Network Endpoint Security News - Watch Your End

The UK Information Commissioner is to be given sweeping new powers to fine those in Whitehall and private companies who deliberately or recklessly lose confidential personal information, Jack Straw, the justice secretary, disclosed yesterday.
The level of fines, which is still being negotiated, could in the worst cases run to millions of pounds.

Straw is also considering a ban on the sale of information from the electoral register, after more than 1,600 complaints to the information commissioner about the online misuse of people’s details. They included a police officer whose family’s name and address, along with a map to their house, appeared on a website, along with details of somebody who had been a victim of identity fraud.

Richard Thomas, the Information Commissioner, has said the ready availability of so much personal information is a threat to privacy, and sometimes to security.

The Pentagon has banned introduced a ban on USB flash drives and other portable devices due to a virus threat to Defense Department networks in the US.

While the bank has not been publicly acknowledged, messages were apparently sent to department employees informing them of the new restrictions. Under the new rules, USB drives that had been issued to staff or purchased privately are being collected from their owners.

According to reports, there is no news on how long the ban will last.

Perhaps defense IT specialists would be interested to learn that solutions exist to prevent unwanted content from USB sticks getting onto the corporate network or - perhaps even more importantly - being used to copy sensitive material from the network?!