IT Security is one of those often spoken about but not always executed well topics. How aware are you of the breaches going on? Here’s a just a few from the long list for 2012:

• Over 1,400,000 IDs were compromised in US based public health databases alone (in 2012 to date). These were linked to their social security numbers.
• Over six million passwords were stolen in a hack of the professional networking site linkedin.com.
• Hours ahead of its planned protest against certain incidents of internet censorship in India , hacker collective Anonymous attacked and brought down the website run by Computer Emergency Response Team India (CERT-I n), the country’s premier agency dealing with cyber security contingencies.
• Hackers Target Police, City of Chicago Websites before the NATO summit (supposedly when security would be high!) temporarily crippling them.
• The website of the Afghan Taliban was repeatedly taken down for the third time in less than a year crippled the main website of the Afghan Taliban, with a Taliban spokesman on Friday blaming Western intelligence agencies amid an intensifying cyber war with the insurgents. The unidentified hackers broke into the Taliban’s El Emara.

So what are we in store for in 2013? Here are the top areas to consider in IT security for 2013.

1. The Cloud – questions of security are more complicated because of oversight and qualifications. With the Cloud being so new, assessments of providers don’t offer years of data yet.
2. Consumerization – with many companies moving to mobile devices, the management of different security profiles, a range of levels of trust with users and devices, and a diverse set of end points is a complex and diverse task.

Source: Gartner Group report, OpenSpace.com

It’s been a hard year for corporate executives. Not only have they faced the challenges of moving their companies forward in a trickle-growth economy, they have also had to manage this forward move with less staff, less budget and more dispersed employee locations. Many are suffering under the stress of these responsibilities, and an extended vacation would be a welcome break.  Breaks of this nature can create havoc without the right team to step in temporarily at the helm. We have the perfect candidates to to consider.

As Chief Executive Officer, let me introduce Max Shepherd. Mr. Shepherd has an extensive background in managing tough situations. He held the CEO position at ASPCA for many years,and brought them to prominence in their field through his innovative marketing and barking expertise. He has also earned his bones in staff management. His hallmark is managing his underlings as he would his own family, and through Human Resources, is known for an organization that is very protective of employee rights and abilities.

Mr. Shepherd works closely with his right-hand man, Rob Malmut. Mr. Malmut has been working with Mr. Shepherd for over 10 years and provides a complimentary set of skills that enable the team to create a successful working dynamic and environment in which seniors managers thrive. Prior to working with Mr. Shepherd, Mr. Malmut was responsible for IT Security and the Press Room at the Iditarod in Alaska, and provided assistance with grant writing to the Alaska State government. He is known for his succinct communication style and rough but steady manner.

Mr. Shepherd’s team includes Director of Information Technology, John Mutt. Mr. Mutt has worked with Mr. Shepherd for the last 7 years and bring a great deal of varied experience to the team. Prior to working with Mr. Shepherd, Mr. Mutt worked for Petco, a pet products and food retailer, and was responsible for revolutionizing the web site purchasing capabilities. He also worked at Fancy Feast creating and maintaining their IT systems but left because of philosophical differences. While Mr. Mutt has a quiet, and seemingly insecure countenance,  he is a great asset to the team and very effective in his role.

Mr. Shepherd also brings with him a very capable manager of finance Timothy Boxer. Mr. Boxer has worked with Mr. Shepherd for 4 years and has a strong international background in finance. In his last position, he was Chief Financial Officer for Hanes. Through diligent oversight of the budget and restructuring of debt, he enabled Hanes to step into an offer with Fruit of the Loom. Prior to this position, he managed the financial consulting division of Devereau, Oberlin and Gossinger, (D.O.G. Consultants), an international consulting firm that held many contracts in Europe and the Middle East.

Mr. Shepherd and his team are ready to be of service to your organization. They can be contacted at 877-546-4446 or by email, info@gogotraining.com.

Sources: http://nickvt.blogspot.com/2012/05/dogs-office-environment.html

While many are actively seeking work, there are locations around the country where work is actively seeking employees. Location plays an important role – some very small and quaint towns may find it hard due to lack of dining and entertainment sources to attract and expensive tourist locations may find it challenging because of housing and food costs. So how do you manage?

CIO Magazine’s Martha Heller offers advice to look within your organization with these ideas:

• Consider technologies that can reduce the number of hours your staff spend on a particular task. A task like syncing calendars can be made easier and less time consuming by taking advantage of wireless options.
• Grow the IT resources you need. A little retraining can go a long way and is much more cost effective than the hiring process and additional salary.
• Make sure your people are as skilled and knowledgeable as possible. Heller sited an example where a company certified their project managers in PMP and significantly increased their project completion success rate.
• Develop leaders from within your retained knowledge base so they can become resources for newer staff.
• Pair senior staff with newer staff as a means of passing the internal knowledge base. It provides the senior member with the opportunity to see process and the organization through newer eyes and provide the junior member with the seasoned resource and experience.
• Customize on-site training to take advantage of the instructor resource coming to your facility. Courses can be customized from content specifically targeted to what your organization needs to learn to hands-on exercises that mirror current and actual projects.

On the job mentoring and training are certainly key factors in maximizing current staff when hiring exactly what you need is not an option.

Source: Martha Heller is the author of the upcoming book The CIO Paradox and she is president of Heller Search Associates, a CIO and senior IT executive recruiting firm.

Yes, ISO/IEC 20000:2011 and ITIL 2011 CAN play nicely with each other. As a matter of fact, ISO/IEC 20000:2011 is the standard under which the ITIL framework is housed.

Isabelle Perron in an article in 2011, explains it this way, “An ISO standard is based on the consensus of 160 countries agreeing on a common approach or method of “doing” something such as how to manage IT services as is the case of ISO/IEC 20000-1.  ITIL®, on the other hand, is a comprehensive and cohesive set of best practices aimed at identifying, planning, delivering and supporting IT services to the business.  An organization gets certified as ISO-compliant; individuals or organizations are qualified as being ITIL® competent.  Processes which emanate from both ISO and ITIL® are complementary.”

Standards deliver a measurable set of common best practice benchmarks for organizations and businesses. When you comply with a certain standard, it indicates that you have reached at least the minimum level of given benchmarks and you’re committed to ongoing improvement. An outsider can the assume that a given level of quality can be anticipated. The other important aspect of a standard is that it is auditable and assessable by independent and authorized auditors.

EMC Infracorp.com in a white paper states that standards provide direction for achieving the following business advantages:

• Efficiency – creating more efficiencies in IT is critical with budget cuts to infrastructure.
• Integrity – Standards provide the needed benchmark in process control areas for regulatory compliance and major partners.
• Alignment to business objectives -Standards can ensure that effectiveness is reviewed and measured against business needs, and that efficiency goals have not compromised the objectives of the process.
• Agility – IT is increasingly required to adapt to the dynamic nature of business. Clear processes and process ownership, with continuous review, increase the capacity for IT to respond to change.

To support its benchmarks and core principles, ISO 20000 depends on frameworks such as ITIL therefore the alignment between ISO and ITIL is intentional.

Sources: White paper-EMC Infracorp.com; ISO/IEC 20000:2011 – The new version: how does it align with ITIL® Edition 2011? October 12, 2011 by Isabelle Perron

A Short Plug for Black Friday Sales: GogoTraining is stepping into unconventional, unusual ground on Friday, November 23rd. Be sure to stop back and check it out!