Monday Morning News Kick Off: Red Flags Still Applies to Physicians, Cyber Command Nominee, and the U.N. and Cyber Crime

Welcome to the Monday Morning News Kick Off post. As always, we have compiled all the key stories regarding identity theft, cyber security and data breaches. This week is a big week. It is National Crime Victims Rights’ Week. We have already shared our insights (via Anne Wallace, ITAC President) about the importance of this week. Regarding other news, today we cover stories about the FTC and Red Flags, data breaches and Australia, and the UN being split on cyber crime conventions.

ID Theft Rule Still Applies to Physicians, FTC Says
The Federal Trade Commission rejected organized medicine’s request to exempt physicians and other health care professionals from an identity theft prevention regulation, despite a recent court decision excluding attorneys from the rule. A 2009 ruling by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia found that the FTC exceeded its authority in enforcing its “red flags” rule against lawyers. But in a March 25 letter to the American Medical Assn. and other health care organizations, the commission said it was unclear whether the ruling, if upheld, would apply outside of the legal profession. The FTC is appealing the decision in the case, brought by the American Bar Assn. Read the full American Medical News article here.

Paradise Lost: A Decade of Data Breaches
Do you think the moat around Australia extends around your business and hackers won’t target you? It doesn’t, and research says data breaches will be the elephant-in-the-conference-room at your next IT meet. Australia has to date been sheltered from much of the painful data breach disclosure laws sweeping the world, and organizations here appear to have avoided the high-profile hacks that have plagued others over the last decade. But are we as lucky as it would appear? Read the full Network World article here.

Data breached? Culprit Could be a Former Employee
So your data are encrypted, and you have access controls on your computer systems to prevent outside attacks from hackers. But you’re still not totally protected from unauthorized outside access. Your former employees may be able to get back into your system. Many practices and hospitals focus on how to prevent current employees from snooping or stealing information, but they forget about people who have left the organization and still could do damage. Read the full American Medical News article here.

Senators Question Cyber Command Nominee
The Obama administration’s candidate to lead the U.S. effort against cyber warfare assured lawmakers Thursday he can successfully balance the strategic military, technological, and cooperative aspects of the job he hopes to take on. In his confirmation hearing last week before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Lt. Gen. Keith Alexander fielded questions about how he would perform in a position created only last year to perform a task some lawmakers themselves admittedly don’t quite understand. Read the full InformationWeek story here.

Targeted Cyberattacks Testing IT Managers
Targeted cyberattacks of the sort that hit Google Inc. earlier this year are testing enterprise security models in new ways, and they represent an imminent threat to sensitive corporate data. State-sponsored groups with deep technical skills and computing resources have long been directing such attacks against government and military targets. However, Google’s disclosure in January that its network was attacked by China-based hackers stoked long-standing fears that cybercrooks would expand their horizons and start aiming targeted attacks at commercial networks. Read the full Computerworld story here.

UN Split on Cybercrime Conventions
A United Nations committee on international crime prevention is split on how to deal with cybercrime. Some countries want the existing European convention to be adopted worldwide, while others want a completely new agreement to be created. At the UN Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice in Brazil last week nations debated how to tackle what they agreed was a major and growing problem. Delegates identified the main problems as computer-based fraud and forgery, illegal interception of private communications, interference with data and misuse of electronic devices, according to a UN-published account of the meeting. Read the full Register article here.

Happy Monday!