Daily Report Thursday, December 14, 2006

Daily Highlights


The Chicago Sun.Times reports that because of the theft of a company laptop computer, 382,000 Boeing Co. retirees and active workers are at risk of identity theft and credit.card fraud. (See item 6)
·
The Trust for America's Health's fourth annual report, Ready or Not? Protecting the Public's Health From Disease, Disasters, and Bioterrorism, says America remains under.prepared to protect the public's health in the event of bioterrorism, bird flu, or other emergencies. (See item 25)
·
The New York Times reports that in simultaneous dawn raids, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents swept into six Swift & Company meatpacking plants, Tuesday, December 12, rounding up hundreds of immigrant workers in what was described as a vast criminal investigation of identity theft. (See item 28)

Information Technology and Telecommunications Sector

32.
December 13, IDG News Service — Expert warns on wireless security in Asia. The fast growth in wireless Internet use throughout Asia leaves users vulnerable to data theft over unsecured networks and lost or stolen mobile devices, a security expert warned Tuesday, December 12. Citrix Systems Inc. Chief Security Officer Kurt Roemer said during an interview that trends in Asia suggest increasing vulnerability as time goes on because wireless use is growing much faster than fixed.line use in many countries. Japan, for example, is a global leader in developing 3G (third.generation) mobile networks and applications, which is increasing demand for smarter phones that can handle more data and computing work .. the kind that increases the likelihood of stolen data. And in developing countries such as China and India, there are more wireless networks going up than fixed.line networks, a danger because fixed.line networks are easier to secure. Mobile devices themselves are also cause for security concern. Hard drive memory space is growing so fast that users can keep an awful lot of sensitive information on one device, he said.
Source: http://www.infoworld.com/article/06/12/13/HNasiawirelesssecu rity_1.html

33. December 13, VNUNet — Firms still struggling with compliance regulations. Compliance management is still largely a manual process which forces many IT organizations to devote "major staff resources" to reporting, new research has revealed. Among organizations with more than 5,000 employees, 80 percent require four or more full.time employees to manage data compliance, with 24 percent needing more than 10, according to a new Oracle Applications Users Group survey. The report found that, despite years of effort and millions of dollars of investment, nearly 61 percent of companies have not yet completed implementation of their Sarbanes.Oxley (SOX) compliance processes. At the same time, about 64 percent of those tracking SOX metrics have already identified deficiencies within their financial/ERP database environments related to SOX. The survey is based on the responses of more than 200 enterprise IT managers and professionals.
Source: http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2170894/firms.struggling.compliance

34. December 13, CNET News — Symantec files piracy lawsuit. Symantec announced Wednesday, December 13, it filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against a network of eight businesses and seven individuals, alleging they reaped an estimated $15 million in profits from pirated copies of Symantec's most popular security software. The lawsuit, filed in a U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, comes after an investigation of more than two years, the company says. The lawsuit names ANYI, SILI, GT Micro, ASP Solutions, Mark Ma, Mike Lee, John Zhang and other affiliates as defendants. "ANYI, SILI and their affiliates run a global counterfeit distribution operation with a major focus in the United States and Canada," William Plante, Symantec's senior director of corporate security and brand protection, said in a statement. Symantec alleges the parties engaged in trademark infringement, copyright infringement, fraud, unfair competition and false advertising.
Source: http://news.com.com/Symantec+files+piracy+lawsuit/2100.7348_3.6143352.html?tag=nefd.top