CSO

Overly on Security

by Michael Overly

• Microblogging, Useful Business Tool or Productivity Buster

  You may recall a blog entry some months ago about recent studies showing the incredible waste of business productivity resulting from constant interruptions in employee work to review e-mail. Now a new contender for lost productivity champion has appeared on the horizon: microblogging. Supporters argue that employees can continuously update their progress on projects and other matters throughout the day by posting brief (micro) entries on an internal blog. Of course, like 99.9999% of other blogs on the Internet, the likelihood anyone, other than a very select few, will ever review postings is remote at best. The question then arises, couldn’t the same result be obtained by an e-mail, with a predefined project distribution list, achieve the same result, without the investment in implementing yet another technology solution that will likely find little use? Also, what is the likelihood these blogs will be perused by other employees having no real business purpose in doing so – presenting yet another opportunity for lost productivity. The blog could certainly be configured to permit only relevant employees to review its contents, but that argues in favor of simply using an e-mail to update progress on a project rather than implementing an entirely new technology.

• Trojan Horse Contracts?

  Vendor contracts are increasingly including provisions that could lead to breaches of security. At first glance, these types of provisions may appear innocuous, but they create the circumstances under which compromises of security may occur. A few examples:

• Basic Elements of Document Retention Policies

  Following up on my last posting, this week I talk about the basic elements of a document retention policy. While a review of the broad range of applicable laws cannot be addressed here, there are certain general guidelines for the establishment and implementation of a retention program that should be considered in developing a policy:

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