In the survey of over a thousand IT decision-makers, 74% indicated that using tablet computers and smartphones led to an increase in productivity in their organization while 25% of those said it has led to a significant increase. In addition, half of those surveyed said they felt the use of tablets and smartphones has led to cost savings in their organization.

Addressing the so-called BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) trend, 64% of the IT decision-makers at large businesses reported that consumer technology adoption has led to cost savings, while 42% said they experienced significant cost savings.

Documenting a clear set of IT policies is a resource-intensive process for CIO and their staffs due to the research and writing time involved. And once policies are created, the next step is to communicate and gain acceptance for those policies throughout the organization. Wouldn't it be nice to start with boiler plate templates that require only minor customizing?

• Have agendas with goals objectives. It's considered bad business manners to send a meeting request without providing an agenda. When calling a meeting focus agenda on expressly stating the goal(s) of the meeting.
• Replace the default 60-minute meeting time slot with a 20-minute meeting unit. For some inexplicable reason, people seem to naturally default to 60 minutes as the amount of time needed for a meeting. And while that may be the case in certain circumstances, it should not be the default position. In place of a 60-minute default time slot, adopt the 20-minute meeting unit. If a particular topic needs more time than that, it is up to the meeting organizer to convince the participants that two (or three, or four) meeting units of 20 minutes are necessary.
• Have people stand during meeting.  It is too easy to "waste time" when everyone is sitting. 
• Orient the meeting toward follow-ups and actions. Meetings produce lots of ideas and discussion. That's wonderful. But the real purpose of most meetings is to agree on next steps and actions. Keep a focus on targeted actions and your meetings will be productive. Allow them to become discussion forums for "important issues," and they will feel long and painful.

    

 

Assuming that there is a significant downsizing of the military and there are no new programs to get jobs for soldiers coming home then the true unemployment levels will not go down for some time.

Today's most productive employees are not tied to a desk, an office, or a location. They are mobile. And your companyÂ’s IT strategy has to be ready to support them with easy, reliable, 24/7 access to the business information they need, from anywhere in the world, across a broad range of communication devices.

Mobile contentmanagement increases user productivity, ramps up customer engagement, enhances customer service, maximizes collaboration and drives more effective business decision-making.

Not all disaster recovery applications are created equal. There are three main methods for providing backup for virtual environments in the industry today. Understanding how these methods impact your environment as a whole, is key to making sound decisions when choosing the correct application for your business.

In our Disaster Recovery Planning Template Janco presents:

• Review these methods to compare and contrast the impact on the environment
• Strategies
• See how each method effects the backup window and storage and the MTPOD (Maximum Tolerable Period of Recovery)
•  Present state of the art solutions to the global body of knowledge for DR/BC, including current international standards and best practices.

EU proposed the replacement of Data Protection Directive 95/46, an important component of EU privacy and human rights law under which organizations in both the public and private sector have been operating for thirteen years.

It would reduce bureaucratic compliance requirements for many organizations and provide a single set of compliance laws across Europe. At the same time, it would impose a greater responsibility on organizations to protect against and acknowledge data breaches, introducing stiffer penalties for organizations that fall short of the legal requirements. This would be no bad thing. Senior management need to act to stop the flow of sensitive information that is leaking out of organizations. The right information policies and procedures need to be in place. All too often, it seems that organizations are mopping the floor after the leak.

In particular, the draft EU proposal includes four requirements that would, if adopted, have a far-reaching impact on all organizations that do business in Europe.

• A mandatory notification of breaches. This recommends that both the relevant Data Protection Authorities (DPAs) - [in the UK's case this would be the ICO]  - and all affected individuals have to be notified within 24 hours of a data security breach, including unauthorised destruction or loss. The data protection authorities must be notified even in the absence of any risk of harm to data.
  
  This requirement raises a number of important questions including the need for data breach thresholds: does this requirement apply to the loss of a single record, for example, and would there be a longer time limit if the data breach involved the loss of millions of customer records? It also raises the question as to whether public and private sector organizations would be able and indeed willing, to self-regulate.
  
• All public sector organizations, and private sector organizations with more than 250 employees, to have a named data protection officer. This could have significant resource, training and recruitment implications for many organizations. One option could be to add the responsibility to the remit of an appropriately skilled employee.
  
• Regulatory authorities would have powers to impose fines of up 1 million Euros -  or two percent of turnover for private sector organizations -  for failures to comply with the regulation. That the EU is prepared to authorise this level of punishment highlights just how seriously data protection is to be taken.
  
• Give individuals the 'right to be forgotten'. In essence, it states that individuals should have greater control over their data and be allowed to demand the removal or deletion of personal records from any organization that holds them. If adopted, this requirement would have immense resource implications for organizations and could be time-consuming and complex to implement, particularly where it relates to the fast-moving world of social media. However, the small print suggests that this right is a 'qualified' one.

