If you think that implementing a privacy policy isn't important, take a look at these statistics gathered by Forrester Research:

90% of online consumers want to control how their personal information is being used.

67% of consumers have reservations about giving out personal information online.

The government is trying to stay out of passing mounds of regulations on privacy issues, preferring "self regulation" instead. In 1998 they did pass "The Children's Online Privacy Act" (COPPA), making it mandatory that sites reveal how they deal with information received from minors without parental consent. European countries are much more strict when it comes to Internet Privacy Laws then US.

If you do create a privacy policy and use information collected in a different manner than stated in that policy, you may be held liable by The Federal Trade Commission. This type of deception is a violation of FTC Act, and is a very serious offense. So if you implement a policy make sure you stick to what it says.

Many of privacy site leaders offer a privacy seal program. If after creating your policy you think it has what it takes to be certified, check out

http://www.truste.org/webpublishers/pub_join.htm

http://www.enonymous.com/default2.asp

http://www.secureassure.com

http://bbbonline.com/businesses/privacy/guide.html

Becoming certified is an added plus for any commercial website and will help alleviate any fear of sharing information on part of your website guests.

So how do you protect yourself while you're online? First, by being aware that every move you make may be recorded. Second, always read a site's privacy policy so you know what's being done with information you do provide, if any. If you'd like to keep sites from gathering "invisible information" about you such as your IP address, operating system, etc., you may want to look into an anonymous browsing service which conceals your identity while surfing. Check out;

http://www.anonymizer.com/ http://www.privada.net/ http://www.freedom.net/

If you'd like to find out if a certain site has a privacy policy in place surf over to

http://www.enonymous.com http://www.privacyratings.org

Remember, temptation for website owners to sell personal information to third parties is high online due to demand for that information by advertisers. Make sure you're doing your part by being aware of who you're giving your information to, and knowing what they are doing with it.

Companies must also consider value of audits deliverables/results. Deliverables must not only detail all of current vulnerabilities, but also prioritize what issues are important, document proven methodologies for remediating vulnerabilities, and provide cost-effective methods to mitigate risk. The majority of companies cannot afford to maintain staff and application software necessary to conduct an audit at this level. Even those companies that do have such a significant security budget often use an outsourced firm to validate their own efforts.

Some additional benefits of a professional outsourced audit are: recording an objective baseline and changes on a periodic basis, having a trusted security partner to turn to as issues arise, and ability to meet industry requirements for objective third-party auditing. For those companies outsourcing audits as a secondary check, it also assists in justifying security budgets, by validating current security-related expenditures.

Although it was mentioned that companies are sometimes challenged with prioritizing security matters, based on our own experience there is a trend with technology executives, to place a higher priority on network security. The newfound emphasis applies to both internal and external audits and really comes into play with those companies that have a great reliance on Internet and business continuance.

Finding all of your vulnerabilities is increasingly difficult without a full suite of auditing tools, but remember, finding vulnerabilities is only half battle. In order for audit deliverables to be truly effective they have to include professional feedback on what issues are important, remediation efforts detailed and prioritized, as well as describe how all of effort and expense will affect level of risk.

If you feel your systems environment could pass a security audit, but haven ’t had one, our experience shows you might be surprised by a failing grade. If you have had an audit and vulnerabilities were exposed, hopefully you have an action plan you are utilizing to eliminate vulnerabilities. Once action plans are complete, you might consider outsourcing your next audit to validate your efforts.