HP CHALLENGES AMAZON ON CLOUD

By M.S.Welles

Challenging Amazon.com, HP is offering infrastructure as a service from its own state-of-the-art data centers.

Offering a 99% guaranteed uptime service level agreement and private cloud services, HP is using its own data centers in Tulsa, Oklahoma and Wynyard, England.

HP SLAs will include an operational recovery time objective (RTO) of one hour for a virtual machine and 7 hours for a physical server.

SUBSCRIBERS URGE NETFLIX TO KEEP DVD-BY-MAIL OPTION

By D.E.Levine

While Netflix seeks to cut back on its DVD-by-mail option, subscribers are urging the company to retain this option. Started originally as a mail order company that shipped DVDs to subscribers' homes and offices in red envelopes, Netflix debuted a streaming media option in 2010 which has increased in popularity. However, according to subscribers, there are still plenty of people who want to use DVDs and use the option regularly.

MASSIVE DATA BREACH HITS BOSTON HOSPITALS

By D.E.Levine

The tale is so simplistic and yet bizarre that it reads like a fiction story. Once upon a time a Boston Globe reporter was dropping off his trash at the local recycling station and he discovered tens of thousands of paper pathology records from four hospitals.

Needless to say, practices and policies in place at the four hospitals require that pathology records, in any form, be kept private and confidential.

Finding those records at the recycling plant constitutes a major data security breach for Carney Hospital, Holyoke Medical Center, Milford Regional Medical Center and Milton Hospital.

Investigation showed that the records were dumped by the former owner of a billing company who sold the company around June 1st. They covered a time period of 2007 to 2010. The new owner retained only 2010 pathology records.

GOOGLE'S CLOUD SECURITY

By D.E.Levine

Google's decision to offer two-factor authentication for Google Apps is an indication that the idea of multi factor authentication is in the forefront of thoughts on Cloud security.

Google's approach is to use a smartphone instead of a token or smart card. After an administrator sets up authentication so that two forms of identification are required to sign into an account, a user will enter his/her password (something he/she knows), the system sends a verification code to the individual's smartphone (something he/she has).

With the use of a smartphone where messages can be sent by SMS, a voice call or an application installed on the phone, the problem of carrying around a separate token for each application, is solved.

The lack of need for multiple tokens could be a huge bonus for cloud applications since users could carry many different credentials for numerous cloud-based services on the same physical smartphone.

Whether or not this is going to be a viable solution remains to be seen via use and monitoring.

NEW DOD CYBERSECURITY UNIT

By D.E.Levine

In response to a 2008 worm that spread on defense networks via a flash drive and resulted in leaking information to a foreign nation, the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) has created a new organization in Fort Meade, Maryland.

The organization is called the U.S. Cyber Command. It is led by General Keith Alexander, director of the National Security Agency (NSA).

The new unit will be a 24-by-7 operation and will play a central role in national cybersecurity. Gen. Alexander advocates that when the unit becomes fully operational October 1st, a "secure. protected zone" be created on the Internet.

This secure zone would be used by financial , defense and electrical utility industries. If this zone is created it means that part of the Internet will be cordoned off s critical Infrastructure while the rest of the Internet will be used by the general public and will remain unaffected.

While it's possible to create the zone, satisfying all the individuals and corporations involved - reaching consensus - is the difficult thing.

Gen. Alexander has stated that The White House is leading a group that is evaluating cybersecurity policy and the agencies and authorities that are in place to protect the nation's networks.

Each military branch has its own unit that will support U.S. Cyber Command's mission.

It's long been speculated that if an attack were made on the Internet and the network infrastructure that the U.S., depends on, it could bring the country to a standstill and seriously jeopardize the nation's security and communications.

U.S. Cyber Command has limitations. It will be responsible for d defending DOD networks from attack and helping the Department of Homeland Security defend other government networks from attack. It will also be on alert to conduct offensive cyber operations.

Whether or not U.S. Cyber Command achieves a broader function will be up to the White House and Congress.

One of the areas where Alexander sees the organization being helpful is in protecting companies that deal in the defense sector. The premise behind this is to protect these companies in a manner analogous to the protection government agencies will have.

With a $120 million budget for the 2010 fiscal year, slated to grow to $150 million for the 2011 fiscal year, Alexander and the White House hope that U.S. Cyber Command will provide a strong defense of the government DOD-related networks.

SOCIAL NETWORKING WITHIN COMPANIES?

By K.C.Bishoppe

Social networking has become increasingly popular in society worldwide. Because of the success and ease of use, IT is under a lot of pressure to develop and deliver similar collaboration tools for use within companies.

Despite the pressure only about 10% of users are actually adopting social networks within firms.

Looking deeper into the reasons why the popular social network tools are widely used outside of
companies and aren't readily adopted inside brings some interesting facts to light.

There are some practical reasons. A recent Enterprise Survey found that the internal collaborative tools aren't attached to email and other apps. Furthermore, it's difficult to bring information from the external Web into the internal social networks.

Of course, from a security perspective, it turns out that companies aren't monitoring what people are actually doing on the internal platforms. Since major social networks like Facebook have had problems with privacy and security, it's safe to say that companies need to proceed cautiously with internal social networking and implement adequate security policies and procedures.

MEANINGFUL USE OF ELECTRONIC HEALTH RECORDS MAY YIELD INCENTIVES

By M.S.Welles

Four major commercial insurers recently announced programs for the use of electronic health records that may result in additional private sector incentives.

Aetna, Inc., UnitedHealth Group, WellPoint, Inc. and Highmark Inc. will align their pay-for-performance programs with federal meaningful use criteria.

In some instances an increased P4P payment will be made, while in others demonstrating meaningful use will become the criteria for P4P payments.