Misusing data access privileges can pose a threat to the integrity of an organization's IT systems and the privacy of individuals. But gray areas exist, and it's not always clear cut when "unofficially" accessing protected data means users are abusing their privileges.

By now, organizations are well acquainted with DDoS. But do they understand the attacks' key components and how to mitigate them? Akamai's Matt Mosher shares the questions to ask when purchasing DDoS mitigation.

Privacy attorney Kirk Nahra says largely overlooked provisions tucked away in the "21st Century Cures" bill recently passed by the U.S. House of Representatives could have a significant impact on patient privacy.

As more enterprises adopt software-defined networking, hackers are finding the emerging technology to be a new route to penetrate organizations. Anthony Lim of (ISC)² recommends ways to secure SDNs against attacks.

After the OPM breach, the U.S. and China recently agreed to hammer out a cyber "code of conduct." But John Pescatore, a director at the SANS Institute, argues that governments would be better served by first jointly combating cybercrime.

The OPM breach is not just the biggest in U.S. government history. It's also likely a classic case of third-party risk management, says Jacob Olcott of BitSight Technologies. What are the key lessons to be learned?

Gordon Werkema, who is leading the Federal Reserve's initiative to revamp the U.S. payments infrastructure, describes his security priorities as the move to faster payments progresses.

Hord Tipton, a retired federal executive who spent more than five years as chief information officer of the Department of the Interior, says it was "chilling" to learn he is one of the more than 22 million victims of the Office of Personnel Management breaches.

Healthcare CIOs are lobbying for the creation of a unique national patient identifier to facilitate secure national health information exchange. Leslie Krigstein of the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives explains the initiative.

OpenDNS's Andrew Hay sees danger confronting many enterprises in the era of the "Internet of Things" as Internet-ready consumer devices, not architected for security, find their way onto corporate networks, often unbeknown to administrators.