Privacy and data protection

UK business fears impact of new EU data protection framework

More than half of senior UK IT managers in large enterprises believe the proposed new EU data protection framework will cost their business more money, a survey has revealed Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Eight UK universities awarded excellence in cyber security research status

The first eight UK universities have been awarded 'Academic Centre of Excellence in Cyber Security Research' status Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Fighting Economic Crime in the Financial Services sector

PwC examines the impact of Cybercrime on the financial services industry. Continue Reading

Warwickshire-based company to revamp data protection following breach

A Warwickshire-based company has committed to taking action to protect personal data, following a breach of the Data Protection Act Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Department for Work and Pensions outsources IT for universal credit welfare to India

The government is outsourcing IT development for the universal credit welfare programme to India despite promises to keep data projects in the UK Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Information management: lessons from the public sector

Freeform Dynamics identifies the lessons organisations can learn from the public sector's approach to information management Continue Reading

By

• Martha Bennett, Forrester Research Inc.

Half of education institutions victims of mobile IT theft

According to research, 45% of UK education establishments claim to have had mobile IT equipment stolen during the last three years. Continue Reading

By

• Kayleigh Bateman, Computer Weekly

UK hacktivist cases should spur business to action, says lawyer

The last of four alleged UK members of hacktivist group LulzSec has appeared in Westminster magistrates court in London Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

SourceForge takes down Anonymous operating system

The open-source collaboration website SourceForge has taken down an Ubuntu Linux OS project purportedly affiliated with online hactivist group Anonymous, after a review by security experts Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

BBC cyber attacks highlight difficulty of attribution

The BBC has said it is was targeted by cyber attacks following a campaign by Iran against its Persian service, but stopped short of accusing Tehran of ordering the cyber attacks Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Hackers expose weak security on Digital Playground porn site

A hacking group claims to have stolen the details of more than 70,000 users of the Digital Playground porn site Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

FBI informer Hector Xavier Monsegur aids in arrest of LulzSec hackers

Authorities in the US, UK and Republic of Ireland have arrested seven suspected members of hacktivist group LulzSec, including Hector Xavier Monsegur, who helped investigators Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Opinion: Is big data just big hype?

If the deluge of headlines and vendor marketing materials is anything to go by, big data is the next big thing. So how much is there really to all this big data talk? Continue Reading

By

• Martha Bennett, Forrester Research Inc.

2012 security outlook

This report, based on extensive research from chief information security officers, identifies the top 10 security imperatives for 2012. Continue Reading

RSA 2012: IT security experts urge enterprises to ban smartphone BYOD schemes

Enterprises should ban employees from using their own smartphones for work, a panel of IT security practitioners told the RSA Conference 2012 Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

IT departments risk losing responsibility for IT security

IT security professionals can no longer take it for granted that IT security will continue as part of the IT function Continue Reading

By

• Bill Goodwin, Computer Weekly

OSSIM update enables cyber threat intelligence sharing

The latest update to the Open Source Security Information Management (OSSIM) base system includes a mechanism for sharing cyber threat intelligence. Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Google bypassed IE too, says Microsoft

Microsoft has accused Google of bypassing the privacy settings of Internet Explorer users after Safari faux pas Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Trust and security in the cloud

Increasing interest from IT management in SaaS is focusing the spotlight once again on cloud security. This study investigates those concerns. Continue Reading

UK regulator PhonepayPlus fines Dutch typosquatting companies

UK phone regulator PhonepayPlus fines two Dutch firms £100,000 for exploiting well-known websites Wikipedia, Twitter and YouTube Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

President of European Parliament critical of Acta

After a weekend of public protests against the controversial Anti-Counterfeiting Agreement (Acta), the president of the European Parliament has added his voice to those of critcs. Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

UK to take part in weekend protests against Acta

Protests against the controversial Anti-Counterfeiting Agreement (Acta) have been organised across Europe, with most set to take place on 11 February. Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Global Disaster Recovery (DR) Index 2012

