E-Commerce ALERTS - Archive 2005

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PRIVACY SLIP ON OFFICIAL U.S. SITES

The White House and National Security Agency have been caught tracking visitors to their websites in ways that may violate official US guidelines — MORE

VISA DEALS WITH POSSIBLE DATA BREACH

Visa USA acknowledged Saturday that a U.S. merchant "may have experienced a data security breach" that compromised credit card account information — MORE

SECURITY A MONEY-MOTIVATED CONCERN IN 2005

In 2005 a more sinister class of hacker emerged, working for money and often using quieter, more precise techniques. 2005 was also the year that the financial cost of security breaches became crystal clear, thanks to a California disclosure law that is expected to become a model for upcoming federal legislation in the U.S. — MORE

CYBER SECURITY GROUP FLUNKS WASHINGTON

Neither the Bush administration nor Congress is providing significant leadership or legislation to secure the United States against cyber attacks, a security trade association charged Tuesday — MORE

INTERNET SECURITY BREACHES A SIGNIFICANT COST TO BUSINESSES

Internet security breaches are costing New Zealand businesses between $140 million and $240 million a year, a survey has found — MORE

SECURITY A BIG CONCERN FOR CANADIAN CONSUMERS, BUSINESSES

Most Canadians - from corporate decision-makers to consumers - believe their confidential data is at risk. That's a key finding of a national survey commissioned by Fusepoint Managed Services, Symantec Corp. and Sun Microsystems — MORE

SECURITY CONCERNS DOG ONLINE SHOPPERS, SAYS SURVEY

Despite the increasing size of the online shopping market, one in four U.S. consumers won't shop online during the upcoming holiday season because of concerns over buying goods online, according to the results of a survey — MORE

E-COMMERCE FRAUD WILL COST BUSINESSES $2.8 BILLION THIS YEAR

Merchants are set to lose $2.8 billion this year because of online fraud, according to a survey released by CyberSource Corp., a provider of electronic payment and risk management products — MORE

THE ART OF BUDGETING FOR IT SECURITY BREACHES

Total security for a corporate network may be a goal of many IT executives, but no matter how much a company invests in security systems, breaches - originating either outside or inside a corporate network - are a fact of life in the information age — MORE

BE VERY AFRAID

Assurent's investigators suspected there had been a security breach - then went on to unearth a shocking scale of damage. One of the myriad hacker groups that continuously scour the Net for ill-protected networks had spotted a vulnerability in an online application the company used to communicate with staff — MORE

DOES YOUR COMPANY'S PASSWORD POLICY HURT SECURITY?

According to a password practices study commissioned by RSA Security on 1700 U.S. businesses, a whopping 28% of users are required to remember more than 13 passwords while another 30% need to use between 6 and 12 to do their work — MORE

RESEARCHERS: DISTORTING BIOMETRICS ENHANCES SECURITY

A trick reminiscent of a fun-house mirror might improve the security and privacy of the access-control technology that examines fingerprints, facial features or other personal characteristics — MORE

CRIMEWARE EPIDEMIC SPREADING FAST

Phishers are rapidly becoming more sophisticated with the development of malicious crimeware software that can bypass conventional IT security systems and steal identity information for financial crime, the Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG) warned today — MORE

WHO IS WATCHING YOU?

While Canada does not have nearly the same level of video surveillance in public places as does Britain or the United States, we should be aware of its implications, says Claudiu Popa, president of Informatica Security, a Toronto network security consultancy — MORE

LOST BLACKBERRY COULD BE A SECURITY BREACH

The ability to carry vast amounts of data in small but easily misplaced items such as computer memory sticks and mobile e-mail devices has transformed the way Americans work, but it has also increased the risk that a forgotten BlackBerry or lost cell phone could amount to a major security breach — MORE

CANADA LAGS ON PRIVACY BREACH DISCLOSURE

Over the past 12 months, there has been a staggering number of reported privacy and security breaches - with some experts estimating that more than 50 million people have been put at risk since the start of this year alone — MORE

