“Doctor, Help Fix My Cold and My Identity?”
Four years; yes, you read that correctly, four years later approximately one thousand patients of Riverside Health System of Virginia were notified they were victims of a privacy breach. The fact that a healthcare provider was breached seems to be a common headline in the news these days. Personally what makes this breach even more interesting was the fact that it was discovered after a random audit. Riverside Health System spokesperson Peter Glagola said in a statement, “We have a robust com…
Tis the Season to be Compliant
There’s no denying it’s that magical time of the year again. One can sense in the air all around them the graceful falling of snowflakes, the soothing tones of seasonal choruses, the faint smell of fresh pine, and, of course, the blaring car horns and shouted expletives of drivers stuck in traffic trying to get to their local mall.
Yes, I am obviously referring to the gradual and upcoming end of the 2013 holiday shopping season – a time that, contrary to popular belief, generally does not co…
Discovering ITAR Related Content
This is a follow-up to a previous blog post of mine. In my first post on Export Control Compliance, I tried to explain what ITAR is and why it’s important for defense contractors, manufacturers, and suppliers. Knowing or learning about it is great, but what we have learned from conversations with current customers is that discovering high-risk, sensitive USML related content is something that many organizations in the defense industry have struggled with in the past.
Traditional enterprise…
Export Control Compliance
I was asked the other day by a colleague: “What is ITAR (International Traffic in Arms Regulations) compliance and why is it important?” So my research commenced. My findings, plentiful to say the least, was that ITAR, along with the Export Administration Regulations (EAR), is two of the most important United States Government export control laws.
From the United States Department of State website, ITAR is a set of regulations responsible for the control of the permanent and temporary expo…
CSSF 13/554 Decoded
One of the many undeniable facts of the 21st century is that we live in a time of ever-expanding globalization. People everywhere are connected. Events that occur at opposite ends of the earth can make ripples in various places across the entire world. So, when a document from the “Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier” in Luxembourg entitled, “Circular CSSF 13/554” (CSSF for short) came across our desks earlier last week, we dove right into it. Finding the translation of the legal …
3 Important Things to Know About the 2013 HIPAA Omnibus Rule
Although the HIPAA Omnibus rule was implemented on March 26th, 2013, businesses everywhere were given roughly 6 months to comply with the new standards. Fast forward 180 days and as it would appear the deadline has passed four days ago, on September 23rd. This means that if you are the member of a company or business in the healthcare industry (or have direct relation to it), and are somehow hearing about this for the first time through me (you’re welcome), it’s probably time to become compli…
Putting Unstructured Data Into Context
WHAT THE ‘COSMOS’ CAN TEACH US ABOUT UNSTRUCTURED DATA
How is it that something can be so incredibly large and minutely small at the same time? If you’re as fascinated by natural science as I am, then you’re likely also watching Neil deGrasse Tyson’s reboot of the ‘Cosmos’ series. Maybe it makes you think about planets, our solar system, or maybe our galaxy. You may have thought about it in the opposite direction, in the context of atoms, neutrons, electrons, and protons. Regardless of which …
What the Adobe Data Breach Means for Your Organization
The data breach at Adobe Systems Inc. is turning out to be worse than previously reported. Back in early October, Adobe announced that approximately 3 million accounts were compromised and that these “sophisticated” attacks accessed customer IDs, encrypted passwords, and other personally identifiable information. Additionally, Adobe announced that source code from multiple products had been stolen, including Adobe Photoshop, the widely popular tool for photographers. Fast forward a couple of …
Remember, Remember…
Remember, remember the 5th of November! If you’re a fan of the film “V for Vendetta” or just happened to know a thing or two about history, this phrase likely popped into your head as you looked at the calendar this morning, realizing that today marks the yearly occasion known as Guy Fawkes Day. For those of you that don’t know, this holiday came to be in early England, where a man named Guy Fawkes was arrested on November 5th while taking guard over a pile of explosives that had been planted…
New Year’s Resolutions
As 2013 begins to wrap itself up and the planning for this year’s “wilder-than-last-year” New Year’s Eve Party moves into the execution phase, many will reflect upon the events of the last 365 days. More specifically, people all around the world will ponder whether or not they were, in fact, able to finally accomplish whatever resolution they had previous put before themselves exactly one year ago. Some will look back and have feelings of achievement. Some (many) will look back in sadness and…