The Acronis Global Disaster Recovery (DR) index is an annual benchmark of businesses disaster recovery preparations worldwide. Continue Reading

FBI investigates Anonymous intercept of call with Scotland Yard

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is looking into how a conference call with Scotland Yard was intercepted by a member of the activist hacking group Anonymous. Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Fewer than a third of UK organisations plan mobile security projects

Despite the media hype around the adoption of mobile technologies and the need to secure them, relatively few UK organisations are planning mobile security projects, a survey has revealed Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

ICO fines Midlothian Council £140K for data breaches

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has imposed its highest penalty yet of £140,000 on Midlothian Council for breaching personal data Continue Reading

MEP quits as thousands protest ACTA signing

A European MP has resigned after thousands of people in Poland protested against the international anti-counterfeiting trade agreement (ACTA) Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

EC publishes proposed data protection reforms

European Justice Commissioner, Viviane Reding, has unveiled the new European data privacy framework that includes new regulation. Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Advocacy group La Quadrature du Net rallies opposition to ACTA

As controversial anti-piracy legislation stalls in the US, a European group of free internet supporters, La Quadrature du Net, calls for a halt to similar legislation in the European Union. Continue Reading

Accenture Technology Vision

Download this report from Accenture to discover the 6 IT technology trends that will impact CIOs in 2012. Continue Reading

Google mortified after staff access competitor's database

Google said it is mortified after people working on a project in Kenya were found to have stolen the details of a competitor’s customers and used them to sell its own products. Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Rupert Murdoch attacks Barack Obama over online piracy legislation

News Corp chief Rupert Murdoch has accused Barack Obama's administration of siding with "Silicon Valley paymasters" as two anti-piracy bills go through US Congress. Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

NHS Trust to appeal £375k data loss penalty

An NHS Trust is to appeal against a proposed monetary penalty of £375,000 after after patient records were stolen from a hospital and sold on eBay. Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Fighting fraud in government

Cybercrime has emerged as a growing threat to public sector organisations, this research from PwC reveals. Continue Reading

Ramnit worm steals 45,000 Facebook passwords

A computer worm has begun targeting Facebook accounts and has stolen at least 45,000 login credentials from users, say security researchers. Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

The cyber-savvy CEO and growing cyber threats

This report from PwC explains why CEOs need to take the lead in protecting their organisations from the surge in cyber attacks. Continue Reading

Hacktivists plan to use satellites to by-pass internet censorship

Hacker activists plan to launch communication satellites to overcome the threat of internet censorship. Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Emerging 2012 security trends demand information security policy changes

2012 security trends involving cookies, fines, devices and threats will demand more skills -- and a little finesse -- from security professionals. Continue Reading

By

• Ron Condon

How open data creates new opportunities for the UK

The use of open data could be a critical factor in determining the success or failure of the UK’s growth agenda this report from the business advisory firm Deloitte reveals. Continue Reading

Special report on EMC

This 8-page special report from Computer Weekly, packed with graphs and diagrams, is essential reading for anyone considering EMC as a supplier. Continue Reading

Cloud leaves many firewalls wanting – but could automation prove the silver bullet?

Most companies rely on firewalls, but the IT landscape is changing and so must approaches to security. Is there a silver bullet? Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Adobe to release out-of-cycle patch for latest vulnerability

Adobe has issued a security advisory about a newly discovered and still unpatched vulnerability in Adobe Reader and Adobe Acrobat which is being used in "limited, targeted attacks in the wild". Continue Reading

Concerned about tablet security issues? Some are, others not so much

Users love their tablets, but security pros are concerned about tablet security issues. However, though tablets bring new threats, not everyone is ringing the alarm. Continue Reading

By

• Ron Condon

One in four IT security staff abuse admin rights, survey shows

At least one in four IT security staff use their privileged login rights to look at confidential information, a survey has revealed. Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

