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Business owners, digital transformation officers, security heads and customer experience managers should take cognisance of the ten elements of digital citizenship. These are digital true identity, digital access, digital commerce, digital communication, digital literacy, digital etiquette, digital law, digital rights ... |
The challenge with the growing digitalisation of organisations is that as more and more people choose to transact online, and more businesses are opening their systems for third-party integrations, so the complexity around effectively managing the security issues related to digital citizenship increase. |
Modern businesses find themselves stuck between a rock and a hard place in this regard, as they need to be able to make digital transacting quick and frictionless for customers, suppliers and the like, but they also need to be certain that whoever is on the other side of the transaction, approval or process is who they... |
This is the issue today: how do you identify, verify and attest to who these digital citizens are? As the concept of Open ID Connect (OIDC) prolificates, one sees enterprises allowing those users needing to conduct digital transactions to log in via their social media accounts. While this is certainly both fast and sim... |
This, in turn, exposes the organisation to increased security risks, as the profile used to log in could quite easily have been hacked or captured in some way. The issue becomes much more dangerous when one considers that it is the nature of human beings to be repetitive and to make life easy for themselves, so many ut... |
Because of this, it is more necessary than ever to ensure the identity of the person behind any electronic log-in is who they say they are. Companies therefore need to implement the right business processes, which should help to ensure whenever they are onboarding someone and offering them access to internal systems, t... |
However, this is easier said than done, as many companies do not have mature enough business processes or the necessary solutions to enable this. Without the requisite business processes in place, the organisation is likely to fail when it comes to issues like who is allowed access, what access they are allowed and how... |
It is also for this reason that many businesses choose to use the social media log-in option, because they feel the social media giants' security processes will be effective. However, it doesn't take much research to determine that many of these big players are among those who have suffered devastating security breache... |
This means if you are going to use the social media login details for a customer, you still need to have your own systems in place to vet who this digital citizen actually is that is engaging with the business. It means ensuring identities are properly scrutinised via a range of options, including background checks, bi... |
It is a complicated process, but in an increasingly digital world, it has never been more vital to link a properly appraised physical identity to a specific electronic identity via a tightly controlled authentication operation that is closely linked to a clear and pronounced business process, which in turn provides a f... |
iCrypto enables organisations to eliminate risks such as identity theft, access breaches, data breaches, ransom attacks and more, while enforcing compliance through a low-friction patented mobile-centric technology leveraging device/network biometrics and tokenised identity. Providing true biometrically tied identity o... |
iCrypto provides a scalable and customisable SaaS solution with capabilities including, among others, ID aggregation, strong mobile-centric (biometric) authentication, verifications, authorisations, and attestations (immutable audit trails) across the organisation. Thus, it enables all-around accountability, governance... |
The Russian military is building a giant cloud as a backup internet that in wartime will let the country go into Internet exile — and in peace, keep it operating in case of a global internet connection loss or hack, Defense One reported. |
"Russian Armed Forces will receive a . . . closed 'cloud' storage for proprietary and confidential information," Izvestia reported, according to the news outlet. The cloud will rely on data centers slated for completion by 2020, Izvestia reported. |
According to Defense One, the first center has already been established in a Russian military district that includes the illegally annexed Crimean peninsula and parts of eastern Ukraine. |
Defense One reported the cloud will connect to the Russian military's massive internal network, and Russian President Vladimir Putin's top IT adviser has said in wartime, the country could disconnect entirely from the global internet and run commercial traffic on the military's internal network. |
Sam Bendett, a fellow in Russia studies at the American Foreign Policy Council, told Defense One the Russian military has determined Big Data will be a "significant part in its ongoing modernization drive, with various digital technologies and approaches getting incorporated and used by the Russian forces." |
