WHO Declares H1N1 Pandemic - Now What?
By Bill Brenner, Senior Editor, CSO
On the physical side, private entities should be hammering out a game plan for who would do what and where if the government decided to restrict our movements to contain an outbreak, says Kevin Nixon, an emergency planning expert who has testified before Congress and served on infrastructure security boards and committees including the Disaster Recovery Workgroup for the Office of Homeland Security, and the Federal Trade Commission.
H1N1: Timeline of a Pandemic in the Making
By Kevin M. Nixon, Information-Security-Resources.com Security Editor
On April 29, 2009, Bill Brenner in his article for CSO Online, Swine Flu: To Fear is To Fail quoted FDR’s famous line “The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself.” The point: power is in the hands of those who hold knowledge, or simply knowledge is power.
Pandemics and Business: To Fear is to Fail
By CSO Senior Editor Bill Brenner
When the economy faltered last year, fear took over and made the recession deeper than it might have otherwise become. Bankers panicked and credit froze, making it nearly impossible for people to buy things and for companies to meet payroll. Before the Great Depression, during the Spanish Flu Pandemic of 1918-19, fear caused the government to downplay what was happening. The result was more panic and more death because citizens lacked advice that could have been helpful.
ISR News: SSI Numbers Breached
Excerpt from the Louisville News BizJournal
RBS WorldPay, a subsidiary of Citizens Financial Group Inc. said law enforcement agencies are investigating a Nov. 10 breach of the company’s cyber security. The breach affected the personal information of 1.5 million cardholders. Up to 1.1 million Social Security numbers could have been accessed, according to the company.
ISR News: 16,000 Katrina Records Posted
Excerpt from The Times-Picayune’s Gwen Filosa
FEMA has confirmed that an “unauthorized breach of private information” resulted in the information release of 16,857 names, Social Security and phone numbers, and other private details of people who had applied for benefits. The information was flashed on a pair of privately run Web sites, but for how long was unclear.
ISR News: “Paring Down” Security
Excerpt from CIO.com’s Jaikumar Vijayan
“The intensive projects that require a lot of capital outlay and work on the integration side are probably going to be throttled back,” Hochmuth said. He also expects companies to look more closely at integrating their security, networking and operations teams and reducing their staffing levels.
ISR News: Employee Arrested for ID Theft
Excerpt by the LA Time’s Alexandra Zavis
Hospitals’ increasing reliance on computerized record-keeping has provided new avenues for identity theft and invasions of medical privacy. As recently as May, a Glendale man was convicted of using the names of hundreds of Los Angeles County and city employees to submit fraudulent claims for diagnostic services amounting to more than a quarter-million dollars.
ISR News: Hackers Steal 22K SSI Numbers
Excerpt from ChronicleT.com’s Lisa Roberson
“Educational organizations accounted for nearly one-third of all U.S. data-breach incidents during the past three years, according to the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse. About 58 percent of college IT officials nationwide have dealt with at least one computer-security incident in the past year with the increase in cyber attacks on college campuses has dramatically increased between 2006 and 2007 with 67.5 percent more incidences being reported in just one year.”
U.S.Banks Vulnerable to Sabotage
Feature Article By Anthony M. Freed, ♦ ISR Financial Editor
2009 will prove to be the year that this systemic weakness comes to the forefront of politics and the news:
The United States is unprepared for a major hostile attack against vital computer networks, government and industry officials said Thursday after participating in a two-day “cyberwar” simulation.
“There isn’t a response or a game plan,” said senior vice president Mark Gerencser of the Booz Allen Hamilton consulting service, which ran the simulation.
Democratic U.S. Rep. James Langevin of Rhode Island, who chairs the homeland security subcommittee on cybersecurity, said: “We’re way behind where we need to be now.” Dire consequences of a successful attack could include failure of banking or national electrical systems, he said.
Cyber Security Tops 2009 Agenda
By Laura Wilson
“Last week, a group of outside experts recommended cybersecurity be moved from DHS — which “isn’t equipped to protect the federal government against cyberattacks” — to an office within the Obama White House. Many members of the Commission on Cyber Security for the 44th Presidency “felt that leaving any cyber function at DHS would doom that function to failure,” according to its recently-released 96-page report.” Security expert Bill Brenner of CIO.com
