event | CSID

Join CSID in Twitter Chat About SMB Security Best Practices

By Morgan Grevey| 2013-05-29T17:44:54-05:00 May 29th, 2013|Uncategorized|

itrc_logo Next week, we’re partnering up with the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC) to co-host their monthly Identity Theft Twitter Chat (#IDTheftChat). With National Small Business Week coming up in June, ITRC and CSID will hone in on security issues that affect small businesses. Many small businesses are unaware that 20 percent of all cyber attacks target small businesses. What’s more alarming – about 60 percent of small businesses close within six months of a cyber attack. The #IDTheftChat will address the following key questions to help inform participants on ways to protect their small business:

Q1: What are the biggest information security concerns that small businesses face?
Q2: How can small businesses protect themselves from data breaches of customer information?
Q3: What are best practices for small businesses to protect employee information?
Q4: How can small businesses protect their digital reputation?

To participate in #IDTheftChat, all you will need is a Twitter account. Follow the hashtag #IDTheftChat on Thursday, June 6^th from 1:00 – 2:00 pm CT, and tweet your questions and comments to the group by including the #IDTheftChat hashtag in your tweets.

You can RSVP (not required to participate) and get more information about the Twitter chat by going to the #IDTheftChat invitation. Don’t forget to connect with CSID on Twitter and let us know if you plan on participating. See you there!

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April Recap: All About Community

By Morgan Grevey| 2013-05-09T15:53:39-05:00 May 7th, 2013|Uncategorized|

roundup5k Take a look at what we’ve been up to this past month, including a number of community events in our headquarter hometown, Austin, TX:

CSID at ID360
Being headquartered near the University of Texas gave us the opportunity to participate in ID360, an annual conference put on by UT’s Center for Identity. This year, three CSID members spoke at the conference, including CSID vice president Bryan Hjelm with a talk on the future of identity, development director Joel Lang on the importance of credentials when it comes to malware, and president Joe Ross on the impact of social and mobile Big Data on identity and privacy. See more details about our participation in ID360.

Community Fun: Texas Round-Up + The Austin Cup
We laced up our running shoes and hit the pavement to participate in Texas Round-Up, a local 5K promoting healthy, fit lifestyles. The proceeds went to Texas public elementary schools in Texas to improve youth participation in sports and fitness. After the 5K, we headed to the The Austin Cup, a bowling tournament supporting the Center for Child Protection. Catch photos from both events on our Facebook page.

ISSA Chapter Event
CSID sponsored ISSA’s chapter meeting where HGMB Inc. CEO David Smith spoke about the future of cloud computing and Big Data, and how these changes will impact security. He touched on new strategies on how to manage the risks associated with cloud computing across many devices.

What we’re looking forward to moving in May – a big move!
We’re growing our team and office space in May! CSID has outgrown our current office and is moving to a new location this May. Be sure to check out open job opportunities for more information on how to join our ever-growing team.

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ID360 Conference 2013 – The Global Forum on Identity

By Morgan Grevey| 2013-05-02T09:22:55-05:00 May 1st, 2013|Uncategorized|

We spent the past couple days at ID360, the UT Center for Identity’s annual conference that gathers information security professionals from around the world to discuss issues in security, privacy and identity. Some of the hottest topics this week included identity management, Big Data and analytics, the definition of privacy and the shifting cybersecurity ecosystem. Three of our CSID team members spoke at the conference and covered a number of these topics.

CSID Vice President Bryan Hjelm kicked off Tuesday morning with a presentation on the future of identity. The identity protection industry started with credit-monitoring techniques like monitoring our credit reports for fraud. We then moved toward identity monitoring for personal information like email addresses and passwords. Now we’re taking it a step further, toward identity management. As an industry, we now focus on non-credit monitoring, child identity monitoring, small business monitoring and two-factor authentication. See Bryan’s poster below, next to a poster from CSID’s Joel Lang.

id360_1

Later that afternoon, CSID president Joe Ross joined a panel of security leaders to discuss the impact of social and mobile Big Data on identity and privacy. A key takeaway from the discussion was that with so much social and mobile data out there, we, as individuals and businesses, have a real version of the once-fictitious “permanent record.” Once your information is posted on the Internet, it’s out there for good. It can be found by potential employers or predators years later. Joe also talked to the global aspect of such data, pointing out challenges we face in finding globally universal identifiers, as Social Security numbers are give only to U.S. citizens.

id360_2

Lastly, CSID development director Joel Lang presented on the nature of malware and the importance of credentials. Just one piece of malware or one compromised credential can easily lead to an entirely infected or breached network.

