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Old gym memberships from Fitness 1 with credit card information, Social Security numbers, addresses and other info found unshredded in dumpster; membership contracts had been sold to LA Fitness

Posted on 12 May 2012 | 11:17 am

Student accessed confidential student records and posted them on Facebook

Posted on 11 May 2012 | 4:10 pm

INDUSTRY NEWS

China-Based Hackers Target Law Firms to Get Secret Deal Data

Over a period of a few months, hackers rifled one secure computer after the next, eventually hitting seven different law firms as well as Canada’s Finance Ministry and the Treasury Board. A law firm involved in the $40 billion deal detected signs of the intrusion, including network disruptions and spyware designed to capture confidential documents. Read the article...

Report Reveals 80% Increase in Healthcare Privacy Breaches

A recent report by information security assessment provider Redspin, details 2011 healthcare privacy breach causes and trends. Redspin is a leading provider of penetration testing services and IT security audits.

19,016,894 patient health records were affected in 385 breaches of protected health information in 2011. The average number of patient records per breach was 49,396, an 80% increase over 2010.

Read the complete 2011 Protected Health Information Breach Report.

Adopting the Cloud for Disaster Recovery

In 2012, on-demand computing will change the economics of Disaster Recovery significantly. Disaster Recovery and elastic scaling will replace cost savings and convenience as the big reasons for enterprises to adopt the cloud. Read the 12 Cloud Trends of 2012.
Read more. . .

ASCENT DATA CLIENT NEWS

Avere Systems Sets Industry-Record Benchmark

Avere Systems' FXT Series has established new performance standards and bested former benchmark leaders, with industy-record benchmark of 1.56 Million IOPS.

"Ascent Data was able to rapidly build out the space and power needed to accommodate our benchmark environment, and the 24x7x365 Response Center was instrumental in allowing us to quickly troubleshoot and tune the environment in order to meet our tight project timeline," said Jeff Bearer, Avere Systems’ Technical Team. Read more. . .

Congratulations to Pgh Tech Council CIO of the Year, Ruth DeLost-Wylie

As Senior VP and CIO at Peoples Natural Gas, Ruth DeLost-Wylie led her team through the design and implementation of 72 systems in less than 18 months along with the creation of the supporting infrastructure - including voice and data networks. Ruth was responsible for hiring an entirely new IT staff, the development of requirements for every business process, the coordination of design, coding and testing, and the selection and control of numerous vendors and service providers.

"The overall effort to bring Peoples Natural Gas back to Pittsburgh was a massive undertaking. We selected Ascent Data because they were the best fit, having an excellent facility and staff to host our critical IT infrastructure when we needed it. Ascent Data offered a secure SSAE 16 data center, an exceptional technical staff and the full services of a 24x7x365 Network Operations Center. We counted on Ascent Data and they delivered."

– Ruth DeLost-Wylie, Senior VP and CIO

Pediatric Alliance Featured in Medical Publication

James Troup writes about the approach he took, as CEO of Pediatric Alliance, to protect data integrity and to manage the group practice’s IT infrastructure. Read the article. . .

 

John Bussey, Assistant Managing Editor of The Wall Street Journal, reports that smaller firms are increasingly outsourcing Cyber Security through Cloud Computing

Wall Street Journal

Seeking Safety in the Clouds

Ever-more fearful of cyber attacks, small to mid-size businesses are outsourcing to protect valuable data from security breaches and hackers. Through Cloud Computing, SMBs can count on the redundancy and resiliency of their Cloud and Managed Services provider for the latest in technology, including data encryption, de-duplication and backup, disaster recovery and business continuity and continuous real-time data protection.

Michael Riley, reporter for Bloomberg News, talks with Bloomberg Law's Lee Pacchia about the recent rise of hackers targeting law firms' computer networks.

Bloomberg Law

Law Firms Weigh Cost Of Network Security Against Hacking Risk

China-based hackers linked to a nation-state with an interest in global competition for natural resources, zeroed in on 7 law firms handling the $40 billion acquisition of the world’s largest potash producer, Potash Corp, by an Australian mining giant, bhpbilliton.

 

SSAE 16 Compliant SLA 100 HIPAA PCI Compiant AFCOM MGMA