When breaches result from retailers' lax security practices, merchants should be obligated to help banking institutions cover fraud losses and other post-breach expenses, says Viveca Ware of the Independent Community Bankers of America.

Expanded with more educational tracks and sessions on emerging hot topics, the 2014 edition of the RSA Conference will be the largest ever, says Hugh Thompson, program committee chair.

The PCI Security Standards Council has no plans to modify its standards for payment card data security in response to high-profile payment card breaches at Target and Neiman Marcus, says Bob Russo, the council's general manager.

Retail data breaches are growing. ISight Partners' Tiffany Jones, a researcher who helped the Department of Homeland Security prepare its report about malware attacks, offers new insight into the latest cyber-attacks.

Amidst draft legislation and the fallout of large-scale breaches, now is both the best and worst of times for privacy, says Trevor Hughes of the IAPP. What are the best career opportunities for privacy pros?

Cybercriminals exploiting weaknesses in how users employ passwords is a significant factor behind an increase in records exposed in breaches during 2013, says Craig Spiezle of the Online Trust Alliance.

In 2013, attackers proved that sophisticated DDoS attacks could be launched as effective disruptions and distractions. What are the evolving solutions that now help organizations mitigate these strikes?

A new, free iPhone app is designed to help organizations navigate 46 state data breach notification laws as well as federal statutes, such as HIPAA, attorney Scott Vernick says.

Technology is the biggest challenge to ethics and compliance in organizations today, says Deloitte's Keith Darcy. "We have the capacity to do things before we ever consider the ethical consequences ..."

Dan Clements of IntelCrawler, the research firm that claims it traced malware apparently used in the Target breach and other retailer attacks to a 17-year-old hacker in Russia, offers an exclusive, in-depth explanation of his company's findings.