Security

We don't typically stop to think about it, but we all need feedback in order to succeed. Imagine, for example, trying to cook a meal without periodically tasting it to see if the spices are right. When it comes down to it, trying to do anything -- even the simplest of tasks -- is much more difficul...

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales unveiled on Monday a comprehensive legislative proposal that would toughen copyright protections, including penalties for the attempt to infringe on a copyright. Speaking before members of the Chamber of Commerce Coalition Against Counterfeiting and Piracy, Gonzales...

Only careless scholarship, author Geoffrey Pullum claims in his book The Great Eskimo Vocabulary Hoax, has propagated the myth of dozens or hundreds of Eskimo words for snow. Aggressive fact-checking, he says, would put an end to the myth. The information security industry might learn a thing or two...

In this fast-paced world, there is one thing most computer users have in common: We have all lost data at one time or another. For the lucky ones, this is not a painful experience -- just one of inconvenience. Unfortunately for others, the data loss is impacting because the lost data was irreplaceab...

After several years of reported abuse, the Bush administration has rescinded lender access to a federal database containing sensitive financial information on about 60 million college students. The temporary move bars college loan firms from accessing the government-run database over concerns of dat...

Just when directors thought that no more could possibly be expected of them -- especially after the enactment of Sarbanes-Oxley -- they are now confronted with a new acronym: ERM, or enterprise risk management. Directors are now expected to conduct oversight of their company's enterprise risk, when ...

Two of the retail industry's largest trade associations have joined forces with the FBI to develop a network dedicated to fighting organized retail crime. The Law Enforcement Retail Partnership Network, known as LERPnet and due to launch on April 9, is a secure, national database that will allow ret...

Computer hackers swiped information from at least 45.7 million credit and debit cards of discount retailing giant TJX customers over the course of several years, the company confirmed this week. TJX first reported in January that hackers had breached a system that handles its credit card, debit card...

Jim Stickley, CTO of TraceSecurity makes his living sneaking into other peoples' businesses and leaving with their data. Stickley robs banks, but unlike conventional thieves, he is not after what is locked inside the vault. Instead, he steals personally identifiable information such as names, addres...

Convergence is again a hot topic. In the past, it described how voice and data traffic would eventually coexist on IP networks. Now it frequently refers to the trend of integrating information security functions into traditional corporate risk management organizations. There are good reasons for doi...

The Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council launched in September as a joint venture between Visa International, MasterCard Worldwide, Discover Financial Services, JCB and American Express to continuously improve the data security standard. The group couldn't have appeared at a better time....

The wheels are in motion to create an economy free of paper money and coins. The first steps of that quiet revolution have long been in place for years and touch tens of millions of consumers every day. This includes consumers rolling through tollbooths without stopping, their in-car transponders be...

Internet auction fraud accounts for close to half of all the complaints made to the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center, according to a report released Friday. Of the 207,492 complaint submissions made to the Internet Crime Complaint Center in 2006, Internet auction fraud accounted for 45 percent,...

I'm an early adopter. I don't just analyze technology from the safety of my own cubicle; I bring it into my home and live with it. I find that by doing so, I gain a perspective that would otherwise be lost. About a year ago, I disconnected my traditional landline phone and signed up for VoIP service...

Approximately 10 million Americans fall victim to identity theft each year, a statistic that is expected to increase despite the diligent efforts of government and institutions to turn the tide. Leading IT security providers are arguably in the best position to understand the nature and scale of the...