–> Top News

Shift in Daylight Saving might be IT time bomb
Energy Policy Act of 2005 could have huge impact on time-sensitive applications - http://www.itcinstitute.com/info.aspx?id=35119

TJX data breach may impact 30 percent of New Englanders
Banks are still gauging the full extent of damage - http://www.itcinstitute.com/info.aspx?id=35120

US ID theft fell during 2006, but still amounted to nearly $50 Bn
Increased security measures appear to be paying off - http://www.itcinstitute.com/info.aspx?id=35121

AICPA creates new Center for Audit Quality
New organization meant to rebuild the image of the auditing profession - http://www.itcinstitute.com/info.aspx?id=35122 

–> Regulation Watch

New EU directive has costly outsourcing implications
EU Markets in Financial Instruments Directive could cost the UK a billion pounds - http://www.itcinstitute.com/info.aspx?id=35123

Maine rebels against Real ID Act
US law that overhauls state ID and licensing system too costly, say local officials - http://www.itcinstitute.com/info.aspx?id=35124

London facing its own version of SOX
8th Company Law Directive on Statutory Audit reminiscent of SOX, fueling the same fears - http://www.itcinstitute.com/info.aspx?id=35125 

–> New Research

Botnet pandemic threatens future of the internet
Stealthier botnets and increasing spam already infect a quarter of all PCs - http://www.itcinstitute.com/info.aspx?id=35126

"Megascope" deals replace expensive outsourcing contracts
Trend is to divide the pie among more vendors - http://www.itcinstitute.com/info.aspx?id=35127

Bulky image-based spam swamps servers
Spam volume has more than doubled, but their bulk has more than quadrupled - http://www.itcinstitute.com/info.aspx?id=35128

IT wages rise even as general mood sours
Salaries rose in the last quarter by 3.1 percent, but capital spending faded - http://www.itcinstitute.com/info.aspx?id=35130 

–> Analysis and Advice

Seven Strategies for Compliance Change Management
Driven especially by SOX, companies are turning to change management to provide needed discipline for changes to IT infrastructure and systems. To ensure the integrity of systems storing regulated data, as well as the attendant IT policies and procedures, companies are increasingly adopting change management practices. [more]

–> ProsecutionWATCH

NASD fines Banc of America for breaching its own security policies
Noncompliance with anti-money laundry policies brings $3 million fine - http://www.itcinstitute.com/info.aspx?id=35131

Class action lawsuit hits TJX
Firm declines to offer credit monitoring services to victims - http://www.itcinstitute.com/info.aspx?id=35132

FTC moves against noncompliant porn spammers
Nevada firm is fined for not complying with CAN-SPAM and FTC rules - http://www.itcinstitute.com/info.aspx?id=35133

Sony settles with FTC for rootkit fiasco
Music giant will pay up to $150 of compensation to each victim - http://www.itcinstitute.com/info.aspx?id=35134

Protect your organization from steganographic data theft

The art and science of steganography has been around for centuries. It's used to write hidden messages in a way that prevents anyone but the recipient from interpreting them. As technology grew it was only natural for steganographic techniques to find their way into electronic processes. It appears that steganography is a growing challenge for forensics investigators and organizations using content monitoring or filtering to protect sensitive data. Click here to learn more about the threat posed by steganography.

Craft an effective storage security policy
Effective storage security involves maintaining the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of information, and your storage security policy needs to reflect that. Not sure where to begin? In this edition of Security Solutions, Mike Mullins offers guidelines for creating an effective storage security policy and tells you three elements you can't afford to ignore.

Attorney general to talk data retention with new Congress
Alberto Gonzales says it's critical to ensure that law enforcement is able to get its hands on subscriber data from ISPs.

The Ultimate Wireless Security Guide
Enterprise wireless LAN security is a persistent concern for every system administrator and CIO. This article, part of the TechRepublic ultimate guide to enterprise wireless LAN security, introduces you to Lightweight Extensible Authentication Protocol (LEAP), which is a proprietary protocol from Cisco Systems developed to address the security weaknesses common in WEP. The full series of 10 articles is also available as a download.