    

Executive compensation is not a new area for the PCAOB. Auditing Standard No. 12, "Identifying and Assessing Risks of Material Misstatement," currently states that "the auditor should consider performing . . . procedures and the extent to which the procedures should be performed [to] obtain an understanding of compensation arrangements with senior management, including incentive compensation arrangements, changes or adjustments to those arrangements, and special bonuses."

The increased scrutiny would not be limited to just reviewing more documents. The proposed amendments also would require the auditors to consider contacting persons who are involved in executive-compensation decisions but not in financial audits - such as the compensation committee chair, the outside compensation consultant, and human-resources personnel - to better understand the company's executive-compensation structure. Auditing procedures would also target the authorization and approval process for executive perquisites and reimbursement arrangements.

Over 90 percent of data breaches are the result of external attacks and almost 60 percent of organizations discovered them months or years later, Verizon said in a report released at the RSA security conference.

According to the report, the use of default or stolen credentials was one of the primary methods that attackers used to gain access to data in 2011. Some organized crime groups have automated their attacks to scan for very specific ports, like those for remote desktop, pcAnywhere and similar products, and then they try to log in with common or stolen passwords.

This problem is common with small businesses that outsource the administration of their IT systems to third parties who offer remote support. These organizations should implement some type of access control for remotely accessible systems, like restricting which IPs are allowed to connect to them.

Web-based attacks like SQL injection have a lower frequency and didn't even make the top 10 list on the annual report that will be published later this year, Baker said. The rate of SQL injection attacks is usually much higher for financial services organizations.

Janco's Security Manual for the Internet and Information Technology is over 240 pages in length.  The template is compliant with ISO 27000 (formerly ISO 17799), Sarbanes-Oxley, Patriot Act and HIPAA and includes a PCI DSS Audit program.

One problem that doesn't seem to improve from year to year has to do with breach discovery. It takes the majority of organizations months to discover a breach and some of them even take years.

Cybersecurity is not just an IT issue; that is not how your adversaries are looking at it. Using IT happens to be the way they get into networks. Technology is only one aspect. Organizations need to look at it as a foreign intelligence collection effort. Bottom line, cybersecurity needs to be top-down driven, from the head of the agency or a CEO on down. Only then will the enterprise be adequately protected.

Points that need to be included in any discussion of disaster planning budgets:

• There's nothing more important to the business than its data
• The DR investment protects the enterprise from everyday disruptions
• Is the current DR plan in compliance with new privacy laws
• Stakeholders won't invest in the business without a DR plan
• A weather disaster could be heading to your enterprise's way
• It's not a matter of if, but when an IT catastrophe will strike
• New DR advances make it more affordable than you think
• Outsourcing DR can save you time and money

Disaster Recovery Planning (DRP) template can be used by any size enterprise. The template and supporting material have been updated to be Sarbanes-Oxley compliant.  The Disaster Recovery Planning Documentation comes as a Word document with electronic forms.

Overall, the budget calls for spending $78.8 billion, a 1.2 percent decrease from 2012.

The Defense Department takes the biggest hit overall, with a drop of 3.6 percent, which more than offsets a 1.1 percent gain in civilian agencies.

Many of the IT projects highlighted in the proposed budget received support because of their potential to improve the efficiency of agency operations by modernizing and enhancing existing systems. The budget also highlights ongoing efforts to save money through data center consolidation and cloud computing.

  

One idea is to create a “data center marketplace,” in which agencies in need of new computing power can be steered toward unused capacity available within government.

The demand to improve productivity has created a workplace environment of intense competition and increased stress for many. Paradoxically, these conditions often stymie organizational efforts to become more efficient and effective.

A new study offers a way to improve worker productivity - training direct supervisors to provide support. While it may seem a common-sense notion, many employers do not train supervisors on the necessity of support or on techniques to provide assistance.

In earlier studies, scholars have shown stress at the workplace (due to high job demands and low control) can cause workers to develop psychological strain that translates into physiological symptoms, such as headaches, stomach aches and fatigue.

When the boss offers support in the form of, for example, a lightened work load or stress management training, it is more likely to keep the worker from taking sick leave. This is because the worker feels more inclined to reciprocate the supportive treatment by keeping their work effort high.

Researchers determined that co-worker support early on, when the employee begins to experience workday stress, plays a role in reducing the physical effects of stress, thereby reducing the likelihood of even developing the need for sickness absence.

The report's findings concerning pay indirectly challenge beliefs about the H-1B program held by its backers.  In a recent column in the Financial Times, it was argued that restrictions on the H-1B program protect "many high earners from skilled migrant competitors." He called the H-1B program "a subsidy for the wealthy," meaning well-paid IT workers.

