Photo courtesy of DHS

PS-Prep strategy planning groups, along with all business continuity and risk management members of teams in organizations of all sizes should be interested in listening to Janet Napolitano, Department of Homeland Security Secretary (DHS), as she delivers the second annual State of America’s Homeland Security address, on Monday, January 30 2012 at 1:00 PM EST.

Increasing our nation’s security and resilience remains a goal achieved through strong connections between DHS and our nation’s private sector.

Click here to watch Janet Napolitano’s presentation LIVE on Monday, January 30 2012 at 1:00 PM EST.

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Many of the readers of this website belong to emergency management and business continuity planning teams.  And, hopefully, those disaster preparedness focused teams are testing their emergency, continuity and disaster recovery plans regularly.

But if not, or if those risk management centered groups are looking for some useful information to assist the testing of those BC/DR plans, then, an article written by Jim Satterfield is a valuable resource to turn to when you need content and reasons to convince your fellow BC/DR team members – or even upper management — that funding and support is justified to test your plans.

As Satterfield says, “Everyone has a role in a crisis. Some are strategic, some are tactical. How decisions are made in a crisis is critical to the outcome. Because of this, the following holds true:

1. Practicing emergency response helps assure that the response can proceed predictably during a crisis or disaster;
2. Participation in exercises familiarizes everyone with the vulnerabilities, impacts, plans, mitigation strategies, incident management and crisis communications;
3. Testing allows problems or weaknesses to be identified and used to stimulate necessary and appropriate changes; and
4. Errors committed and experience gained during testing will provide valuable insights and lessons learned that can be factored into the planning/updating process.”

The full posting by Satterfield is in two parts, so be sure to read the entire posting, and, if applicable, pass this info on to those associates in your organization or even those disaster recovery and first responder teams in your community’s Emergency and Crisis Management Response areas.  And if your organization is in the private sector, please get this info to in-house team members of the PS-Prep strategy planning leaders.

Click here to read Part 1 and Click here  to read Part 2 of Satterfield’s postings.

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In a recent article written by NICOLE PERLROTH a potential risk mitigation event was revealed and should be cause for all organization’s to re-verify that camera’s used in their corporate board rooms are properly and verifiably protected from hackers.

Ten years ago, videoconferencing systems were complicated and erratic, and ran on expensive, closed high-speed phone lines. Over the last decade, however, videoconferencing — like everything else — migrated to the Internet.

Now, many businesses use Internet protocol videoconferencing — a souped-up version of Skype — to connect with colleagues and customers. Most of these new systems were designed with visual and audio clarity — not security — in mind.

Click here to read this full article and become aware of how easily professional security experts were able to hack into the board room conference cameras of unsuspecting companies of all sizes.

If applicable, please pass this info along to those risk management and IT / information security team members in your own organization.

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The actions and decisions of Google can potentially affect many information security teams in organizations across the globe.  With that thought in mind, a recent announcement by Google to alter its privacy policy and terms of service to reflect the fact that it is now going to combine data from its various services into a single user profile may well be an event that requires close study, review and evaluation regarding an organization’s own existing privacy policy – i.e. particularly where services such as Google are involved.

It goes without saying that this privacy change by Google needs to also be closely reviewed where individual use of Google is employed as well.

In a recent article written by Thomas Claburn, Claburn is quick to point out that critics of the change have been quick to question Google’s decision.

This article also references Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) who said in a reaction blog posting that he’s troubled by the lack of an opt-out mechanism, and, David Jacobs, consumer protection fellow at the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), expressed concerns that Google’s changes decrease the ability of users to control how their personal information is being used.

Click here to read Claburn’s full article, and, be sure to utilize the useful links in that article to dig more deeply into the reference documents and related postings to this potential privacy risks.

Additional stories about this controversial decision by Google are also listed below:

“Google Says Privacy Change Won’t Affect Government Users” by Jaikumar Vijayan

“Google Stirs Up Privacy Hornet’s Nest” by Sharon Gaudin

“Google Privacy Policy: Who Will be Affected and How You Can Choose What Information Gets Shared” by Cecilia Kang

“Google Seeks to Clarify New Privacy Policy” by Doug Gross

“Lawmakers Press Google on Privacy Policy Changes” (Reuters)

If applicable, please pass this information along to those information security and risk management team members in your organization, those members of privacy rights protection groups in your community and to members of your family who use Google on a daily basis.

One of those members named to the commission is Lisa DuBrock, CPA, Managing Partner, Radian Compliance, LLC, and, a contributing editor and writer for this website.  Lisa provides our readership with her views on the topics of business continuity management systems and PS-Prep related standards and guidelines such as BS25999-2, SPC.1:2009, NFPA 1600:2010,  and ASIS/BSI BCM.01:2010.

We congratulate Lisa DuBrock along with the other members of the 2012 ASIS Commission on Standards and Guidelines.

Click here to read the full press release of this announcement.

