CIOs are now challenged more than any time in the past with the economic earthquake around the globe CIOs have to be smarter, creative and innovative. The only way for CIOs to survive the world economic reset in a knowledge age is to capitalize on our human capital, put their staff’s creativity to work, stoke our innovative furnace. There are many ways to fuel the creative fires - from management techniques, to team building, and effectively leveraging existing and emerging technological investments.  However, the key is infrastructure.  CIOs that have a one that address metrics, change management, version control, system development methodology, service management, and human resources have a better chance to make it through these tough times.

Preventing Data Breaches

It is critical that organizations are proactive in their approach to mitigating insider threats. Week-after week there are disturbing, déjà vu-like stories of significant data breaches, arrests connected to insider attacks, or investigation reports emphasizing the necessity to control privileged accounts that hold highly sensitive data. With no safeguards in place, insider attacks are often very difficult to detect and block, largely because of excessive privileges granted to users, users sharing common log-ins and accounts, and privileged users such as testers, developers and even DBAs having access to sensitive data.

This Security Manual for the Internet and Information Technology is over 220 pages in length. 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, ISO 27000, PCI DSS, and HIPAA.

Reasons why CIOs and CTOs get Fired

Top ten list of things that fired CIOs do

1.       Do not have a disaster recovery and business continuity plan integrated with a backup/archiving program.

2.       Ignore warning signs

3.       Do not document changes

4.       Do not use logging processes

5.       Do not install updates

6.       Save money by not purchasing upgrades

7.       Do not manage passwords well

8.       Never say no to anyone

9.       Never say yes to anyone

10.   Do not train a replacement

Project Managers are paid well

Companies seem willing to provide solid compensation for project maagers. According to a CIO.com  article reporting results of the Project Management Institute's (PMI) 2009 Project Management Salary Survey, the median base salary for a project management professional in the United States is $100,000. Three-quarters of survey respondents take home more than $84,000 a year.

Even during the recession, between fall 2008 and fall 2009, 53 percent of American project managers got a raise. Thirty-four percent had salaries frozen, and 14 percent experienced a pay cut.  And project management pros have an optimistic outlook for 2010. Sixty-seven percent of respondents believe their salaries will grow this year, while just 4 percent think their salaries will drop.

You have several options to obtain this study.  You can get a summary for free if you participate by providing more than ten (10) data points or you have several option on how to purchase the data.

Summary Results and Changes in Demand for IT Jobs 2010

The Janco Associates, Inc.  salary survey draws on data collected throughout the year by extensive internet-based and completed survey forms sent to businesses throughout the United States and Canada.  Over 300 companies participate in the survey

CIO and IT departments are blamed for user shortfalls

Now the CIO not only must be politically correct, but he must also be clairvoyant and understand what can go wrong, be misused, or be abused. The IT Infrastructure must be robust to address this.

When systems are abused the easiest scapegoat is the IT Department.  In the recent school webcam case at the Pennsylvania school district the IT department was blamed because they not only failed to inform school officials and administrators of the tracking capabilities of the software, but argued that telling students about the software's ability to remotely trigger notebook Webcams would "defeat its purpose" as a way to recover lost or stolen computers.

Over one third of HR executives ignore unemployment status of employment candidates

Boston - Results from new research released by Veritude, astaffing services provider, indicate a positive sign for the New England economy. All surveyed executives in New England, and across the country, are accepting of the economy as a reason for an extended unemployment when reviewing candidates. Specifically, when it came to examining the acceptable length of time for a candidate to be unemployed, 36 percent of responding executives said they did not believe it mattered how long a candidate was unemployed given the recessionary conditions, with 36 percent indicating that six months or less was their ideal length of unemployment.

The survey also revealed that when making hiring decisions, 44 percent of executives have no preference for a candidate's employment status. In addition, one-third of New England hiring managers and human resources professionals are considering rehiring information technology (IT) employees whom they had laid off.

