jordan

Disaster strikes unexpectedly in all organizations. But all too often, they are caught unawares. Worst, unprepared! When this happens, the process of strategic decision-making bears the brunt of passive ownership and inadequate responsibility and accountability. That is why increasing demand for a sound information governance (IG) program is in place. Information governance rules out complacency- right to the core. As it has evolved to be more policy-driven, it helps to define clearly who, what, when, where, why, and how your company’s information is accessed and utilized. While an improved data retention process aims to reduce [...]

As part of the company's ongoing efforts to combat the rise in cybercrime, Google Cloud has recently invested $50 million in cybersecurity startup Cybereason. This investment comes on the heels of an announced partnership between Google Cloud and Cybereason that entails the companies working together to launch a platform called Cybereason XDR.  Cybereason XDR is a platform that is powered by Chronicle and designed to scan more than 23 trillion security-related events per week in order to identify potential threats and predict cyberattacks. The hope is that this new platform will improve security across the entire Google Cloud infrastructure.  [...]

From supply chain shortages to decreased demand due to COVID-related travel restrictions, the oil and gas industry has certainly encountered plenty of challenges in recent months. Despite these global challenges, however, mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity within the oil and gas sector continues to grow, signaling that executives remain optimistic about the future of the industry. There have been a number of recent and noteworthy examples of M&A activity within the oil and gas industry. So far in Q4 2021, Northern Oil and Gas has purchased a non-operated interest in 400 Bakken wells from Comstock Resources [...]

While technology breakthroughs continue to surprise businesses in the United States, both from the government and private sectors, doing business online has become more feasible and promising to the greatest extent.  The proliferation of online platforms such as emails, websites, online meetings, social media, messaging apps, etc. has made it possible for any business to thrive, even during the Covid-19 pandemic. Thus, fast access to a company’s data has remained as important as the business itself.  That is why, what Information Governance (IG) does is to help manage electronic information and give it its most beneficial [...]

In early August 2021, T-Mobile experienced a hack that exposed the sensitive information of over 50 million of the company's current, former, and prospective customers. Information such as names, birthdates, social security numbers, driver's license numbers, and beyond was compromised, leaving the company reeling for answers. Those answers came when a 21-year-old US citizen named John Binns admitted to the Wall Street Journal that he was the one behind the attack. According to Binns, he was able to gain access to a T-Mobile data center located near East Wenatchee, Washington via an unprotected router, enabling him [...]

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic struck, semiconductor shortages were an issue that was already starting to affect companies in a wide range of industries. When COVID-19 came along, though, and ground factories all over the globe to a halt - creating worldwide supply chains disruptions the likes of which we have never had to deal with in the modern era - the impact of these shortages was magnified to the nth degree. Now, Vice President Kamala Harris is working to build relationships with the countries that the US especially relies on for its semiconductor demands by [...]

Health apps have become wildly popular in the past decade, serving as a way for people to more easily monitor their diet, exercise, sleep patterns, and beyond. The fact that many of these applications collect sensitive personal information from their users, though, is cause for security concerns. Now, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is warning that any app that collects personal health information from its users must notify those users if their data is breached or otherwise shared with third parties without the user's permission. Since 2009, the Health Breach Notification Rule has required [...]

As governments across the world are strengthening their efforts to crack down on money laundering, more and more financial institutions are finding themselves in the crosshairs. Recently, the British digital bank Monzo became the latest target of an anti-money laundering (AML) investigation, with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) announcing in May of this year that it was investigating Monzo for potential breaches of British AML rules and financial crime controls.  The investigation alleges that the breaches of AML rules took place between October 2018 and April 2021. Currently, the investigation is still in its early stages. [...]

A recent consumer survey has revealed that just 28% of customers claim to have a strong understanding of the healthcare services that are covered by their health insurance plan. Now that the COVID-19 pandemic has created even more confusion by forcing countless customers to rework their healthcare plans, healthcare revenue cycle leaders are putting new emphasis on the importance of explaining the coverage and out-of-pocket expenses associated with various healthcare plans.  There are a number of different strategies that revenue cycle leaders are hoping to adopt moving forward in order to create more transparency and strengthen financial [...]

Stripe - a digital payments company with a similar business model to PayPal - has recently made a major acquisition designed to expand on the products and services that the company offers. In order to add a suite of cloud-based tax services to the payment services that Stripe provides, the company has purchased TaxJar - a popular service that allows for the automatic calculation, reporting, and filing of sales taxes.  While the details of the purchase have not been fully disclosed, we know that TaxJar was valued at $179 million the last time the company raised [...]

In what is believed to be the first time that a national law enforcement agency conducted mass arrests targeting a ransomware group, the National Police of Ukraine recently arrested six individuals alleged to be members of the notorious Clop ransomware gang.  Despite these arrests, though, Clop remains in operation and has responded to the arrests by doxing two new victims. Doxing is one of the many strong-arm tactics that ransomware operations can use to leverage money out of the organizations that they target. If the ransom money being demanded isn't paid, doxing punishes the victim of the [...]