The Australian government last month announced that mandatory data breach notification laws will be brought in by the end of the year, meaning that an organisation must notify its customers of any data breach that results in customer information being compromised.

Significant cost drivers have squarely placed the cloud in the sights of CIOs. Unfortunately, these drivers have often been stalled by a fear that the cloud is an exposed environment that is difficult to secure. Fortunately, there are concrete mechanisms that can protect cloud applications against crippling data loss, leaks and breaches. Cloud data protection (also known as Cloud Encryption) is one such mechanism that forms the focus of this post.

By now you have likely heard about the Russian-based cybercrime group known as either the Carbanak gang or Anunak gang (depending on which report you read), who infiltrated the systems of over 100 European and US banks in late 2014. It made the front page of the New York Times which is big news. And so it should � it was one of the largest bank heists in history. This crew pilfered somewhere between USD $300 million and $1 billion � scarily, no one is quite sure of the total amount.

As someone in the business of security, you may have heard of the NIST Cybersecurity Framework, developed by the US Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). It was initiated by way of an Executive Order from US President Barack Obama in response to the government�s growing concern of over cybersecurity and the threat it poses to national and economic security.

After nearly three years in development, the May debut of Australian company's StratoKey security tool has been rewarded with a finalist berth in upcoming awards from security giant RSA and the opportunity for the founders to present to a massive audience of regional security-industry figures.

StratoKey has been selected as one of four finalists for the RSA Conference Most Innovative Company awards for Asia Pacific and Japan. This event aims to showcase and name the most innovative new technologies in the information security space.