The largest data breach ever suffered by the US military was carried out using a USB Flash drive, the US deputy defense secretary William Lynn has revealed. In an article in the journal Foreign Affairs, Lynn recounted how in 2008 a military laptop in the Middle East was accessed by an operative from a foreign government who installed malware via a USB Flash drive. Read the rest of the article here

ICO slams Royal Wolverhampton Hospitals NHS Trust after it loses patient records. Yet another NHS Trust has been found in breach of the Data Protection Act (DPA) after it lost sensitive patient records stored on an unencrypted CD. Data protection watchdog the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) explained that the Royal Wolverhampton Hospitals NHS Trust lost a CD containing over 100 records from the Intensive Care Unit of New Cross Hospital’s Heart and Lung Unit. The CD, which was unencrypted with [...]

The UK operation of Zurich Insurance has been fined £2.27m by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) for losing personal details of 46,000 customers. It is the highest fine levied on a single firm for data security failings. Margaret Cole, the FSA’s director of enforcement and financial crime, said: “Zurich UK let its customers down badly.” Stephen Lewis, chief executive of Zurich UK, said: “This incident was unacceptable.” The data on policyholders, including in some cases bank account and credit card [...]

Originally from scmagazineuk.com. The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has admitted that it has lost 340 laptops in the past two years with less than half having encrypted data. In a response to a Freedom of Information request by Lewis PR, the MoD revealed that 120 laptops were stolen and 220 were lost. Only 25 were recovered. Also, 593 CDs, DVDs and floppy disks, 215 USB memory sticks, 96 hard-disk drives and 13 mobile phones also went missing, many containing sensitive [...]

Independent online publisher and technology provider brightsolid has signed a three-year managed services contract with Gradian. brightsolid began life in 1995 as Scotland Online and is a leading UK independent provider of IT business services to large public and private sector organisations. This pioneering internet services company counts Scottish Widows, DC Thomson and Standard Life amongst their clients. The deal will see Gradian provide PGP® Whole Disk Encryption as-a-service for over 100 brightsolid users. The technology provides comprehensive, nonstop disk [...]

As the UK’s new coalition Government well knows, 2010-11 is going to be a significant year. The economy is in recovery, and the biggest challenge facing our new government will be to protect – and build on – this trend. It’s the same story for companies all around the world. 2009-10 was tough, but now this is the year to put into practice those lessons learned …and grow. Organisations have stripped much of the fat out of their operations, and [...]

Mergers and acquisitions can appear to be a double edged sword. To the average onlooker, the time it takes to integrate systems and processes might well overshadow the business benefits of the deal. Plus there’s the puzzle of how to communicate with customers, migrate end users, re-branding and cost. However, the recent news that Symantec is to acquire PGP is different. Symantec are very experienced in this field – and so, in an indirect way, is Gradian. Over the years [...]

The Gradian team is joining forces with Proofpoint at this year’s Infosecurity Europe event. Together we’re best placed to tackle the latest trends and threats in email security, compliance, data leak prevention and email archiving – whilst providing the best ongoing service and consultancy. At this year’s show the Gradian and Proofpoint teams will be focusing on the huge threat posed by outbound email, which can lead to breach of compliance and unintentional data leakage. We’re tackling this issue through [...]

The IT Directors’ Forum takes place in June, and it’s interesting to note that one of the highest priorities for these executives is security. The event organisers survey their attendees in advance of the event, and the results have so far revealed that a high percentage are earmarking the majority of their 2010-11 budgets on security solutions. The IT Directors’ profiles indicate that access control and data security are the two areas that will receive the most funding. Hot on [...]

Gradian are delighted to congratulate PGP on their recent SC Magazine Award. The technology vendor, with whom we have a silver partnership, have been recognised with SC Magazine’s 2010 Reader Trust Award as the company with the Best Encryption Solution – PGP Whole Disk Encryption. PGP Whole Disk Encryption was chosen by the Reader Trust Voting Panel – comprised of security and technology experts from large, medium and small enterprises from all major vertical markets – representing the wide distribution [...]