The public and private sectors have been increasingly under assault by hackers looking to take information–whether for espionage, blackmail, or profit. And while some of the past few years’ high-profile government and industrial attacks have been at the center of many cybersecurity stories, the reality is that hacks in the retail and consumer spaces have… Read More
The newest version of PCI DSS (4.0) is out, and companies are asking about the new requirements. Some of these requirements apply to PCI DSS encryption, and while there are changes, many of the standards of 3.2.1 are still the lay of the land. Learn more about PCI DSS encryption and how it’s shifting in… Read More
We’ve covered several areas regarding data privacy and security. These discussions have covered private security frameworks, government-enforced regulations, and guidelines shoring up IT security for federal and national defense agencies and contractors. Another area of security and data privacy is law enforcement. Unsurprisingly, law enforcement and other national security agencies would handle private information, and… Read More
Protecting patient information is a crucial and necessary part of healthcare… but so is communicating effectively with patients. Considering that email continues to be the most common form of electronic communication, it stands to reason that providers meet patients where they are. However, HIPAA regulations have rather strict requirements for protecting PHI, and plain email… Read More
Over the past few weeks, we’ve discussed what it means to consider risk as part of an overall compliance strategy. We’ve emphasized throughout that risk doesn’t have to be an abstract pursuit–it can be a comprehensive part of compliance and security that uses the realities of regulations and frameworks to drive decision-making (and vice-versa). One… Read More
Risk management is quickly becoming the foundation for most security and compliance standards. And this is for good reason–complex security threats based on modern technology and the interoperability of extensive cloud-based infrastructure aren’t going to be held at bay through ad hoc implementation of technology. Risk doesn’t have to be an amorphous and ill-defined process,… Read More
Most organizations have at least heard of SOC reports. Published and administered by the American Institute of Certified Professional Accountants (AICPA), the SOC umbrella of attestations helps organizations demonstrate adherence to best practices around data privacy, cybersecurity, risk assessment and financial reporting. Since SOC requirements come directly from the AICPA, the organization releases documents pertaining… Read More
Managing cybersecurity threats is a full-time job, and most cybersecurity specialists rely on shared knowledge between experts in the field to combat these threats. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) database provides a starting point for this kind of knowledge, centralizing an index of known security vulnerabilities in the wild. The CVE program recently joined… Read More
Following the continuous rage of the COVID-19 pandemic, organizations face a difficult task to secure the workload and devices of the employees scattered around the world. As a home has become the new office, it unveiled serious organizational cybersecurity gaps. Experts say that simply installing antivirus software or encrypting traffic on a company-issued MacBook is… Read More
Security isn’t simply something to consider during audits. In today’s evolving threat landscape, new attacks are emerging every day, and security experts are racing to stay ahead of them. The best approach to mitigating security is to maintain proactive cybersecurity practices, including testing, self-assessments and application scanning. Because many organizations are using or deploying web… Read More
We’ve already been seeing the changes for months now: new, robust cookie acceptance disclaimers, longer and more involved data collection forms and an uptick in fines for U.S. companies operating in the European Union. Companies in the United States are starting to understand their regulatory responsibilities under EU law, but few actually understand the scope… Read More
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a set of regulations enforced in the European Union to protect consumer data privacy and instill new controls over data ownership and use. While only having jurisdiction in the EU, this law has had a major impact on how companies do business in Europe, especially digitally. Here, we’ll… Read More
Government agencies and contractors in the supply chain face threats every single day. If you haven’t read the news lately, our national infrastructure and data systems face significant challenges in maintaining the security and integrity of their devices, applications and network resources. When agencies and contractors want to connect to any sensitive system, the Department of… Read More
Risk management and assessment is the practice of assessing an organization’s security systems against possible vulnerabilities and gaps to determine how much “risk” is acceptable as part of doing business. Factors like compliance, emerging threats and changes in technology and business operations all play an immense role in how security experts manage the risk their… Read More
The Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) framework of regulations is a relatively new governing document that combines several cybersecurity and risk management requirements to streamline security and compliance for agencies and contractors in the Defense Industrial Base (DIB) supply chain. Even though all DoD agencies do not yet require this framework, its roadmap suggests that… Read More
Major infrastructure in the United States is under attack. As more heavy industrial companies, defense contractors and government agencies increasingly rely on cloud platforms and IT solutions to serve their users and constituents, hackers are finding ways to leverage vulnerabilities and steal information. The problem with these attacks is that they are taking advantage of… Read More
Words like cybersecurity and compliance are often interchangeable without much care taken with how they differ. But make no mistake: while they are related practices, both are different approaches to a common problem of cybersecurity threats. Here we break down the differences and, more importantly, why these differences are important for when you have to… Read More
With the more recent threats and attacks we’ve seen in both the Colonial Pipeline and SolarWinds hacks, the question of infrastructure security is firmly in the collective consciousness. With President Biden’s Executive Order focusing executive resources to beef up cybersecurity, the efforts of the government are turning towards addressing some of the gaps that have… Read More
“Resiliency” is a word that gets thrown around a lot by professionals interested in the continuity of business in times of disruption. The fact is that depending on the industry and business model, resiliency is more akin to a science than anything else. Professionals measure things like logistics, statistics, risk and operational effectiveness to balance… Read More
The complexity of healthcare service demands robust technical infrastructure. Advances in patient treatment, research, diagnostic tools and even predictive analytics and AI have pushed technologies available to healthcare providers, which means that these organizations turn to expert providers to give them new tools and features to revolutionize their patient care models. This increased reliance on… Read More
The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard is a voluntary security framework to help protect customers and merchants against the theft of credit card data during POS transactions. Like many other compliance frameworks, PCI DSS has continually evolved over the years to match new technologies and new threats to the privacy of consumers shopping online… Read More
Any IT or cloud provider working with the government needs to show that they are secured against data breach or theft. As the SolarWinds hack has demonstrated, our interconnected technology systems are under attack from outside entities who want to gain access to critical civil, military, and industrial data and undermine our security. That’s why… Read More