Vulnerabilities in applications developed for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania contributed to a major security breach a few years back, one that state CISO Erik Avakian does not want repeated.

New York's Pace University has just announced its new Seidenberg Cyber Security Institute. What is the school's mission, and why is now the ideal time to open its doors to career-minded students?

It's one thing to have a data breach response team. It's quite another to ensure that team is made up of savvy personnel, says Brian Dean, a former privacy executive for KeyBank.

A new, free HIPAA Security Rule Toolkit is designed to help healthcare organizations conduct a thorough risk assessment, says Kevin Stine, who helped guide the project for the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

Data breaches are all about reputational risk, says attorney Lisa Sotto. And as legal requirements grow, attorneys must play increasingly integral roles in helping clients respond to incidents.

Information security threats - especially to critical infrastructures and from nation-states - are evolving. But security education curricula are struggling to keep pace, according to Eugene Spafford, renowned information security professor at Purdue University.

It's a new wave of cybercriminal behind the latest major data breaches, says breach expert Lucy Thomson. And these incidents are resulting in a new generation of breach notification laws globally.

The Brooking Institute's Allan Friedman says bills before Congress aimed at protecting intellectual property threaten cybersecurity.

BITS president Paul Smocer says banks can expect an uptick in cybersecurity-focused legislation in 2012. What impact will changes from Capitol Hill have on requirements for data breach notification, information sharing and critical infrastructure?

Jacob Olcott says Congress' failure to enact comprehensive cybersecurity legislation over the past half decade doesn't mean lawmakers haven't influenced IT security policy.