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10 Things You Might Have Missed This Week in Security

IFSECGlobal.com focuses on 10 key security and cybersecurity stories to have emerged this week. Check out the stories, and let us know your opinions.

Government issues response to outcome of regulation survey

The government has revealed that half of all respondents have agreed with reform plans to move towards private security businesses themselves being regulated by way of a licensing process. A separate BSIA survey of 149 member companies showed 64 percent agreement.

Fifty-five percent of replies indicated a belief that the Approved Contractor Scheme should be passed across from the Security Industry Authority for management by an industry body — the BSIA survey shows 64 percent support this. Eighty percent called for in-house security providers to be included within the new regulation setup. The Home Office feels it would be better to review this situation once the new regime is in place.

Sectorised specialisation for security: The way forward

Jason Towse, the managing director of people services at MITIE Total Security Management, wants to kick “one size fits all” approaches to security into the long grass in favour of sectorisation. The delivery of solutions based on defined capabilities and specialisms and focused around assessments of sector-specific risks. In this landscape, operational expertise is key.

Burglaries in the UK: The statistics tell a story

Did you know that, in the UK, there’s an attempted burglary on a private residence every 45 seconds? Or that every 76 seconds, such burglary attempts are successful? Frightening, isn’t it?

The average cost of losses resulting from a breakin stacks up at GB pound 2,040. We’re not helping ourselves, either. Across 2010-2011, in more than 70 percent of residential breakins, it was found that the properties concerned were not protected by any form of intruder alarm.

IFSECGlobal.com has teamed up with GJD to produce an infographic that’s something of a wakeup call for everyone.

Big-data: What does it mean for privacy?

Back in 1993, estimates suggested that 3 percent of the world’s data was stored in an electronic format. Twenty years later, that figure stands at a massive 93 percent. Crime data software used in the United States, for example, is used to map years of criminality and is mixed with human behaviour analysis to try and predict crime.

There are clearly human rights/individual freedoms/privacy issues to be addressed here, but citizens aren’t necessarily troubled about their data being captured and stored under due legal process. After all, we do live in an information age. Concerns arise when talk turns to how secure that data storage is and how this personal data may be used in the future.

Why the time is right for video-surveillance-as-a-service

The price point is right. The technology is right — certainly for the UK’s small and midsized business (SMB) market.

That’s the considered view of Frank Crouwel, the managing director of the NW Systems Group, who highlights the plug-and-play functionality developed by camera manufacturers as a pivotal development of recent times. Isn’t it truly amazing what technological development has done — and continues to do — to make our world a safer place in which to live and work?

IT security “critically underfinanced” by business

Kaspersky Lab’s Global Corporate IT Security Risks Survey has found that 60 percent of IT decision makers feel there’s either not enough time or money available to develop security policies. That’s a worrying statistic in its own right, but it becomes even more so when you consider that more than 90 percent of the host organisations questioned experience at least one external IT security incident every year — it only takes one serious incident to ruin a business.

Thirty percent of companies believe that the costs of protecting against cybercrime are greater than the losses incurred from an incident. How wrong they might be.

PwC survey: Cybersecurity standards

PwC has been commissioned by the Department of Business, Innovation, and Skills to identify the landscape in the UK when it comes to cybersecurity standards. If you’re directly responsible for cybersecurity, risk, or compliance in your organisation, then PwC and the government want to hear from you.

Record labels ask broadband providers to collect data on illegal downloads

Broadband providers such as Virgin Media, BT, and TalkTalk are being urged to create a database of customers who are illegally downloading music, films, and books, so that such information might then be used to disconnect or prosecute persistent offenders.

Closing the UK’s cybersecurity skills gap: The government’s response

MPs David Willetts and Michael Gove have explained what the government is doing to close the cybersecurity skills gap.

There’s talk of cybersecurity challenges, pathways into the profession from the education sector, and even mandatory education in this specialism at a certain age. However, recent surveys suggest there’s still a long way to go before cybersecurity becomes firmly entrenched in people’s consciousness.

Microsoft to buy Nokia’s mobile phone business in GB pound 4.6 billion deal

In the mobile device security arena, the big tech story of the week is the news that Nokia’s phone business is being bought by Microsoft. Many feel the GB pound 4.6 billion deal has everything to do with the Windows Phone platform, rather than the handsets. Either way, Microsoft now has the perfect chance to innovate using the flagship Lumia brand.

This deal’s particularly important for Microsoft, as the organisation can now move to win back some of the enterprise customers lost due to the rise of BYOD.

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Download for FREE to discover top industry insight around the latest innovations in video surveillance systems.

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