United Nations Development Programme investigates hacking claims

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is investigating claims from hacker group Team Poison that it extracted over 100 e-mail addresses and login details belonging to UN staff. Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Bridging the information gap

The pace at which modern business tends to move has resulted in a situation where centralised decision-making struggles to keep up. Continue Reading

By

• Andrew Buss, IDC Manufacturing Insights

Forensics key to effective info security, says E&Y

Intelligence-led security strategies are the most effective in eliminating vulnerabilities and preventing IP theft through enabling informed change, says consultancy firm Ernst & Young. Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

IT security not always part of cloud decision, says IDC

Cloud adoption is outstripping security concerns, says Eric Domage, programme manager for IDC in Europe. Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

EDF fined £1.3m for hacking into Greenpeace computers

A Paris court has fined French energy firm EDF £1.3m for hacking into Greenpeace computers to find out about the environmental group’s plans to block four planned nuclear power plants in the UK. Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Analysis: Intelligence key to security business case

Information security is becoming an increasingly important part of any business as the value of information assets continually grow, as do the threats from cyber crime and espionage. Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

MoD calls on academics, industry and inventors to pitch cyber security ideas

The Ministry of Defence is calling for innovative solutions from academia and industry to protect and secure UK interests in cyberspace. Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Hague calls for collaboration to realise full potential of cyberspace

It is increasingly clear that countries with weak cyber defences and capabilities will find themselves at a serious strategic disadvantage given the rise of state-sponsored cyber attacks, according to foreign secretary William Hague. Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Japan may be facing sustained cyber attack

Japan's mapping agency is the latest in a series of government agencies to be targeted by hackers, raising fears that the breaches are part of a series of sustained attacks. Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Facebook admits to 600,000 cyber attacks a day

Facebook has revealed that every 24 hours it receives around 600,000 logins to the social networking website from impostors attempting to access users' messages, photos and other personal information. Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

UK security strategy draws on growing expertise across Whitehall

The UK's soon-to-be-released cyber security strategy includes input from policy makers across government, says Nigel Harrison of the Office of Cyber Security and Information Assurance (OCSIA). Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Hackers plan third attack on Sony

Hackers are planning a third attack on Sony in retaliation for its handling of the PlayStation Network and Online Entertainment services data breaches, according to US reports. Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Infosec 2011: Charity sector shows the way to balance budget and security

Tackling security project by project is an effective way of securing data on a limited budget, says Matt Holland, head of information security at children's charity NSPCC. Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

City of York falls foul of data protection act following printer mix-up

The City of York Council has fallen foul of the Data Protection Act after having accidentally disclosed personal data following a printer mix-up. Continue Reading

By

• Kathleen Hall, TechTarget

RSA discloses phishing-attack data breach details

RSA, the security division of EMC, has revealed the firm's data breach in mid March was the result of a spear phishing attack. The spear phishing attack exploited an Adobe Flash vulnerability that was unpatched at the time. Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Businesses spend over £600k a week on data security abroad

Companies are spending up to £624,000 a week to secure their most sensitive business data abroad, a study has revealed. Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Budget 2011: UK public worried spending cuts will impact data security

A large proportion of the UK public is worried that government spending cuts will have a negative effect on data security, a survey has revealed. Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Ban threat looms for Blackberry services as India demand corporate data access

India could block Research in Motion (RIM) from 31 March 2011 after government officials expressed dissatisfaction with access to Blackberry services. Continue Reading

By

• Jenny Williams, University of Gloucestershire

SMEs still lack data backup

Many small business lack data recovery plans, despite a recent uptake in cloud adoption, according to a survey. Continue Reading

By

• Kathleen Hall, TechTarget

Cybercriminals target data in transit

Cybercriminals are shifting away from basic "smash and grab" attacks targeting stored data to more complex methods of data harvesting in transit, security research reveals. Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Government departments criticised over data sharing mistake

Three government agencies have been criticised over a data sharing mistake that led to the wrongful disclosure of a woman's personal and financial information. Continue Reading

By

• Kathleen Hall, TechTarget

Gary McKinnon broke into 73,000 US government computers, Lords told

Self confessed British hacker Gary McKinnon, who is fighting extradition to the US, broke into more than 73,000 US government computers, including those of the US Army, Navy and Nasa, and deleted critical data, the House of Lords heard today. Continue Reading

By

• Ian Grant

What are the dangers of using Facebook, other social networking sites?