Russia is also making moves to bring its trading partners along with it on the Internet exile path, Defense One reported — including Brazil, India, South Africa and China. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov recently said Russia was pursuing an information security agreement with those countries for adoption at a Ju... |
A backup Internet that in wartime will let Russia go into Internet exile, and in peace, keep it operating in case of a global Internet connection loss or hack, is being built by Russia, according to Defense One. |
That’s the verdict from Roger Marsh OBE as he take the reins as the new chairman of the Piece Hall Trust, the independent charity tasked with operating the Piece Hall when it opens. The historic building will throw its gates open on Yorkshire Day following a multi-million pound transformation. |
Since 2013, Mr Marsh has been chair of the Leeds City Region Enterprise Partnership (LEP), the public/private sector partnership promoting the Leeds City Region’s interests on a national and international scale. |
He brings more than 30 years of business recovery, turnaround and insolvency experience to the role, and in 2015 was awarded an OBE in the Queen’s birthday honours list for services to business and the economy. |
Mr Marsh described the building - the only surviving cloth hall in the UK - as “intoxicating” and a venue which could become the “Covent Garden of the North”. |
He said: “I think it has got a very exciting future. |
“We are quietly optimistic we’ve got the right cocktail of offerings. |
Nine tenants have already been confirmed, with more expected to be announced in the coming weeks. |
Mr Marsh said a “quality” approach has been taken, rather than “fill it as quickly as possible” and that it needed to be set up for long-term success, rather than short-term excitement, as well as being an attraction people from Halifax and beyond would want to visit regularly. |
“The transformation of The Piece Hall is already attracting significant investment into Halifax and it has the potential to boost the economy across the whole of Calderdale and the wider region,” he said. |
Poinciana Villages homeowners Benny Valentin and Rebecca Sauls say when they tried to pay HOA debt it was already sold to an outside management company. |
In the wake of the controversy over ballooning charges on back-due homeowners-association fees, a group representing Poinciana residents filed a lawsuit Tuesday challenging the legality and authority of the association itself. |
The Friends of Poinciana Villages claim the homeowners association has not done an audit, did not put contracts out to bid properly and used funds improperly. |
The lawsuit also questioned the election process for the association's board and local village boards, claiming no elections were held in 2015. It seeks an injunction against one village board for what it says was improper removal of its president in a special meeting just last week. |
Thomas Slaten, an attorney for the homeowners association, denied the allegations and said the information in the lawsuit was incorrect and that many issues had been legally settled. |
"We never received an offer for mediation, and I'm surprised to receive this lawsuit without it," Slaten said. |
Poinciana Villages consists of about 23,000 homes in both Polk and Osceola counties. |
Poinciana Villages, with nearly 70,000 residents and 23,000 homes, would be one of the largest cities in Central Florida if it were a municipality. Instead, it's one of the largest private homeowners associations (HOA) in the United States. |
A story in Sunday's Sentinel cited several Poinciana residents who said that the debt on their past-due fees had been sold to collection agencies and had ballooned by thousands of dollars in late fees and legal fees. The association has since defended the sale of debt and said that all accounts sold were years past due... |
In the complaint, filed in the 10th Judicial Circuit Court in Polk County, Friends of Poinciana Villages attorney Jennifer Englert claims that developer Avatar Holdings violated the terms of the 1985 agreement setting up the association. |
The complaint claims that Avatar "has refused to turn over control to the association per the terms of the 1985 agreement" and continues to have representation on the association board and smaller village boards because it controls one vote for every plot of land it owns. |
The suit also alleges Avatar has representatives on village boards where it doesn't own land, such as Village 6, and village boards with no residents at all, such as Village 4. |
The complaint also claims that the Village 1 President Peter Jolly and Vice President Elizabeth Welsh-Cousins were inappropriately removed in a special election Dec. 16 without being properly notified. |
Jolly referred all comment to Friends of Poinciana Villages press officer Keith Laytham. |
The suit seeks an injunction against Village 1 preventing it from holding a new election, claiming that "Avatar has wrongfully controlled the board make-up in the first place." |