For a more in-depth look at the conference, see the Twitter discussions. Also, be sure to keep an eye on the Resources section of our website for copies of Bryan and Joel’s topic papers and presentations.

Did you attend ID360 this year or last? What messages resonated most with you? As always, let us know on Facebook or Twitter.

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March Recap: In It to Win It – From Happy Hour to Consumer Research

By Morgan Grevey| 2013-04-12T12:08:05-05:00 April 11th, 2013|Uncategorized|

What a busy month for us. March was full of events, research reports, awards and more. Take a look at the highlights below:

CSID at SXSWi
Since we’re headquartered in Austin, TX, home to South by Southwest Interactive (SXSWi), we take part in the festival each year. This year we hosted a booth at the Tech Career Expo during the week, and then enjoyed Sunday evening with colleagues, partners and friends for our Protect Your Buzz Happy Hour. Check out pictures from the event on Facebook, and thanks to everyone who came!

New Partnership and Twitter Chat
This month we became partners with cybersecurity awareness campaign, STOP. THINK. CONNECT. We also co-hosted one of their monthly security themed Twitter chats (#chatstc) with the FTC to discuss child identity protection. We had a great turnout and look forward to hosting another Twitter chat soon.

Child Identity Theft Research and Webinar
We conducted a survey of parents to get insight into their knowledge of and concern about child identity theft. We found that while many parents are aware that child identity theft is a possibility, and most are concerned, there is a clear disconnect among this concern, awareness and the number of parents who are taking proactive action to protect their children. We released the research as a white paper and an infographic, congruent with a live webinar on the topic that we hosted in early April.

CSID’s Joel Lang at Austin AMA
Shout out to Joel Lang, our development director for ETI, who spoke at an Austin AMA event about “monetizing data in the B2B world” with the CEO of nFusion and the VP of Marketing at Bulldog Solutions.

Congrats to Sergey, CUA of the Month
In March, Human Factors International (HFI) named our Senior UI/UX Architect, Sergey Sinyakov, as Certified Usability Analyst (CUA) of the month. In his interview with HFI, Sergey discussed how usability plays into identity theft products. Go Sergey!

What We’re Looking Forward To in April – ID360 Conference
We’re looking forward to hearing CSID VP Bryan Hjelm and Joel Lang, Development Director of ETI, speak at the UT Center for Identity’s annual ID360 Conference later this month. Bryan will be speaking about the future of identity protection on the morning of April 30, while Joel will discuss “The Battle Against Breaches: Going Beyond Signature Based Malware Detection” on May 1. Join us! Register now.

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Upcoming Webinar: Child Identity Theft – A Parenting Blind Spot

By Morgan Grevey| 2013-03-15T12:09:13-05:00 March 13th, 2013|Uncategorized|

In our recent consumer research survey, we found that a whopping 43% of parents do not know that child identity theft is a growing concern, and only 18% of parents are concerned with their child’s identity being stolen online. Meanwhile, according to ITAC’s 2012 Child Identity Fraud Report, one in 40 U.S. households with minor children is affected by this issue. Despite that frequency, child identity theft is a largely underreported and underrated crime, because most victims do not discover they have been targeted until they are 18 years old. It’s not only an issue for the children and families involved, but businesses are also losing money to these schemes as well.

So, what can parents and businesses do to combat this alarming trend? What solutions are out there? Join leading security experts Tuesday, April 2nd at 12 pm CDT for a free one-hour webinar that will address the growing trend of child identity theft, parent awareness and response, and what businesses can do to provide protection to this demographic and to themselves.

WEBINAR: Child Identity Theft: A Parenting Blind Spot. What We Can Do – As Parents and Businesses – to Reverse this Growing Trend.

When: Tuesday April 2, 2013 at 12pm CDT

Cost: Free

Twitter Hashtag: #SecureChildID – we’ll be extending the conversation to Twitter

Register Now!

