Internet Growth Continues To Boom
ake a quick look at this report and the increases in bandwidth usage in the past five years. The next four years show that it is not expected to slow down its robust growth.
“The report notes that global IP traffic has increased by a factor of eight times in the last five years and will increase by another factor of four in the next five years.”
HIPAA IS Leading Concern FOR CIOs
IPswitch conducted a recent survey of 100,000 end users who were asked about their most challenging compliance issues. According to the survey, compliance with the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was the clear winner for the top spot. Of the 100,000, 38.2% chose HIPAA and second place came in at 29.3% held by Sarbanes Oxley Act (SOX). The next closest competitor for IT concern was compliance with the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) at a mere 9.2.
Beware Of How You Answer Audit Or Assessment Questions
If you are regulated under any of the myriad government and industry regulations from ITAR, FIPS, CLETS and PCI, to HIPAA and Red flags, the process of responding to security, integrity, and availability verification is not a simple exercise. It is more than answering questions in the positive. Polices, procedures and declarations of compliance are contracts with your company, partners, clients and government regulatory bodies. What do I mean?
Balance of Sensitivity and Marketing Without Crossing into Self-Indulgence or Gratuitous Promotions.
Comedian Gilbert Godfrey lost his job with Aflac for making a joke about the Japanese tsunami. So too did an aide to Mississippi Gov. Hayley Barbour for the same reason. And some government officials and activities are catching criticism for using the crisis to grand stand on their favorite environmental and energy causes.
What Can We Learn From The Disaster In Japan?
Disasters are a horrible thing. We can only hope to never have our lives and loved ones involved first hand. But disasters do happen and almost all of us will experience the pain and misery ourselves at different points in our lives. The key is to mitigate the loss and pain through careful preparation. During a disaster our first concern will be for the safety and protection of those closest to us. Once that is secured, we will all begin the transition back to normal life and work.
I have had many tell me that in a disaster they are not going to care about their servers and the PCs at the office. That is true however, at some point, normal life must return. So how do you do that? You must have a disaster recovery plan in place. It must have several components:
1.7 Million Patient Records In Massive Data Heist At NYC Hospitals
All I can say is “WOW!” I wonder how much this is going to cost the hospitals. How much damage is done to their reputation? What kind of government settlement, oversight and years of scrutiny will this cost the hospitals when the regulatory agencies are done negotiating with them on penalties and remediation?
Here is the gist of the story:
Thieves made off with the personal health records of an estimated 1.7 million New Yorkers' when they stole backup tapes from four Bronx hospitals In December. According to statement issued by the 14-hospital system on Feb. 11, computer backup tapes were stolen containg the records. The report came just days after the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation began notifying victims Feb. 9. While it took HHC nearly two months before reporting the data breach, it was well within the 60-day period required by New York state law.
