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Industry News
Survey Indicates One-Third of IT Budgets Spent on Cloud
April 2012
Companies are investing heavily in cloud computing, a new survey of 1,650 IT and business executives shows. On average, they report more than a third, 34% of their current IT budgets are now allocated to cloud computing solutions. Read more
Report Reveals 80% Increase in Healthcare Privacy Breaches
March 2012
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. These numbers only include breaches that affected more than 500 individuals. Those that impact less than 500 are not made publicly available, but must be reported to the Secretary of Health and Human Services.
Read the complete 2011 Protected Health Information Breach Report.
China-Based Hackers Target Law Firms to Get Secret Deal Data
February 2012
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 more
Adopting the Cloud for Disaster Recovery
January 2012
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
ModernHealthcare.com Reports: Blue Cross and Blue Shield to pay $1.5M HIPAA Settlement
March 2012
In the first enforcement action stemming from the HITECH Act breach notification rule, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Tennessee has agreed to pay federal regulators $1.5 million and enter into a corrective action plan after 57 hard drives were stolen from the insurer. Blue Cross told government authorities that the computer drives contained unencrypted private health information for more than 1 million people, including names, social security numbers, dates of birth and diagnosis codes. Read more
More Patient Data Risks, Lawsuits Predicted in 2012
January 2012
According to experts in healthcare law and information privacy and security, healthcare IT managers can expect to see more patient data breaches in 2012, along with more lawsuits filed by patients as the availability of patient information exchanged over social media sites and mobile devices grows. Read more
UCLA Health System Faces $16M Suit for Data Encryption Breach
December 2011
A class-action suit has been filed seeking potentially as much as $16 million in damages for a data security breach involving the encrypted, but still vulnerable, electronic medical records of patients at the UCLA Health System.
The suit, filed in Los Angeles County Court against the regents of the university, doing business as UCLA Health System, lists one named plaintiff, Ani Oganyan, a patient at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center on multiple visits between April and June 2011. Read more
Booz Allen Hamilton Breach Reflects Security Failures
July 2011
. . . Booz Allen "didn't implement continuous daily monitoring and a mitigation program, and they didn't implement a a strong 'hunter' program" to identify potential threats before they cause damage to the computer systems, said Alan Paller, director of research at SANS Institute, a nonprofit cybersecurity research organization in Bethesda. "They do that for a very small number of their clients, but don't seem to have enough people with the right skills to do it for themselves." Read more
Hackers Shift Attacks to Small Firms
July 2011
. . . Hackers are expanding their sites beyond multinationals to include any business that stores data in electronic form. Small companies, which are making the leap to computerized systems and digital records, have now become hackers' main target." Read more
Client and Partner News
Congratulations to Ruth DeLost-Wylie, CIO of the Year
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
Avere Systems Sets Industry-Record Benchmarks
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
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 more
powered by Certes Networks
Certes Networks Named Finalist In Best IPsec VPN Product Category
Readers selected TrustNet Manager as a top product in the Reader Trust Award competition, which honors best-in-class security products and services. Read more
Ascent Data and Comcast Team Up
Ascent Data and Comcast collaborate to offer large-scale bandwidth, paired with enterprise-grade cloud computing and data security solutions, at a competitive price. Read more
Industry News Videos
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.
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.
Hurricanes, Tornadoes, Flooding, Earthquakes
In the past, hurricanes would have been classified as unusual, isolated events in Western PA. But recently we've seen tornadoes, flooding, power outages and even felt the effects of an earthquake.
Fortunately, Western PA has been on the fringe of recent major weather events. Take the time to evaluate your IT infrastructure now and put a DR plan in place to ensure that your business is prepared for the next natural disaster.
