Janco Associates, Inc.

Mobile devices are the bane of many CIOs concerns

Webmaster — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 09:22:21 -0700

As more companies embrace the broad usage of individually-owned mobile devices for access to corporate applications and data, CIO are asked for guidance on the establishment of an associated device usage policy.

Every organization needs to identify and develop mobile security policies to be deployed which will provide adequate protection. The level of protection has to be aligned with the level of risk that your organization is willing to accept. These policies should ensure that the many regulatory or compliance concerns that might be applicable are addressed.

Only by a partnership of information technology (IT), human resource (HR), finance, and legal teams - working closely with your executive team and business unit managers - can determine the exact corporate liable and/or individual liable policy that best fits your company, meets its financial goals and objectives, and takes into account security, legal, regulatory, tax, or other requirements and considerations that may uniquely apply to your company and its operations.

Will IT spending increase in 2012

Webmaster — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 10:34:28 -0700

IT spending is expected to increase in 2012. After years of budgets crimped by the economy, there is significant pent-up demand at companies around the globe to drop some extra cash for the products and services theyve been waiting for to drive business forward. But weve heard this song before. One research fiorm that was bullish on IT spending last year, said that it could rise somewhat significantly in 2012, yet in its latest report the research firm acknowledges that its estimates might have been too optimistic. Global spending on IT spending will still be up, the company says, but dont expect it to rise too quickly.

Janco has found that consultants and contractors are starting to be hired again.

The salary survey is updated twice a year; once in January and then again in July. You can get a free copy of the full survey if you provide 10 valid data points and use a corporate email address. Free email accounts like gmail or yahoo do not qualify as we have no way to verify the accuracy of the data provided.

The report is updated twice a year, once in January and second time in July. The unemployment data on this page is updated at least once a month and is based on the Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

New Facts of Life For the CIO and IT Management

Webmaster — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 15:43:14 -0700

The world has changed and the CIO and IT managers need to face the new realities. They include:

iPhone and Tablet are here to stay
CIO and IT department no longer are in control of how technology is used by you enterprise
There will always be some downtime
Systems will not be 100% compliant all of the time
The cloud will not be the solution for all problems and will case new ones
There will never be enough capital and staff to get what needs to be completed done
The network has already been compromised
Social networking use risks all of your company's secrets
Users will always need your support even for technology that you have not implemented
IT will continue to be viewed as a service organization

Compliance Best Practices

Webmaster — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 07:48:49 -0700

Security compliance best practices include:

Combine written content, usage, and retention policies with a Hosted Managed Email Archiving Service to ensure an organization's ability to preserve, locate, and produce legally valid email evidence. Unmanaged email and other record management solutiond can trigger financial, productivity, and legal issues for your organization when it a finds itself in a workplace lawsuit. The cost and time required to produce subpoenaed email, retain legal counsel, secure expert witnesses, mount a legal battle, and cover jury awards and settlements is ver costly. Best practices call for a proactive approach to email and business records management.
Utilize a proven archiving technology to ensure forensic compliance. For example, by encrypting and archiving a copy of every business record and internal and external email sent or received and across the organization, a Hosted Managed Email Archiving Service solution guarantees that your email is secure and tamperproof. Nothing in your archive can be deleted or altered. Everything in your archive is legally compliant.
Ensure that financial data and related documents are effectively protected from malware, viruses, and other malicious intruders - and are preserved in a legally compliant manner in order to maximize SOX, GLBA, SEC, FINRA, and PCI DSS compliance. This includes having solutions in place to manage messaging threats and compling with regulatory requirements including Email Anti-Virus, Email Archiving, Email Continuity, and Email Content Control.
Meet HIPAA requirements by using formal policies, employee training, and technology including email
Archiving, Anti-Virus, Continuity, and Content Control Services to ensure compliant use of email to transmit and store HIPAA-regulated patient information.
Safeguard personal or sensitive data whose transmission falls under state encryption laws or other privacy acts by deploying proven solutions that are designed to effectively identify personal information in any electronic transmission and, if necessary, block or encrypt the transmission.
Reduce business and security risks associated with electronic communication by implementing a formal electronic communication policy that combines a written policy with employee training.

Where not to hide your password and user ids

Webmaster — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 14:40:48 -0700

With dozens of logins and passwords spread out across an equal number of sites and apps, it's no wonder the average user tends to forget them. 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. The most common locations where folks hide their login info are:

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