Tip of the Week: Walk a Fired Employee Straight to the Door

Nobody likes having to fire people. It can be an ugly business. Sometimes it must happen, however. And when it does, it’s important for your business to have a policy in place for how you handle the termination when it comes to leaving the premises.
That is, do you notify an employee that he is being [...]

The $31 Million Laptop

The Ponemon Institute, with sponsorship from PGP, has released their “Fifth Annual U.S. Cost of Data Breach Study.” As usual, the report is a treasure trove of great data (just like most people’s laptops are).
The average cost per breached data record rose $2 in 2009, to $204.  That’s actually not too bad. The average cost [...]

Tip of the Week: Don’t Keep All Your Eggs (Passwords) In One Basket

This week’s Tip centers once again on password security. Think it doesn’t matter? Consider the rash of recent reports such as the Verizon 2009 Data Breach Investigations Report that once again show how password security is apparently lost even on professions whose job it is to ensure it!
Talk to ten people on the street, and [...]

Tip of the Week: Patch the Jugular First…Or Just Patch Something First

People tend to get overwhelmed. We all do. Our ToDo lists are ten miles long and getting longer. We are long on good intentions and short on implementation, often with valid reasons.
As I’ve been wading through study after study, report after report, commentary upon commentary, it seems clear that there are, well, a lot of [...]

New Study: Only Half of CEOs Strongly Support Data Security Efforts

In yet another very interesting Ponemon Institute study, more than half of IT and security professionals worldwide believe their companies’ laptops and other mobile devices pose security risks, and only half of them have CEOs who are strong advocates and supporters of data security efforts.
Kelly Jackson Higgins’ article at Dark Reading gives a good summary.
And, [...]

Laptop Computer Security Firm Launches MyLaptopGPS Encryption and Remote Decryption Kill to Provide the Industry-Leading Laptop Protection Technology

Addition of Encryption Functionalities Renders MyLaptopGPS’ Product an All-in-One, One-of-a-Kind Approach to Laptop Computer Security: “Encrypt. Track. Recover.”
(STILLWATER, Okla. – Oct. 27, 2009 – IDTheftSecurity.com) Laptop computer security firm MyLaptopGPS, featured in Inc. Magazine, TechRepublic and elsewhere, has introduced patent-pending laptop encryption to its already robust Internet-based laptop tracking product. MyLaptopGPS™, whose unmatched industry theft [...]

Tip of the Week: Use a Screen Shield

Most folks pay no attention to security. Other folks overestimate the problem–they overestimate the vulnerabilities that exist. Neither of these is the best approach, of course.
The overestimators will assume that every person in the airport is studying their laptop screen over their shoulder–like the song made freshly famous in the GEICO commercials (Rockwell’s “Somebody’s Watching [...]

Tip of the Week: Encrypt!

In keeping with the faithful mantra about “no silver bullet” in the security world, let me highlight a crucial piece of the laptop security puzzle: encryption.
Encryption is a must when it comes to effective mobile data security. Key factors to keep in mind include:

Use a strong key (password, that is, pass PHRASE). Do not use [...]