Angry Lords renew IT security calls

10 Oct 2008

Comment: 1

A Computing logo
Lord Broers
Lord Broers is unhappy with government progress on internet security

The House of Lords has renewed calls on the government to act on several recommendations made in its Personal Internet Security report (PDF), including new data breach notification laws and a 'kitemark' scheme to rate secure internet services.

Lord Broers, chairman of the Science and Technology Committee, said during a debate to discuss recommendations made in the 2007 report and its follow-up this year, that the Lords were gratified that the government had softened its stance in some areas.

Further reading

However, he pointed to several aspects which have yet to be acted on, including compelling banks to refund customers who fall victim to internet fraud, and setting up a cross-departmental group of industry and academic experts to classify different types of electronic crime.

"Why is the government resisting? Do they think they can do this themselves? " asked Lord Broers during his opening remarks.

"We also recommended data breach notification laws. The government seems eager to admit its losses, but this is not the case for banks and industry."

Lord Broers also said that the government had resisted a BSI kitemark scheme to help differentiate internet services according to their levels of security.

Reader comments

Data Breaches and Thefts - a Solution?

These data breaches and thefts are due to a lagging business culture. As a CIO, I'm always looking for ways to help my team, business teams, and ad hoc measures of various vendors, contractors and internal team members. A book that is required reading (specific chapters, depending on nature of projects and teams) is "I.T. Wars: Managing the Business-Technology Weave in the New Millennium." It has a great chapter regarding security (among others).

We keep a few copies kicking around - it would be a bit much to expect outside agencies to purchase it on our say-so. But, particularly when entertaining bids for projects, we ask potential solutions partners to review relevant parts of the book, and it ensures that these agencies understand our values and practices.

The author, David Scott, has an interview here that is a great exposure: http://businessforum.com/DScott_02.html

The book came to us as a tip from one of our interns who attended a course at University of Wisconsin, where the book is in use; I like to pass along things that work, in the hope that good ideas continue to make their way to me. I hope you can make use of this info...

Posted by: John Franks  13 Oct 2008

Have your say on this article

All fields required. Your email address will not be displayed on the site.

By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms & Conditions

  • Digg
  • Tweet

Newsletters

Sign up for our FREE newsletters

Will Google’s new privacy policy impact how you use its services?

Google recently said will consolidate more than 60 of its privacy policies into one, unifying customer data across most of its products. The announcement has met with a backlash in the US, while EU officials have asked Google to put its plans on hold so it can assess the privacy impact for users. Will you consider not using Google in the future as a result?

85 %

3 %

2 %

10 %