Posts Tagged ‘Information Security’
Thursday, December 18th, 2014
Once or twice a week I get a question from an organization that is considered to be a healthcare covered entity (CE) or business associate (BA) under HIPAA (a U.S. regulation) asking about the types of information that is considered to be protected health information (PHI). Last week a medical devices manufacturer, that is also a BA, asked about this. I think it is a good time to post about this topic again.
If information can be (more…)
Tags:HIPAA, HITECH, Information Security, infosec, medical devices, patient information, personal information, PHI, privacy, privacy professor, privacy risks, privacy rule, privacyprof, protected health information, Rebecca Herold, security rule
Posted in HIPAA, PHI | No Comments »
Thursday, December 11th, 2014
Seeing 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…)
Tags:awareness, BA management, healthcare, IBM, Information Security, information security policies, information security risks, information security training, infosec, midmarket, outsourcing, privacy, privacy policies, privacy professor, privacy risks, privacy training, privacyprof, Rebecca Herold, risk management, Sony, TD Bank, vendor management
Posted in Information Security, privacy | No Comments »
Wednesday, December 10th, 2014
This year Admiral Mike Rogers, the current Commander, U.S. Cyber Command and Director, National Security Agency/Chief, Central Security Service, gave the luncheon keynote address at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Third Annual Cybersecurity Summit, “Sharing Cyber Threat Information to Protect Business and America.” You can find it at: (more…)
Tags:Admiral Rogers, Dell, Information Security, information security risks, infosec, NSA, personal information, policies, privacy, privacy information, privacy professor, privacy risks, privacyprof, procedures, Rebecca Herold, risks, sensitive information, sensitive personal data, training
Posted in privacy | No Comments »
Wednesday, December 10th, 2014
The day before Thanksgiving here in the U.S. I had the great pleasure of speaking with a couple of consumate information security experts from across the pond in England and Norway, Kai Roer and Mo Amin, on an episode of their Security Culture TV! We chatted about how to get folks to be more aware of privacy risks, and how to change their mindset to a more privacy proactive stance. You can see this episode here.
When you look at recent breaches, it is clear that awareness of information security and privacy risks, and how to mitigate them, is not getting the attention necessary by leaders of organizations. Why else would (more…)
Tags:awareness, compliance training, cyber security awareness, cybersecurity, cybersecurity awareness, financial security training, FISMA, GLBA, healthcare security training, HIPAA, HIPAA security training, Information Security, information security awareness, information security training, Kai Roer, Mo Amin, PIA, privacy, privacy awareness, privacy impact assessment, privacy professor, Rebecca Herold, training
Posted in privacy, privacy impact assessment, Privacy Incidents | No Comments »
Wednesday, December 3rd, 2014
I 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…)
Tags:awareness, IBM, Information Security, information security risks, infosec, midmarket, privacy, privacy professor, privacy risks, privacyprof, Rebecca Herold, Verse
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
Saturday, November 29th, 2014
It is that time of the year again…time for prognostications about the year ahead!
I was asked to provide a few predictions for 2015. Based upon not only what I’ve seen in 2014, but also foreshadowing from the past two-three decades, here are some realistic possibilities. (more…)
Tags:2015 predictions, big data, big data analytics, breaches, Dell, FDA, FTC, HHS, HITECH, Information Security, information security risks, infosec, Internet of Things, IoT, personal health recordsHIPAA, personal information, PHR, policies, privacy, privacy breach, privacy information, privacy professor, privacy risks, privacyprof, procedures, Rebecca Herold, risks, sensitive information, sensitive personal data, training
Posted in Cybersecurity, privacy | No Comments »
Monday, November 24th, 2014
When 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…)
Tags:awareness, Cryptolocker, IBM, Information Security, information security risks, infosec, malware, midmarket, privacy, privacy professor, privacy risks, privacyprof, ransomware, Rebecca Herold, training
Posted in Information Security | No Comments »
Tuesday, November 4th, 2014
Earlier this year after a session I gave at a conference, an attendee who was new to information security, and had just been assigned this responsibility at a mid-sized organization in the healthcare industry, asked if he could visit with me for a while about risk management. Well, of course! During the course of our conversation I learned that he had gotten some very bad advice about risk management in general, and risk assessments in particular. I know from reading various comments throughout the social media discussion sites that bad advice is becoming far too common, with many (more…)
Tags:compliance, compliance documentation, documentation, HIPAA, Information Security, information security risks, infosec, midmarket, policies, privacy, privacy professor, privacy risks, privacyprof, procedures, Rebecca Herold, risk assessment, risk management, risks, SIMBUS, training
Posted in Information Security | No Comments »
Tuesday, October 21st, 2014
October 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…)
Tags:awareness, compliance, compliance documentation, documentation, HIPAA, IBM, Information Security, information security risks, infosec, midmarket, national cyber security awareness month, ncsam, policies, privacy, privacy professor, privacy risks, privacyprof, procedures, Rebecca Herold, SIMBUS, training
Posted in Information Security, Training & awareness | No Comments »
Tuesday, September 30th, 2014
Were you surprised to hear about the worker at the Chicago O’Hare airport last Friday? Certainly I was. Who would have ever thought someone working in the control center would light the hardware on fire, and then try to commit suicide? Unimaginable, right? However, what I was more surprised about was that there was no roll-over contingency operations center in place in the event something catastrophe took out the O’Hare operations center. After all, Chicago is in an area with a wide range of weather events, from blizzards and ice to severe storms and tornadoes, and everything in between. Not to mention that all airports are considered to be a target of a wide number of terrorist groups.
Just two days prior to the incident (more…)
Tags:BCP, business continuity, business resiliency, Chicago O’Hare, compliance documentation, data protection law, disaster recovery, documentation, DR, DR/BCP, facebook, IBM, Information Security, information security risks, infosec, marketing, midmarket, O’Hare fies, privacy, privacy law, privacy professor, privacy risks, privacyprof, Rebecca Herold, social media, twitter
Posted in Information Security | No Comments »
