Crossing the valley of death of clinical trial monitoring

When hype exceeds adoption As a matter of fact, hype always succeeds adoption and rightly so – because hype is a way of getting our attention and getting us to try out a new product or service. But how can we discern substance from online marketing content? As a new hire at Intel, I wrote weekly progress […]

Dealing with DLP and privacy

Dealing with DLP and privacy It’s a long hot summer here in the Middle East and with 2/3 of  the office out on vacation, you have some time to reflect on data security. Or on the humidity.  Or on a cold beer. Maybe you are working on building a business case for DLP technology like Websense or Symantec or Verdasys, or Mcafee or Fidelis in […]

10 ways to detect employees who are a threat to PHI

Software Associates specializes in software security and privacy compliance for medical device vendors in Israel.   One of the great things about working with Israeli medical device vendors is the level of innovation, drive and abundance of smart people. It’s why I get up in the morning. Most people who don’t work in security, assume […]

The best cybersecurity strategy may be counter-terror

Danny Lieberman  suggests that a demand-side strategy with peer-review may work best  for cyber-security. A conventional military paradigm does not work for cyber-security Government cyber  security policy, molded by the military; traditionally frames cyber-security in the context of a defensive strategy based on intelligence gathering, threat analysis,  modeling and  monitoring  with  deployment of defensive network […]

Is network PVR the best direction for the big studios ?

The distribution of video over multicast-broadcast networks and content storage at by users with Windows PCs and PVRs has created a huge threat surface for digital content. Typical to flawed security countermeasures, HDCP and AACS exacerbate and enlarge the threat surface rather than enhance revenues and reduce risk. In this article we will show that […]

Weekly security lessons learned

We specialize in security and compliance for the health care and bio-med space, helping clients build  security into their products, instead of bolting it on later. There are plenty of challenges to go around and it often seems like you’re trying to drink from a fire-hose.  Lots of water,  a few drops into your mouth, […]

Why your IT vendor doesn’t want you to do a risk analysis

Did you ever have a feeling that your IT integrator was treating you like a couple of guys selling you a Persian rug?  “Take it now – it’s so beautfiful, just perfect for your living room, a steal  for only $10,000 and it’s on sale” and when you ask if it will last, they tell […]

10 guidelines for a security audit

What exactly is the role of an information security auditor?  In some cases, such as compliance  by Level 1 and 2 merchants with PCI DSS 2.0,  external audit is a condition to PCI DSS 2.0 compliance.   In the case of ISO 27001, the audit process is a key to achieving ISO 27001 certification (unlike […]

Giving ISO 27001 business context

ISO 27001 is arguably the most comprehensive information security framework available today. Moreover, it is a vendor neutral standard. However – ISO 27001 doesn’t relate to assets or asset value and doesn’t address business context which requires prioritizing security controls and their costs.  This article discusses the benefits of performing an ISO 27001 based risk […]

The 7 deadly sins of software security

Companies spend millions on compliance, but proprietary assets are still getting ripped off by insiders and hackers who compromise buggy, poor-designed applications. Here are 7 software development mistakes you don’t want to make in 2011. 7. Don’t KISS If my experience is any indication – the software industry as a whole is wasting hundreds of millions […]