Daily News Archive

Please note that The Daily News is publishing (hopefully) twice a week for the foreseeable future due to time constraints.

Tuesday, November 28th

"Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the men of old; seek what they sought.” — Matsuo Basho

 

The Picks of the Day

GAO Criticizes SEC Internal Controls

“In its fiscal year 2005 audit, the congressional watchdog agency found problems very similar to those it reported last year.”

http://www.cfo.com/article.cfm/5213245?f=alerts

The actual GAO report is at:  http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d06239.pdf

 

Compliance, the corporate killer

“According to a study by the consultancy Booz Allen Hamilton, of all the value destroyed by the largest US companies between 1999 and 2003 (including Enron, Tyco and friends), just 13 per cent was the result of failures of regulatory compliance or board oversight. Eighty-seven per cent was caused by strategic or operational error.  In other words, investors' health is, now as ever, at much greater threat from managerial cock-up than conspiracy.”

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,6903,1651456,00.html

[It’s a 2004 Booz Allen study that can be read at:  http://www.strategy-business.com/resilience/rr00014?gko=f5470-4284843-6444266&tid=230&pg=all  ]

 

Panel may urge audit rule changes

“The most significant recommendation is the exemption of about half of all public firms from rules requiring outside auditors to attest to the quality of a company's internal controls over financial reporting.”

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-0511280017nov28,1,7145432.story?coll=chi-business-hed&ctrack=1&cset=true

 

Legal and Regulatory Compliance

Legacy data poses risks

“Poor data integration projects could be putting companies at risk of prosecution from regulators, says CA’s chief compliance officer, Patrick Gnazzo.”

http://www.vnunet.com/computing/news/2146498/legacy-poses-risks

 

SEC could haul up Indian issuers for non-compliance

“Under the regulations of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), domestic corporates with more than 300 US investors automatically come under its jurisdiction, according to Alexander F. Cohen, securities partner with the international law firm Latham & Watkins. That would mean several large domestic corporates, including some of the public sector companies, planning equity dilutions would come within the purview of the SEC.”

http://sify.com/finance/fullstory.php?id=14020372

 

Now pass the bucks to investors

“The Securities and Exchange Commission is getting better at collecting money from the WorldComs that cook the books or otherwise defraud investors. However, the agency still struggles with the task of passing along billions of dollars in forfeited funds to those who have been cheated. The SEC can't make deceived investors whole again, but it can do a better job of putting them on the mend.”

http://www.ajc.com/opinion/content/opinion/1105/28edfraud.html

 

Security and Risk Management

New Path Of Attack

“Cybercriminals have had it with the limelight. With the law onto them, they've mostly abandoned self-aggrandizing vandalism to concentrate on more clandestine concerns: making money off someone else's data. And to do that, they're now attacking applications rather than operating systems”

http://www.informationweek.securitypipeline.com/news/174401926;jsessionid=WR5ZXO1HJSU2IQSNDBCSKHSCJUMEKJVN

 

Pentagon Expanding Its Domestic Surveillance Activity

“The Defense Department has expanded its programs aimed at gathering and analyzing intelligence within the United States, creating new agencies, adding personnel and seeking additional legal authority for domestic security activities in the post-9/11 world.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/26/AR2005112600857.html

 

Perspective:  Fuzzy logic behind Bush's cybercrime treaty

“If you believe President Bush, a ‘cybercrime’ treaty about to be voted on by the U.S. Senate is needed to thwart online vandals and track down Internet miscreants.”

http://news.com.com/Fuzzy+logic+behind+Bushs+cybercrime+treaty/2010-1071_3-5969719.html?tag=html.alert

 

Human Error / Safety

Experts: Pandemic fears premature

“While health officials have serious concerns about the H5N1 bird flu virus becoming a pandemic, they say it won't be a worldwide threat until the virus is able to spread easily between people.”

http://www.cnn.com/2005/HEALTH/conditions/11/21/pandemic.fears/index.html

 

Outsourcing / Globalization

India, Canada Sign Science, Technology Agreement

“India and Canada have signed a strategic agreement that strives to enhance skills of Indian scientific manpower to match international standards, promote collaborative research in high-tech areas, and help in commercialization of indigenous technologies.”

http://smalltimes.com/document_display.cfm?document_id=10356

 

Finance to Go

“The steady growth of the outsourcing industry is forcing CFOs to look afresh at the entire finance value chain.”

http://www.cfo.com/article.cfm/5164339?f=alerts

 

China Gets a Passing Grade From Foreign Firms

“Four years after China joined the World Trade Organization, foreign companies give Beijing a fairly positive report card for moves such as cutting tariffs and opening up financial services -- but they say there is a lot left to do in other areas.”

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB113314015852807786.html?mod=djemEMU

 

Offshoring of Services: An Overview of the Issues

GAO-06-5November 28, 2005

http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-06-5

Highlights of the report - http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d065high.pdf

 

Economics / Business / Misc.

