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Risk
analysis is inextricably linked with
disaster recovery. assessment of the
risks which may lead to disaster is
essential in the determination of
what controls are appropriate to the
situation. Again, however, risk
analysis is often made more
difficult than necessary.
The
Threat & Vulnerability Assessment
Tool Kit
and tool was designed to simplify
matters, and to make risk analysis
more widely accessible through
automation. It is now probably the
most widely used product and method
in the world
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02/03/2010 Obama administration to ask for more 1984 Big Brother powers -
Everyone knows that police can peek inside an email
account it if they have a paper search warrant
But cybercrime investigators are
frustrated by the speed of traditional methods of faxing, mailing, or e-mailing
companies these documents. They're pushing for the creation of a national Web
interface linking police computers with those of Internet and e-mail providers
so requests can be sent and received electronically.
A federal task force (soon to be released) study says that law
enforcement agencies are virtually unanimous in calling for such an interface to
be created. Eighty-nine percent of police surveyed, it says, want to be able to
"exchange legal process requests and responses to legal process" through an
encrypted, police-only "nationwide computer network."
The study also says: "89 percent of investigators agreed that a
nationwide computer network should be established for the purpose of linking
ISPs with law enforcement agencies so that they may exchange legal process
requests and responses to legal process. Authorized users would communicate
through encrypted virtual private networks in order to maintain the security of
the data."
But the most controversial element is probably the private Web
interface, which raises novel security and privacy concerns, especially
in the wake of a recent inspector general's report from the Justice Department.
The 289-page
report detailed how the FBI obtained Americans' telephone records by citing
nonexistent emergencies and simply asking for the data or writing phone numbers
on a sticky note rather than following procedures required by law.
more info
01/31/2010 Oursouring continues -
U.S. defense contractorsÂ’ growing use of offshore (outsource)
subsidiaries from 2003 to 2008 allowed the Defense Department to save money on
contracts but also resulted in the loss of U.S. tax revenue and unemployment
benefits for some U.S. workers, according to a new report from
the Government Accountability Office.
Practical Guide for IT Outsourcing a
HandiGuide
 
The 29 largest publicly traded defense contractors increased
their use of offshore subsidiaries by 26 percent from 2003 to 2008, the report
states.
Those subsidiaries helped the contractors reduce taxes, in part
by avoiding Social Security and Medicare payroll taxes for U.S. workers hired at
the foreign subsidiaries, GAO auditors said.
About a third of the contractors also decreased their effective
U.S. corporate tax rates in 2008 in part through the use of foreign affiliates,
lower foreign tax rates and indefinite reinvestment of foreign income outside
the United States.
more info
01/26/2010 Almost 200,000 jobs lost in IT during this recession -
 Job cuts in technology were
fierce in 2009, but 2010 is expected to see modest growth in a number of
subsectors. The last time layoffs were this bad was in 2005.
Job cuts in technology were fierce in 2009. Last year saw 174,629 jobs lost
in the sector, catapulting up 12.3 percent from the 2008 cuts of 155,570 jobs,
according to an outplacement company which tracks industry numbers on announced
layoffs. Technology - still considered by the Department of Labor to be one of
the most promising industries for future job creation - has not seen that many
layoffs since 2005.
The worst of the downsizing occurred in the first quarter, which is when the
overall economy hit rock bottom. The recession's impact on the tech sector was
inescapable.
The technology-focused blog TechCrunch developed its own "layoff tracker" Web
application, which has been documenting layoffs in the sector since October
2008. For comparison, as of its last update in November 2009, TechCrunch had
reported a total of 350,299 employees laid off - roughly 20,000 more, but
certainly in the same ballpark.
The tech sector accounted for about 13.2 percent of the total 1.3 million
announced job cuts in the United States in 2009, said Challenger, Gray &
Christmas. By subsector, electronics fared the worst with 65,000 jobs cut - up
55 percent from 2008 - while telecommunications lost 9.4 percent fewer jobs in
2009. The computer industry was unchanged.
It's going to be a slow climb out of this recession, but computer and
electronics firms should be among the first to see the turnaround, as companies
try to postpone hiring by achieving productivity gains through technology. Even
with the economy showing some nascent signs of recovery beginning the second
half of the year, many companies are holding off on investments in new
technology. And, with it still [being] difficult for small businesses and
startups to obtain loans, there are few opportunities for tech firms to expand
their customer base.
Despite the potential for improved hiring in the new year, there are a lot
people competing for every opening
and many employers are very particular about what skills and experience they
want new workers to have. It is critical that technology workers continually
update their skills in order to remain competitive. It is necessary to maintain
a balance between having specialized skills and having the flexibility of a
generalist. It may also be necessary to expand one's search to more industries
or geographically.
We'll see a radically transforming marketplace - driven by surging demand in
emerging markets, growing impact from the cloud services model, an explosion of
mobile devices and applications, and the continuing rollout of higher-speed
networks. These transformational forces will drive key players to redefine
themselves and their offerings and will spark lots of M&A
activity.
more info
01/19/2010 IT Job Descriptions HandiGuide 2010 Version Released by Janco -
 The
IT job descriptions
contained within the Internet and Information Technology Position
Descriptions HandiGuide® was updated in 2010 and contains over 650 pages; which
includes sample organization charts, a job progression matrix, over 231 job
descriptions, best practices for resume screening and best practices for phone
screening.
The author of this book has extensive experience in job content definition
and analysis. He personally is recognized by the courts as an "expert" and has
been used by a number of firms as an expert in age and job discrimination cases.
The HandiGuide includes some of the tools that he uses in that process.
  
The book also addresses Fair Labor Standards and the ADA, and is in a new
easier to read format. Each job description meets ADA standards and the
position description is delivered in electronic format - word which is editable
and PDF which is printed. Also included are tools to help you expand,
evaluate and define your enterprise's unique additional required. Those tools
include:
- Job Evaluation Questionnaire
- Position Description Questionnaire
- Job Progression Matrix (Job Family Classifications)
- Best Practices for
- Screening Resumes
- Phone Screening
- Hiring employees
- Motivating employees
- Mandated Requirements
- American with Disabilities Act (ADA)
- Health and Safety Requirements (Federal and State)
- Fair Labor Standards Act
- Sexual Harassement
- Other Labor Laws
more info
01/12/2010 Google personal lead sensitive data in error -
It was reported in Computerworld that Google apologized after it
mistakenly e-mailed potentially sensitive business data last week to other users
of its business listings service.
 The company's Local
Business Center allows businesses to create a listing for Google's search engine
and Maps application, as well as add videos, coupons or photos.
Google then provides data on how customers found the listing, showing search
terms people used before clicking the listing and other data such as the
geographic location of someone who looked up driving directions to the
business.
Google will send reports to those who are signed up. Early last week, Google
sent the reports to third parties by mistake. The mistake affected several
thousands businesses registered with Local Business Center, of which there are
more than a million.
"Shortly after sending the newsletter to a portion of our users last night,
we discovered that some e-mails included statistics for the wrong business,"
Google said in a written statement. "We promptly stopped sending any further
e-mails and investigated the cause, which we found to be a human error while
pulling together the newsletter content. We'd like to apologize to all the
business owners impacted and assure them that we're fixing the process that led
to this mistake."
People who received the data then began to publicize the incident, realizing
the privacy implications. Chicago-based Internet consultant David Dalka wrote on
his blog that he received information regarding the listing for Boscos, a
restaurant in Tennessee that brews its own beer.
more info
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