Author: admini

CSI/FBI: Small Firms Pay Big For Security

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Training, in particular, shows the greatest economies of scale: It costs companies of $1 billion or more just $18 per year to train their employees in IT security; that same training costs $318 per year in companies of under $10 million. The data might be something of a vindication for smaller companies, which have come under fire recently for moving too slowly in the deployment of security tools and standards such as the Payment Card Industry’s Data Security Standard.

Some 47 percent of respondents now are allocating less than 3 percent of their total IT budget to security, which compares to 35 percent in last year’s survey, according to the study. By contrast, 34 percent are now allocating more than 5 percent of their budgets to security –up from 27 percent last year.

http://www.darkreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=97818&WT.svl=news1_1

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Study: Most Technology Companies Have Data Losses

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Of the firms surveyed, only 4 percent said their employers are doing enough to address the issue, and just 20 percent of respondents said that they feel confident that their companies’ intellectual property is being sufficiently safeguarded.

Some 24 percent of interviewees said that the security tools they have installed are being used effectively.

While phishing schemes continue to pose a major threat to companies’ customer information and brand reputations, only 18 percent of those executives surveyed said that their firms have employed technologies aimed at preventing the attacks.

Deloitte said that 37 percent of the companies it interviewed have provided additional security training to their employees within the last 12 months.

While 74 percent of survey respondents said that they expect to spend more time and money on improving security in 2006, the average budget increase among those companies was only 9 percent.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/zd/20060621/tc_zd/181598

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Tech Giants Form Consumer Privacy Rights Forum

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The Legislative Forum makes it clear that the national standard it envisions would preempt state laws. For that reason, “a robust framework is warranted,” it said.

Some privacy advocates worry that preemption of state laws might constitute an end-run around the more stringent — and to many companies, quite onerous — privacy protections that are already in place in states such as California. Now, the few pieces from California’s original legislation that were allowed to go into effect — the ability of consumers to request a credit freeze for example — are in danger of being replaced with far weaker national legislation currently under consideration.

http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/51272.html

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Research Predicts Security Spending Slowdown

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However, while 7 percent of those surveyed for the report said they hope to eliminate the need for stand-alone security products altogether by using on such tools, only 16 percent said they actually plan to buy fewer products, with 22 percent holding out for price concessions from vendors before making additional purchases.

“[The] key will be for vendors to anticipate new security needs with extended or newer offerings.”

However, the report said some types of security applications, such as anti-virus software, firewalls and VPNs, will become increasingly commoditized, putting pressure on stand-alone vendors of the technologies as demand decreases. Bob Egner, vice president of product management at Pointsec Mobile Technologies, which markets software used to encrypt data on desktops, laptops and mobile devices, said demand for the company’s applications is not slowing, but rather becoming more consistent.

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1979225,00.asp?kc=EWRSS03119TX1K0000594

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Encryption can save data in laptop lapses

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“It is shocking how many of these are stolen laptops and that fact that the users of the laptops did not use encryption to secure the data,” Beth Givens, director of the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, said of recent data losses. If thieves read the newspaper, they can readily figure out that they have got more than just a piece of hardware.”

Since June 2005, there have been at least 29 known cases of misplaced or stolen laptops with data such as Social Security numbers, health records and addresses of millions of people, according to the Privacy Rights Clearing House, a San Diego-based nonprofit that tracks data thefts. So far, there is no evidence the stolen data were used for identity theft or other nefarious purposes. Hospitals, universities, consulting firms, banks, health insurers and even a YMCA have lost personal data.

The portable computers are usually protected by passwords needed to boot them up, but the data on their drives are still accessible.

Ernst & Young, which has 30,000 laptops used by its highly mobile staff of consultants, is encrypting all contents on the computers, according to company spokesman Charlie Perkins.

In several cases, laptops were lost or stolen when employees violated company rules by leaving them in parked cars or in their homes.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/1700AP_Laptops_Security.html

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