Larry Ponemon

Why do Americans trust the U.S. Postal Service with their personal information more than the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Department of Justice? The reason may not be that surprising. According to the results of our first annual Privacy Trust Survey (PTS) of the United States Government, it seems to be due to the personal relationship we have with the friendly mail carrier who brings us our birthday cards and holds our mail when we go on vacation.

New privacy laws and regulations have many companies worried. Most are responding by writing and posting privacy policies on their web sites, and monitoring emerging privacy regulations.

What do information security professionals consider the biggest threat to their systems and businesses? According to interviews conducted as part of a recent study commissioned by Unisys Corp., the security issue most responsible for disrupting the sleep of top security executives is employee negligence or abuse of data warehouses or systems (97 per cent). Insufficient resources to get the job done right (90 per cent) is a close second.