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Ireland Considering New Data Breach Notification Rules

June 11th, 2010
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Data Security Concerns in Ireland

Close on the footsteps of its neighbouring countries, Ireland is also looking at the data protection rules with more details. According to these rules an organization should report a data breach incident to the authorities incase of any incidents involving loss of personal data of more than 100 people.

According to William Malcolm, a privacy lawyer with the law firm Pinsent Masons Ireland has had its share of high-profile data breaches which has spurred the creation of the code of practice.

As per the proposal by Ireland’s privacy regulator data losses will now be declared to Ireland’s Data Protection Commissioner in line the draft code of practice published by the Commissioner.

Can the organizations avoid reporting?

Yes, they can certainly avoid the report of data breach if their data is encrypted and protected by a strong password. In addition, they can also escape reporting if their devices are using a remote memory-wipe feature which is activated on the lost device.

Some experts foresee the masking of critical incidents as the problem with data breach notification guidelines. They believe that due to these rules there is a possibility that major incidents could get hidden and lesser known events exposed.

A couple of years ago, the government of Ireland had recommended the creation of an official guidance which would highlight the the time to report the incidents. The office of the data protection commissioner has published the proposed draftcode of practice on its Web site and starting June 18 it would be available for public comment.

According to Irish Data Protection Commissioner Billy Hawkes, “I have sought to bring forward a draft Code as quickly as possible after the Review Group report to respond to public concern in relation to organisations losing personal data under their control while at the same time not imposing an undue burden on those organisations”.

What if data loss involves less than 100 people?

If the loss incident involving less than 100 people includes sensitive personal data or financial information then that must be reported as well.

What would the report constitute?

The report would include the following:

  • Type of the data compromised
  • What action has been taken
  • How people have been informed or the reason for not informing people
  • What kind of actions have been taken to limit the problems for affected people.

Data Security with Alertsec Xpress

Why do data breach incidents happen in the first place? Perhaps your organization didn’t take the requisite steps or there was some level of negligence with the handling of data.

If you use a data security software a theft would simply be reduced to an insurance matter and cost of the hardware plus time to rebuild the laptop. That is certainly a small price to pay compared to what can happen if you lose confidential or senstive data. Alertsec Xpress offers a very good and easy-to-use laptop security service that includes more than the traditional software licensing model. Feel free to subscribe for your personal 30-day free trial.

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Alert: New ICO Penalties Beginning Next Month

March 23rd, 2010
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If you & your brand were thinking that you could get away with incidents of data theft and loss, think again ! The security industry is planning to come up with stringent and stricter rules which will lead to sever penalties for any cases that report data loss.

These new rules have been issued by the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) and are all set to be rolled out starting 1st week of April. According to Clearswift CEO Richard turner, the level of financial penalty is set to rise to a maximum of £500 000 (from £5 000), for those companies who do not comply with the Act.

Apparently, Clearswift has been helping organizations to equip themselves with the most sophisticated content inspection technology in the industry & protect companies of confidential data.

According to Turner, “Organisations can no longer ignore the seriousness of corporate data breaches and not complying with the Data Protection Act. On 6th April 2010, the Information Commissioner is upping the financial penalties to act as a deterrent for companies who flout these rules”.

In a recent incident, Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) had reprimanded the Royal London Mutual Insurance Society for breaching the Data Protection Act. The penalty was issued after the theft of eight of the firm’s laptops, two of which contained details of 2,135 people from the company’s Edinburgh offices. The data were password protected but unencrypted.

What the Analysts Say

Industry analysts have expressed their view points on the imposition of these fines,

Susan Hall, partner and IT specialist at Cobbetts thinks, “These new fines will have a profound impact on internal procedures, especially at medium-sized, data-rich businesses, whose growth commonly outmatches their internal development and the maintenance of procedures”.

Dave Ellis, e-security director at security distributor Computerlinks said, “Mid-market firms have not been under as much pressure so this should open up some good opportunities.”

Stewart Room, a keynote speaker at Infosecurity Europe & partner at Field Fisher Waterhouse LLP, believes that organisations need to focus on two vital aspects: the system and the operations. The system defines the security position via documented rules, policies and procedures. Operations details out the implementation of system in daily activities. According to Stewart, in a recent online poll a third of organisations admitted if they have experienced a security breach tomorrow they do not have a system in place to adequately deal with the incident.

Go Secure, Choose Alertsec Now

Alertsec is the frontrunner in offering hard disk encryption as a fully managed service. We provide protection for all information stored on laptops and PCs in an easy, convenient, and cost-effective way. By using industry leading Check Point Full Disk Encryption (former Pointsec) software, Alertsec has created a web based encryption service that radically simplifies deployment and management of PC encryption. Alertsec Xpress offers computer security software from Check Point as a fully customizable and pre-packaged data encryption software solution.

