CYBERSECURITY
SECURITY & PRIVACY: Better Cybersecurity Starts with Fixing Your Employees’ Bad Habits. Cybercrime is here to stay, and it’s costing American firms a lot of money. The average annualized cost of cybercrime for global companies has increased nearly 62% since 2013, from $7.2 million to $11.7 million. And these are just the average direct costs. Target, which experienced a massive data breach in 2013, reported that the total cost of the breach exceeded $200 million. Verizon, which recently purchased Yahoo, may have snagged a $350 million discount because of three large-scale Yahoo data breaches that occurred in recent years. Given these costs, what can companies do? Read more
[HBR.ORG]
FEDERAL: Donald Trump Signs Federal Ban on Kaspersky Lab Software. President Donald Trump signed into law legislation that bans the use of Kaspersky Lab within the U.S. government, capping a months-long effort to purge the Moscow-based antivirus firm from federal agencies amid concerns it was vulnerable to Kremlin influence. The ban, included as part of a broader defense policy spending bill that Trump signed, reinforces a directive issued by the Trump administration in September that civilian agencies remove Kaspersky Lab software within 90 days. The law applies to both civilian and military networks. Read more.
[FORTUNE.COM]
IoT: Drone Cybersecurity Policy Still Up in the Air. Citing a drone industry source with “first and secondhand access,” a memo sent by Immigration and Customs Enforcement intelligence office in Los Angeles to law enforcement organizations across the nation warned that small drones sold in the U.S. by Chinese drone maker Da Jiang Innovations (DJI) were most likely downloading sensitive data gathered in the U.S., including data on gas and water critical infrastructure sites, to the Chinese government’s cloud. Find out more
[FCW.COM]
STATE GOVERNMENT: Four Ways State and Local CIOs Can Boost Cybersecurity. Tanium Security Director Andre McGregor draws on his experience with the FBI to lend state and local government tech teams advice for keeping their networks and data secure. Find out more
[STATESCOOP.COM]
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NOW ON SLIDESHARE: Tech Update Summary from Blue Mountain Data Systems November 2017 https://www.slideshare.net/BMDS3416/tech-update-summary-from-blue-mountain-data-systems-november-2017.
IT SECURITY SUPPORT: Blue Mountain Data Systems is actively involved in implementing FISMA and NIST standards with Federal Civilian Agencies. Due to our extensive experience in this area, Blue Mountain has developed processes and organizational techniques to help ensure security deliverables are completed on time, and performed in the most efficient manner possible. We ensure that NIST-800-53 control requirements are treated consistently during definition, analysis, implementation, auditing, and reporting phases of a system. Find out more about Blue Mountain Data Systems IT Security Support Services. Call us at 703-502-3416.
BLUE MOUNTAIN DATA SYSTEMS HAS THE EXPERIENCE: 1994 to Present – U.S. Dept. of Labor, Employee Benefits Security Administration. Responsible to the Office of Technology and Information Systems for information systems architecture, planning, applications development, networking, administration and IT security, supporting the enforcement of Title I of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act — ERISA. Within the EBSA, Blue Mountain is responsible for design, development and support for its various enforcement database management systems, as well as all case tracking and customer service inquiry systems. Blue Mountain also provides IT security services to the EBSA, in the form of FISMA Assessment and Authorization, System Security Plans, Risk and vulnerability assessments, monitoring and investigation support. Read more.
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