ORGANIZED CYBERCRIME HAS IT SECURITY EXPERTS SCARED

Unlike the script kiddies of yesterday, today's cyber-criminals are sophisticated, organized and out for a profit, according to a McAfee report released Tuesday. The threat is getting worse -- two years ago, there were about 300 malicious threats emerging a month; today the figure has rocketed to 2,000, according to McAfee — MORE

NEW SURVEY REPORTS AN INCREASE IN ID THEFT AND DECREASE IN CONSUMER CONFIDENCE

Twenty percent of people responding to a new Privacy & American Business (P&AB) and Deloitte & Touche LLP survey report that they have personally been a victim of identity fraud or theft. The survey also found that 64 percent of respondents have decided not to purchase something from a company because they weren't sure how their personal information would be used — MORE

ID THEFT CONCERNS GROW, TOOLS LACKING

In one of the most extensive studies yet on consumer attitudes about identity theft, Gartner Inc. found that about half those polled either weren't aware they were entitled to a free credit report or considered them "not effective" in fighting ID theft — MORE

THWARTING INSIDER THREATS

The greatest information security threat facing your organization is in your office right now. What is this threat? It's the often underestimated insider threat - the risk that your users will violate the trust you've placed in them to conduct malicious activity on your network — MORE

BLACK MARKET IN STOLEN CREDIT CARD DATA THRIVES ON INTERNET

Despite years of security improvements and tougher, more coordinated law enforcement efforts, the information that criminals siphon is boldly hawked on the Internet. The data's value arises from its ready conversion into online purchases, counterfeit card manufacture, or more elaborate identity-theft schemes — MORE

40 MILLION CREDIT CARDS HACKED

A security breach has occurred at a third-party processor of payment card transactions that affects over 40 million card accounts, Mastercard International said Friday. Card user across North America are affected — MORE

CRIMINALS BREACH EQUIFAX SECURITY FOR SECOND TIME

For the second time in about a year, the credit reporting company Equifax Canada Inc. has suffered a security breach that has given criminals access to personal financial information of hundreds of Canadians — MORE

OHIO ATTORNEY GENERAL SUES OVER CUSTOMER DATA THEFT

Attorney General Jim Petro today asked a court to order Ohio-based shoe retailer Designer Shoe Warehouse to individually notify each customer whose personal information may have been stolen recently from DSW computer files. Ohio is the first state to sue the retailer over one of the biggest security breaches of its kind in the nation — MORE

BANK SECURITY BREACH MAY BE BIGGEST YET

Bank of America Corp. and Wachovia Corp. are among the big banks notifying more than 670,000 customers that account information was stolen in what may the biggest security breach to hit the banking industry — MORE

DALHOUSIE U. UNLOCKS PRIVACY TECHNOLOGY LAB

A Canadian post-secondary school is opening a research lab that aims to develop IT security and privacy technologies, promote policy changes and lead software programmers across the industry to create less vulnerable applications — MORE

THE SCRAMBLE TO PROTECT PERSONAL INFORMATION

When so much commerce is conducted online and when just a few bits of stolen data - a Social Security number, a name, an address, a date of birth - can be turned into cash by opening false credit accounts, thieves have proved themselves skilled at getting the information they need — MORE

INFO ON 3.9 MILLION CITIGROUP CUSTOMERS LOST

Citigroup said Monday that personal information on 3.9 million consumer lending customers was lost by UPS while in transit to a credit bureau - the biggest breach of customer or employee data reported so far — MORE

THE BIGGEST CYBER SECURITY ISSUES FACING BUSINESSES TODAY: AN INTERVIEW WITH ONE WHO KNOWS

Howard Schmidt is a much sought-after expert in his field, and a quick glance at his career history makes it easy to understand why. ITBusiness.ca recently spoke over the phone with Schmidt, who will be heading into Toronto on June 15 to speak at the Infosecurity Canada conference — MORE