Speakers:

Dena Haritos Tsamitis, Director of Education, Training and Outreach, Carnegie Mellon’s CyLab
Tim Woda, Co-founder, UKnowKids
Clay Nichols, Chief Creative Officer, Lookout Social

Moderator:

Bryan Hjelm, Vice President, CSID

TWITTER CHAT
We’ll also be hosting a live Twitter chat about this topic on Thursday, March 14 at 2 PM CDT with global cybersecurity awareness campaign @STOPTHNKCONNECT and other industry leaders. Join in using the hashtag #ChatSTC.

See you there!

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CSID Presents at the Fall UT Center for Identity Symposium

By Morgan Grevey| 2013-02-26T11:43:46-06:00 October 3rd, 2012|Uncategorized|

Do you know the risks that your company’s data faces when stored on a cloud? Do you know what to look for in a cloud provider? Do you know how to better secure your own information?

Last week our VP of Information Systems and Operations Isaac Chapa addressed questions like these at an Identity Symposium held by the University of Texas Center for Identity.

Isaac (pictured) recommended that companies dig deep through vendor options when looking for a cloud provider. Scrutinize their security processes and encryption standards. And what happens if there is a security breach down the line? “Know your plans from the start,” Isaac stressed. It’s important to set these terms with your cloud provider before the occurrence of a breach—know each of your roles in the situation. Have it built right into your contract.

Isaac’s enthusiastic presentation also reiterated some key points from our recent webinar, like the benefits of implementing multi-factor authentication and diversifying passwords.

For more highlights from the symposium—key points from Isaac’s presentation, as well as those from biometrics expert Dr. Mohamed Lazzouni of MorphoTrust—check out the Twitter hashtag #idsymposium.

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SXSW 2013 Panel Picker – Vote for CSID!

By Morgan Grevey| 2012-08-27T14:46:41-05:00 August 16th, 2012|Uncategorized|

It’s that time again… to vote for CSID for SXSW 2013!

The 2013 SXSW Interactive Festival will bring together professionals from all over the world, including technology and security enthusiasts, and CSID is excited for the chance to take part. We need your help to keep our panels in the running!

All you have to do is sign up on the SXSW Panel Picker website and vote for CSID’s four panels by August 31st. Check out our panel proposals:

Malware Matures: From PC to Catastrophe – It’s a mad, malware-filled world out there. This panel of security and IT experts will look at how malware works, the growth and evolution of malware over the years and what we can expect from it in the future, including the rise of malware on mobile devices.
When Hacking Passwords is as Easy as 123456 – Encrypt, hash or salt? This panel will discuss what’s new in password protection from the latest tools hackers have for cracking encryptions to what’s next for user authentication.
Your Data is Showing: What’s Next in Protection – Here comes the next wave of identity protection technology, which includes earlier warnings that your information or your business systems may be compromised, minimizing the impact on you and your business. Get a glimpse of the technologies that may be protecting you and your business tomorrow.
Uncle Sam May Soon Be Protecting Your Identity – Get insights on how the government and private sectors have partnered together to create the NSTIC (National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace) to develop technology standards and policies to protect us online.

Get your vote on! And, once you vote, be sure to share on Facebook and Twitter.

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CSID Participates in IAPP Austin KnowledgeNet

By Morgan Grevey| 2012-08-27T14:48:45-05:00 June 21st, 2012|Uncategorized|

CSID’s Tim Brown joined local security professionals and lawyers as a panelist on the panel “Who Watches the Watchers?: Third-Party Vendor Privacy and Data Security Issues” earlier this week. The panel discussed privacy and data security issues facing organizations that work with a multitude of third-party vendors as well as the challenges faced by both the organization and the third party vendor in managing privacy, data security, and risk issues.

Some key findings from the panel included:

It is the data owners’ responsibility to inform the vendor of what type of data is being handled, describe its sensitivity and assess compliance needs.
A vendor should disclose its security compliance, breach history and be transparent with an organization when working through MSA’s, contracts and processes.
The cost of the contract should be assessed and compared with the value of data being exchanged in the event that data is exposed and responsibility for the data is taken.
Challenges that organizations face when working with vendors include comparing vendor compliance and performance; time frame for when security issues and data exposure should be resolved; and on-going monitoring to increase security efforts.

The panel also discussed FISMA (Federal Information Security Management Act) regulation and its impact on selecting vendors as well as meeting federal criteria and guidelines for various information systems.

Follow CSID on Twitter and Facebook to learn more about the IAPP event and keep up with future events we are participating in.

