Tag Archives: Cyber Security

Taming the Superpower of Data – Data Privacy in Our Digital World

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Data helps organizations make more informed decisions about how they serve their customers. Data informs policy and procedures and feeds more personalized interaction with people. But with great power comes vast responsibility. The data that organizations hold can be incredibly personal. It's more than just someone's social security number. It is information about where people live, work, shop, keep their money, get their news, and more. Individuals should have control over who knows this information and, if they do have it, how they use it. However, most of us do little to understand our privacy rights beyond blindly clicking a checkbox that allows sites to collect information about our activities.

Data privacy practices ensure that the data shared by customers is only used for its intended purpose. A multitude of laws, including the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA), Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), and General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) have been enacted to provide guidelines to organizations and promises of data privacy to individuals.

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Behind the Curtain: National Contract Management Association

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As we've written here, the contracting and procurement market is at an interesting crossroads. The current workforce is aging and retiring making it difficult to find and train incoming talent. Additionally, new technologies such as AI and blockchain are being introduced and changing daily workflow. Now more than ever, the contracting community needs ways to keep the workforce trained on tried and true processes of this profession as well as get up to speed on emerging technologies and tactics. Luckily, an organization exists to do just this.

The National Contract Management Association (NCMA) celebrates its 60th anniversary in 2019 but with the industry pressures detailed above they have no plans of slowing down. The group brought in a new CEO in 2018 to lead their growth and support for members. Kraig Conrad comes to NCMA with 20 years of association leadership and experience helping organizations evolve to meet changing member and market needs. Kraig took some time to share how NCMA is ramping up efforts to support contract professionals through their events and training. Continue reading →

19 Actionable Steps to Protect Online Privacy – Part 2 of 4

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From time to time GovEvents will come across information we feel our members and audience would benefit from. Here's something we wanted to share:

what a VPN does for your online privacy

Online privacy is a topic that grows in importance every single year. With more and more web services, connected apps, and even home assistant devices that are gaining in popularity, it's now more crucial than ever to understand what the dangers to your online privacy are and how to protect it consciously.

This online privacy guide is all about that.

Here are 19 actionable steps to help you remain anonymous on the web and protect your online privacy. No sophisticated computer knowledge required. Continue reading →

19 Actionable Steps to Protect Online Privacy – Part 1 of 4

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From time to time GovEvents will come across information we feel our members and audience would benefit from. Here's something we wanted to share:

Online privacy is a topic that grows in importance every single year. With more and more web services, connected apps, and even home assistant devices that are gaining in popularity, this online privacy guide is all about that.

Here are the first of 19 actionable steps to help you remain anonymous on the web and protect your online privacy.

No sophisticated computer knowledge required.

1. Use the privacy/incognito mode

All current versions of web browsers like Chrome, Firefox, Opera come with a privacy mode.

For example, in Chrome, if you press CMD+SHIFT+N (Mac) or CTRL+SHIFT+N (Win), you will open a new tab in privacy mode. In that mode, the browser doesn't store any data at all from the current session. This means no web history, no web cache, no cookies, nothing at all.

Use this mode whenever doing anything that you'd prefer remain private and not able to be retrieved at a later date on the device that you're using.

However! Let's make it clear that privacy modes don't make the connection more secure in any way. They just make it private in relation to your own device - meaning, they make it private on your end only.

(Privacy modes are also available in mobile browsers.) Continue reading →

Planning for the Worst: Making Disaster Recovery a Priority

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Hurricanes, wildfires, gun violence, data breaches. It's been a rough news cycle and an even rougher reality. As painful as it is to think about these recent events, it is important for organizations to plan for the worst. This includes the logistical (if we lose access to our building, how will we work?), the technical (how do we maintain access to our data and IT systems?), and the personal (how do we contact and support employees during a disaster?).[Tweet "Hurricanes, wildfires, gun violence, data breaches. Be prepared for any disaster. #GovEventsBlog"]

Lucky for those of us who shudder at thinking about worst-case scenarios, there are professionals whose job it is to map out a plan that can be used in the event of disaster. These disaster recovery experts share theoretical and tactical guidance at a number of events throughout the year. Below are some upcoming events listed on GovEvents that can help anyone be better prepared for a disaster:[Tweet "Planning for the Worst: Making Disaster Recovery a Priority. #GovEventsBlog"] Continue reading →