Officials at the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently released a report entitled, "Influenza Pandemic: Key Securities Market Participants are Making Progress, but Agencies Could Do More to Address Potential Internet Congestion and Encourage Readiness". (Read this Report) The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) responded to this report by stating, "An expectation of unlimited Internet access during a pandemic is not realistic -- any more so than an expectation that traffic congestion on hurricane evacuation routes can be completly avoided. All users which rely on the … [Read more...]
Security Policy — Components of a Good Policy
By: Lisa DuBrock, CPA, CBC Whether you are tasked with writing your organization’s Information Security Policies or updating an existing security policy or security policies, knowing what is in a well crafted policy is important. Below are details of many of the areas you should include: Security Definition – All security policies should include a well-defined security vision for the organization. The security vision should be clear and concise and convey to readers the intent of the policy. Also included in this section should be details of what if any security standards your … [Read more...]
"Red Flag Rules": Exemption Ruling Announced
By an overwhelming vote of 400-0, the U.S. House approved legislation on October 20, 2009, that exempt certain businesses from the Federal Trade Commission's Red Flag Rules. As part of that legislation, the FTC is also required to issue new regulation setting out the exemption processes that allow any business to apply for an exemption. With November 1, 2009 as an announced Red Flag Rule compliance deadline, it is very likely that this new ruling will cause the FTC to at least consider the announcement of another delay for this compliance deadline. Under the current ruling, health care, … [Read more...]
Supply Chain Risk Leadership Council – What Is It and Why Should I Know About It?
The Supply Chain Risk Leadership Council is a group of companies that meet four times a year to discuss how to incorporate standardized best practices into their supply chain. Some of the companies that sit on the council are industry heavyweights, such as CISCO, GE, Boeing, Coca-Cola, Merck and FedEx. Their mission as stated on their website http://www.scrlc.com/ is to: “Work together to create best-practice supply chain risk management standards, processes, capabilities and metrics to be adopted within our respective organizations. Leverage this best practices effort to proactively … [Read more...]
Standards Announced for PS-Prep by DHS
On October 15, 2009, Janet Napolitano, Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) identified three standards to be included in the PS-Prep; Private Sector Preparedness Program. The PS-Prep program was created under Title IX of Public Law 110-53: Recommendations from the 9/11 Commission and is a partnership between DHS and the private sector that enables private entities - including businesses, non-profit organizations and universities - to receive emergency preparedness certification from a DHS accreditation system created in coordination with the private sector. The three … [Read more...]
What Is a Vendor Management System & Why Do You Need It?
In today's marketplace procuring a staffing service is often the most cost-effective way for your business to fill certain essential positions. When your company has to deal with a lot of external employee hiring, problems with the inefficient use of resources can prove counterproductive. That's why a vendor management system is important to have. A vendor management system (VMS) reduces the number of person-hours your human resources staff must expend searching the external labor force. It is the perfect solution for your company to handle the complexities of the staffing process. When … [Read more...]
What Is FFIEC Guidance? How Does It Ensure Compliance?
Since the FFIEC guidance reached your desk, the new compliance rules will approach fast, and if you fail to take action that brings your institution up to standard, you could face penalties and fines. Most people still wonder, "What is FFIEC guidance and how do I do it?" Compliance set the standards for online banking in 2005 when the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council issued it. Some of the standards require multifactor authentication because they have proven how inadequate the single-factor authentication looks. We have seen increasingly sophisticated and more daring … [Read more...]
What Are Unified Communications & Why Does Your Business Need Them?
A lot of shrewd self-employed business owners understand IP-telephony because they associate it with applications like Skype. You can use apps like this to call through the internet and make either free voice calls or a low-cost voice call to the person needed. However, Unified Communications takes the concept of IP-telephony and expands it to open new channels of communication. What's the big idea behind it? Unified Communications deals with integrating business data and telephony over into the same network. You firm up your ability to combine data, voice and video information into … [Read more...]
What Is Commercial Flood Insurance & Does Your Business Need One?
Without warning, a flood can eviscerate business inventory, buildings, and equipment. Most business policies neglect flood coverage, and because of that, when a flood strikes, one out of four businesses will shut their doors and never open again. In fact, 90 percent of natural disasters make up floods. Whether you own a small business with a couple of employees or a large business with several hundred employees, commercial flood insurance protects both the inside and outside of the business perimeter. What Is Commercial Flood Insurance? This form of flood insurance will cover your … [Read more...]
What Is a Security Awareness Program & Tips on How to Create It
Newly hired recruits brought aboard can either sink your company ship, or a good one can sail you straight for richer harbors. A comprehensive security awareness program educates and sets a wall of defense around your company's weakest points. As a shrewd entrepreneur, you want to arm your employees with defensive weapons to shoot an arrow into the heart of any hidden cyber-attack. Technology continues to outpace the demands and training of a security awareness program. Because of this, much of the workforce looks painfully vulnerable and unarmed in the world of cybercrime. This … [Read more...]
ISO Compliance – the Cloud – and the AWS Outage
Recently, many ISO Compliance teams in ISO certified organizations, utilizing Amazon Web Services, and located in the Eastern parts of North America had reasons to be on high alert. On February 28th 2017 a four-hour outage impacted one of Amazon Web Services’ (AWS) largest cloud regions, US-EAST-1 in North America. Since many enterprises rely on AWS --- this outage, many times longer than the expected annual downtime for the S3 cloud storage system where the issue occurred, is highly concerning. The outage, caused by high error rates affecting the Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon … [Read more...]
Effective Ways to Make Sure Your Company is Enabled by Business Phone Systems
If you have a large staff of employees at your company, you are going to need a phone system. More elaborate business phone systems are essential when a company requires multiple lines located in different offices, reception areas, or conference rooms. You may only have a handful of phones if your business is small, or a few thousand for large multi-office corporations. No matter how large a system your business needs, you are going to want to install features that allow your phone network to build your business success. Here are some useful steps to make sure your business phone … [Read more...]
What Is Cybersecurity & What Are Its Basic Standards to Maintain?
The topics of cybersecurity fit into a big box, but the core concept behind it means identifying a threat and eliminating that threat before it bears fruit. It looks at the processes, programs, computers, data, networks and technologies that need defending from unauthorized access. The most common problem you have to address in the cybersecurity field is how threats evolve on a daily basis. In fact, if you wrote an essay on cybersecurity, you'd have to constantly renew it because of how fast this field changes. Your traditional approach cybersecurity relates to finding the biggest … [Read more...]
How to Comply with the Military Lending Act Regulations as a Business
Before the implementation of the Military Lending Act, military personnel had a difficult time acquiring loans. The loans were accompanied by extra charges and compulsory arbitration. However, the introduction of these new policies has enabled Servicemembers to have an easier time acquiring credit facilities. What Is the Military Lending Act? The Military Lending Act (MLA) was enacted in 2006 and implemented by the Department of Defense (DOD). Its fundamental role is to protect military officers, their dependents, and their spouses from particular lending practices. Such methods expose … [Read more...]
8 Effective Strategies for Automated Software Testing
Businesses test software and programs for a number of reasons. One of the most critical is to maintain compliance standards for all software in operation. These standards are established internally, set by the company itself, or come from an external source. Basically, this is what specialists call an automated software testing process. Outside sources set guidelines and regulations for any particular business venture, so adherence to these compliance standards is essential. The method of testing used depends on the specific regulation or importance of the software. The Best Automated … [Read more...]