Government Information Security Podcast

Marcus Ranum isn't just a well-regarded information security expert. He's also a customer of the RSA SecurID product, and he's got some strong feelings about the RSA breach and how the industry has responded to it.

PCI Council's Jeremy King says guidance tackles data collected via phone communications.

The announcement by RSA that it had been a victim of an advanced persistent threat shook the global information security industry. Stephen Northcutt of SANS Institute and David Navetta of the Information Law Group offer insight on what happened, what it means and how to respond.

Hackers target RSA's SecurID products, leading federal IT policymakers question America's preparedness for cyberattacks, new House bill would reform federal IT security governance and why Ohio state government decided to standardize on NIST IT security framework.

It's serious news that RSA's SecurID solution has been the target of an advanced persistent threat. But "It's not a game-changer," says Stephen Northcutt, CEO of SANS Institute. "Anybody who says it is [a game-changer] is an alarmist."

ChicagoFIRST's Brian Tishuk says local lessons can be learned from Japan, especially within the financial, government and healthcare sectors.

"Persistent" is the operative word about the advanced persistent threat that has struck RSA and its SecurID products. "If the bad guys out there want to get to someone ... they can," says David Navetta of the Information Law Group.

A roundup of this week's top news: Hackers target RSA's SecurID products. Also, Japan's nuclear crisis: What do you need to know? Plus: New Health Net breach may be biggest ever.

Disaster recovery expert Regina Phelps says Japan's nuclear emergency puts local citizens at risk, but organizations globally can learn from the crisis. "I hope that all of us look at this and ask, 'What can I do to be better prepared?'"

Cobit, ITIL, ISO, NIST, an alphabet soup of standards governments often rely on to assure the safety of their IT systems. Ohio government IT leaders saw standardizing on one framework to be a more efficient way to help safeguard IT.