SM Online January 2016
DEFENSE INSIDER THREAT
For years, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has been tracking U.S. Department of Defense efforts to implement insider threat detection recommendations following both federal and independent investigations into the 2009 Fort Hood shooting and the 2013 Navy Yard shooting. GAO visited eight installations throughout the United States to understand how they have moved to protect against these threats. DOD Should Improve Information Sharing and Oversight to Protect U.S. Installations is the latest update on the issue.
SMART CITIES
In a new white paper issued by the Institute for Critical Infrastructure Technology and IOActive Security Services, Keeping Smart Cities Smart: Preempting Emerging Cyber Attacks in U.S. Cities, experts discuss how smart cities can be made more secure.
ESPIONAGE
During a state visit, China's President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Barack Obama announced a cyber pact, agreeing that neither country's government would engage in cyber economic espionage to steal trade secrets to pass them on to domestic companies.
DATA TRANSFER
The European Court of Justice struck down the European Union Commission's Safe Harbor agreement with the United States, declaring it invalid in a recent ruling. The court reasoned that U.S. public authorities are not subject to the Safe Harbor agreement, enabling interference "with the fundamental rights of persons."
RESILIENCE
A GAO report, titled Approaches to Budgeting for Disasters in Selected States, explains how 10 states budget for and fund state-level disaster costs. The report finds that the increase in major disasters over the past decade has resulted in unprecedented costs for federal, state, and local governments.
MEDICAL RECORDS
There are federal efforts to create a one-stop shop for electronic medical records. The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology released a draft document in January 2015, Connecting Health and Care for the Nation: A Shared Nationwide Interoperability Roadmap, proposing ways for electronic records to be gathered, stored, and shared among healthcare entities.