CANADIAN TASK FORCE ON SPAM RELEASES ANTI-SPAM ACTION PLAN

In May 2005, Industry Canada released Stopping Spam: Creating a Stronger, Safer Internet - Report of the Task Force on Spam. The aim of the report is to present an action plan for stopping spam in Canada — MORE

E-COMMERCE'S TWEEN YEARS

E-Commerce is turning 11 years old this year and, like its human counterparts, this is an awkward part of its corporate adolescence — MORE

GOOGLE USERS WORRY ABOUT PERSONAL DATA PRIVACY

Gaining access to an ever increasing and ever more sophisticated volume of information through Web searches was an attractive idea to Gartner Inc. Symposium/IT Expo attendees this week who heard Google Inc. CEO Eric Schmidt talk about some of his company's plans for the future — MORE

BUSINESS INACTION COULD LEAD TO CYBER-SECURITY LAW

U.S. businesses for years have urged the government to let them set computer-security standards of their own, but their inability to do so could now prompt Congress to step in, experts say — MORE

PRIVACY BREACHES: HOW TO AVOID MAKING HEADLINES

"Physical theft is one of the last things people think about," said Watts, president of NetFusion Inc., a Los Angeles-based network support and security consultancy. "Prevention is so much cheaper than thinking 'It won't happen to me'" — MORE

AMERITRADE LOSES CUSTOMER ACCOUNT INFO

Ameritrade said Tuesday account information may have been lost for up to 200,000 customers when a package containing tapes with back-up information on customer accounts went missing — MORE

CIBC DRAFTS PRIVACY PLAN IN WAKE OF FAXING FIASCO

The Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce is creating a national database to track privacy issues in the wake of the Office of the Privacy Commissioner's four-month investigation into misdirected faxes to two organizations in Canada and the U.S. — MORE

FLASH PLAYER WORRIES PRIVACY ADVOCATES

Macromedia's Flash media player is raising concerns among privacy advocates for its little-known ability to store computer users' personal information and assign a unique identifier to their machines — MORE

E-COMMERCE: IT'S ALL ABOUT TRUST

In recent weeks, we have learned that millions of customers may have been exposed to identity theft through security breaches at ChoicePoint, LexisNexis and Bank of America. Although the details vary, there is one common theme: Any breach must be dealt with swiftly, in a manner that preserves customers' trust — MORE

ECOMMERCE SECURITY ISSUES - KEEPING YOUR SITE AND CUSTOMER DATA SAFE

Ecommerce security issues are frequently aired in the press, and are certainly important. Most ecommerce merchants leave the mechanics to their hosting company or IT staff, but it helps to understand the basic principles — MORE

REPORT: SEC, AND ITS SECRETS, ARE AT MERCY OF HACKERS

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has left financial transactions, regulatory files and other "mission critical information" such as enforcement documents vulnerable to unauthorized disclosure and potential tampering because it doesn't have proper computer security, the U.S. Government Accountability Office has warned — MORE

PRIVACY COMMISSIONER'S MESSAGE: FIVE KEY STEPS TO REDUCE THE RISK OF IDENTITY THEFT

Identity theft involves the unauthorized collection and use of your personal information, including your name, date of birth, address, credit card, Social Insurance Number and other personal identification numbers, usually for fraudulent purposes — MORE

DON'T LET THIS HAPPEN TO YOUR DATA

Recent loss or theft of U.S. consumer data highlights the need for Canadian companies to have action plans in place and for governments to step in with stronger legislation to go after companies that fail to do so, according to law enforcement authorities and industry experts — MORE

SPAM BY THE NUMBERS

Canada's IT industry may be united in its efforts to reduce unsolicited commercial e-mail, but it's struggling to come up with a way to accurately measure how much spam we receive — MORE