Photo courtesy facebook.com

While information security and privacy rights protection teams within organizations continue to monitor the potential privacy risks that Facebook may be presenting to their employees, a new announcement was made today indicating that Facebook is now adding over 60+ new applications within their auto-share technology.

Click here to read a Facebook company blog covering this news as released by Facebook’s director of platform Cal Sjogreen.

As you will read, Facebook users can now immediately begin adding these new apps to their timelines.

As Sjogreen states, “…the apps are all set up to use the “frictionless sharing” function on the social network, meaning that users only have to give an app permission to share information once. After that, the app updates automatically to a user’s profile, letting their friends know instantly what they may be eating, studying or listening to at any given moment.”

While it may be too early to accurately assess any additional risks these apps may present to existing business continuity plans, it may be a good idea to inform information security specialists, risk managers and HR privacy managers of this event.

PS-Prep strategy planning teams in the private sector, in local community disaster preparedness groups and even risk mitigation discussions among family and friends may warrant a close watching of this recent announcement.

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In response to a few recent inquiries and comments from readers working in the educational field, and, in particular for those readers working in a university campus information security department, who requested that more discussions and information be presented on the topic of e-discovery relevant to a university campus environment, our staff would like to present a listing of recent postings and articles addressing this growing dynamic within the “discovery” process itself.

Dian Schaffhauser, a writer who covers technology and business related topics for a number of various publications, has recently written and posted an article entitled “An e-Discovery Primer”  — and, this information may be a great reference resource to offer anyone who wants to learn the basics of e-Discovery.

To this point, it is also important to realize that the “discovery” process is neither something new nor is this process limited to the digital era.  As Seth Gilbertson, associate counsel for the State University of New York states, “…discovery is the process of saving and producing records and other evidence pertaining to an activity that may be the subject of litigation.”

If applicable, or even if you are new to the discussions and risk mitigation potentials embedded in the e-discovery process, click here  to read Schaffhauser’s full article.

E-Discovery Guideline and Toolkit offering posted on the EDUCAUSE website presents e-discovery issues for universities to consider.

“E-Discovery Trends: Potential ESI Sources Abound in Penn State Case” by Doug Austin

“E-Discovering Reference” article by Spolanka

“School districts wrestling with ABCs of electronic discovery, compliance” by Beth Pariseau, Senior News Writer

“Hey @wfryer looking for the 411 on eDiscovery: http://bit.ly/9hcxe9 (your wiki) Bottom line: do schools have to archive STUDENT email?”

The E-Discovery Question   – Don’t panic over the new regulations, but make sure your school’s policy is clear.

If applicable, please add your inputs, comments and experiences of e-discovery challenges you might have had to face in your university campus environment.

Photo courtesy of searchtimes.com

In the event that anyone on your organization’s information security team becomes complacent about the need to be ever diligent about maintenance and updating of information security levels in your organization — a privacy breach incident recently announced at Zappos.com should be adequate reminder that risk mitigation in this area is a 24/7 ongoing area of responsibility.

Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh had to recently notify customers by email stating that the Zappos web marketplace system location that houses customer privacy centric information was compromised — asking them to create a new password for their accounts immediately.

“We’ve spent over 12 years building our reputation, brand, and trust with our customers,” Hsieh said in his email. “It’s painful to see us take so many steps back due to a single incident. I suppose the one saving grace is that the database that stores our customers’ information was not affected or accessed.”

Click here to view a copy of that email along with Hsieh’s email message to Zappo’s employees.

Although you never want to face such a situation in your own organization, certainly, Zappos’ reaction to this incident may contain valuable lessons to pass along to your own in-house information security, crisis and risk management and disaster preparedness teams.

Photo courtesy of reuters.com

For our readers who utilize Norton’s Antivirus software applications as part of their organization’s information security plans, be aware of a story recently released on the Reuters’ news related website announcing that “Hackers are to release full Norton Antivirus code on Tuesday”.

It appears that a hacker who goes by the name of “Yama Tough” is threatening to release the full source code for Symantec Corp’s flagship Norton Antivirus software.

Click here to read more about this developing story as reported by Frank Jack Daniel.

If applicable, please pass this information along to those disaster preparedness and network security planning team members in your organization.

The concept now well known as “Information Sharing” had its early adoption during the implementation, in October 2003, of “Project Responder”.

This original project was jointly sponsored by the Oklahoma City Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism (MIPT) and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and, was meant to assist emergency and first responder teams.

The project later evolved again – into the development and now widespread use of the Responder Knowledge Base (RKB) website (www.rkb.us).

The Responder Knowledge Base website is funded by DHS’s Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and is designed specifically to provide emergency personnel and organizations with a single source of integrated information on not only products, standards, certifications, and training, but also grants, publications, and equipment.

The RKB currently makes all of this information, and more, available to almost 78,000 registered users – a number that continues to grow.

If your organization or community emergency response personnel are not yet fully aware of this great resource, click here to give them more information and reasons to join.

Private sector organizations sponsoring PS-Prep strategy planning teams should also take advantage of this valuable resource.

Photo courtesy of kevincarbonaro.com