Beyond Blinking Lights and Acronyms

Keeping Data Safe From IT Snoops Wed 21 Apr 10

How to improve data security and privacy.

A Pennsylvania school district made headlines recently with accusations that two of the district's IT employees were spying on students and took "thousands" of pictures of students in their homes without their knowledge, using the cameras in their school-supplied laptops. The school district contends that the ability to remotely take pictures was a security feature used solely to help locate lost or missing laptops. The situation came to light when the school district accused a student of selling drugs based on pictures taken remotely via the laptop that was assigned to the student, although it had not been reported lost or stolen.

The incident could start making everyone wonder about information technology's role in protecting data and privacy. It begs the question: Who watches the watchers?

IT has the keys to all the sensitive data in your company. This includes not only payroll and personnel records, but also financial records, trade secrets and intellectual property, data regarding pending acquisitions, product launches or other strategic decisions. A rather scary thought if you don't trust your IT folks.

Is Social Media a Fad? Thu 08 Apr 10

I attended the Texas Technology Summit yesterday and one of the speakers was David Guthrie, CTO of PGi.  David gave a great presentation on "IT Innovations: What is the Future?"

He included the following YouTube video in the presentation which is rather thought provoking.  With over 1.7 million viewer to date the may be old news but I thought it very worthwhile especially in light of my post from yesterday on "Your Online Reputation Matters".

Your Online Reputation Matters Wed 07 Apr 10

A positive online reputation is important for both individuals and companies

We've all heard the stories of Joe, a job candidate who was a shoo-in to get that great job until the hiring manager decided to take a look at the candidate's Facebook page. Suddenly some photos of a wild party and comments that his hobby is getting wasted every weekend scuttled Joe's prospects. Joe doesn't get the job and has no clue about why he seems to be so unlucky.

Our online reputation matters. We know this anecdotally, from what we've seen and done as hiring managers, and now there is some data to support this. In January Microsoft published survey results of how our online reputations affect our job prospects. Three-quarters of U.S. survey respondents said their companies have formal policies that require hiring personnel to research applicants online; 70% of hiring personnel rejected candidates based on data found online.

As people become more aware of this, I've seen a number of articles about managing your so-called "digital dirt" and a simple internet search turns up many more. I've even heard that this has spawned a new industry where companies will help you clean it up. Rather than rehash all of the tips on how to clean up your online reputation, I'd like to address two other aspects.