Ken Munro discusses the dangers associated with allowing employees to access social networking sites such as Facebook, and explains how corporations can avoid these risks by monitoring the information placed in employee profiles and using email filters. Continue Reading

By

• Ken Munro

San adoption cuts costs and power

Advanced storage driving datacentre area and energy consumption reduction Continue Reading

By

• Joe O’Halloran, Computer Weekly

Experts: Privacy and security officers living in silos

To better deal with the data breach threat, industry experts say security and privacy officers must break out of their silos and work as a team. Continue Reading

By

• Bill Brenner

Tackling the backup and recovery challenges of tomorrow

Your data backup and data recovery challenges never stop changing. In this videocast, an EMC executive and a storage analyst discuss the new approaches you'll need to solve tomorrow's backup and recovery challenges. Continue Reading

Cybercriminals employ toolkits in rising numbers to steal data

The market is increasing for crimeware toolkits that help cybercriminals avoid detection and exploit flaws, according to new research from security vendor, Finjan. Continue Reading

By

• Robert Westervelt, TechTarget

Data security breach at Pfizer affects thousands

A Pfizer employee removed files exposing 34,000 people to potential identity fraud, according to the company. It was the third data breach at the company in three months. Continue Reading

By

• SearchSecurity.com Staff

User performs data storage U-turn

U-Store-It, a national self-storage company, decentralized its data centers, migrated data from SAN to DAS and de-clustered Exchange to simplify storage management. Continue Reading

By

• Beth Pariseau, Senior News Writer

TJX profit takes hit over data breach

TJX says it has spent $256 million responding to the massive data breach that exposed 45 million customers to identity fraud, and the bottom line has suffered as a result. Continue Reading

By

• SearchSecurity.com Staff

VeriSign employee data exposed in laptop theft

Current and former employees of VeriSign were exposed to potential data fraud when a laptop housing their information was stolen from the car of a former employee. Continue Reading

By

• Bill Brenner

Attackers ultimately drive security market, analyst says

The security market is being driven by spam gangs, cyberthieves and other criminals bent on hacking into company and government databases to steal sensitive information. Continue Reading

By

• Robert Westervelt, TechTarget

Springing leaks: Getting smart about data loss prevention

Companies are showing increased interest in data loss prevention (DLP) products, but they won't work well unless the business needs are understood and well defined. Continue Reading

By

• Neil Roiter, TechTarget

Cisco fixes fresh flaws in IOS

Attackers could exploit two flaws in Cisco's IOS to cause a denial of service or tamper with data in a device file system. Continue Reading

By

• SearchSecurity.com Staff

Quiz: Preventing data leaks

A six-question multiple-choice quiz to test your understanding of the content presented by expert Richard Bejtlich in this lesson of SearchSecurity.com's Data Protection Security School. Continue Reading

Quiz: Enterprise strategies for protecting data at rest

A five-question multiple-choice quiz to test your understanding of the e-discovery content presented by expert Perry Carpenter in this lesson of SearchSecurity.com's Data Protection Security School. Continue Reading

Quiz: Demystifying data encryption

A five-question multiple-choice quiz to test your understanding of the data encryption content presented by expert Tom Bowers in this lesson of SearchSecurity.com's Data Protection Security School. Continue Reading

Apple fixes 25 Mac OS X flaws

Attackers could exploit about two dozen flaws in Mac OS X to cause a denial of service, bypass security restrictions, disclose sensitive data and run malicious code. Continue Reading

By

• SearchSecurity.com Staff

Architectural firm swaps online data backup service providers

As online data backup services take off, one early adopter slashed costs dramatically by switching to a newer service on the market. Continue Reading

By

• Beth Pariseau, Senior News Writer

Will data breach be the end of TJX?

