Organizations often fall victim to cyber-attacks despite the availability of abundant security choices and proven best practices, compromising customer data and their own reputation in the process.
Toronto, ON, December 31, 2009 — Winter holidays are a time of outlandish claims about losses attributed to hackers, fraud and cybercrime. Unfortunately, many of these claims remain unfounded due to the lack of significant breach notification and reporting. With media reporting of credit card losses, identity theft, ATM breaches and online fraud, consumers know only one thing: there are threats against their financial and personal well-being.
According to Canadian security and privacy consultant Claudiu Popa [who blogs about the topic at blog.ClaudiuPopa.com]: “The wrong approach is to overwhelm the public with misinformation and to exaggerate the threat. The right approach is to illustrate the risk and offer simple, achievable methods for mitigating it”. Claudiu Popa is president of Toronto-based Informatica Security Corporation and the author of the Canadian Privacy and Security Toolkit, published by the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants:
“The reason I blog and tweet about this type of thing is not to be trendy, but to reach consumers and educate them in an attempt to restore a modicum of control and awareness about the exact nature of the risk”. Informatica’s consulting and training solutions are entirely aimed at the enterprise and SME market but the company’s Web site hosts a number of free resources that may be used by individuals to enhance their computer’s security and protect their own identity.
Popa recommends that consumers simply exercise vigilance and awareness when faced with potential security risks:
1.Click on the SSL lock icon on browsers to verify ownership of the site and ensure that HTTPS is on every page that collects sensitive information
2.Read the Privacy Policy on all the sites you do business with. Refuse to do business with sites that use templated policies or non-existent ones
3.Stick with the well known sites and well known payment processing services
4.Do not provide more information that you know is necessary
5.Avoid clicking on links in promotional emails, preferring instead to type in the well known site address
6.Never hesitate to pick up the phone and call the vendor for additional assurance
7.Scrutinize credit card statements and visit the Cybercrime Reporting page on the Informatica site, should you need to report any wrongdoing
For more information or to request an interview, contact Claudiu Popa.
About Informatica Security Corporation
Informatica Security offers IT and security governance solutions that span the entire range of information risk best practices.
Founded in 1989, Informatica Security and Privacy is a leading information risk management consulting firm focused on providing unmatched expertise to enable client organizations to control and mitigate information security risks, meet compliance challenges, alleviate the effects of wrongsourcing and adopt proven standards and best practices for exceptional governance. The firm’s FlexSecure™ risk assessments and professional audits, FlexProtect™ security management, STORM™ (Scalable Techniques for Operational Risk Management) and WorkLife™ Security and Privacy Awareness training solutions are proven best-of-breed solutions that scale to meet the business and compliance requirements of diverse industries.
For additional information, please visit www.PrivacyImpact.com and www.PrivacyImpactAssessment.com.
Informatica Security and Privacy, Informatica Education, Informatica Research, the Informatica logo, FlexSecure™, FlexProtect™ and WorkLife™, VirtualCSO™ and VirtualCPO™ are trademarks or service marks of Informatica Corporation. All Informatica white papers, proprietary research, Web site content, presentations, communications, policies and Informatica-branded documentation are Copyright © Informatica Corporation and permission must be specifically granted for use by any party. All other brands or product names are trademarks of their respective companies, organizations or standards bodies.
For media enquiries and enterprise engagements contact:
Claudiu Popa, CISSP, PMP, CISA, CIPP, CRMP , President & CSO, Informatica Corporation, 416-431-9012 [email protected]
On the web: LinkedIN.ClaudiuPopa.com, Twitter.ClaudiuPopa.com, Book.ClaudiuPopa.com, Blog.ClaudiuPopa.com
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Contact:
Claudiu Popa
President & CSO
Informatica Corporation
Toronto, ON
416-431-9012
[email protected]
http://www.InformaticaSecurity.com
