Business Cyber Risk

Scientists warn brain implants can be hacked and used to control people (and you thought I was kidding?)

Posted on October 31, 2018October 31, 2018 by Shawn E. Tuma

Back in early 2012, I wrote a blog post about whether hacking a human would violate the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. Shortly after publishing it, I received a call from a guy in Austin who said: “dude, someone finally gets it, I need your help!” … I responded that I was a lawyer, not a psychiatrist and that I was just kidding when I wrote that, kinda.

Now, here we are 6 years later and it seems this is becoming a thing more and more of a thing. What do you think? Vulnerabilities in brain implants used to treat Parkinson’s disease could be hacked by cyber attackers and used to control people, scientists have claimed.

Come to our session at #PSR18 – Vendor Risk Management: Maintaining Relationships While Limiting Liability

Posted on October 17, 2018 by Shawn E. Tuma

Are you at IAPP – International Association of Privacy Professionals P.S.R. #PSR18 in Austin? If so, please come to our Thursday 10:30 – 11:30 session on Vendor Risk Management: Maintaining Relationships While Limiting Liability in Lone Star Ballroom A, Level 3. It should be great as I get to be with great panelists Tami Dokken and Melissa Krasnow and we will have Mark Smith as our moderator.

While you’re there pick up your copy of Bloomberg BNA’s Domestic Privacy Profile: Texas!

If you can’t make it, here is a link to the .pdf (hey, I know people!).

Session Info: https://iapp.org/conference/privacy-security-risk/sessions-psr18/?id=a191a0000028eqTAAQ

Key Lesson All Business Leaders Can Learn From the Anthem Data Breach Case

Posted on October 16, 2018 by Shawn E. Tuma

The 2015 Anthem data breach affected 79 million people and was the largest health-care data breach in U.S. history. The affected consumers sued Anthem in a case that settled for a record $115 million. Now the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services’ Office of Civil Rights has reached a settlement with Anthem for a record $16 million — an amount that is almost three times the next-largest OCR data breach settlement of $5.55 million.

While these numbers are interesting, what is the takeaway for business leaders?

It all started with an employee opening and responding to a phishing email:

Anthem discovered cyber-attackers had infiltrated their system through spear phishing emails sent to an Anthem subsidiary after at least one employee responded to the malicious email and opened the door to further attacks. (HHS Press Release)

While this may be shocking, it is neither new nor unexpected. Most cyber incidents are a result of failures of basic cyber hygiene, not super sophisticated James Bond-like attacks. Read more about this in 1 Step to Improve Your Company’s Cybersecurity Today.

Trump and Kanye West Bring Emphasis to #CyberAware Cybersecurity Awareness Month With Password Example

Posted on October 15, 2018 by Shawn E. Tuma

October is National Cyber Security Awareness Month in the United States. There is excellent cyber awareness content available by going to #CyberAware and #CyberAvengers hashtags on Twitter and visiting The #CyberAvengers Website for free resources, including this free Good Cyber Hygiene Checklist.

President Trump and Kanye West put a big ‘ole Texas-sized exclamation point on the [need for?] #CyberAware campaign with Kanye’s password demonstration while on national tv in the Oval Office.

Politicos will spin this a million ways. Security folks will go back and forth between laughing and crying — and maybe do both at the same time. But, the important thing is that we learn from this and use it as an example to help educate others. I thought there was no better way to do that than by putting “Trump”, “Kanye West”, “Password”, “Cybersecurity”, and “#CyberAware” in the title — how’s that for getting a wide range of attention? 🙂

All joking aside, what are the most important lessons you take away from this example and can you use this lightning rod example to help educate your team, family, and friends about good cyber hygiene?