Fifty-six (56) percent of employees are using their personal computers as their company’s go remote in response to COVID-19 according to the Work-from-Home (WFH) Employee Cybersecurity Threat Index released by Morphisec.

Michael Bruemmer is Vice President of the Data Breach Resolution group and Consumer Protection at Experian. Why does he believe security serve as a calming force during the COVID-19 pandemic?

Security awareness training is no longer a “nice-to-have” for organizations. End users have become a critical component of effective security postures. Employees must have a strong understanding of cybersecurity best practices and learn how to detect and defend against targeted attacks. This shift in priority is needed to address an ongoing trend in the larger threat landscape. Cybercriminals have moved away from complicated, time-consuming technical exploits to concentrate on end users, a large and frequently vulnerable attack surface. Small or large, nearly every attack now begins in the same way: by relentlessly targeting people through email, social networks, and/or cloud and mobile applications.

The Overseas Security Advisory Council (OSAC) announced that its Annual Briefing will be held as a virtual event this November, during the week of November 16.

A new Kansas emergency bill passed earlier this week includes the COVID-19 Contact Tracing Privacy Act, which aims to protect the privacy of persons whose information is collected through contact tracing and the confidentiality of contact data. 

In a Federal Information Security Modernization Act of 2014 report filed with Congress last week, the White House says the number of cybersecurity incidents recorded at US federal agencies in 2019 went down by 8 percent.

There has been a 400 percent increase in attempted hacks since February 2020 coinciding with a period when the maritime industry turned to greater use of technology and working from home due to the Coronavirus pandemic, according to Israeli cybersecurity specialist Naval Dome. 

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Chairman Neil Chatterjee announced the selection of Mittal Desai to serve as the Commission’s Chief Information Officer, effective June 7, 2020. Desai currently is a Senior Advisor and Risk Analyst in FERC’s Office of the Executive Director.

Ryan Smith has been selected as Intermountain Healthcare’s new vice president and chief information officer (CIO) after an extensive nationwide search following the announcement of Marc Probst’s upcoming retirement.