With a new presidential administration about to take office, many are hopeful that the “change” promised on the campaign trail will begin to take effect sooner than later.

When it comes to industry regulations and the variety of data breach laws on the books, some look to President-elect Obama and express confidence that he can garner the momentum to help bring some needed order to the disparate edicts on the books, regulating everything from patient health care records to financial data to retail customers’ credit card information.

The Obama platform has offered specific remedies to help the government and private industry to become more efficient, including more automating of data accumulation. But, some warn that it will likely take time for any meaningful legislation to make its way through the Congress.

“With the current budget, it may or may not happen,” one vendor of compliance tools told SC yesterday. “In the early part of the administration, a reform bill is not likely to come out early,” he said.

But, as the stock market rally the past two days may show, the reaction to Obama’s competency in putting together an economic team portends positive results for future initiatives.

Even though he may be forbidden – for state security reasons – to use his BlackBerry, it’s comforting to know that the person in charge has an acute awareness of technology. We can pretty well assume he will be a champion and strong advocate for procedures affecting the transmission of data.

As well, President Obama is likely to show more concern than the previous administration for the affairs of the nation’s citizens, meaning that he will likely work to protect consumers from data fraud and enact stronger punishments for those responsible for data breaches.

In the January issue of SC Magazine, our reporter Angela Moscaritolo speaks with several experts on how an Obama presidency will affect the IT security field, referencing Obama’s speech at Purdue University where he pointed out that our country’s system of information networks are the backbone of our economy.

We will also examine a brand new data breach law in Massachusetts, said to be the strictest in the nation. Will this become a model for federal legislation? Please check back, it’s an ever evolving stage.

The web, you see, is connectionless at bottom. I’m not referring to protocols, for those of you technically bent.

What I mean, in a non-engineering way, is that in the old days (say about the time of Alexander Graham Bell), to have your device connect to another person’s, you had to physically hook wires to it, generally by way of young women sitting at a wall of jack fields. That, by the way, led to a prediction that eventually we would run out of people to sit in central offices and shove plugs into jacks.

That notion evolved – I’m skipping forward rapidly – to massive computers in central offices doing the plug shoving (at least virtually). That era was called the circuit-switched era (I just coined an era!).

Then, of course, we entered the era of packet switching (skipping even more). In this era, the destination device is connected (virtually) not by wires and plugs, but by way of little packets that contain destination addresses. All these little packets find their own way to their destination. They are trusted to get there safely and without modification.

Which leads to my latest theory (file this under Harebrained, Latest): Packet switching causes the security problems inherent with the internet.

I know, I know — nothing is that simple. But when you have a system that can be used to intercept, modify, or connive readily, you will find people who intercept, modify and connive. If you can anonymously change, or spoof, a few packets instead of running drugs, heisting banks, or doping horses, crime will pay.

When the internet first started to actually work, it worked because the people building it trusted one another. That is, when you sent your personal information, Social Security number, bank account numbers, and children’s ages, the guy at the other end just figured it was test data, or that you were terribly confused, or both. They typically did not use the info to open bogus credit cards, drain your bank account, or kidnap your kids.

How things change!

Maybe a circuit-switched network was no safer, and there may be no causal link between an open, trusted model of networking and cybercrime, but it would likely be safer to run transactions on the Graham Bell, “Watson, come here” model.

Of course, it would be inefficient, expensive, and very near impossible to maintain. And life would be dull without what the internet has evolved to.

But the idea of talking to someone and otherwise exchanging information without worrying about devastating financial loss lurking behind every link is blissful.

When that universe opens up, let me know.

In today’s sophisticated threat landscape, innovation is a critical component to an effective defense strategy.

That innovation typically comes to bear at the tiny technology companies, whose goal, in most cases, is to create that next big thing, so the firm can go public or get acquired.

But with the economy in ruins, investors are growing increasingly wary of taking chances with their money. As a result, the funding needed to support startups - in our case, those focused on IT security - is drying up ever so quickly.

