Being that this week revolved around the development and implementation of information security policies, I came across an article earlier this week that helped me develop my issue-specific policy.  This article offers some useful advice and direction that can be taken into consideration when developing an information security policy for a business of almost any kind and size.  The first statement in the article is a powerful message that must be taken into serious consideration by any policy maker, "A security policy is the foundation of a secure network, but it must also balance security with business needs" (Information Week, 2014).  

If you are interested, copy and paste the following link into a web browser.

http://www.networkcomputing.com/secure-networks-how-to-develop-an-information-security-policy/a/d-id/1234642? 

More Data Breach Information

I guess I was a little bit ahead of the curve last week with my post regarding data breaches as this was the main focus for this weeks readings and assignments.  I have found another interesting article during my research this week that discusses the top six data breach trends for 2014.  There are a few interesting hypotheses about upcoming data breach trends and events.  One of the more startling quotes from the article points out that the prevalence or data breaches has reached a level that it is almost expected.  "“The best advice that we give everybody is to have an incident response plan in place because it’s really not a question of if you’re going to have a data breach, but when will it occur,” (Griffin, 2014).

http://www.securityinfowatch.com/article/11292323/experian-data-breach-resolution-forecasts-data-breach-trends-to-watch-in-2014 

Data Breach Information

In the recent wake of the latest data breach that occurred at Home Depot, I decided to look into some of the statistics that are out there regarding these events.  I found some very shocking and interesting data at the link below which was posted on IBM's site.

Visit this article: http://www-935.ibm.com/services/us/en/it-services/security-services/data-breach/

The first stat that pops out right at the time is that in 2013 there were 1.5 million cyber attacks in the U.S. alone!  That is incredible.  There are links to some reports that provide further information about different aspects of security and information security. Some of these, however, require a fee which I was not willing to look into.

One of the study's that was available at the site revealed the following findings:

• The cost of a data breach is on the rise. Most countries saw an uptick in both in the cost per stolen or lost record and in the average total cost of a breach.
• Fewer customers remain loyal after a breach, particularly in the financial services industry.
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• For many countries, malicious or criminal attacks have taken the top spot as the root cause of the data breaches experienced by participating companies.
• For the first time, the research reveals that having business continuity management involved in the remediation of a breach can help reduce the cost.