Human Error Leads to 3rd Strike for Sony
Posted In Financial, Financial, Information Privacy, Information Security, Validations on May 25th, 2011 Tags: Application Security, human error, Playstation Breach, security awareness training, Sony
Strike 1: The first incident occurred on April 26th, when SONY announced personal information had been compromised on their PlayStation Network exposing the personal information of 77 million users.
Strike 2: One week later, a second security breach occurred on a different SONY network compromising 24.6 million users.
Strike 3: A third incident took place with the leakage of 2500 users’ names and addresses. SONY admitted that this breach was due to human error on the part of their system management team.
In a recent study from Application Security and Unisphere Research, more than 50% of the respondents felt that human error (or malicious insiders) were the biggest risks to an organization’s security. Two-thirds of organizations experiencing a data breach in 2011 have reported it was either from human error or an insider attack.
Lessons learned continue to show:
- It is critical for organizations to be more proactive and implement ongoing processes. Reacting to breach incidents is much more expensive than preventing breaches.
- Organizations must conduct periodic routine checks on their systems AND their people AND their third-parties.
- Organizations who are unable to measure situational awareness at the individual level will continue to suffer expensive breaches. All individuals need to understand their individual roles and responsibilities for protecting sensitive and personal information.
- Once-a-year general training is not enough as the risks and threats to our information are constantly evolving.
Sony struck out this month…is your organization going to bat with situational awareness and accountability and ready to adapt to pitches coming your way?
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The Payback of Compliance: Organizations Save When They Focus on Security
Posted In Information Privacy, Information Security, Regulatory Compliance on May 3rd, 2011 Tags: Compliance, Ponemon, Security
A review of security practices and investments at 46 global organizations finds that compliance with industry security standards actually saves money over the long-term. A recent Ponemon Study revealed that companies that consistently comply with security requirements and standards save three times more in security-related expenses annually than non-compliant companies.
Lessons Learned: Compliance does not equal security, but security can benefit from compliance. Organizations investing in comprehensive compliance programs are better prepared to prevent expensive breaches, lawsuits, fines, etc. and save money and resources over time.
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Consumer Awareness/Education…Potential Competitive Advantage for Banks?
Posted In Financial, Human Resources, Information Privacy, Information Security, Regulatory Compliance, Risk Management, Validations on May 3rd, 2011 Tags: consumer awareness training, Phishing, Security Awareness, spear phishing
Recent attacks continue to show that spear phishing is quickly emerging as one of the society’s greatest threats. Technology alone is NOT going to solve this problem. It is critical for consumers to be more vigilant and aware of what they are clicking on, sites they are visiting, e-mails they are responding to, etc.
Lessons Learned: Financial insitutions should make consumer education a higher priority. Awareness training, handouts, seminars, etc. can be a great way for organizations to connect with their customers, improve trust, enhance reputations and help prevent potential incidents, breaches, lawsuits, etc. down the road. Security awareness training and education can become a competitive advantage for those institutions willing to lead the way.
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The Payback of Compliance: Organizations Save When They Focus on Security
Posted In Financial, Information Security, Research on May 3rd, 2011 Tags: Compliance, Ponemon, Security
A review of security practices and investments at 46 global organizations finds that compliance with industry security standards actually saves money over the long-term. A recent Ponemon Study revealed that companies that consistently comply with security requirements and standards save three times more in security-related expenses annually than non-compliant companies.
Lessons Learned: Compliance does not equal security, but security can benefit from compliance. Organizations investing in comprehensive compliance programs are better prepared to prevent expensive breaches, lawsuits, fines, etc. and save money and resources over time.
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‘Tricked’ RSA Worker Opened Backdoor to APT Attack
Posted In Business Continuity, Information Privacy, Information Security on May 3rd, 2011 Tags: Human Factors, Phishing, RSA, RSA breach, Security Awareness
A targeted phishing e-mail with the subject line “2011 Recruitment Plan” tricked an RSA employee to open a document attached to an e-mail. The document contained a virus that led to a sophisticated attack on RSA’s information systems.
Lessons Learned: Are your employees aware of changing and more sophisticated risks? Does your organization update employees with situational awareness as more and more attacks target your employees? All employees must understand their individual roles and responsibilities for protecting sensitive information. Organizations need to implement comprehensive and ongoing awareness programs to ensure all individuals understand changing risks, threats, best practices, etc.
