December 09

Blog Update: A Cost-Based Analysis of User Effort in Security!
Looking at the cost analysis comparing the price of end user time to the actual losses, it's clear that many of the basic traditional wisdoms surrounding daily web usage are a huge hassle with little payoff. In other words, the average user would spend far more time attempting to maintain strong passwords and check every URL and SSL certificate than he/she is likely to lose by failing to do so. The article goes much deeper into the math leading to those conclusions, but it's not necessary to whip out a calculator to know he's right. Read full post

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Recent Breach Headline: Security breach compromises information on 1,400
A security breach discovered last month at the University of Nebraska involved the names, addresses and Social Security numbers of 1,400 Hinsdale High School District 86 graduates. The university's investigation revealed the computer had not been adequately secured. Read More

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IT Security In the News: Many More Government Records Compromised in 2009 than Year Ago, Report Claims
From GovernmentTechnology.com
If you're bummed about the data in your department that just got breached, you have some cold comfort. Although the combined number of reported data breaches in the government and the military has dropped in 2009 compared to last year, many more records were compromised in those breaches, according to recent figures compiled by a California nonprofit.

As of Tuesday, Dec. 1., the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC) reported 82 breaches in U.S. government and military organizations. Although the year isn't over, that's fewer than the 110 that occurred in 2008.

But here's the catch: The breaches so far in 2009 have compromised more than 79 million records, whereas fewer than 3 million were hacked in 2008. A sobering upswing, to say the least.
Read entire article

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