No this isn’t a new form of technology that does full body scans and deciphers the cellular makeup of the human body, though I wouldn’t put that past Google. It seems Google is branching out in every direction possible. First was search, then came email, maps, document management, personal sites, domain integration, business management, and the list goes on. Now Google is entering into competition with Microsoft’s HealthVault . Google released information last weekend about its pilot program with Cleveland Clinic to test out Google Health, a Google application that enables users to view their health records from anywhere. The service will only be available to those facilities that already allow electronic viewing of health records if this does indeed[…]
Category: general
Organized crime is setting up botnets under their control to attack websites, then offering protection from ‘malicious hackers’. The RBNExploit blog — which is authored by one or more anonymous researchers — spelled out the racket run by the group, which is thought to be headquartered in St. Petersburg, Russia, and has been pegged by security professionals as a major source of malware and cybercriminal activity. The price for protection is $2,000 per month. This is the same thing that happens on the streets and is very difficult to protect against. The average website owner should brush up on best security practices and the big companies better ask the experts.
I’m sure most people have heard about the cable breakage in the Middle East by now. But I’m sure that many CIO/CISOs were frustrated anyway – no matter how well they had planned redundancy into their networks, they’re ultimately at the “whim” of the big cross-continent bandwidth providers. It’s expensive to drop cables onto the ocean floor, put up satellites or string cables across a continent just under the surface of the land – and there are precious few of these lines. The incident in the Middle East is illustrative of thinking about the entire Internet, not just what comes into your building. For some companies and industries, this matters – and not being able to support your customers in[…]
Convoluted security checks and procedures imposed upon medical staff at the Delano Regional Medical Center (DRMC) were so bad that physicians had to turn patients away. After a single sign on solution was developed and implemented, physicians were no longer telling patients to look for another health care provider. Treating patients at DRMC required doctors to weave through a handful of medical information, patient information, and imaging applications. Not only did they have to remember a handful of different passwords, but the security checks were also constantly changing — usually every three to six months. Security checks are required by health care providers such as DRMC because federal regulations require that access to patient data be restricted to health care[…]
The Aussies are voting on what they perceive as the best new word or term of 2007. The term password fatigue is up for a nomination in the contest sponsored by the Macquarie Dictionary. [Password fatigue is] frustration caused by having too many passwords and failing to remember them. Much like the term hacker these words come, go, and evolve. Password fatigue is a very real phenomenon, especially in the corporate world. Despite our (security folks’) best efforts to implement smart cards, PKI, biometrics, etc. password fatigue is not going away anytime soon. You can vote for your favorite words here. Personally I like salad doger, Chindia, and kippers.
The Ernst & Young Global Information Security Survey 2007 has been released. This report is designed to help organizations to obtain a deeper understanding of current information security trends, as well as to focus their efforts on areas where we expect improvement may be most necessary. Not many surprises in here. Still, it’s worth a read, or at least a skimming.