data security

One of the most frightening things that can happen to a person is to lose the data off of their hard drive. Many of us store personal and business information on our computers. The thought of losing data due to a crashed or failed hard drive or perhaps a breach of data security sends chills down the spine of every grown man and woman. Once you except that you did not back up your data you need beg

SC Magazine, October 29, 2008 - The statement by the Information Commissioners Office has been met with praise from the industry. The security sector was quick to welcome the opinions of Richard Thomas, and saw that his pro-active measures were for the benefit of companies and the general public. Chris Mayers, chief security architect at Citrix, said: “The Information Commissi

According to Thales, the French aerospace, defense, and security company, more than thirty percent of companies surveyed do not know whether they will protect their back up tapes with encryption.  Plus, it was found that backup tape encryption pretty much came in last when it comes to data encryption -- much further behind than data protection solutions like full disk encryption and file encr

According to the first data loss survey Symantec has run in Australia, 80 percent of local companies had at least one data breach in the past five years, and 40 percent had between six and twenty breaches in the same period.  Furthermore, 59 percent of businesses think they may have had a data breach they are not aware of.  The leading form of data protection is encryption, probably eith

One of the leading providers of data security solutions, PKWARE unleashed its latest version of SecureZIP 12.2, which adds a new dimension of security with advanced features that not only help manage your data but also help you keep your data confidential and secure.SecureZIP gives you a host of tools to create and manage ZIP files and other types of archives and includes the PKZIP Self-Extractor,

Backing-up your photos is definitely important, but more important is getting in the habit of doing so. As time goes on and our skills increase, we tend to take more photos. Cameras keep getting bigger and pumping out more pixels too. I recently wrote about my exponential photo collection, and this illustrates what I’m talking about. If you don’t have good habits with your backups right now, y

Over a network different types of information are transferred. Have you ever thought which layer deals with formatting and syntax checking of these information. As discussed in my earlier article... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

Gauss's law for magnetism talks about net flux for an open and closed system. Degaussing process is named after this pioneer of magnetism. It is an act of minimizing the magnetic field of media. ... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) and Visa will host a free online seminar titled Data Security Best Practices for Small Merchants on Wednesday, July 30th, 2008, at 2:00 pm Central time.

While the details are sparse, due to the number of people affected, I get the feeling that Sealaska Corporation may have lost a computer or some other digital device that could have benefited from the use of encryption software like AlertBoot.  Why am I postulating this?  And if my hypothesis is correct, could data protection solutions like disk encryption or file encryption done anythin

Or at least, that’s the message I’m taking from an entry at pogowasright.org.  Ebara Technologies had recently filed a letter with the New Hampshire AG’s office, alerting them that one of their vendors had suffered a security breach.  A further follow up with by Pogo had a spokesperson confirm that the vendor was Colt Express, recently mentioned in this blog due to the CNet inciden

CRYPTOCard insuring data security for Missouri company Ottawa Business Journal, May 27, 2008 - CRYPTOCard has won a deal with Missouri's Kansas City Life Insurance Company. The Ottawa-based maker of two-factor authentication technology said KCLI had selected CRYPTOShield to protect its data as the insurance company's employees access the information remotely. KCLI said it selected

One of the first things you hear about offshoring is that it would increase the potential for data theft. Let us assess this perception in a common sense way. When we talk about any "increase" we have to say compared to what. In this case the CPA has to assess the data security for on-shore operations before he can assess the increased risk posed by offshoring. What is the typical level of data security in a small business or a CPA office? Since there are few staff members, there is little separation of duties. Such lack of separation encourages internal security problems. The data resides in paper files. Paper files are vulnerable to fire and water damage. The office is not physically secure. Staff members, leasing office personnel, and janitors have keys to the office. Any of them can co

Generally, you are required to protect personal information stored on your website's server by implementing reasonable and appropriate data security measures. If you fail regarding this general requirement, you will be subject to claims from website visitors whose information has been compromised. In addition, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) continues to aggressively file suits for security

Google described on Tuesday how it secures the mountains of data that it handles every day, saying that it has highly automated processes and employs the best and brightest in Web security. On the Official Google Blog, Douglas Merrill, a vice president of engineering, spelled out the company’s philosophy, processes, and technology that the company employs [...]

Customer Data Exposed - Delhaize-owned Hannaford Bros and Sweetbay grocery store chains announced on Monday that a computer hacker stole its customers' debit and credit card numbers and expiration dates. About 4.2 million cards were affected, and 1,800 cases of fraud have been linked to the breach so far, including use of the card data in Houston, Detroit, San Francisco, France, and Brazil. (Reuters). Recent Security Breaches Involving Other Merchants - This is the latest of numerous security lapses in the last few years involving exposure of private consumer information, including several lapses by retailers or consumer goods companies. On March 3, 2008, for example, Kraft reported the theft of a company laptop containing 20,000 names and possibly social security numbers of employees. On