Avatar could not be reached for comment. |
The Friends of Poinciana Villages also claims in the lawsuit the association committed multiple violations of Florida Chapter 720, which regulates homeowners associations. |
The complaint claims that the association hadn't submitted a final 2014 audit to members by September. It also alleges the association did not seek competitive bids for a $4.4 million contract, despite regulations that require competitive bids for contacts larger than 10 percent of its operating budget. |
According to the lawsuit, the Articles of Incorporation requires staggered elections for board members, with no term lasting more than three years, but instead the rules were changed to allow four-year terms. |
Meanwhile, the 2016 elections for village boards were moved by the association to February without the village officials' consent, the suit claims. |
Besides the Village 1 election injunction, the Friends of Poinciana Villages is seeking a judgment "in excess of $75,000." |
Slaten described Friends of Poinciana as a for-profit organization "that says it represents residents, but nobody actually is identified" in the suit. |
"We don't even know if they actually represent any homeowners," Slaten said. |
The group being listed as "for-profit" on state paperwork was a mistake that has been corrected, according to Laytham. |
"Friends of Poinciana Villages is a Florida non-profit corporation that represents the interests of both Poinciana Villages residents and friends of Poinciana Villages residents," Laytham said in an email. |
Slaten also said that any issues with the 1985 agreement "have already been litigated" as part of a complaint filed in August by the association against Jolly and two other board members. |
That lawsuit dealt with a tumultuous period in which control of the board seesawed, with the association's management firm being first fired and then restored, and locks changed on association offices. The association was granted an emergency temporary injunction against the board members. |
"And regarding elections, any issue involving elections should be brought up at board meetings," Slaten said. "[This] is the first time they are raising those issues." |
Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified Keith Laytham. He is the press officer for the Friends of Poinciana Villages group. |
Former Enron chief executive Jeff Skilling was sentenced on Monday to more than 24 years in prison for leading a financial fraud that destroyed the company and came to symbolise a dark era for corporate America. |
He allowed Skilling (52) to remain out of jail, but mostly confined to his home with an electronic monitor on his ankle until the US Bureau of Prisons orders him to report, likely within the next 90 days. |
Skilling also was ordered to pay $45-million in restitution to Enron investors, who lost billions of dollars when the company collapsed. Thousands of employees lost their jobs and retirement funds. |
FBI assistant director Chip Burrus said in a statement Skilling’s punishment sent a message to white collar criminals. |
“Corporate crooks should beware. If you decide to use business coffers as your personal piggy bank at the expense of investors and employees, you risk loss of personal freedom,” he said. |
Judge Lake’s sentence of 24 years and four months was the lowest it could have been within federal guidelines for the white collar crime. |
Skilling, once one of corporate America’s brightest and brashest stars, was subdued but stoic, telling reporters he was “disappointed” by the verdict but would appeal the 19 criminal counts against him. |
“I don’t blame the judge for what he did. |
I have a constitutional right to appeal, and I think we’ll win,” he said. |
Skilling showed little emotion during the hearing, but occasionally looked back at wife, Rebecca, who sobbed in the gallery. |
On May 25, Skilling and Enron founder Ken Lay were found guilty of defrauding investors by using off-the-books deals to hide debt and inflate profits. |
Enron, once the country’s seventh largest company, collapsed into bankruptcy in December 2001 when the deals were disclosed. |
The resulting scandal rocked Wall Street and prompted reforms in the way companies report their finances. |
Lay (64) died of a heart attack in July while vacationing in Colorado. Following legal precedent, Judge Lake threw out the Lay convictions on October 17 because Lay died before a final judgement had been entered and before he could appeal. |
In comments to the court before sentencing, Skilling said he was remorseful for what happened at Enron, but maintained he had committed no crime. |
As he did in testimony during his trial, Skilling blamed the demise of Enron on a credit and liquidity crunch. |
“The company did not have enough dry powder to deal with it. That, in sum and substance, is what happened in Enron,” he said. |
He and Lay testified that the crisis of confidence that engulfed Enron was caused by the actions of a few rogue employees, primarily former chief financial officer Andrew Fastow. |