“According to our survey results, it appears that 2010 will be a better year for IT job seekers in New England,” said a senior vice president of Veritude. “With half of employers looking to hire back a portion of their laid off IT workers either as full time employees or contractors and employers accepting the economic downturn as a reason for an extended unemployment, IT job candidates should take heart that their employment status will not significantly bias a potential employer.”

Although in the minority, 19 percent of those surveyed do prefer candidates who are currently employed as regular, full-time employees. Candidates who are either employed full-time or currently employed as temporary or contract workers are preferred by 22 percent.

Of all hiring executives, 53 percent did not care if a candidate was laid off in a first round as opposed to a subsequent round. While the majority did not have an issue with laid off workers, 17 percent of respondents found it more acceptable if a worker was not one of the first to be laid off.

Where CIOs spend their time

In a survey of CIOs, it was found that they spend most of their time:

• Aligning IT with enterprise goals
• Cultivating the IT and enterprise relationship
• Improving IT operations and system performance
• Leading change efforts
• Implementing new systems and architecture
• Driving business innovation
• Redesigning business processes
• Controlling IT costs
• Developing the business strategy
• Looking for a competitive advantage
• Managing IT crises
• Managing security
• Selecting and negotiating with vendors
• Developing customer market strategies and technologies
• Studying and understanding market trends and customer needs

US at risk for cyber attacks according to study

A survey released by Lumension Security Inc. states that nearly three-quarters of federal IT decision-makers who work in national defense and security departments or agencies say the possibility is “high” for a cyber attack by a foreign nation in the next year. Additionally, a third of these respondents say they have already experienced such a cyber attack within the last year.

Of about 200 IT security managers in civilian and noncivilian federal agencies surveyed, 61% said there was a "high" threat of an attack being launched by a foreign nation sometime in the next year.

• 33 percent of respondents who work for departments or agencies affecting national security say they have experienced an attack by a foreign nation or terrorist organization in the last year;
• 61 percent of respondents view the threat of a cyber attack from foreign nations against critical U.S. IT infrastructure in the next year as “high”;
• 42 percent of respondents believe the U.S. government’s ability to prevent or handle these attacks is only fair or poor;
• 64 percent of respondents identified the increasing sophistication and growth in the volume of cyber attacks as the number one IT security risk; and,
• 49 percent of respondents believe that negligent or malicious insiders/employees are the largest IT security risk.

At the same time, more than four out of 10 respondents in the Lumension survey said that they believe the U.S. government's ability to defend against the attacks is "poor" to "fair" at best.

Feds could learn from private sector IT

PCI DSS compliance is more than checklist managment

PCI DSS applies to any organization that accepts, stores or processes payment cards of any type and is a comprehensive checklist of actions these organizations must take to improve the security of global payment systems. Although the adoption of PCI DSS by an organization will most likely improve its security posture, being compliant with the PCI DSS does not ensure the organization is secure.

If Enterprises mechanically follow the PCI DSS checklist and our organization suffers a data securitybreach, they are still held responsible, and the organization still gets fined, suffers brand damage and may lose its ability to process credit card transactions. While checklists are useful tools, following them can lull us into a false sense of security.
To rely solely on the PCI DSS checklists to secure cardholder data is similar to a pilot relying only on the pre-flight checklist before takeoff, then colliding with another plane during takeoff. A checklist is not enough. In reality, the goal of effective security controls is to prevent security breaches from occurring, and when they do, to allow quick detection and recovery. This requires not just following a checklist, but understanding the organization’s compliance and security objectives, understanding what the top risks to achieving those objectives are, having adequate situational awareness to identify where we need controls to mitigate those risk, and then having implementing and monitoring the correct production controls.

Cost cutting starts with simplifying operations

Complexity produces cost, so IT departments may choose to standardize on a handful of preferred technologies or vendors. The biggest line item in IT budgets is people, so staffing must be addressed. That could mean hiring freezes, cutting back on use of consultants, replacing employees who leave with automation technologies (not another person) and similar measures to limit spending on people.

