Security Continuity Compliance

Cyber Security and Its Importance to an Organization

May 15, 2013 By Continuity_Compliance Leave a Comment

For quite some time, business continuity professionals have been associating Cyber Security as an important Business Continuity Planning (BCP) concern, but, like so many other issues in the world of BCP, without full buy-in from upper management (or the Board of Directors), it will be almost impossible to truly implement effective Cyber Security policies, plans and procedures throughout any organization. With that point in mind, and to assist the process of increasing cyber security awareness in your company’s upper management, our staff recommends reading an article written by Edward B. … [Read more...]

NIST Offers Free Download of SP 800-53, Rev 4

May 9, 2013 By Continuity_Compliance Leave a Comment

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has now made available the Final Release of SP 800-53 Revision 4, Security and Privacy Controls for Federal Information Systems and Organizations – representing the most comprehensive update to the security controls catalog since its inception in 2005. This update was motivated primarily by the expanding occurrences of cyber security threats – looking at the increased sophistication of those cyber-attacks; the growing frequency of such attacks; the professionalism of the attackers, and the persistence of targeting by … [Read more...]

E-Discovery Concerns Must Be Addressed Before Moving Data to the Cloud

April 11, 2013 By Continuity_Compliance Leave a Comment

If you begin with the following assumption: “As businesses move more applications and data to cloud services, those businesses inevitably are going to find themselves in litigation with the need to retrieve electronically stored information (ESI) from the cloud to comply with their e-discovery obligations.” ….then it makes a lot of sense to make sure that you do not forget about e-discovery when you are considering moving your company’s data to the cloud environment. In what our staff believes to be one of the better postings on this important risk mitigation topic, they would … [Read more...]

Online Privacy Rights Remain Under Attack and Unresolved Issues for Many in 2013

April 9, 2013 By Continuity_Compliance Leave a Comment

In a recent article, posted by PC World and written by Melissa Riofrio, the topic of online privacy for individuals was addressed in the light of growing threats to that privacy predicted for 2013. And, while a debate may exist about the meaning of privacy between different generations of individuals, the fact is that the data any individual generates on the internet is still a rich trove of information that says more about you than you may realize --- not to mention that it is also a tempting target for marketers and law enforcement officials alike. This year, your online privacy faces … [Read more...]

E-Discovery Predicted to be Business-Critical Operation in 2013

April 3, 2013 By Continuity_Compliance Leave a Comment

Photo courtesy of easyediscoveryblog.sonian.com

The topic of e-discovery continues to become an important area of enterprise risk management focus and is an area which our staff continues to monitor. It is with that thought in mind, that brought our staff to recommend a recent posting by Aiith Samuel. Samuel's posting addresses trends and predictions for 2013 in which Samuel summarizes, “…e-discovery practices in 2013 will now involve other critical functions, including information governance, records management, social media and cyber-security, just to name a few.” Of the many postings reviewed regarding e-Discovery trends or … [Read more...]

NIST Updating SP 800-53 Information Security Guidance Document

April 3, 2013 By Continuity_Compliance Leave a Comment

Many of our readers – especially associated with government contracting -- may not know that the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is now a step closer to publishing its 4th version of one of its premier information security guides --- i.e. Special Publication 800-53: Security and Privacy Controls for Federal Information Systems and Organizations. More specifically, on Feb 5th 2013, NIST issued the final public draft of the guidance, seeking comments from the public as NIST will then publish the final version of SP 800-53 Rev 4, --- expected sometime this month of … [Read more...]

Cyber Insurance, Data Privacy and Information Security 2013 Trends Report

March 2, 2013 By Continuity_Compliance Leave a Comment

An exclusive 2013 report funded and released by the Cyber Data Risk Managers group offers the opinions of top industry regarding experts on what they think, feel and should happen in 2013 as it pertains to Data Privacy, Information Security and Cyber Insurance, as well as, what steps can be taken to mitigate risk(s) surrounding these cyber security related potential threats. A short summary of some of those observations and trends reported are: Inadequate security measures on government and private sector networks, critical infrastructure and telecommunications represent perhaps the … [Read more...]

SP 800-53 Rev 4 Planned Release for April 2013

March 2, 2013 By Continuity_Compliance Leave a Comment

Special Publication 800-53: Security and Privacy Controls for Federal Information Systems and Organizations – one of the National Institute of Standards and Technology's (NIST) premier information security guides --- is soon to be published in its 4th revision. Though the guidance is aimed at federal government IT systems, it is frequently followed by local, state and tribal governments as well as private-sector enterprises. Major changes in Revision 4 are planned to include: New security controls and control enhancements addressing the advanced persistent threat, supply chain, … [Read more...]

Social Media Risk Management Becomes Focus of New FFIEC Guidance Draft Document

January 25, 2013 By Continuity_Compliance Leave a Comment

The ever growing challenge of social media risk management remains a topic of concern and focus for not only financial institutions but also for many organizations now using social media in a variety of ways, including marketing, providing incentives, facilitating applications for new accounts, inviting feedback from the public and engaging with existing and potential customers --- for example, by receiving and responding to complaints. Very recently, the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) released proposed guidance on the applicability of consumer protection and … [Read more...]

NetWars Cyber City Project Near Completion

January 14, 2013 By Continuity_Compliance Leave a Comment

Very soon (est. March 2013) construction on the NetWars Cyber City project will be completed. NetWars Cyber City is a small-scale city located close by the New Jersey Turnpike complete with a bank, hospital, water tower, train system, electric power grid, and a coffee shop, developed by the SANS Institute as part of a project to help train cyber warriors to defend against online attacks and teach them how to secure a city's vital physical infrastructure(s). This SANS project objective is best explained by the statement "….when you lose control of cyberspace, you lose control of the … [Read more...]

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