For further information, please email us on info@alertsec.com.

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United Kingdom Tops Cyber Security

March 18th, 2010

All the internet community of UK would be extremely glad to hear that United Kingdom’s practices in Cyber Security have been found to be reasonable and adequately equipped to deal with the cyber security threats and other vunlerability attacks

The report was released by House of Lords committee. Apparently the House of Lords EU community report looked at how United Kingdom has geared up towards the defence mechanism in the Cyber space.  In addition, the UK has been praised for their security effort which also says that the nation leads every other EU country and their benchmarks are unmatches and something that should be adopted by others in the fraternity.

With the encouragement, UK has also been advised to organize a training sessions focussed towards Cyber security. In addition, the report has also suggested the inclusion of US and NATO.

The report has also criticized ENISA, the cyber security agency of European Union for their location. The agency is located in a small Greek island of Crete.

According to the report, “We are convinced that the decision to site ENISA at Heraklion was not taken on the basis of a careful cost/benefit analysis, and it has led and continues to lead to problems over the recruitment and retention of staff, and over the scheduling of meetings,” .

In a statement issued by, Lord Jopling, chairman of the sub-committee “We believe strongly that the government and the EU should be giving greater attention to how cyber-security could be developed on a global basis. The internet has no borders, and it is important that any proposals from the EC are considered in a global context. “A first step must be better cooperation with NATO. The EU and NATO have similar interests in defence against cyber-attacks and work in similar ways, yet there is virtually no communication between them. There must be cooperation rather than duplication. “Further to this, broadening the dialogue with other major international players, such as the US, Russia and China will be essential if we are to become more robust in our defences against cyber attacks.”

Stay a front-runner in Cyber Security

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Alertsec is the frontrunner in offering hard disk encryption as a fully managed service. We provide protection for all information stored on laptops and PCs in an easy, convenient, and cost-effective way. Check out our convenient and cost-effective computer security software for Windows 2000, XP, Vista and 7.

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St. Louis Police Bugged By Hackers

March 13th, 2010

The hackers have not spared even the police. Well atleast this is what you can say from the recent incident at St. Louis ! After the attack the information of about ‘24′ people has been compromised.

While the attack was targeted at several computers, in a sense the victims were lucky as only of the computers were impacted by its severity. This news was confirmed by the police department a couple of days back.

After the attack the following data of the victims has been reveraled:

  1. Names
  2. Addresses
  3. Social security numbers of residents

The data of people involved in criminal incidents has been revealed. These are either witnesses, property owners or witnesses. The victims are being contacted by the investigators with an offer to pay for credit monitoring services along with advises to additional measures to protect their credit.

Investigators are contacting the victims, offering to pay for credit monitoring services and advising them of additional measures to protect their credit. No fraudulent activity has been reported.

There is no real confirmation as to when the attack happened, the department learned of the attack earlier this week, but investigators believe it occurred on Feb. 4 or 5. Now the team is working on improving computer security.

Get Protected Alertsec

Alertsec is the frontrunner in offering hard disk encryption as a fully managed service. We provide protection for all information stored on laptops and PCs in an easy, convenient, and cost-effective way. Check out our convenient and cost-effective computer security software for Windows 2000, XP, Vista and 7.


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Antivirus + Encryption = Total Security

January 17th, 2010

It’s important to understand that encryption software is very different from antivirus software. Many companies consider the two security solutions to be the same and fail to realize that they complement one another. While antivirus software is a perfect way to ensure that your computer is safe from the trojans, viruses, and rootkits, it only goes so far. Antivirus software doesn’t add an extra level of data security by encoding your hard drive. If an outsider gets their hands on a company notebook, antivirus won’t be able to prevent them from directly accessing the information stored.

A recent post from ComputerWeekly brings up a great point:

“…for as little money as it costs to install anti-virus software on your laptop, you can install encryption software, and protect your organisation not only from a data breach but also against any backlash…”‘

Companies need to understand the differences between antivirus and encryption and accept both as standards in their company’s defense. Most, if not all, data breaches or hacking attempts can be prevented and avoided by the right combination of security software.

Protecting your business is in your best interests and that’s where we step in- we provide a powerful and effective encryption method which works alongside all antivirus protection to ensure that your computer is secure. Using industry standard encryption, our software prevents unauthorized users from accessing private company information. Best of all, our software is affordable and manageable for pretty much any business. To learn more about our encryption solution, click here.

If you have any questions about how antivirus and encryption work together or would like to share an experience, leave a comment.

Further Reading
Data encryption is simple safeguard against data breaches [ComputerWeekly]

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