Weekly News Roundup: August 16, 2013

It’s been a varied week in the news. The European Union has been trying to take a key vote on passage of a unifying data protection act that would place greater structure around safeguarding personal information (including credit card details), but the vote was delayed for a third time and The Guardian questions if the bill may stall out.

Back in the U.S., the Wall Street Journal looked at the increasing use of cybercrime insurance to help protect large businesses from the aftereffects of cybercrime. While possibly helpful, these policies do not include compensation for lost intellectual property or reputation damage, two of the most difficult damages to quantify in terms of monetary value.

Lastly (and maybe somewhat selfishly), Mako was pleased to be featured in New Zealand’s largest daily newspaper  among other companies launching successfully into the U.S. market from the Kiwi Landing Pad facility in San Francisco.

The New Zealand Herald – Golden Gate to Success – Mako Networks was featured in New Zealand’s largest daily newspaper in a special supplement profiling companies that have used the Kiwi Landing Pad in San Francisco to successfully establish a presence in the North American market.

The Wall Street Journal – On Alert Against Cybercrime – U.S. corporations take the threat of cybercrime seriously, and many are even taking out data breach insurance to help reduce the risk that a breach would sink their business. However, most policies do not cover theft of intellectual property and reputation damage – two of the most devastating losses, but also the hardest to value. At least 470 U.S. companies, government agencies and other institutions were forced to acknowledge material breaches to their computer networks in 2012 and tally the stolen data. So far this year, 343 of them have disclosed a network break-in, and that number is on pace to hit 588 by the end of the year, according to the Identity Theft Resource Center, a nonprofit research and education group that aids cybercrime victims.

The Guardian – Europe Deadlocked Over Data Protection Reform – An EU parliament vote on amendments to data protection law has been postponed for the third successive time, with the impasse leaving citizens’ data protection rights in limbo.