Monthly Archives: November 2009

Law firms holding sensitive data for their clients are the targets of a new round of organized cyberattacks, federal authorities cautioned this week.  On Tuesday, the FBI warned that U.S. law firms and public relations firms were being targeted by hackers using “spear phishing” attacks — personalized emails drafted to look like they come from a trusted or reputable source and designed to induce the reader to click an attachment or link that will infect his or her computer with malicious software. … More

Following the lead of the American Bar Association (ABA), on November 10, 2009, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) has filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, asking the Court to rule that the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) Red Flags Rule may not be applied to accountants.

The Massachusetts Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation (OCABR) has filed its final information security regulations and will be making them public this week. The final rules appear to have been tweaked only slightly from the draft regulations issued on August 17, 2009.

Last week, it was learned that a secret report of the U.S. House of Representatives Ethics Committee was disclosed — apparently inadvertently — by a junior committee staff member.  This staff apparently stored the file on a home computer that also ran a "peer-to-peer" file-sharing service.  Just as peer-to-peer services let you share music and games, they also can give outside users access to other files on your computer, including in this case secret Congressional reports. … More