TikTok Assures U.S. Lawmakers it's Working to Safeguard User Data From Chinese Staff

Following heightened worries that U.S. users' data had been accessed by TikTok engineers in China between September 2021 and January 2022, the company sought to assuage U.S. lawmakers that it's taking steps to "strengthen data security." The admission that some China-based employees can access...

Cyber Risk Retainers: Not Another Insurance Policy

The one-two punch of a cyberattack can be devastating. There is the breach and then the related mitigation costs. Implementing a comprehensive Incident Response IR gameplan into a worst-case-scenario should not be a post-breach scramble. And when that IR strategy includes insurance, it also must...

SEC Plans to Hire More Staff in Crypto Enforcement Unit to Fight Frauds

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission SEC on Tuesday announced that it will expand and rebrand its Cyber Unit to fight against cyber-related threats and protect investors in cryptocurrency markets. To that end, the SEC is renaming the Cyber Unit within the Division of Enforcement to Crypto...

How your application and data security strategy can help you complete a high level FFIEC CAT assessment

More than ever, financial institutions depend on web applications to maintain operations and partner with other enterprises to provide services to customers, but the significant rise in the number of cyber attacks targeted at this industry in the last few years has the potential to undermine...

When contractors attack: two years in jail for vengeful IT admin

An IT contractor working for an IT consultancy company took it upon himself to perform an act of revenge against the firm he worked at, after they complained about his performance. The charge he faced was breaking into the network of a company in Carlsbad, California. And it got him two years in...

What Is the DoD’s New Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification, and What Does It Mean for Defense Contractors?

Citing the threat of compromise of Controlled Unclassified Information CUI within the defense industrial base DIB, along with the high cost of cyber breaches in general, the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Acquisition has initiated a program for rating the cybersecurity maturity ...

Insurance data security laws skirt political turmoil

Across the United States, a unique approach to lawmaking has proved radically successful in making data security stronger for one industry—insurance providers. The singular approach has entirely sidestepped the prolonged, political arguments that have become commonplace when trying to pass federa...

How Cyber Insurance Changes the Conversation Around Risk

Premiums paid for cyber insurance could triple to more than $7.5 billion by 2020, according to consultancy PwC. Companies are waking up to the fact that cyber risk equals business risk. Ask FedEx’s European arm, shipping giant Maersk or any of the other major organizations knocked out of operatio...

Getting Back on the Field

Growing up as a foreign service brat, I was obsessed with security. Living in Guatemala in the 80s you had to adapt and become resilient as child. As there was no TV in our household, 10-year-old Tom began to tinker with my father’s computer and soon it became my oasis from the stress of living i...