According to the Arizona Republic, venture capitalists nationally invested $7.1 billion in 907 deals this year compared to $7.8 billion in 981 deals last year.

So it was certainly good news to hear this week of plans by the University of Texas at San Antonio to launch an incubator inside its Institute for Cyber Security.

It works sort of like a hospital incubator might for a premature baby - IT security firms who face challenges that prevent them for launching on their own can turn to the incubator to “fast track their product development efforts and expedite time to capital, market and profitability.”

In return, participants must agree to “significant collaboration” with university staff.

While the incubator only stands to help a few companies at a time, hopefully it will encourage other universities to embark on similar missions. For more information, visit here.

Spam filters, junk mail folders and honeypots across the globe got a much-needed respite this week after a Northern California-based web hosting firm - McColo - was taken offline by a pair of its upstream internet service providers.

Few people have ever heard of McColo, but apparently this small Silcon Valley tech company was providing connectivity to countless groups of shady cybercrooks. It’s doubtful McColo was in on the scam, but when it was shut down, security pros saw an estimated two-thirds to 75 percent drop in the amount of spam circulating around the world.

Practically every major security company noticed the stunning decline and made mention of it in research posts and blogs. But practically everyone also agreed that this likely was only a flash-in-the-pan-type victory against the spread of unwanted (and often malicious) messages.

Some experts have predicted the amount of spam would soon begin creeping back upward, with numbers returning to normal levels by the holidays, just in time for the traditional influx of fake e-greeting cards and the like.

While bonet herders will quickly find a new host to which they can connect their command-and-control centers, this news shows that companies who provide access to these crooks, especially if they are based in America, won’t be tolerated.

Many companies such as McColo and Atrivo/Intercage - which was rendered a similar fate earlier this year - will play dumb as to the types of operations they are supporting.

But the fact is, going after these enablers who are turning a blind eye to to the motives of their customers seems to be the most effective solution anyone has come up with yet to stop the spread of junk mail.

There is plenty of reason for cautious optimism, though. As long as there is money to be made, criminals will find a way. So maybe Bill Gates’ prognostication will never come true.

There’s nothing new about heading to the polls and picking a president, but citizens have a new source today for obtaining the results: the internet.

In addition to the mainstream online news sources, hundreds of citizen journalists on hundreds of different personal websites will be blogging, crunching numbers and analyzing results, making predictions and providing commentary. And much of this journalism and opinion will be of expert caliber, as many of these new pundits are, in the noble tradition of democracy, committed to sharing their views with the populace. And blogging makes it easy.

Irregularities at the polling place? You can be sure these dedicated watchdogs will be reporting on it. While they may not have access to the big players, these investigators will be keeping a close eye on every conceivable angle related to the election process – from the size of the crowds to the effectiveness of the polling procedures. They will doggedly interview any disgruntled voter coming out of a polling place upset because of some procedural glitch. Nonstop coverage will detail not only all the news that’s fit to print, but also the color commentary missing from the premier editions.

Our special election report on e-voting security concerns by our ace reporter Angela Moscaritolo, investigates some of the conflicts that may be in store for some voters: the possibility of votes not being counted, of security vulnerabilities in e-voting machines. For example, the article explains:

Touch-screen machines have come under fire. Numerous studies have shown that it would be easy to introduce malicious software to these machines, potentially allowing rogue insiders or malicious outsiders to sway an election.

While stories like this may or may not break through into mainstream media, independent bloggers will pounce at the opportunity to right a wrong, and it’s more likely we’ll see ancillary coverage digging deep into the mysteries and inadequately explained.

Giving voice to the marginalized. A venue for the disenfranchised presenting the average citizen’s experience. This is the provenance of the internet. And you don’t have to wait for the evening edition.

For up-to-the-nanosecond election results and coverage, the Huffington Post, for example, calls attention to dozens of sites to which internet users can tune in, each cornering a niche, a particular area of expertise and/or speculation.