Training that's designed to help workers avoid clicking on links from spear-phishing e-mails may be ineffective because employees often fail to read training materials, says Eric Johnson, a Vanderbilt University professor who's co-author of a new study on the subject.

The new year's top trends in background screening can be summed up in two words: legal and compliance. Les Rosen of Employment Screening Resources offers expert tips for more effective screening.

To help reduce reliance on passwords, the FIDO Alliance is developing standard technical specifications for advanced authentication. Michael Barrett and Daniel Almenara of FIDO describe the impact the effort could have in 2014.

As a result of high-profile breaches, such as the Target incident, security is increasingly a board issue. What are the key topics security leaders should prepare to discuss in 2014? Alan Brill of Kroll offers his forecast.

Healthcare entities are increasingly turning to the cloud, and regulators are increasingly focused on cloud service providers' security. Time to ensure those business associate agreements are in order, says Symantec's Rick Bryant.

2014 may well be the "Year of Security," and IT security pros must prepare now for new job demands. ISACA's Robert Stroud offers five New Year's resolutions to help prepare for 2014's security trends.

A preliminary version of the cybersecurity framework takes a too-broad approach to privacy, says security and privacy attorney Harriet Pearson. And that could result in fewer organizations adopting the voluntary security guidelines.

While preparing a speech to be delivered in Korea, NIST's Ron Ross wanted to convey the message of the importance of computer security. He hit on five themes - threat, assets, complexity, integration and trustworthiness - which form the acronym TACIT.

Ramping up efforts to mitigate insider threats needs to be a top 2014 priority at healthcare organizations as electronic health records become more ubiquitous, says privacy and security expert Stevie Davidson, who provides practical insights.

The breach at Target stores that may have affected as many as 40 million credit and debit card account holders is a watershed moment that could greatly raise awareness of cybersecurity risks, says privacy attorney David Navetta.