Monday Morning News Kick Off: Houses Passes Cyber Security Bill and Hotels Hit Hardest By Hackers

Welcome to the Monday Morning News Kick Off post from the ITAC blog. As many of our readers are surely still digging out from the massive snow storm that hit the mid-Atlantic region this past weekend, we hope you can leverage your WiFi connections and stay connected and read our first post in the second week of the second month of 2010 (hope that made sense!). This week, we have a number of stories including news of the House passing cyber security legislation, a study that shows how hotels are vulnerable to cyber crime and much much more.

House Passes Cybersecurity Bill
Last week, the House overwhelmingly passed a bill aimed at building up the United States’ cybersecurity army and expertise, amid growing alarm over the country’s vulnerability online. The bill, which passed 422-5, requires the Obama administration to conduct an agency-by-agency assessment of cybersecurity workforce skills and establishes a scholarship program for undergraduate and graduate students who agree to work as cybersecurity specialists for the government after graduation. As officials puzzle over how to defend the nation from enemies that are often impossible to pinpoint, the lawmakers behind the bill said education and recruitment are crucial. Read the full post here.

Hospitality Industry Hit Hardest By Hacks
Hackers checked into hotel networks more than any other in 2009, and all organizations hit by attacks didn’t discover breaches for an average of 156 days, according to a new report based on real-world attacks worldwide. Nicholas Percoco, senior vice president of Trustwave’s SpiderLabs, announced at Black Hat DC this week these and other findings the company compiled in 218 data breach investigations in organizations across 24 countries. Financial services companies accounted for about 19 percent of the breaches, but that was far fewer than in the hospitality industry, where 38 percent of all breaches took place. Retail (14.2 percent) and food and beverage (13 percent) also suffered a fair chunk of attacks, according to Trustwave’s data. Read the full Dark Reading article here.

Hacker Attacks Ceridian; Data from 27,000 at Risk
A hacker attack at payroll processing firm Ceridian Corp. of Bloomington has potentially revealed the names, Social Security numbers, and, in some cases, the birth dates and bank accounts of 27,000 employees working at 1,900 companies nationwide. In a Jan. 29 letter to an affected worker obtained by the Star Tribune, Ceridian said a hacker attacked its Internet payroll system Dec. 22 and 23. Spokesman Keith Peterson said the breach was reported to the FBI and local authorities immediately, but affected consumers weren’t notified until this week that they were at financial risk. Read the full Minneapolis Star Tribune article here.

SF Man Charged with $9.7 Million Condo Swindle
Armed only with a pen, a San Francisco man allegedly forged grant deeds transferring three condominiums worth $7.5 million from the woman who owned them to himself, then took out $2.2 million in loans against the properties. The San Francisco District Attorney’s office announced today that they’ve charged Winston Lum, 45, with 16 felony counts, including grand theft, identity theft, offering false or forged instruments for record and attempted grand theft. Authorities accuse Lum of recording with the San Francisco Assessor’s Office three forged grant deeds to real property located at the One Rincon Hill condominiums, worth approximately $7.5 million, that fraudulently transferred titles to himself in Jan. 2009. The defendant was then able to successfully take out $2.2 million in loans against those properties. Read the full Examiner article here.

Happy Monday!