It’s a little late to think about security for the year as predictions and advice were pouring in months ago. But, now is a good time to rethink it all because we’ve seen enough this year to make sure we keep this on our radar – all the time.

You can always read what the experts say like this one; Solutionary, an information-security company, offers the following:

·         Social networking services such as Facebook and Twitter will suffer the first significant breach that will drive away some users for the first time.  It’s bound to happen and we’ll all ooh and aww about it – so unfriend through tweets and see what happens.

·         Healthcare reform and the emergence of new and innovative applications, such as electronic medical records, will increase the need for new healthcare security procedures to better protect patient records and privacy.  Social Security numbers will become the new currency for cybergangs.

·         The National Breach Disclosure Law will begin to help protect consumers and business users. After languishing on Capitol Hill for four years, the Senate Judiciary Committee recently approved two bills that address data security and breach notification. The legislation was drafted in response to the plague of data thefts that have occurred over the last few years. Everything languishes on Capitol Hill anyway, so this is just the way things go.

·         Cyber warfare will be seen like any other warfare for the first time in history, largely because of the convergence of physical and information security.  

·         Cloud computing will continue to complicate business security, especially as it integrates more and more with programs and applications employees use daily. It will become more difficult to control what employees are downloading on business PCs.

Or, you can do what really works.  Here’s some advice to go with the expert warnings.

·         Go back to paper.  Use blue ink and don’t sign anything.

·         Put a high volume shredder in every room – even the bathroom.

·         Hide under your desk often during the day.  Keep a supply of paper and pens under there, and snacks.

·         Don’t open emails.  Just stare at the subject lines and make assumptions; then delete.

·         If you do open an email, don’t open an attachment unless you’re 100% certain about the person who is sending it to you – do they open attachments before sending, or just send it along.  In other words, are you wearing protection when you open an attachment. 

·         Don’t use your ATM card.  Shred it in any of your rooms.

·         Don’t buy anything on line.  Don’t even go on line.

·         Don’t link in.  Just don’t do it.  Just delete.

·         Don’t tweet, RSSfeed, digg, or anything else.

·         Don’t accept invitations to be a friend.  Is you need to be invited, then you aren’t.

·         Don’t endorse anyone.  Who are you anyway?  Just an IP address with a load time.  Ugh.

·         Don’t bank on line. 

·         Don’t handle your bills on line.

·         Don’t give out your email address to anyone.  You won’t have to; someone else already has.

Do you have any advice to offer?  Just email it to us without an attachment and after we pull it out of the ocean of spam, we’ll add it to our mid-year update.