Expenses linked to the data breach at Target Corp. have already cost the 58 member institutions of the Consumer Bankers Association more than $170 million - a price they should not have to pay, says the association's David Pommerehn.

Organizations in all sectors can improve their compliance with the PCI Data Security Standard by taking five critical steps, says Rodolphe Simonetti of Verizon Enterprise Solutions, which just issued a new PCI compliance report.

The ongoing epidemic of health data breaches involving unencrypted laptops demonstrates why many healthcare organizations need to conduct more meaningful risk assessments, says security expert Dan Berger.

A new identity fraud study shows that consumers who are victims of a payment card breach are at greater risk of fraud than victims of other types of breaches, says Al Pascual of Javelin.

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.

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?