“Redundancy, Redundancy, Redundancy.” Any good risk management tool is predicated around this mantra, and yet today, in a highly unusual incident, Amazon Web Services (AWS) servers’ went blank. Client sites from Foursquare to Reddit were rendered inaccessible Thursday, and there is no communication from AWS personnel as to why the system went down. I wonder how much […]
A few weeks ago I blogged about how the French government is demanding information repository companies, like Google, Yahoo, et al, allow its citizenry to be completely wiped from oblivion on the Internet. I think what is most intriguing about “le Doit al ‘Oubli” is how it highlights the distinct differences between European and American viewpoints […]
The increase in frequency over firings related to public comments posted on social media sites is an emerging area in employment/labor law. Recently, I followed the case of a Connecticut ambulance company who fired its employee over rants she made on Facebook about her supervisor. The National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) asserted that such communications […]
Due to a “massive” breach by the marketing firm Epsilon, an unknown amount of names and e-mail addresses were exposed that could potentially lead to phishing attacks by organized criminal elements. Epsilon is a service provider which handles e-mail marketing lists for hundreds of clients, including giants like JPMorgan Chase, Citibank, Target, and Walgreens. The […]
Most regulations define the term “personal identifiable information” to mean information about an individual that is recorded, which includes things like: name, address, e-mail, age, sex, marital status, social security number, health care history, religious or political beliefs, race, nationality, ethnicity, origin…you get my point. However, with the evolving landscape of technological innovations related to online behavioral […]
Mr. Peter Fleischer is Google, Inc.’s, Global Privacy Counsel, and recently wrote an intriguing blog on how the term “privacy” is being used as a justification for censorship these days. Outside of the United States, especially in Canada and EU countries, the Right to Privacy is seen as a fundamental universal right bestowed upon the individual. […]
Hacktavists loyal to the group known as, Anonymous, have announced that they are going to step up their cyber-war efforts against the U.S. government and corporations. Cavalier as they may seem, many of the group members feel that their conduct is more of a 21st Century version of civil disobedience, than breaking any federal laws. In […]
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (“NIST”) released a report today which highlighted the fact that organizations who deploy cloud applications need to pay cloase attention to security and management risks associated with the emerging technology. Computerworld reported that “[w]ith the wide availability of cloud computing services, lack of organizational controls over employees engaging such […]
The New York Times and Reuters reported on Monday, January 17, 2011, that an Ex-Swiss Banker, Rudolf Elmer, has turned over to the whistleblowing juggernaut, Wikileaks, detailed accounts of individuals and companies with whom Mr. Elmer believes are engaged in questionable business practices ranging from tax evasion to “other criminal activity.” This is just another example of […]
A classified report to Congress by the Pentagon, obtained by The Associated Press, fails to disclose the cyber activities employed by the Pentagon. The Senate Armed Services Committee voiced concerns that cyber activities were not included in the quarterly report on clandestine activities. But Assistant Secretary for Special Operations, Mr. Michael Vickers suggests that such emerging high-tech […]