Viet Nam will organize an international conference and showcase christened Security World 2008, the biggest of its kind, with the participation of 30 prestigious speakers and over 20 well-known information technology companies from March 19-20, organizers said Friday. During the event themed "Strengthening Security Awareness and Deployment" and held by the General Department of Technology

By Ken Steinberg The Nature of Data Everything stored on your computer can be divided into exactly two categories: applications and data. Applications do the work and data is what they work on. Data is by far the more valuable. A case can be made for the value of individual applications, but in reality it is the algorithms they employ, not the applications themselves, which are valuable. Most business people and technology professionals will agree: data is king. Whether in government, banking, telecommunications, medical imaging, manufacturing process control or transportation the secure use of electronic data is the lifeblood of a global economy. Data can be further divided into two very distinct categories: inward facing and outward facing. Inward facing data is that information, often proprietary in nature that allows a company to produce its goods and services. This data is used internally by employees and the company’s various business components. Efforts are made to ensur

Of course, it doesn’t mean that you can’t use both (or that using both is not recommended).  But encrypting an entire laptop’s hard drive holds an ace over individual file encryption: convenient, one-stop security.   Once a computer’s entire disk is encrypted, the only thing the end user has to do is remember the username and password required to access the laptop.   This process is identical to typing the username and password in order to gain access into Windows, if the login prompt is set up.  But unlike the Windows prompt, encryption provides security, whereas the Windows prompt just provides the sense of security.  You can think of encryption as a Jumble word puzzle with a shot of testosterone (strong enough that even the US Government uses it to safeguard their own documents if they decide to use encryption, which is not as often as you’d think, based on the news), whereas the ordinary Windows username and password is the gray, silver laye

  "Saving money and being PCI-compliant is important to us, but equally important is protecting ourselves against intruders. Even though we have some breathing room with PCI, we are still vulnerable with WEP as our security key. It must be a risk we are willing to take for the sake of saving money and hoping [emphasis added] we do not get compromised."  This is a quote attributed to a member of the IT staff at TJX.  (The only source seems to be eWeek.  I’ve tried finding the original court filings but was unable to dig them up, and I cannot find anyone else making mention of it.)  Supposedly, this was in response to several money-saving options that the CIO had suggested for keeping their budget in check:  “I think we have an opportunity to defer some spending from FY'07's budget by removing the money for the WPA upgrade, but would want us all to agree that the risks are small or negligible.” (Also from eWeek)  In this l

Pointsec solutions continue to lead the market in key certifications, ensuring customers benefit from the strictest data encryption standards REDWOOD CITY, CALIF., – July 16, 2007 – Check Point® Software Technologies Ltd. (Nasdaq: CHKP), the worldwide leader in securing the Internet, today announced that Pointsec Protector®, as well as a new, optimized cryptographic module utilized in [...]

Pointsec solutions continue to lead the market in key certifications, ensuring customers benefit from the strictest data encryption standardsREDWOOD CITY, CALIF., – July 16, 2007 – Check Point® Software Technologies Ltd. (Nasdaq: CHKP), the worldwide leader in securing the Internet, today announced that Pointsec Protector®, as well as a new, optimized cryptographic module utilized in Pointse

Check Point Data Security Products Now Support Windows Vista™ Large organizations deploying Windows Vista can now protect sensitive data with leading Pointsec encryption technologies REDWOOD CITY, CALIF. – July 9, 2007 – Check Point® Software Technologies Ltd. (Nasdaq: CHKP), the worldwide leader in securing the Internet, today announced that Pointsec PC 6.2, a full-disk encryption solution for [...]

Check Point Data Security Products Now Support Windows Vista™Large organizations deploying Windows Vista can now protect sensitive data with leading Pointsec encryption technologiesREDWOOD CITY, CALIF. – July 9, 2007 – Check Point® Software Technologies Ltd. (Nasdaq: CHKP), the worldwide leader in securing the Internet, today announced that Pointsec PC 6.2, a full-disk encryption solution f

Steganos LockNote is one of the simplest and most effective ways of securing data, file, serial numbers, passwords, phone numbers and everything you want to secure. You just need one password to open this aplication, very simple, safe and fun. download here FREE DATA SECURITY

Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security StandardDue to the increase in identity theft and fraud the Credit Card associations (VISA, MasterCard, American Express and Discover) have established the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) for merchants. PCI compliance lists the requirements to ensure that credit card payment transaction details information and cardholder data is protected against theft and identity abuse leading to financial theft. All merchants who accept, process, or store credit card data are required to become PCI compliant by July 31, 2007, and verify this compliance.The consequence of not verifying compliance includes:finesexpensive recovery costsand/or the loss of a merchant’s ability to accept credit card transactions.Compliance with these requirements will increase consumer confidence while reducing identity theft and fraud.VirtualTrak Technologies has partnered with Hacker Safe’s Scan Alert who will provide this compliance service to Virtual

The Defense Department is spending $2.5 billion on information assurance in fiscal 2007, and a good portion of those funds are to ensure the military can share data safely and more easily with the intelligence community. Grimes said “We are under attack 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and we are [...]