The Achilles Heel of the Financial Giants

The majority of wireless access points located in seven metropolitan financial centers have easy-to-break or nonexistent security, according to a survey conducted by security firm AirTight Networks and published on Wednesday.
The survey, which summarized more than 30 scans in six U.S. cities and London, found that 57 percent of the access points had no security or used Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP), an older and easy-to-hack form of encryption. Almost 40 percent of the insecure wireless networks used enterprise-grade hardware from major vendors, suggesting that they were deployed by companies, not consumers, said Mike Baglietto, director of product marketing for AirTight Networks.
"We thought wireless was mature enough that people should understand the security issues," Baglietto said. "But we saw a lot of open access points, a lot of identities being leaked, and a lot of insecure installations."

This article, if accurate, identifies the more accurate status of our information security systems. Hopefully the results of this survey will prompt the companies in question to get up to speed with the modern standards of computer and information security.

Wireless Security Settings

If you have wireless internet set up in your home or office, the security settings are very important. I found a great article that will lead you step by step through most of your security settings. If any of our friends or family needs help with them, let Jeff or I know and we can walk you through it.

Here is the link to the article:

http://wirelessdefence.org/Contents/Home%20Wireless%20Security%20Tips.htm

No security setting is 100% safe, however if your settings are more difficult than others a hacker may encounter, they may pass you over for easier pickings.

Viking's Vault and NAACP request meeting with Florida Governor Charlie Crist

This week Jeff, Mandy, Veronica, and the NAACP have requested to meet with Florida governor Charlie Crist regarding a case involving a wrongful death of a disabled girl in a local Forida hospital. The NAACP has taken up this case, along with RN Market and Viking's Vault, to try and pursue an appeal.*

*Viking's Vault wants to make it clear that we are not practicing law, we are providing research for this project.

Expert Witness/Information Security Article

The link to the Journal is:

http://www.legal-medical.co.uk/

Don't Leave the Windows Open!

In today's world, many people underestimate how secure their computers are. Would you go on vacation and leave your windows open? Of course not! Why lock the doors if you are just going to leave the windows open? This obvious, but important concept can also be applied to the use of programs called peer to peer (P2P) networks.

If you or your kids have an iPod, they probably want all the newest and hottest songs, right? Many kids go for the sites that are free and easy to use. These "Peer to Peer" (P2P) Networks, such as Limewire, Junglemonkey, MyNapster, BearShare or WinMX essentially open up your computer to talk directly to other computers, rather than through a web site. Users can "share" music, video, images and other types of files easily and with no cost. Unfortunately, the users of these programs will also have access to any other type of file on your hard drive. That means password files, private documents, bank records, anything on your hard drive is fair game. When these types of programs are downloaded, you are no longer in control of the privacy of your computer.
Many of these applications also will automatically install spyware in the same process of installing the program. Spyware can do anything from allowing pop up banners to occur, track your internet surfing habits, or transmit your personal information to a third party.

Recently, blueprints for Marine One, President Obama's new aircraft, were found in a computer in Iran. These incredibly sensitive and private documents were exposed to the public (and ultimately to a non-friendly country to the US) through the use of a peer to peer sharing network. The private hard drive was exposed to file sharing. A user decided to look at the other files on the hard drive, and somehow those files ended up in the hands of another country.

For our friends and family, if you suspect that your computer has been infected by spyware or you would like to make sure that your hard drive has not been compromised by viruses, trojan horses, or other dangerous programs, contact Jeff or I. We can try to run a system check and clean out any offending programs that you may or may not know about.

Here is the link to the report about the stolen blueprints of Marine One, found in an Iranian computer published on Feb. 29, 2009.

http://www.wpxi.com/news/18818589/detail.html

Winter Quarter at DePaul University

This semester we are VERY busy. Jeff is taking 1)Network Security class and 2)Information Security Management. I am taking just one class, Foundations in Network Telecommunications.

For those of our friends/family who are not aware of it, we are acting in several capacities at work.

Writers: We are currently writing two books on protecting yourself from litigation through information security for the Case Strategies conferences in March (San Francisco), April (Tampa), June (Las Vegas) and July (Orlando). Additionally we have been asked to speak at the July Indulge conference in Orlando, and we will be talking about the new stimulus bill that affects HIPAA, and how Legal Nurses can protect themselves by adhering to this regulation.

Legal Department: Veronica has taken on an appeals case in Ohio for a man that appears to have been wrongfully convicted of murder. She is researching the medical foundation of the shaken baby diagnosis, and Jeff and I are researching case law. We have found a case out of the Wisconsin Court of Appeals that is quite similar, and are working with the NAACP to try and get his appeals case heard in Ohio.

Information Security Analysts: We have taken on the tasks of writing the policies, revising procedures relating to credit card processing, implementing PCI standards and other info sec duties.

Talulah (photo below) Hamish (above photo)

Frontiers of Law in China

We are submitting an article to Frontiers of Law in China. We will be writing about "computer security and how it affects legal issues in different countries around the globe. We would like to write it from the perspective of several diverse countries (China, UK and the US) and how they are handling the problem of information security. We would like to focus on the positive ways each country handles their computer security issues, it will help readers understand the challenges that face each unique country. Readers will develop mutual respect as we all look for technology and solutions that will help us in our quest to keep people's private information safe."

The editor wrote back: Amanda 发件人"The topic you presented would be quite interesting to our journal 答复, please have it submitted to my e-mail when it is complete. 姜芙蓉 "

Now we will be published in three countries!