine, Tom and Justin Peltier, just published their “2007 Year in Review.”
It is a great, FREE, resource to add to your information security, privacy and compliance files.
Here are the folks who contributed, along with the articles they wrote:

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3rd HIPAA Criminal Indictment; Another Insider Job

March 2nd, 2008

On February 15, Leslie A. Howell, from Oklahoma City, OK, was indicted for violating the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996 as part of an identity theft scheme.

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Will Bad News Come in 3’s For Health Net?

March 1st, 2008

In the past several days Health Net made the news…in ways they would rather not have…
First this on 2/22:

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Promoting Science and Technology

February 28th, 2008

I participate in the LinkedIn community, and I was intrigued this morning to find a question posted by Bill Gates (yes Microsoft Bill)!

“How can we do more to encourage young people to pursue careers in science and technology?”

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Are You Taking The Panda Security Challenge?

February 27th, 2008

I was very intrigued to get an email yesterday from a security software vendor announcing a contest daring information security practitioners to find a malware-free network and they’ll give you $10,000.
Here’s the text of the message:

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New HIPAA Security Information on the CMS website

February 26th, 2008

I just got a notice from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)…
New HIPAA Security Information on the CMS website

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