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State Attorneys Generals Trained to File Federal Civil Lawsuits
Posted In Health Care, Information Privacy, Information Security, Regulatory Compliance on April 19th, 2011 Tags: HIPAA, HIPAA compliance, HIPAA Violations, HITECH
OCR is offering HIPAA Enforcement Training to help State Attorneys General enforce the HIPAA Privacy and Security Rules and file federal civil lawsuits for HIPAA violations.
Lessons Learned: HHS and OCR are serious about Privacy and Security in Health Care. Policies and procedures play a critical role in an organization’s culture of privacy and security and need to be updated as requirements, risks, regulations, etc. change. Health care organizations will need to conduct internal audits and assessments rather than waiting for the OCR or AGs to arrive. All employees and business associates must understand how to safely handle patient information and maintain a culture of privacy and security.
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Health Net Breach Exposes 1.9 Million Records
Posted In Health Care, Information Privacy, Information Security, Regulatory Compliance, Validations on April 19th, 2011 Tags: Health Net, HIPAA compliance
Health Net exposed as many as 1.9 million customer records in a breach after its IT vendor misplaced nine server drives. This is the second breach in two years for Health Net when a portable hard drive containing medical and financial information on 1.5 million customers disappeared from a facility in Connecticut.
Lessons Learned: Technology is not the problem..People are the weak link and the solution. Devices are often lost and misplaced due to People not being aware of or not being accountable for the policies and procedures that have been put in place by the organizational responsible for protecting customer information. Organizations must ensure all appropriate personnel, including business associates, third-party vendors and contractors, are aware of and have acknowledged their accountability for appropriate policies and procedures and requirements for protecting sensitive patient data.
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CVS Whistleblower Gets $2.6M and Pays Government $17.5M for Overbilling
Posted In Health Care, Incident Reporting, Information Privacy, Information Security, Risk Management, Validations on April 19th, 2011 Tags: CVS Caremark, Incident Reporting, Medicaid, whistleblower
CVS Caremark Corp has agreed to pay $17.5 million to resolve claims that it overbilled Medicaid. The case was brought to the Justice Department by a whistleblower in Minnesota, who will receive $2.6 million.
Which makes more sense to you and your bottom line? A) Having employees report illegal and unethical situations internally so your organization can address situations and document them for legal and CYA purposes or B) having employees report illegal and unethical situations to the federal government and then dealing with expensive multi-million dollar fines, spending time and money and resources on repairing reputations and having the whistleblower get paid millions too?
Lessons Learned: Now that the federal government is paying whistleblowers and now that we also have Wikileaks and other public web sites to report to, organizations need to make sure they have a more holistic and comprehensive platform to connect all the dots internally with documentation to prove that your organization can receive tips, investigates tips, takes appropriate actions, alleviates future concerns and documents the entire process.
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OCR Requests More Funding for HIPAA Enforcement
Posted In Health Care, Information Privacy, Information Security, Regulatory Compliance on April 18th, 2011 Tags: HHS Office for Civil Rights, HIPAA, HITECH, Information Privacy
The HHS Office for Civil Rights is asking for $46.7 million in funding, an increase of $5.6 million over the current level. 76 percent of the new funds will be for increased enforcement of health information privacy and security rules.
Lessons Learned: Increased enforcement of existing and new regulatory requirements are on the way. Is your organization prepared and meeting all compliance requirements for HIPAA/HITECH or are you willing to take your chances? Based on numerous other lessons learned stories in this blog (search the Lessons Learned Blog for your sector or other keywords), getting your compliance program in shape sooner than later makes a lot of sense.
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286 Million New Threats in 2010
Posted In Financial, Financial, Health Care, Health Care, Information Privacy, Information Security on April 18th, 2011 Tags: internet security, Security Awareness, Symantec
According to Symantec’s Internet Security Threat Report, there were 286 million new threats in 2010 which equals an average of about 783,561 new threats per day. The report also points to dramatic increases in both frequency and sophistication of targeted attacks and continued growth of social networking sites to distribute attacks.
Lessons learned: Your people are under attack…how is your organization keeping your people up to date on new attacks and new threats?
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