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There are 5 reasons why credit cards are stolen in Israel. None have to do with terror; 4 reasons are cultural and the 5th is everyone’s problem: “confusing compliance with security“. I  could write a book on mismanagement of data governance and compliance, data security, web server security, web application software security. In 2003, I …

What is more important – patient safety or the health of the enterprise hospital Windows network?  What is more important – writing secure code or installing an anti-virus? Software Associates specializes in helping medical device vendors achieve HIPAA compliance and improve the data and software security of their products in hospital and mobile environments. A …

My colleague, Dr. Joel Isaacson talks about the top 10 mistakes made by Linux developers. It’s a great article and great read from one of the top embedded Linux programmers in the world. The Little Engine That Could Copyright 2004 Joel Isaacson. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License. I  try to …

I’ve been recently writing about why Microsoft Windows and the Microsoft monoculture in general  is a bad idea for medical device vendors – see my essays on Windows vulnerabilities and medical devices here, here and here. It is now time to slaughter one more sacred cow: SSL. One of the most prevalent misconceptions with vendors in …

I met with Avner Algom last week in his office in Herzliya. Avner is the director of the Israeli Cloud and Grid Technology Consortium – IGT - The IGT is a non-profit organization of leading industry companies, vendors, ISVs, customers, VCs and academia, focused on knowledge sharing and networking for developing Cloud computing/SaaS, Virtualization and SmartGrid …

In a previous post The Microsoft Monoculture as a threat to national security, I suggested that the FDA might consider banning Windows as an operating system platform for medical devices and their accompanying information management systems. One of my readers took umbrage at the notion of legislating one monoculture (Microsoft) with another (Linux) and how …

Sold down the river. A phrase meaning to be betrayed by another. Originated during the slave trade in America. Selling a slave “down the river” would uproot the slave from their from spouses, children, parents, siblings and friends. For example: “I can’t believe that Microsoft gave their source code to the Chinese in a pathetic …

One year ago this time was World Cup season and Mondial fever put a lot of regional conflicts on the back burner for a month – not to mention put a dent in a lot of family budgets (husbands buying the latest 60 inch Sony Bravia and wives on retail therapy while the guys are …

Medical devices are everywhere today.  In your doctors office measuring your blood pressure, at your cosmetician (for hip reduction…) and in the hospital for everything from patient monitoring to robot-assisted surgery. The people that develop embedded medical devices based on Intel platforms know that Windows is vulnerable. Lacking embedded Linux know-how, medical device developers often …

A pitch from Alex Whitson from SC TV for a Webinar on the LinkedIn Information Security Community piqued my attention with the following teaser: As you may have read recently, Cybercrime is now costing the UK $43.5 billion and around $1 trillion globally. Sponsored by security and compliance auditing vendor nCircle, the Webinar pitch didn’t cite any sources for the …