Top Tips to be GRC-Ready in 2011

According to industry experts, 2011 is the year when IT firms will realize that expensive risk management and compliance solutions may not provide the desired levels of security. Integration and alignment of disparate compliance initiatives for enhanced security controls will therefore assume immense importance. Chris Mclean, Forrester research analyst, in his report Governance, Risk and…

Federal Health Care Reform- What they Mean to Public CIOs

The technological implications of the Federal Health Care Reform are now becoming obvious, and states are beginning to confront the burden of implementing these changes. While extending health insurance to an additional 32 million Americans presents great opportunities for the state government, it also brings with it, big risks. And these risks are mainly associated…

Vulnerability Management: Secured IT, Assured Success

According to GartnerG2 (now Gartner Industry Advisory Services) a research unit of Gartner, 90% of cyber attacks leverage known security flaws and vulnerabilities, for which patches are already available. Gartner analysts also believe that several security attacks could have been avoided if organizations had focused more on vulnerability management efforts. Effective vulnerability management is therefore…

7 Facilities in California Fined for Privacy Breaches

Privacy protection is a growing concern for organizations despite stringent laws governing data security. Medical institutions especially are experiencing challenges in safeguarding patient information. A number of data breaches have been reported in the HIPAA healthcare industry so far. And the most recent addition to this is six hospitals and a nursing home being fined…

A Wake-Up Call for IT Security: Are Your Compliance Practices Fit for the Test?

The present IT environment is complex in nature, and much more than a handful of technical people operating and controlling systems with a few virus prevention tools. The complexity has increased manifold with a growing number of security threats being identified everyday. The security of confidential data is under question with potential risks from malicious…

Best Practices for Threat management

‘Cyber security threats’ is now the core topic of discussion amongst enterprises and will continue to be in the coming years. This is because security concerns have assumed unimaginable dimensions in the past years, posing a major challenge to the survival of businesses. Hence enterprises are now focusing more on curbing threats and making their…

Is Your File Data at Risk?

According to market analyst firm IDC, file data accounts for nearly 80% of business data and has been growing at a rate of 60% every year. With such overwhelming growth in the volume of sensitive data files, persistent insider threats and complex regulatory mandates for data protection, there is immense pressure on organizations to secure…

AG’s Office Scores Settlement for Unparalleled Security Breach: First of its Kind

The first action by a state Attorney General for violation of HIPAA (after HITECH authorized State Attorneys General to enforce HIPAA) has resulted in an unprecedented money settlement with the AG’s office. The case involved unreported loss of a compact disk by Health Net containing private medical records, social security numbers and financial information. While…

New Security Standard for SMBs to Protect Cardholder Information

You must have read the news about a new security standard for SMBs- Visa changes rules for SMBs: be PCI DSS compliant or face penalties– Primarily focusing on safeguarding customers_blank’ confidential data after making payment using a credit card, this new security standard requires SMBs accepting credit/ debit card payments to enroll into the PCI…