Executive Director’s Message
by Paul Kurtz, CSIA Executive Director
The holidays are upon us, and Congress will be working long hours to tie up loose ends before the year's end. CSIA has focused our efforts this past month on some key items that Congress is currently working through, particularly data breach notification and spyware legislation.
CSIA Testifies Before House Armed Services Committee Panel
On October 27, CSIA Executive Director Paul Kurtz testified before a House Armed Services Committee panel to outline critical issues facing the Department of Defense (DoD) in the areas of information assurance and information superiority.
National Electronic Health Records: How Close Are We?
In early 2005, President George W. Bush called for the implementation of a national electronic health records (EHR) system in an effort to reduce health care costs and medical errors. To reap the benefits that will come with wide use of EHRs — efficiency and error avoidance — the systems must be secure. Few people will rely upon EHRs unless they are certain that their private medical information is safe from prying eyes or malicious hackers.
FBI and Partners Create Website to Help Prevent Cyber Scams
On October 31, the Federal Bureau of Investigation joined with partners in launching a new Website to educate the public about Internet schemes. The website also acts as a central place for consumers to file complaints. Lou Reigel, the FBI's head Cyber executive, called the new site "a significant step forward in the fight against cyber crime." He noted the importance of educating the public as a means of fighting scams that are not confined by national or international boundaries.
Global Perspectives
i2010
The American Chamber of Commerce to the European Union (AmCham EU) published a position paper on i2010 on 13 October 2005. The paper states that "ensuring secure networks will be crucial to the provision of user-friendly value added services. The 2006 review of the Electronic Communications Directives provides the opportunity to further explicitly acknowledge the difference between legitimate e-marketers that can be effectively regulated by privacy legislation and spammers who need to be tackled by cybercrime legislation and related agencies...
CSIA Member Spotlight
About Citrix
About Citrix: Citrix Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq:CTXS) is the global leader and most trusted name in on-demand access. More than 160,000 organizations around the world use the Citrix Access Platform to provide the best possible access experience to any application for any user. Citrix customers include 100% of the Fortune 100 companies and 99% of the Fortune Global 500, as well as hundreds of thousands of small businesses and individuals. Citrix has approximately 6,200 channel and alliance partners in more than 100 countries. Citrix annual revenues in 2004 were $741 million.
Delivering Secure Access for Healthcare
While patient confidentiality has always been a concern in the healthcare field throughout the world, data security increasingly is a legal requirement and critical to achieving regulatory compliance with laws that mandate stringent access to, and protection of, information. In the U.S., for example, the Health Insurance Accountability and Portability Act (HIPAA) and other laws have brought stringent requirements. Failure to meet these requirements can result in heavy fines and even prison terms. Security is also becoming more stringently controlled in Europe through such recent regulations as Common Criteria and FIPS-140.
Congressional Spotlight: Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT)
Biography: Chris Dodd is a senior Democratic leader in the United States Senate who has championed children’s issues, worked to streamline government, and has been a consistent leader on high-tech issues. Sen. Dodd has sought to bring the benefits of the digital economy to all Americans...
Nominate the RSA Conference 2006 Excellence in Public Policy Award Winner!
Each year, the industry-wide RSA Conference presents awards for excellence in a variety of categories. For the second straight year, the award for public policy is co-sponsored by the Cyber Security Industry Alliance. Nominations will be judged by CSIA members, and Executive Director Paul Kurtz will present the award to the recipient(s).