But according to this study, the conclusion U.S. IT workers are a "privileged elite is wrong." The study found that the average annual earnings of H-1B workers are about 10% higher than the average annual earnings of U.S. workers, after adjustments for age, occupation and education.

The study is drawing reaction from those who see current H-1B policies as a detriment to U.S. workers.

Anonymous distributed links to specially crafted Web pages via its Twitter feed which was re-tweeted widely, and links also popped up on Internet Relay Chat rooms, Facebook, Tumblr and other social networking sites. Some of the links led to PasteHTML.com, a site that looks a little like the popular text-sharing site Pastebin frequently used by Anonymous to issue statements. A variation of this method allowed users to type in the IP address of target Web servers before the JavaScript code began executing.

Most of the links were obscured using URL shortening services such as bit.ly. Several Anonymous Twitter accounts have thousands of followers, and some gained "hundreds of thousands of new fans overnight" during the course of the campaign, according to Cluley.

The new method appears to have helped knock Universal Music and other sites offline during last week's Megaupload-revenge attacks

FedRAMPÂ’s unified risk management process will evaluate IT services offered by vendors on behalf of Federal agencies, saving agencies from conducting their own risk management programs. By reducing duplicative risk management efforts, FedRAMP will enable Federal agencies to focus their evaluations of IT services on their agencyÂ’s specific needs, as well as their privacy and security requirements. In the coming month, GSA will release the FedRAMP Concept of Operations, further detailing the processes for Federal agencies and CSPs to meet FedRAMP requirements.

Internet and Information Technology Position Descriptions HandiGuide®

243 Job Descriptions and Organization Charts Sensitive Information Policy Compliance Agreement

The IT job descriptions contained within the Internet and Information Technology Position Descriptions HandiGuide^® were completed in 2012 and contains over 700 pages; in a new easy to read format; and, includes sample organization charts, a job progression matrix, and 243 Internet and Information Technology (IT) job descriptions.   The book also addresses Fair Labor Standards and the ADA, and sexual harassment.  Each job description meets ADA standards and the position description is delivered in electronic format - word which is editable and PDF which is printed.

More... 

Employees aged 18-30 tend to have lax attitudes about computer security and are more likely than their older ounterparts to ignore IT policies, according to a recent Cisco report.

About 61 percent of young employees surveyed by Cisco researchers feel corporate IT security isn't their responsibility and should be handled by their employer or the device manufacturer, the researchers wrote in the third installation of Cisco's "Connected World Technology" report. "Young employees" in this report included 1,400 college students polled between the ages of 18 and 23 and 1,400 professionals polled under the age of 30.

Seven out of 10 young employees polled also frequently ignore IT policies and 67 percent feel the IT policies on social media and device usage are outdated and need to be modified to "address real-life demands for more work flexibility," according to Cisco. The younger workforce has "different" expectations of what should be allowed at work, and over time these policies and restrictions may become a deciding factor in where they choose to work.

The Security Manual for the Internet and Information Technology is over 240 pages in length.  The template is compliant with ISO 27000 (formerly ISO 17799), Sarbanes-Oxley, Patriot Act and HIPAA and includes a PCI DSS Audit program. All versions of the Security Manual template include both the Business & IT Impact Questionnaire and the Threat & Vulnerability Assessment Tool (both were redesigned to address Sarbanes Oxley compliance).   In addition, the Security Manual Template PREMIUM Edition contains 16 detail job descriptions that apply specifically to security and Sarbanes Oxley.

Users have dozens of logins and passwords spread out across an equal number of sites and applications and it's no wonder the average user tends to forget their secret info. Even with a tried and true system for generating memorable but complex passwords, the formula could easily fall apart if you just can't remember it.

So rather than continually clicking the "Forget Your Password?" help link, folks are readily hiding login information around their computer station.

And given that there's little variety in those secret locations, "hiding" might be a stretch. Typically user passwords was somewhere on their desk in one of these easy-to-find locations.

The most common locations where folks hide their login information are:

• Under the keyboard
• Under the phone
• Under the mouse pad
• On the monitor
• In the top drawer
• Under the desk

In other words, you're not doing yourself any favors if your entire system is compromised by a casual, passing glance from someone outside your office window.

Instead of the highly visible Post-It note on the monitor, Janco Associats recommends secure password aggregators to keep your login information secure.

At the same time there continue to be reported problems with Adobe Flash with IE in the 64 bit environment along with the frustration of users with the Adobe Update process.

Adobe has been working on mobile Flash for years, but shipped an Android version only a year ago and on both HP WebOS and the RIM BlackBerry PlayBook tablet this summer. Apple has adamantly refused to allow Flash on iOS over performance concerns (though it does allow AIR), and Flash has also not appeared in the BlackBerry smartphone OS or in Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 despite Adobe's promises to do so.