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| A Prism Business Media Property | |
| January 31, 2006 | Vol. 6 No. 4 |
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Table Of Contents Chicago businesses may soon be required to install CCTV Official: Insurers should lower premiums for security-conscious facilities The newest corporate data threat: Podslurping Report: New worm to propogate on Feb. 3 ADVERTISEMENT Hirsch Electronics Delivers Reliability and High Security Hirsch's Velocity Security Management System provides access control, alarm monitoring, video, badging, and interoperability in a single, integrated solution. Please contact Hirsch today to learn why Velocity won SIA's Product Achievement Award a remarkable five times. 1-949-250-8888 x140 or www.WeSecureBuildings.com News Chicago businesses may soon be required to install CCTV Licensed businesses that are open for more than 12 hours a day would be required to install security cameras in their stores and parking lots under a proposal by Chicago safety officials. Law enforcement and emergency-management officials voiced support for the proposal last week at a meeting of the City Council's license committee, while opponents said it would add to the already high cost of doing business in the city, the Chicago Tribune reports. Hundreds of stores, restaurants, bars and gas stations would be required to install cameras under the measure. Offices, apartment buildings and condominiums managed by companies holding city business licenses would also be forced to put up cameras, but factories and warehouses would be exempt. "This is not intended to punish anyone," says Alderman Ray Suarez, a sponsor of the measure. "We are talking about public safety." Cameras have been responsible in part for declining number of murders in Chicago, according to law enforcement officials. A sophisticated network of cameras transmits images from high-crime areas to the city's emergency response center. Police Deputy Chief Michael McCotter said cameras are "an excellent tool as far as crime prevention." "My concern is the little guy who has a lot of regulatory burdens already," says Alderman Joe Moore. "This should be a decision left to the individual business owner." The president of the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce, Gerald Roper, estimated it would cost about $5,000 to equip a small store with cameras. "With crime going down, all of us bragging about crime going down, when this kind of ordinance gets introduced, it sort of blew our mind," Roper told the newspaper. "We think it is one more imposition on business." The Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce, Chicagoland Apartment Association and the Illinois Restaurant Association have voiced formal opposition to the proposal. ADVERTISEMENT 
NEW Security Management Degrees from Bellevue UniversityComplete your Bachelor's Degree in Security Management online in as little as 15 months. Leading-edge, relevant content makes this a dynamic, career-boosting degree program for professionals in the fast-growing field of security management. Bellevue University also offers the Master of Science Degree in Security Management. Call 877-299-0009 today. www.bellevue.edu/info/acss Official: Insurers should lower premiums for security-conscious facilities Some Homeland security experts want insurance companies to contribute to the national security effort. Insurers should offer chemical plants, utilities and other at-risk businesses lower premiums in return for tighter security, they say. A common set of standards to prevent terrorist attacks should be developed, with insurers rewarding clients who comply, Frank Cilluffo, who served as a top aide to former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, told Newhouse News Service. "The insurance sector can be a huge enabler," says Cilluffo, now director of George Washington University's Homeland Security Policy Institute. "Historically, it's been able to induce changes in behavior much more effectively than government has." Homeland Security Department spokesman Brian Doyle told the news service that the agency has been looking at the idea. But insurance industry representatives argue that terrorism poses too many challenges for it to work. "There are a lot of people who think insurance is all-powerful, and that if we do something, then suddenly people will behave a certain way," says Julie Rochman, senior vice president for the American Insurance Association, a Washington trade group. "Would that were true -- we'd have no drunk drivers or speeders." In December, President Bush signed legislation extending the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA) for two years. The extension, for which the insurance industry had been clamoring, gives the federal government responsibility for catastrophic losses. Its enactment frees insurers to concentrate on protecting smaller targets, more than three-quarters of which are privately owned. "You can't expect the insurance industry to do something out of the goodness of its heart," said former CIA director James Woolsey, a vice president at the consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton. "But you might be able to combine incentives ... and regulation in a way that still lets the market work." One problem the insurance companies cite is assessing risk, given how few terrorist attacks occurred in the United States. Much of the data that does exist is classified. ADVERTISEMENT 
The newest corporate data threat: Podslurping Abe Usher, founder of Sharp Ideas, a consultancy focused on information security research and vulnerability assessment testing, has pointed out a new way for thieves to steal sensitive corporate data: "Podslurping." "Data theft has become a huge concern within corporations worldwide, yet these same organizations are just starting to realize that portable devices pose a severe threat on this front," Usher says. "Most corporations have by now implemented firewall and antivirus software, but those leave the most prolific hardware -- the personal computer -- exposed to numerous threats." The term "PodSlurping" -- meaning to steal confidential information from a business by loading it on an iPod or other portable storage device -- was originally coined by Usher. Last year he released a software program called "Slurp," which demonstrates to corporations what kind of information can be stolen using the iPods. The software creates an HTML report of at-risk files. "PCs have Bluetooth, FireWire, built-in Wi-Fi, and if you don't have a security policy in place, all of these can become vectors for data theft," Usher says. Report: New worm to propogate on Feb. 3 Businesses should brace themselves for a further spread of the "Kama Sutra" worm on Feb. 3, as the worm is programmed to try and replicate itself from already-infected machines. The worm, also given the name Nyxem.E by security software suppliers, will at the same time attempt to delete certain files on infected machines -- it has been programmed to do this on the third day of every month, Computer Weekly reports. It is estimated that the worm, which is spread by users opening an attachment promising porn images, has already infected approximately 500,000 machines worldwide. The worm first appeared in mid-January and almost immediately went to the top of the virus and worm threat charts compiled by security software suppliers. The programmed date for further attacks is similar to the technique used by the latest version of the Sober worm, which has appeared in recent weeks. Major security software suppliers have already issued patches for Kama Sutra. But they say that even those companies that already have installed protection against the worm could be affected by slower e-mail response rates next week as networks fend off the worm's replication attempts. Business Beat
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