@Mitch Wagner - It's easy to see why SC doesn't look competent in the wake of this breach. Early on you have the governor and the state Revenue Department head saying "nothing could have prevented the breach". Now, after the investigation it showed that they could gave done a lot more.
Indeed, Joanne! Hopefully, the misfortunes of the Northeast will spur action elsewhere. South Carolina is in the hurricane alley too; it's no time to be wavering on security policies.
With industrial accidents (an explosion at a plant, or a chemical spillage, say), businesses are required to follow very precise regulations when it comes to informing people, protecting people, and addressing the damage. If they don't, they face hefty fines.
It's time we had something like OSHA holding enterprise accountable when it comes to digital disasters.
Wow, hpollard. This IT outfit gets no kudos, surely. And the government that doesn't seem to understand the technology involved is enabling them to cover their tracks pretty effectively.
As a South Carolina resident I'm living through this mess. The state did not inform the affected taxpayers. Instead, we had to call in through an 800 number to get a code we could use to get 1 year of credit protection. They did not automatically enroll everyone, due to 'privacy concerns'. There is still confusion as to which SSNs, bank accounts and credit card numbers were comprised.
They did not notify anyone of the breach until a local newspaper filed a FOI request. They were using the time to 'track down the hackers'.
At this point, they have not announced who was compromised, what was comprimised, exactly how this was accomplished and what the plan is to clean up this mess. We continue to hear that no one was to blame and there will not be discipline taken against public employees.
Ironically, the state's IT portrays itself as highly competent. Its Website calls out October as "Cyber Security Awareness Month" and describes the agency as "Leading the Way" with cyber security tips.
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The US National Security Agency learned the hard way that it can be dangerous to give a contractor too much money and access, with too little scrutiny. The NSA and other government agencies hire tens of thousands of contractors
a year to analyze data. Edward Snowden -- who revealed himself as the NSA leaker after fleeing the country -- was one such contractor, reportedly holding a $122,000 salaried position at Booz Allen Hamilton at the time of his departure.
Midsize businesses rarely achieve the same standards of security in their own datacenters as professional providers that specialize in delivering these services to organizations.
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New York's Metropolitan Transit Authority is conducting a pilot test of digital kiosks to guide subway users to where they want to go more efficiently and at lower cost.
The whole Amazon.reader debate is a double-stupid. It's stupid to think that there's any e-book buyer who doesn't know Amazon's URL, and it was stupider to let ICANN launch the whole free-form TLD initiative to start with.
While NFC's original goal was to enhance mobile commerce applications, it is finding its way into a number of other uses, which is creating both opportunity as well as challenges for IT departments.
Enterprises would like to move to cloud computing but are hesitant because they are concerned about providers’ ability to secure company data. Here are some tips that help to ensure that if breaches occur, the business is not left holding the bag.
Edmunds separates customers into segments based on the info it collects on its site and from partners, and uses that to push out custom content, said Brian Baron, director of business analytics for Edmunds.com, at Predictive Analytics Innovation Summit.
The IBM Smarter Commerce Global Summit in Monaco kicked into high gear today, and we've already begun to see news emerging from that lovely city-state by the sea.
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