You Won't Get Fired for Outlawing IM - Business Center - PC World

The younger generation that is moving into the workplace now grew up on Instant Messaging. It's been their favourite way of communicating. Naturally, as they enter the workplace, the use of IM is growing quickly, raising the concerns of some security professionals, because of the perceived lack of control around IM and the lack of a trail of communications. Some companies have even banned it, although that must be difficult to enforce. On the other hand, as this article points out, there are productivity gains to be realized from the use of IM, and the a decision to ban it therefore comes at a cost. Security administrators need to think twice before banning IM. Not only are they bucking a trend that likely can't be bucked, they will lower their company's capacity for productivity.. You Won't Get Fired for Outlawing IM - Business Center - PC World

Opinion: Obama's BlackBerry is no security threat

In the past few weeks, there have been several articles saying that Pres Elect Obama may have to give up his Blackberry for security reasons. In this article Bill Brenner argues that this is not necessary and would reduce the effectiveness of this plugged-in president. The issue is pertinent to many CEO's out there, since their security issues, while perhaps not necessarily matters of national security, are nevertheless potentially as important to their companies and their stakeholders. Should CEO's be banned from having smartphones? The short and long answer is absolutely not. There has always been a conflict between making effective use of technology and the risk-adverse security wing of the technology world. This issue is more evidence of that conflict. The fact is, mobile technology is important, and security needs to keep up and deal with it. It's that simple. Opinion: Obama's BlackBerry is no security threat

BearingPoint - The Disconnect Between Security and the Business

A study done for Bearing Point by Forrester shows the relationship between key business drivers and good secuirity policy. It explores, for example, the extent to which corporate culture inhibits strong security. The study provides valuable food for thought for those responsible for corporate systems security. BearingPoint - The Disconnect Between Security and the Business

Wrinkles in the IFRS Roadmap - Accounting - CFO.com

The move to IFRS in Canada and the US will pose significant systems issues. IFRS involves maintaining different values for some assets,and will require systems changes to generate and carry those values. In many cases, companies also will have to maintain their traditional GAAP records as well, and several companies will be keeping "two sets of books" for some time into the future. For IT Auditors, this poses several issues they will need to deal with. Which set of records will they audit? Are their controls consistent and reliable? Do the IFRS systems contain the data that will be needed to support the kind of judgements that need to be made under the IFRS standards? These are just a few of the issues. Wrinkles in the IFRS Roadmap - Accounting - CFO.com

CA Unveils Cloud Management Strategy, SaaS Unit -- cloud-based management -- InformationWeek

CA Unveils Cloud Management Strategy, SaaS Unit -- cloud-based management -- InformationWeek: "CA unveiled Monday a cloud computing strategy that includes management as a service and management of third party cloud computing environments such as Amazon's EC2." This is significant because it extends the SaaS world into management services, particularly various monitoring activities. It could have security and control implications for better or worse, depending on which monitoring services are included and how they integrate with the activities of the people doing the managing.

Security Manager's Journal: Progress at last on the patching front, and a new priority

A solid patch management program is an important component of a vulnerability remediation program. In this article, a security manager explores his experience with this initiative, and how it ties into his overall strategy. Security Manager's Journal: Progress at last on the patching front, and a new priority

Compliance - CIO Today

Business opportunity in the modern world means getting connected. But this connectivity involves risk. This article explores the relationship between business opportunity and business risk and highlights the means of addressing the risk. Stressing but going beyond the conventional approach of ERM, it points to trends in open source that can lead to better security. Compliance - CIO Today