Monthly Archives: December 2015

5 Most Costly Data Breaches of 2015. Taxpayer Costs. Procurement Opportunities.

  • IRS breach. 100,000 taxpayers exposed. Estimated cost $50 Million.
  • Anthem health insurance breach. 80 million health insurance records leaked. Cost estimate $100 Million.
  • Office of Personnel Management.  21 million federal employee and contact records breached. Minimum cost is the $133 million contract to a credit monitoring and mitigation services provider.
  • Ashley Madison Breach. 37 million customer information hacked. A class action lawsuit seeks $578 million.
  • Two Year 100 banks…

Lege Trend | Tuck Data Security Bill into Spending Bill

Change general law in a spending bill? No, say it isn’t so. Yes, it is so. 

Congress is adding data security language to is spending authorization bill. Here are the highlights that have privacy advocaes on the right and left up in arms:

  • The government already spies on its citizens too much
  • Going light on businesses that share more information about data breaches with the government and other businesses isn’t helping privacy
  • Protecting from disclosure under the Freedom of Information…

$45 Million in Cyber Security Research Grants to Universities. Any Universities in Texas?

Who is funding cybersecurity grants? The Hewlett Foundation Cybersecurity Initiative

How much in grant fudning is available? Started at $20 Million. It’s at $45 Million now.

The lucky recipients are? University of California at Berkeley, Stanford & MIT

Any Texas recipients? No. As Hewlett chief alludes, more private interests need to support research about how cyber security should look in the future. Specifically:

  • develop a comprehensive conceptual framework for…

INTERIM: 5 Concerns Your Clients Have about Data Breaches

  • More concerned about data breaches than lawsuits
  • Worried about corporate image damage from data breaches
  • Board Chairs and CEOs are more involved in data security than ever before
  • Odds are high most comapnies have a data response plan
  • Data breaches are increasing in severity and frequency

 

Credit Union National Association | Study: Companies losing confidence in data breach protections

Data Center Economic Development in South Texas

What data center project? Microsoft bought 158 acres in the Texas Research Park real estate controlled by the Texas Research & Technology Foundation. 

How big of a project is this? It will be one of the largest data centers in the U.S.

Where’s the economic development angle? The Texas Research and Technology Foundation uses proceeds from the sale of the land to fund biotech companies

Puget Sound Business Journal | EXCLUSIVE: Microsoft buys nearly 160 acres in San Antonio for data…

How 1 Western State Classifies Info as Public, Confidential, Secret, or Top Secret.

The Montana Information Technology Managers Council this fall promulgaed policy to require Montana state agencies to classify information in 4 categories:

  • public
  • confidential
  • secret
  • top secret

Open government? The category names depcit a conflict between category names IT professionals regularly utilize & the categories that political types would prefer,

The policy is htting the Montana Legislature with a roar.

Montana Standard | State mulls policy on public, secret, top secret…