Flywheels Spin Clean Energy

“Flywheels could also be used to briefly generate power during an outage, bridging the critical gap before backup generators kick in. … Most flywheel systems only provide about 15 seconds of power. But considering that 90 percent of all outages last for two seconds or less, that’s all you need, says Mr. Gunderson.”

http://www.redherring.com/article.aspx?a=14447

 

Webcast:  Enforcing Compliance: A Patch Management Strategy That Works

December 1, 2005 2:00pm EST, 11:00am PST

“In a world where security vulnerabilities are uncovered daily, compliance policies are essential. But simply having that policy is no guarantee that the strategy will reduce risk. Managers must follow-through and confirm than the policy achieves the goals. Few things are worse for a network than a patch that jeopardizes the operations environment.”

http://www.jupiterwebevents.com/webcasts/symantec_dec1.html

[Note:  It will be made available on-demand after the live webcast.]

Thursday, December 1st

A market is never saturated with a good product, but it is very quickly saturated with a bad one.” — Henry Ford

 

The Picks of the Day

Rising Above The Gathering Storm: Energizing and Employing America for a Brighter Economic Future

“In a world where advanced knowledge is widespread and low-cost labor is readily available, U.S. advantages in the marketplace and in science and technology have begun to erode. A comprehensive and coordinated federal effort is urgently needed to bolster U.S. competitiveness and pre-eminence in these areas”

http://www.nap.edu/catalog/11463.html

[A must read from the National Academies Press.  You can download the PDF for free.]

http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?sssdmh=dm4.159017&articleID=174401570

 

Risk Denial from the Top?

“Companies overlook and undermanage the business risks of IT project and service delivery.”

http://www.cfo.com/article.cfm/5052271?f=TechWatch113005

 

Fear, Inc.

“How homeland security became the biggest market opportunity since the dotcom boom.”

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.12/homeland.html

 

Legal and Regulatory Compliance

Sarbanes-Oxley Compliance To Boost Tech Spending

“After interviewing more than 300 IT and business leaders, AMR Research concluded that spending to meet the requirements of the federal compliance act will be $6 billion, essentially the same as the $6.1 billion expected to be spent in 2005.”

http://www.crn.com/sections/breakingnews/breakingnews.jhtml?articleId=174402611

 

The SOX Appeal of Going Private

“As the cost of compliance mounts, it's only reasonable to assume that many outfits, especially the smaller ones, will avoid it altogether”

http://www.businessweek.com/investor/content/nov2005/pi20051129_4238_pi015.htm

 

Security and Risk Management

COBIT 4.0 Frequently Asked Questions

http://www.isaca.org/Template.cfm?Section=cobit6&Template=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=22097

 

Google also a hacker ally

“One of a PC user’s best friends – search engine superpower Google – could become an enemy tool if used by hackers, online security experts have warned.”

http://www.scmagazine.com/uk/news/article/530057/google-hacker-ally/

 

Majority of world worried about internet fraud

“The report from Unisys Corporation, which polled more than 8,000 people around the world on identity fraud and bank security issues, found that a clear majority (66 percent) of people worldwide worry about the fraudulent use of their bank and credit card accounts.”

http://www.scmagazine.com/uk/news/article/530336/majority-world-worried-internet-fraud/

 

Human Error / Safety

China reels from mine disaster, safety falls short

“Successive campaigns to improve safety in China's coal mines appear to be having little impact as the country reels from the latest disaster, which killed at least 146 miners.”

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/PEK38682.htm

 

Outsourcing / Globalization

Analysis: Antioffshoring legislation heats up

“Bills related to offshoring or outsourcing, some of which would severely limit or outright stop such practices, were introduced this year in nearly all 50 states as well as in the U.S. Congress, and there is no indication that this legislative trend will stop.”

http://www.computerworld.com/governmenttopics/government/legislation/story/0,10801,106597,00.html?source=x2625

 

Outsourcing Moves Closer to Home

“Lured by the ease of working in the same time zone a mere three or four hours' flight away from headquarters in the US, such companies as Dell, Sykes, Sitel, IBM, Proctor & Gamble, and Western Union on the service side and Sara Lee/Hanes, VF Corp., and Russell Athletic on the manufacturing side have been moving business into the region.”

http://www.hispanicbusiness.com/news/newsbyid.asp?id=26954&cat=Headlines&more=/news/more-news.asp

 

Electronics Companies Running Into Trouble With Outsourcing

“Electronics companies are losing some control of the visibility across their supply chains and are therefore becoming vulnerable to risk according to a recent survey.”

http://www.industryweek.com/ReadArticle.aspx?ArticleID=11054

 

Economics / Business / Misc.

Silicon Valley's Call: Smarten Up, America!

“An all-star cast of tech execs is demanding a raft of changes in government and social policies to spur innovation in the U.S.”

http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/nov2005/tc20051117_777271.htm

 

Foreign Enrollments in CIS drop by a Third

“The number of international students enrolled in Computer and Information Sciences (CIS) at all degree levels in the United States fell 32.5 percent between 2003/04 and 2004/05, according to the Institute of International Education’s Open Doors 2005 report.”

http://www.cra.org/wp/index.php?p=62

 

CFOs Face Major IT Challenges

“The results of canvassing our CFO workshop participants demonstrated again that from a business perspective, the greatest IT challenges have less to do with technology than with people and organizational issues.”

http://www.compliancepipeline.com/174401622?cid=rssfeed_pl_cop