This week in Security Blog Log: Industry experts say companies can learn from a data breach and even prosper from it. But is TJX following the right example? Continue Reading

By

• Senior News Writer Bill Brenner

What are some of the best practices for managing the growth of unstructured data?

It starts with corporate policies around data management... Continue Reading

Symantec: Data thieves thrive on zero-day flaws

According to Symantec's threat report for the second half of 2006, attackers exploited misplaced USB drives and zero-day flaws to steal vast amounts of data. Expect more of the same in 2007. Continue Reading

By

• Bill Brenner

Hacker techniques use Google to unearth sensitive data

Those who know where to look could use Google to dig up all sorts of sensitive company information, including intellectual property and passwords, one security expert warns. Continue Reading

By

• Bill Brenner

LexisNexis fights crime with storage

The document search company is offering a new data forensics service staffed by former federal agents and powered by commodity NAS. Continue Reading

By

• Beth Pariseau, Senior News Writer

What are some best practices for retaining data in a highly regulated business environment?

Have a good information retention policy. I see a lot of organizations where they retain backups or copies of databases, but they don't know why they're retaining it or for how long... Continue Reading

Data breach: If customers don't act, data will remain at risk

To make enterprises take data security seriously, customers must take control of their personally identifiable information and stop handing it out to businesses. Continue Reading

TJX data breach worse than initially feared

Hackers had access to a larger amount of customer data, TJX executives said in a statement. Continue Reading

By

• Dennis Fisher

Fortune 500 firm takes a crack at data classification

A life sciences company undertakes a data classification project with Abrevity and discovers the job is never done. Continue Reading

By

• Jo Maitland, TechTarget

Symantec chief: Consumer confidence in data protection is key to online growth

In his keynote at RSA Conference 2007, Symantec CEO John W. Thompson said Big Yellow is ready for the shifting dynamics in the information security market, and implied that Microsoft's growing presence in security is a conflict of interest for its customers. Continue Reading

By

• Rob Westervelt, News Editor

Gates touts secure access anywhere

Microsoft's chairman tells RSA Conference 2007 attendees that a combination of authentication and access management strategies is what it takes to protect corporate data, but information security pros are willing to wait for the proof. Continue Reading

By

• Michael Mimoso, TechTarget

TJX faces lawsuit over data breach

A class action lawsuit against TJX accuses the retailer of negligence for not doing enough to secure customer data and for keeping quiet about the breach for a month. Continue Reading

By

• Bill Brenner

IBM improves data recovery process for TSM users

Tivoli Storage Manager 5.4, released this week, establishes a disk cache for most recently backed-up files, improving the slow restore times associated with the product. Continue Reading

By

• Jo Maitland, TechTarget

TJX data breach info used to make fraudulent purchases

Fraudulent purchases have been reported globally, according to a trade association that represents more than 200 banks in Massachusetts. Continue Reading

By

• Robert Westervelt, TechTarget

Data breach at TJX could affect millions

Retailer TJX Companies said a hacker gained access to its systems exposing the credit card data of millions of customers. Continue Reading

By

• Robert Westervelt, TechTarget

TJX breach: There's no excuse to skip data encryption

Companies complain that database encryption products are too expensive and difficult to manage, but customer loss and breach notification costs outweigh encryption expenses. Continue Reading

Did TJX take the right steps after data breach?

Security experts are mixed on whether TJX acted properly following a massive data breach last month. One expert says potential victims should have been notified sooner. Continue Reading

By

• Bill Brenner and Robert Westervelt, SearchSecurity.com Staff