Executive Director’s Message
by Paul Kurtz, CSIA Executive Director
Welcome back from the August break! The September newsletter offers a preview of our ambitious fall agenda, which highlights our early efforts to expand into Europe. We are pleased to have Andrea Pirotti, Executive Director of the European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA), offer a global perspective on ENISA and its role within the European Union (EU). ENISA was formed in 2004 to develop a culture of network and information security within the EU and its government and business partners. We look forward to future collaboration with Mr. Pirotti and ENISA.
CSIA Expands Its Focus to Europe
Existing and proposed legislation in both the U.S. and Europe addresses cyber security in ways that are having a profound impact on how corporations are doing business. Legislation currently affecting corporations includes the EU’s e-Privacy Directive, Basel II, Sarbanes-Oxley and Gramm-Leach-Bliley. In addition, many other laws related to data retention and securing sensitive information are in the pipeline.
What is often lost in the debate around regulations is the international perspective that is so crucial in our global economy. For multi-national corporations, reconciling the requirements of regulations in the countries in which they do business presents a daunting challenge...
Global Perspectives
i2010
Viviane Reding, Commissioner for the Information Society, presented the Commission’s Communication on i2010 to the Telecoms Council (consisting of Ministerial representatives from each of the 25 EU member states) on 27 June 2005. Member states welcomed the proposal. In a speech delivered at the EU-Japan Business Dialogue Round Table on 8 July, Commissioner Reding spoke about “the challenge of security”. She said that “Security is only as good as the weakest link. (…) Significant investment in security measures on one part of a network can be dramatically undermined by the presence of unprotected machines elsewhere on the network. In addition, in a global world these threats have no geographical boundaries and international cooperation is also required to address the problem properly.“
Report on the Anti-Spyware Coalition Meeting
Last month in Chicago, the Anti-Spyware Coalition (ASC) met to review public feedback on their documents. The Coalition now consists of 29 members representing anti-spyware vendors and public interests groups. The group updated their definitions, dispute resolution, and safety tips documents based on feedback received from the general public. The Coalition created a report responding to the public comments and explaining the decision to update the documents. Next, the Coalition will roll out the final documents on October 27 (in conjunction with National Cyber Security Awareness Month), so they can be adopted and considered as generally accepted industry practices.
CSIA Member Spotlight
About PGP Corporation
About PGP Corporation: The global customer standard for encryption and digital signature solutions, PGP Corporation (www.pgp.com) develops, markets, and supports an integrated data security suite used by more than 30,000 enterprises, businesses, and governments worldwide, including 84% of the Fortune 100, 66% of the Fortune Global 100, and thousands of individuals and cryptography experts. Customers depend on PGP solutions for regulatory and audit compliance, to protect confidential company information, to secure customer data, and to keep identity information private.
Securing the Flat World
When you phone your airline to make a flight reservation, you may be talking to Betty who is sitting in her bedroom in Utah, wearing her slippers and enjoying the view. When Betty takes down your credit card number, the information is sent to an outsourced data center in Colorado, Shanghai or Bangalore.
We are not talking about science fiction here. This is a real-life example. Thomas L. Friedman, foreign correspondent for the New York Times, uses this case to illustrate how the world has not only become a global village, but has actually flattened since the turn of the millennium. If you have not already read his best-selling book The World Is Flat, get a copy today.
Government Spotlight:
ENISA (EU Network and Information Security Agency)
by Andrea PIrotti, Executive Director of ENISA
Is there life without the Internet?
How would our lives be without the computer screens in our offices and schools, the mobile phones, and all the IT in our cars working properly? And even worse, a malfunctioning Internet? This month the new EU agency for network and information security, ENISA, started its activities in Crete. Just as Botticelli depicts the “Birth of Spring” in Crete, Crete is the cradle for much of the European culture. And now the new ENISA staff from all over Europe joined forces on 1 September in Crete to foster a new culture: a culture of security for Internet and networks to function appropriately. A total of 44 officials will eventually staff this pivotal European information security centre.
So, what are ENISA’s tasks?...