RCMP: FOR SECURE IT, SCARE THE BEJESUS OUT OF USERS

Attendees at the IT Security and Governance conference heard from the RCMP that the biggest network threats come from inside the organization - and from a security consultant that the best fixes may come from an unorthodox source on the outside — MORE

CRIMINALS ACCESS CHOICEPOINT'S INFORMATION DATA

ChoicePoint Inc., under fire for being duped into allowing criminals to access its massive database of personal information, said yesterday that more than 140,000 consumers across the United States may have been affected by the breach of the company's credentialing process — MORE

TELL WHEN PRIVATE DATA'S DIVULGED, STOLEN

For those who don't know - and there are many who don't - the federal government has declared this month "Fraud Awareness Month," part of a public education initiative organized by the Competition Bureau — MORE

FEDS RESPOND TO AUDITOR GENERAL'S I.T. SECURITY CRITIQUE

In the latest report, Fraser and her team criticize Treasury Board Secretariat, which typically leads policy development in this area, for failing to complete standards related to intrusion detection and incident response, as well as a lack of consistency in applying standards and adhering to security policies among many government departments — MORE

"SIGNIFICANT WEAKNESSES" IN GOVERNMENT COMPUTERS

The personal information of Canadians is at risk due to "significant weaknesses" in government computer security that leave the digital door open to hackers and thieves, says the auditor general — MORE

COMPUTER HACKERS WORRY AUDITOR

Sensitive government information is vulnerable to computer hackers, and billions of taxpayer dollars are squirreled away in federal foundations without public scrutiny, says the auditor general — MORE

INORMATION TECHNOLOGY AS INHERITANCE

A recent CIBC report says that more than 500,000, or one-fifth, of small business owners in Canada plan to retire within the next five years, and another 30 per cent expect to retire by 2020. What this means is that more than half of the nation's current small business owners expect to retire within 15 years — MORE

FIRST WAS PHISHING, NEXT IS PHARMING

Phishing is likely to be one of the biggest threats to computer users during 2005 and probably for years to come. Spam, which is merely annoying, doesn't start to compare to full-bore identity theft thanks to entering personal information in the wrong place — MORE

GOVERNMENT BUILDS WAR ROOM FOR CANADA'S I.T. SECURITY

The federal government is taking steps to protect Canada's critical infrastructure with dual announcements on Wednesday of the Canadian Cyber Incident Response Centre — MORE

STUDY SUGGESTS ONLINE BANKING IS TAPPED OUT

Internet security, consumer choice and lack of services are some of the main reasons behind results of a survey that shows online banking has reached a plateau after an explosive growth period between 2000 and 2003, according to a Canadian marketing research firm — MORE

THWARTING HACKER TECHNIQUES: NETWORK SECURITY - YOU SHOULD KNOW JACK

There are a couple of ways to help prevent hackers, or even vendors and contractors for that matter, from connecting computers to your network when they find a network jack — MORE

CANADIANS AT RISK OF ONLINE IDENTITY THEFT

Canadians, though largely a savvy lot when it comes to protecting themselves from identity theft, still reveal potentially sensitive information over the phone and Internet, according to a new survey — MORE

ENCRYPTION MAKES E-MESSAGES SECURE

Experts in electronic security agree that the best way to secure digital messages is with encryption, be it a regular e-mail or a message sent with a Blackberry — MORE

TELUS CASE CALLS ROLE OF PRIVACY COMMISSIONER INTO QUESTION

A recent federal court decision to overturn one of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada 's first findings under the country's privacy act has raised questions about how well the Commissioner can enforce the law — MORE

INSTANT MESSAGING CREATES SECURITY HEADACHES

Instant messaging (IM) is no longer just a quick and easy way to keep in touch with family and friends: It is quickly becoming a mainstay in the workplace, creating a new set of problems to worry about for information technology professionals — MORE

ADDITIONAL NEWS ARTICLES IN 2004 ARCHIVE

E-Commerce Alerts are issued by Bennett Gold LLP, Chartered Accountants as situations develop. Bookmark this site and check back often.