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What LinkedIn Didn't Know: This Breach May Be Good For Business

07/06/2012 12:45

LinkedINSecurity Password Breach could be good for business

LinkedIn is "unable to confirm <this week's> breach" involving millions of user passwords but agrees that passwords belonging to "some" of their members may have been compromised. While this kind of evasiveness will not earn the publicly traded firm any sympathy, what LinkedIn fails to realize is that this breach is the ideal situation for them and comes at the right time, allowing them to gain publicity at a time when their competitors' stock is battered by regular shareholder expectations, giving them the opportunity to improve their aging code and security controls while other high profile breaches take their turn in the media spotlight.

Posted in

Best practices , Governance , Privacy , Security

Tagged

crack , encryption , hacking , linkedin , passwords

Building Trust: 5 Things To Look For in a Good Website

11/04/2012 03:20

Trust is the new currency of the global economy. It makes or breaks sites while cementing the relationships upon which the strongest brands are built. By virtue of having so many facets, trust acquisition is almost an art, but we really do know that it's more of a science.

As such, it relies on a lot of visual and support elements such as a clean and fast interface, clear language and inobtrusive opportunities for human interaction. But it's also about assurance, and the amount of perceived safety offered by a good site translates directly into the warm and fuzzy feelings that visitors want to take away and share.

One site that offers such warm-fuzzies is Kiva...

Posted in

Best practices , Privacy , Security

Tagged

functionality , integrity , usability

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100% Secure? Guaranteed Privacy? I'll be the judge of that!

02/04/2012 02:15

That's what you should say next time you see a bold statement on the side of a truck, or tucked away in a sales agreement.

"Your data is 100% secure" boasted the back of a shredding truck I recently saw on the road. "Your privacy is guaranteed" promised a paper-based survey form immediately after requesting all but my passport number.

We see blatant exaggerations and plain misrepresentations all the time. I bet you can think of at least three right now. For instance: the names of other patients on a clinic's computer screen, an office recycling bin's interesting contents, the saved photocopies of the device's previous user....

Posted in

Best practices , Governance , Privacy , Security

Tagged

assurance , claims , compliance , fun

New "Big Name" Security Study Apparently Aims to Confuse, Amuse Canadian Audience

31/12/2011 02:21

TELUS and The Rotman School of Management - whose motto is "a new way to think" - decided that asking a few hundred IT professionals about IT security at their firms and reporting the straight numbers would be the way to go. Fair enough, but why they decided to turn it into a comical affair with the allure of a self-serving initiative is curious at best.

Never mind that. It gave me a great opportunity to start your new year off on an amusing note, and for that, we can all be thankful. Enjoy the article. It goes best with eggnog.

Happy new year!

Posted in

Privacy , Security

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3 Security Tips to Make You Sound Informed at Holiday Parties

27/12/2011 12:00

Everything I'm reading these days indicates that hacking and malware infections are going to increase in 2012. I don't need to provide references here because everything you're reading does too. Yet all the software you need to secure computers, both corporate and personal, is available for free. There's everything from scanning and blocking to diagnosing and disinfecting the computing devices you depend on. So how come we're poised for continued growth in data theft and general cyber-mischief?

In short, you're the weakest link. If it weren't for you, your computer would have a much higher chance of leading an infection-free existence, gracefully growing old and slowly descending into obsolescence. Instead, you may hear yourself thinking out loud: "it was fast at the beginning, but now it's so slow I'm thinking of getting a new one". This platform-independent mantra is no doubt very depressing for laptops and smartphones to overhear and even the shiny new tablets, smug in their reliance on a firmware-based operating system, aren't too far behind.

What are your options? Panic? Trade in your new tablet for an old one (circa 3000BC)? Pester the one social recluse in your family with open-ended questions?

Posted in

Privacy , Security

Comments (0)

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