Last week fellow IBM Midsize blogger Jason Hannula wrote about Gartner’s prediction that by 2018 more than 50% of all folks will use their mobile computing devices in the workplace before, or instead of, using a desktop or laptop. That’s just three short years away. We already have an abundance of mobile devices being used in a wide range of industries. (more…)
Posts Tagged ‘IBM’
Addressing Mobile Risks in 2015
Wednesday, December 24th, 2014The 3 Necessary Elements for Effective Information Security Management
Thursday, December 11th, 2014Seeing all these really bad information security incidents and privacy breaches, often daily, are so disappointing. Let’s consider these four in particular.
- The Sony hack that seems to continue to get worse as more details are reported.
- An ER nurse using the credit cards of patients.
- Breaches of Midwest Women’s Healthcare patient records due to poor disposal practices at the Research Hospital.
- TD Bank’s outsourced vendor losing two backup tapes containing data about 260,000 of their customers.
And the list could continue for pages.
These incidents, and most others, probably could have been prevented if an effective information security and privacy management program existed that was built around three primary core elements: (more…)
Preliminary Thoughts about IBM’s New Social Collaboration Tool
Wednesday, December 3rd, 2014I am intrigued by the new social collaboration tool, Verse, which IBM just released that is reportedly intended to reinvent email. Quite a lofty, but worthwhile, goal considering email hasn’t significantly changed since the move from a mainframe based character viewing system to client-based file attachment capabilities! I decided to take a quick look at the issues in the description of Verse that would most impact security and privacy. After a cursory look at the Verse site and a news release about it, here are some of my thoughts. (more…)
You Need to Know about Ransomware
Monday, November 24th, 2014When was the last time you made a backup of all your data? How often do you make incremental backups? Do you keep these backups on a separate storage device and disconnected (or firewalled away from) the rest of your network?
“Say, why do you ask?”
The primary reason I’m asking right now is because ransomware is growing rapidly in occurrences; over 700% from last year. Three of the best ways you can help defend against it is by: (more…)
6 Actions Businesses Should Take During Cyber Security Awareness Month
Tuesday, October 21st, 2014October is National Cyber Security Awareness Month. It would seem the breaches announced virtually every day of this month so far were orchestrated to highlight the need for organizations to beef up their information security efforts and improve their controls.
Sadly instead, cyber incidents seem to have become de rigueur these days. Consumers are getting fed up, and government agencies are proposing more laws. The tide is turning, and soon organizations will be held accountable for more effectively protecting their systems and information, or they will likely face much steeper fines and penalties than ever before. So, now’s the time to take action! Here are six actions you to take this month to start improving your organization’s information security program and associated efforts. (more…)
Avoid this Common Privacy Choice Mistake
Monday, August 25th, 2014Many marketing professionals have a common temptation; they want to send as many marketing messages to as many people as possible, and they would love to send it to all folks who have ever been customers or clients of their business, and often times actually want to simply send to everyone whose email address they can obtain in any way.
Privacy professionals make many efforts to guide marketers on what is acceptable and not acceptable. After all, (more…)
Security is Action…Privacy is the Result of Action
Thursday, July 31st, 2014What is the difference between security and privacy?
Many of my clients are small and midsized businesses. They often express confusion over what each of these terms (neither of which have a universally-accepted definition) actually means, how they are different, and how they are similar. This is important for business leaders to understand so they can make appropriate decisions within their information security and privacy management programs. Especially in small and midsize businesses, where there may not be a specific position to address either of these important topics. Let’s start with considering at a high level the differences between information security and privacy. (more…)
Businesses are Also Synthetic ID Theft Targets
Monday, July 21st, 2014Early this month I was happy to discuss synthetic identity theft on the Great Day show. I briefly talked about how synthetic identity theft was also committed in the U.S. using business employer identity numbers (EINs). Crooks often target small and midsize businesses for this type of crime. After the show I got a lot of questions asking for more information about synthetic EIN identity theft. (more…)
