IT-Toolkits.com

Security is a concern of CIOs with the increase in use of mobile devices

webmaster — Sat, 12 May 2012 18:00:21 -0600

By definition, mobile devices are extending beyond corporate physical security controls and data on devices or transmitted over public Wi-Fi networks is at risk. Security is a key concern for CIOs as they begin to implement mobile device solutions. Over two thirds of all CIO, according to Janco Associates, Inc. , feel that security of mobile devices is the largest risk to deal with when building a mobility strategy.

Lost or stolen devices are the most common type of mobile security incident today. How many times have we heard in the media that an employee of a hardware vendor loses a device in a bar or cab before it is released? Add to this, unauthorized applications or malware targeted at mobile devices that do put corporate systems at risk.

CIOs are drivers of BYOD

webmaster — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 07:41:13 -0600

Organizations that choose to support their employees' personal devices within a secure environment will measurably increase their business productivity as well as extend their employees' flexibility. Additionally, the results underline a need for businesses to develop a platform agnostic device strategy that ensures corporate data remains secure.

Janco recommends:

Organizations provide comprehensive support to BYOD: Employees will workaround corporate IT infrastructure in order to be productive and find ways to leverage their personal devices, regardless of if they're supported by the business or not. Supporting as many computing platforms as possible will ensure employees are accessing and sharing business data within a secure environment approved by the organization.
CIO should focus on data when implementing BYOD: Over three quarters of all CIOs identify their role as a data custodian or someone responsible for locating content and establishing context that is aligned with associated business rules. An organization's mobile strategy therefore needs to not only enable IT professionals to effectively manage the volume of data, but also provide the solutions that allow employees to securely access and leverage data as a business asset.
BYOD implementation should enable productivity: Identify the business applications employees rely on (such as the organization's email or social collaboration tools) and provide mobile and tablet support for these applications to ensure employees can remain productive.

HIPAA des not address all security issues

webmaster — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 08:56:00 -0600

HIPAA places a requirement on health care and insurance organizations to go further than simply complying with regulations to protect health information. Although those organizations deal with many types of government and professional regulations, as adoption of electronic health records (EHRs) progresses, they also need to form policies of their own to secure patient data.

Health care organizations have turned to government guidelines on security, but they need their own security measures as well. These government security guidelines include the 1996 Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and the 2009 Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, which made penalties for data breaches more severe.

Evolving threats will always outpace even the most thorough regulatory requirements. For that reason, organizations need to constantly assess their security risk levels and evolve their policies and procedures to ensure that they are in the best possible position to protect their patients and their bottom lines.

A large number of health care breaches reported to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services were also due to portable devices. The expanded use of mobile devices offers new operational efficiencies and increased vulnerabilities. Security steps for mobile devices should be included in the action plans so that guidelines are set.

Saftey incidents need to be tracked

webmaster — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 05:13:56 -0600

Health, Safety, and Environmental Professionals can spend significant time trying to manage behavioral based safety programs. They know that employees and supervisors should conduct behavioral based observations on an on-going basis, but the volume of observations and the data analytics required to determine trends makes this process difficult and time consuming. By using tracking, documenting, and analyzing safety observations you can determine behavior based safety metrics and trends.

IT Jobs Will Grow 22% Through 2020

webmaster — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 01:57:32 -0600

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) has released its biennial employment forecasts, and this year's report has some good news for IT workers. The agency predicts that employment in all computer-related fields will grow 22 percent through 2020. Some job titles will do even better, for example software developers (28-32 percent growth), database administrators (31 percent growth), and network and systems administrators (28 percent growth).

While the forecast looks good, some experts say the U.S. IT job growth isn't as high as it needs to be. Victor Janulaitis, CEO of research firm Janco Associates, characterized the IT job growth as "anemic," saying, "When you consider the overall demand for systems and applications in high-growth markets like China and India, the BLS projections mean the U.S. will be doing a diminishing portion of the development and implementation work. If that's the case, the U.S. will no longer be the leader in IT."

He added, "The BLS projections are a bad sign for the U.S. IT graduates from universities. Those numbers do not cover the net growth necessary to give all of the graduates jobs."