Say farewell to the old year with a look at four of the top 2009 events that our experts believe have changed the face of data security for businesses going forward…

• Heartland Payment Systems breach – Termed by some as “the world’s biggest data breach to date”, hundreds of millions of payment cards were compromised. Heartland leadership was visible and vocal throughout the year, championing end-to-end encryption and sharing lessons learned from this incident for which the company created an $82.9 Million reserve.
• Social Networking – Once confined to personal catch-up and sharing of lifestyle news, online video, digital updates, and revealing profiles have scaled the firewall into the business world. Companies tweet new product announcements; HR recruiters troll virtually for job candidates; brands clamor for social media dollars in the annual marketing budget – in an ethereal space easily accessed and equally vulnerable.
• Red Flags Rule – Claiming headlines for months as governing bodies as well as businesses grappled with specifics (a struggle which contributed to extensions of the compliance deadline), the looming requirements of the Red Flags Rule has prompted creditors to develop the required written Identity Theft Prevention Program (ITPP) to detect, prevent, and reduce the possibility of identity theft.
• American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009/Division A/Title XIII or ‘Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act´´ or the “HITECH Act´´- Following a breach of unsecured protected health information covered entities must provide notification of the breach to affected individuals, certain regulatory entities, and, in certain circumstances, to the media within 60 days of when the breach was known or when the organization reasonably “should have known” about the breach.

Tags: Heartland Payment Systems breach, HITECH Act, Red Flags Rule, social networking vulnerability

Categories: Data Security Industry.