In the year ahead, expect the discussion around civil liberties and privacy issues to intensify as the country takes a more defensive posture with its cybersecurity. Why should the private sector pay attention? Because they may end up doing the “heavy lifting” on these issues, with Congress and the American public asking what companies are […]

Corporate spying is nothing new. Way back in the 1960s, General Motors (GM) spied on Ralph Nader when he spoke out against them. What has changed is technology and the way it can be used to spy on others — like using the Internet to steal secrets. Is there a point at which spying is okay and not an ethical or legal problem?

A recent study by the Ponemon Institute determined that the average security breach costs $203 per compromised record. So, if a company loses a hard drive that contains sensitive data on one million customers, they’re out $203,000,000. That’s a lot of items off the dollar menu at your local fast food joint. To compare  —  five years ago, […]

The systems targeted for attacks have changed over the last several years.  Today, more and more attacks are targeted at client systems.  These systems have become an important target, because most clients are not patched with the same level of urgency as corporate servers.  Some companies don’t conduct regular scans for software vulnerabilities and abnormal […]

I get many emails from individuals and former students who want to continue practicing their ethical hacking skills. This can be tough, though, because you need vulnerable systems to target.  While it’s not legal to scan and attack Internet-based systems, there are some ways to practice your skills and become a better penetration tester. One […]

Security leaks continue to make the news.  The truth is that I don’t even have to go looking for them; they just seem to keep popping up on an almost daily basis.  This week’s security breach was released by Wikileaks.  Many of you may not have ever heard of Wikileaks before this week.  It is […]

It’s a brave new world we live in. Social networking sites like MySpace, Facebook, etc. have changed the ways in which we communicate and network with others. While these services can be a great asset, they also require that we operate under a new set of rules. Unlike email or phone calls, such services are […]