CIOs should plan proactively for spending cuts before they are mandated. That may involve rebalancing IT initiatives to focus on projects with near-term benefits while keeping momentum on longer-term, strategic projects. They also may need to align IT more closely with the business priorities, which are likely to focus on revenue.

Tax laws hamper IT independent contractors

 Section 1706 of the 1986 Tax Reform Act, an obscure law, certain classes of workers, including anyone who engages as a "computer programmer, systems analyst, or other similarly skilled worker engaged in a similar line of work," are considered de facto employees for tax purposes, regardless of whether they claim to operate their own businesses as independent contractors. The IRS can impose significant tax penalties on companies who hire such workers as contractors rather than full employees, a fact that can make it extremely difficult for self-employed programmers to find work.

Section 1706 was originally sponsored by Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan of New York, who hoped that forcing highly paid software developers to become employees would limit their ability to take advantage of tax breaks for small businesses. Ironically, it was also Moynihan who, when a study determined the law was not bringing in the desired tax revenue, tried to have it repealed a year later. He failed, and it's still on the books today.

Employees typically do not  have to pay for their own health insurance, the way contractors do. Individual health plans generally offer worse coverage than group plans, and they can be incredibly selective about who they allow to join. Those who are accepted can expect their premiums to rise every year, often by double-digit percentages. Given these conditions, developers who have families to support or preexisting medical conditions are well advised to hang on to their salaried jobs for dear life rather than run the gauntlet of the dysfunctional American health insurance industry.

And if the prospect of being bankrupted by medical bills is not frightening enough, add the increasingly hostile legal climate surrounding the software development profession. In response to all-too-common reports of software bugs and security breaches, some organizations have begun lobbying for contractual language that makes software developers accountable for any defects in their code. For example, the SANS Institute has proposed a detailed contract that would require developers to certify that they had received appropriate training, observed any and all security procedures deemed necessary, and that their code was free of defects to the best of their knowledge, among other clauses.

Windows Live Potential Data Breach

Microsoft is looking into reports that some Windows Live customers may have gotten access to other users' information.

"Microsoft is investigating reports of a limited number of instances in which Windows Live customers may have access to other customers' accounts when accessing their account through mobile Web browser," the company said in a statement Tuesday. "Microsoft takes customers' privacy seriously, and immediately upon learning of these reports, we started an investigation."

The company added that it "will take appropriate action once we have completed the investigation."

Metrics to Manage Performance Defined by Janco

The performance of the people within an organization determines the success of business outcomes. Without optimal performance an organization can find itself floundering in the market and eventually fizzling out. Measuring the performance of our people and our HR department is a critical function for making sound business decisions and performance management decisions. HR metrics can be valuable tools for ensuring our people practices are aligned with our organizational goals and supporting the effective and efficient use of our most valuable asset, our people.

Outsouring impact IT Service Management

Lack of proactive monitoring threatens end-user satisfaction and application performance

To operate a cost-effective business in today’s highly competitive market, an organisation requires an extremely efficient IT infrastructure to link its data centers, business operations and globally distributed customers. All business-critical applications must run smoothly to satisfy end-users’ and customers’ service level expectations. Consequently, an enterprise's IT support services play a vital role. Many international businesses, for example, operate multiple hosted data centers and have communication rooms in many of their overseas locations. These same businesses often outsource some of their IT operations management 

However, executives are concerned about poor visibility of IT infrastructure problems, high levels of service disruption, low end-user satisfaction and the impact on application availability. Visibility of an enterprise's infrastructure’s performance and availability are often inadequate because they have very little monitoring and performance information. Thus, they are a reactive organization. Enterprises must introduce an IT Service Transformation process to improve all aspects of IT Service Management (ITSM) and act as a foundation to monitor the critical business processes, which cover multiple applications and infrastructure integrated incident, problem and asset management.

Key objectives are to manage the infrastructure and applications proactively; generate a centralized system for their outsourced service providers; and link problems to their existing help desk.

Data Breachs Costly