Fastow confessed to skimming millions of dollars from the off-the-books deals he set up at Skilling’s direction. He pleaded guilty, cooperated with prosecutors and received a six-year prison sentence. |
Prior to sentencing, several former Enron investors and employees made “victim impact statements” in which most of them called for Lake to impose the maximum sentence, which would have been just over 30 years. |
“I had $1,3-million and all I have to show for it is two clocks [for service awards],” said another former employee Charles Prestwood. |
“People think things like that don’t happen in America, but it does. It happened to us,” he said. |
Skilling joins other prominent executives whose corner-office careers ended in prison cells. WorldCom founder Bernard Ebbers received a 25-year sentence, former Tyco chairperson Dennis Kozlowski got eight to 25 years, and John and Timothy Rigas of Adelphia received 15 and 20 year sentences, respectively. |
Prosecutor Sean Berkowitz argued for a long sentence for Skilling, saying that Enron’s demise had wide-ranging effects. |
“The integrity of the marketplace as a whole was shaken by what happened at Enron,” he said. “People lost their trust and their faith in the marketplace. |
“Enron symbolised more than any other company the era of corporate fraud,” Berkowitz said. |
But Skilling’s attorney Daniel Petrocelli argued for a sentence of seven to 10 years, saying Skilling had meant no harm. |
More than 400 credit card numbers claimed to belong to Saudi Arabian citizens were released on Tuesday in apparent retaliation for the release of 15,000 active credit card numbers of Israelis last week. |
The data was posted publicly on Pastebin" by someone claiming to be an Israeli called Omer Cohen, or "0xOmer" on Twitter. The data includes credit-card numbers and expiration dates. Some entries contain the cardholder's name. |
0xOmer also wrote on Twitter that the CVCs, or the three-digit code on the back of the card, would not be released. The code is usually needed to conduct a transaction with an e-commerce vendor over the internet. |
On Saturday, Israel's Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon equated cyber attacks with terrorism, saying the country is prepared to respond. The comments followed the release last weeks of tens of thousands of credit card numbers of Israeli citizens by a hacker going by the name "oxOmar." |
However, Israel's Banking Supervision Department said last week that only 15,000 of the numbers were active. |
On Monday, Ayalon's personal website was targeted by hackers. His website briefly redirected to a different domain containing Arabic messages and the note "Hacked by Foxy + TKL and Gaza HaCKeR Team." |
Although efforts to contact Ayalon's office were unsuccessful, he wrote on his Facebook page on Monday that "this morning some Muslim extremists hacked into my website to try and prevent me from continuing to do my work on behalf of the State of Israel, especially my online public diplomacy. We will not be weakened nor... |
The spending began soaring beyond that of other advanced nations, but without the same benefits in life expectancy. |
The United States devotes a lot more of its economic resources to health care than any other nation, and yet its health care outcomes aren’t better for it. |
That hasn’t always been the case. America was in the realm of other countries in per-capita health spending through about 1980. Then it diverged. |
It’s the same story with health spending as a fraction of gross domestic product. Likewise, life expectancy. In 1980, the U.S. was right in the middle of the pack of peer nations in life expectancy at birth. But by the mid-2000s, we were at the bottom of the pack. |
Health spending and life expectancy are not necessarily closely related, so it’s helpful to consider them separately. |
For spending, many experts point to differences in public policy on health care financing. “Other countries have been able to put limits on health care prices and spending” with government policies, said Paul Starr, professor of sociology and public affairs at Princeton. The United States has relied more on market forc... |
One result: Prices for health care goods and services are much higher in the United States. Gerard Anderson, a professor at Johns Hopkins and a lead author of a Health Affairs study on the subject, emphasized this point. “The differential between what the U.S. and other industrialized countries pay for prescriptions an... |
The degree of competition, or lack thereof, in the American health system plays a role. A recent study by economists at the University of Miami found that periods of rapid growth in U.S. health care spending coincide with rapid growth in markups of health care prices. This is what one would expect in markets with low l... |
Although American health care markets are highly consolidated, which contributes to higher prices, there are also enough players to impose administrative drag. Rising administrative costs — like billing and price negotiations across many insurers — may also explain part of the problem. |
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