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.

ACH fraud victim Mark Patterson says small businesses like his welcome improved online security measures from banking institutions. But is the new FFIEC Authentication Guidance sufficient? Patterson says no.

When bankers contemplate risk, says Edward DeMarco Jr. of the Risk Management Association, what dominates headlines in the financial press should be of paramount concern.

Too many of today's firewalls are out of date and exposing organizations to unacceptable business risks, says Chris King of Palo Alto Networks.