Data breach costs blamed on system failures

A new survey carried out by the Ponemon Institute analyzed data breach experiences of 38 UK companies from 13 different industry sectors. According to this survey, negligence the former primary source of data breaches has been replaced by system failures.

An increase of 13% in data breach costs means that UK organisations will pay £1.9 million or £71 per record. An average cost for these type of breaches cannot be estimated as it ranges from £36,000 to £6.2 million.

The survey also showed 29% of all data breaches are caused by malicious or criminal attacks. This is an increase of 7% in 2010 from the previous year. Read more

Data breaches caused by storage device theft hit again

Printed, stored on computers or on flash drives, your data is just not safe. Your personal details that you entrust to companies you work with, doctors and other third parties will just end up exposed. If you are lucky enough, they might get in the hands of someone who won’t use your address, social security number or card details to harm you on their quest to get fast and easy money. If you’re unlucky, your accounts will just turn empty one day, your identity will be used to commit felonies or crimes and you will have years of paperwork and bad credit records in front of you.

Let’s check the recent data breach news. We have a stolen computer that contained names, ages, addresses and medical conditions of 700 children. Next come rushing in: backup tapes and other media containing cord blood bank customer information stolen from car, which ended up exposing about 300,000 records; and 113 patients’ names and Medicare numbers on a document stolen from a vehicle… Read more

Former employee gets home detention for breaching employer email system

Inside threat is kicking and screaming and far from being gone from the corporate security world. Upset over being fired, a Californian woman breached the email system of her former employer and posted confidential documents to public websites. She got caught and the sentence was 60 days of home detention plus  ayear of probation for the one count of felony computer intrusion that 44 year old Ming Shao pleaded guilty to.

In her plea, the woman admitted to a value of the stolen information belonging to PanTerra Networks(which included a Weekly Ops Report) ranging between 10,000 and 30,000 US dollars. She admitted to have breached the PanTerra network and exposing the confidential files as a form of revenge for being fired in August 2009. Read more

UK government gets tough on cyber crime

The UK government decided to invest £63 million in fighting against cyber crime for the next four years. This is but a part of the  £650 million funding allotted to national cyber security, according to recent reports. Home secretary Theresa May, has revealed the amount at an informal meeting with the interior ministers of France, Germany, Italy, Poland and Spain, said a report on eGov monitor.

The Strategic Defence and Security Review last October marks the point when the UK government first stated its intention to get tough on cyber crime. Downing Street pledged a further £500 million to a national cyber security program despite having decided to cut budget in other areas. Read more

Insiders, frequent source of corporate fraud incidents

Employee perpetrated fraud has lost the average company about 5% of it’s revenue in the year 2009, the stealing of company sources representing up to 90% percent of the incidents. Employees tend to be tempted by privileged access to data and commit fraud. According to a report published by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) this type of fraud is the most damaging, causing a loss over $4 million.

“They have a high level of access, which gives them a greater opportunity to commit fraud,” Ben Knieff, director of product marketing for fraud products at Actimize said.

In order to prevent such fraud there are a few proactive steps a company can take: Read more

Accomack county laptop stolen on employee’s trip to Vegas

What’s stolen in Vegas stays in Vegas?

35,000 county residents found out that their private information might be in jeopardy as an Accomack County Virginia employee had a county-owned laptop stolen while being on holiday in Las Vegas. Besides personal information such as names and social security numbers, the files on the stolen computer might contain tax payer information and actual addresses.

The incident took place on October 7 and was reported to the media after seven days. The warning came with apologies as the laptop in question was apparently taken without permission by the employee.  A closed meeting held by the Board of Supervisors regarding this issue was held on Wednesday. Read more

Endpoint Protector 2009 for Mac Introduces File Tracing for Portable Devices

If you’re a Mac fan and also into device control, endpoint security or data loss prevention, you know there aren’t many solutions covering this specific area for Mac / Apple operating systems. One of the only solutions with a client dedicated to Mac is Endpoint Protector 2009, developed by CoSoSys. The Endpoint Protector 2009 Mac device control application has just been released in a new version, now including File Tracing for portable devices and offline temporary passwords.

The newly introduced features are designed to increase protection for business confidential data and to offer road warriors a way to stay active and productive when a permanent Internet connection is unavailable. Moreover, the carried data is kept safe from the common threats posted by improper usage of portable storage devices that often leads to severe security breaches. When enabled, the File Tracing feature logs all data and file related activity and stores it for later auditing. Each time an employee edits, deletes or renames a certain file originating from or subsequently copied to a portable device, his actions are recorded, along with his user credentials and the device specifications. Read more

Cyber gangs are taking over – street gangs will become obsolete

Cyber gangs appear to be one step ahead of e-crime experts.

UK Metropolitan police commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson, has stated that he believes police officers trained to fight against the growing number of cyber criminals are as vital as uniformed officers in the streets. In a letter to “The Sunday Telegraph” he outlines his beliefs that cutting back -office staff in favor of more street officers is wrong.

“Online fraud generated £52bn worldwide in 2007 – a staggering sum. There is a significant fight back by the financial institutions, working with police. In the Met, we play our part in a ‘Virtual Task Force’,” he said. Read more

How to Stop Conficker/Stuxnet in four easy steps – Advisory by CoSoSys

As some of you may know, the Stuxnet worm (and Conficker) has been running amok on both private and corporate networks. The malware spreading via USB devices is always the source of new threats. The latest development of Stuxnet exploits zero day vulnerabilities to target supervisory control firms and data acquisition (Scada) and other industrial systems. Such systems are being used to control pipelines’ pressure or motor work rates on industrial factory floors. Typical environments can be oil pipelines and power-plants, factories etc.

Conficker/Stuxnet detects platforms with Scada systems installed on and uses Windows vulnerabilities to gain access and spread through the network. In the light of current events and the continuous spread of the worm through USB ports and USB portable devices, endpoint security and data loss prevention solution developer CoSoSys has created a four-step strategy against Stuxnet that’s extremely easy to implement: Read more

CoSoSys offers enterprise level security via iPad and iPhone apps

Keeping your company or home computer network safe from day to day threats that could lead to data theft, data loss, identity theft or malware infections has never been easier. My Endpoint Protector, software as a service device control and data security solution developed by CoSoSys, is now offering an app version available for iPads, iPhones and iPod touch devices through the iTunes store.

With a few touches, you can use the app’s centralized console to authorize new devices, monitor file transfers and access to sensitive data and block portable devices, making sure all common threats are kept at bay. In a world where the unsecured use of portable storageand lifestyle devices – smartphones, notebooks, USB sticks, digital cameras or extern HDDs – can lead to tremendous data breaches and severe losses for both companies and individuals, having a smart and effective app at your fingertips preventing it all is extremely important. Read more