A recent Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) study (commissioned by McAfee) estimates the annual cost to business from cybercrime at $445 billion. The direct and indirect costs come from loss of intellectual property, theft of financial assets and sensitive data, opportunity costs, costs to secure networks, and recovery from attacks.

If you haven’t already heard, Target, and its security auditor, Trustwave, have been sued over the data breach that occurred during last year’s Christmas shopping season.

As a leading manufacturer of digital forensic write blocking and imaging tools, we work with many digital forensics educational programs, and want to make sure that educational staff, institutions, labs, and students have access to the latest technology.

Yesterday, we learned of yet another data security breach: 15,000 current and former New York MTA employees had their personal data exposed on a CD that was found in a CD drive that had been refurbished and subsequently sold. The employee data on the CD was easily readable, but fortunately for all concerned, the buyer of the CD drive was a technology security official who happens to work for a New York City Transit vendor--and who reported what he'd discovered. People are not always that lucky when their personal data pops up in unexpected places, whether by design or accident.

When you’re a business owner or self-employed, your computer(s) are crucial to how you you earn a living. You’ve a lot to manage with your business, let alone worrying about backup and how you might recover from a disaster or computer failure.

I recently received an email from Kickstarter, stating they were alerted by law enforcement that there had been a security breach.

Welcome to a new year! College bowl games (in my house, anyway) and resolutions are themes of the day, and it’s also that time when people start thinking about getting better organized and making plans for the year, both personally and on the business front. Data safety and integrity are crucial issues for any business, and with the headlines coming all the time about security breaches (the latest being Target, Snapchat, and Skype), it’s time to think about whether you’re doing your best to look after your business data. Computer backup plans, encryption, and offsite copies of data that you can get to quickly in case disaster (mother nature or plumbing) strikes are important to build into your daily business routines. If you need help, let us know. We have some ideas on how to help you get started or who to point you to if you like.