The Wall Street Journal recently reported that the United States government is creating a massive database of records culled from license plate scanners, and making this database available to law enforcement and other agencies. The WSJ article was specifically about a database created by the Drug Enforcement Administration, but thousands of other agencies and departments collect,…
DetailsEvery CISO is one data breach from being fired. Or one disruptive DDoS attack. Or one theft of information. Or one bad audit result. Or one compliance investigation. Or one letter from the Federal Trade Commission or other regulator. Or one loss of a CEO or Board of Director’s member’s personal data. It only takes…
DetailsIn privacy and security circles, we typically think about threats and trends in the order of months or even years. We tend to forget that we are still very much in the nascent stages of the use of information technology, and that the decisions we make today – or fail to make today – can…
DetailsSeems like everyone is getting into the cybersecurity act. Happy Cybersecurity week. New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has announced that he is proposing legislation that will require “unprecedented safeguards” for a wide variety of personal data, and make New York laws the strongest in the nation. Take that, Massachusetts and California! The proposed law would…
DetailsAmerican Poet John Godfrey Saxe is quoted as saying, “Laws, like sausages, cease to inspire respect in proportion as we know how they are made.” Well, it’s sausage-making time here in the Nation’s Capital, and it isn’t pretty. Especially for cybersecurity. That’s because, in their haste and desire to “do something” lawmakers often pass laws…
DetailsIn the wake of the most recent attack on [insert name of entity] the White House has announced a new initiative to finally tackle the problem of cybersecurity. It’s a wake up call. It’s like déjà vu all over again. Or more like Charlie Brown and Lucy. The problem isn’t a lack of intention. It’s…
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