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Marc Ostryniec Presents at ID360

By Morgan Grevey| 2013-03-13T10:51:42-05:00 April 24th, 2012|Uncategorized|

The Center for Identity at the University of Texas at Austin held the first annual ID360 Conference this week. CSID was there in support of our VP of sales Marc Ostryniec, who presented on how proactive credential monitoring can reduce the risk of fraud that is an inherent problem when employees mishandle company credentials or customers have poor password habits. People truly are the weakest link in any company’s security system.

The most advanced security measures can be unraveled through everyday human error. In fact, some of the most recent security breaches began with employees simply opening an email containing a virus. But businesses can’t operate without humans, meaning proactive credit and security monitoring is crucial. Businesses that neglect to proactively monitor for security breaches or issues leave themselves open to a wide range of security threats that can impact their customers and ultimately, the bottom line.

Marc opened his presentation with this compelling statistic from Trusteer: 73 percent of consumers reuse their online banking login and password with nonfinancial websites. The reuse of login information increases the possibility that if one website gets hacked, other locations where its customers conduct business or interact online can also be accessed using that same information. In many cases, the stolen login information can even access a work database or server, leaving many businesses vulnerable without them realizing they are under attack.

For more information about proactive credential monitoring, read Marc’s conference paper. Read more about the ID360 Conference and Marc’s presentation in the Austin-American Statesman, and check out the #ID360Conference Twitter hashtag for key points from the event.

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Revisiting SXSW 2012 – One Last Look

By Morgan Grevey| 2013-02-26T14:52:24-06:00 March 27th, 2012|Uncategorized|

It’s hard to believe that South by Southwest Interactive (SXSW) is already two weeks in the past. We spent eight months planning and prepping for the event—during which CSID hosted three panels—then it came and went in a flash. In fact, we already have SXSW 2013 on our radar.

Before we get ahead of ourselves with arrangements for next year’s event, we wanted to revisit SXSW 2012 one last time and call out some key messages from each of our panels.

Data Breaches: Taking the Bull by the Horns
This panel, moderated by CSID President Joe Ross, brought up some resonating points about the importance of preparing your company for a data breach, and what to do in the instance that a breach occurs. A few key points from the panel include:

Negligent insiders are the top cause of data breaches. One study estimates that 61 percent of security breaches are caused by internal sources.
Every company, no matter how big or small, must create a risk management protocol that covers processes and procedures in the case of a breach.
Breach notification laws differ among states. In 41 states, a breach of usernames and passwords does not need to be reported.

My Voice is My Passport. Verify Me.
This was a dual panel featuring Isaac Chapa, VP of technology at CSID, and Dan Miller, senior analyst and founder of Opus Research. Isaac and Dan discussed voice biometric technology and the future of voice authentication. Some interesting points made by Isaac and Dan include:

Experts predict an exponential growth in voiceprint enrollments as businesses look for ways to authenticate online and mobile transactions like mobile payments.
Voice biometric technology has two key advantages over other biometric solutions: it can be used in a number of environments, and it does not require additional software or hardware to be built into a device as would fingerprint or retina scanners.
Your voice can be a useful replacement when dealing with frequent password resets or remembering hundreds of complex log-ins. You can’t forget your voice.

No Rainy Days: Identity Protection in the Cloud
CSID’s VP of product strategy, Eric Youngstrom, discussed cloud security with a well-rounded group of experts. Notable points discussed during the panel include:

On the horizon for cloud security: The National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace (NSTIC) “Identity Ecosystem.” When implemented, the protocol will be similar to the FDA stamping your meat. NSTIC-approved sites will have a standard level of security in place, protecting consumer data.
Security across the supply chain is completely relevant and important when storing and accessing data in the cloud.
Make sure your cloud provider has third party certifications and is taking proper measures to secure your data.

What did you take away from SXSW this year? What topics do you want to see CSID cover at next year’s event? Leave a comment or let us know through Facebook and Twitter.

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April Recap: All About Community

ID360 Conference 2013 – The Global Forum on Identity

March Recap: In It to Win It – From Happy Hour to Consumer Research

Upcoming Webinar: Child Identity Theft – A Parenting Blind Spot

SXSW 2013 Panel Picker – Vote for CSID!

CSID Participates in IAPP Austin KnowledgeNet

Marc Ostryniec Presents at ID360

Revisiting SXSW 2012 – One Last Look

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