Daily News Archive

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

Tuesday, May 23rd

"He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lampposts—for support rather than illumination”. -- Andrew Lang

 

The Picks of the Day

SEC Takes a Stand on 404

“The Securities and Exchange Commission announced on Wednesday in no uncertain terms that small companies as well as large ones will be required to comply with the Section 404 internal-control requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.”

http://www.cfocom/article.cfm/6942080?f=alerts

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/17/AR2006051702018.html

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/12839694/

The actual SEC release is at:  http://www.sec.gov/news/press/2006/2006-75.htm

[Very interesting – we’ll have to see what guidance they come up with for their risk based approach.]

 

Supreme Court makes it harder to be patent predator

“The Supreme Court ruled earlier this week that injunctions shouldn't be rubberstamped for patent cases. They specifically singled out business-method patents that are litigated by those who have no stake in producing the product or offering the service; i.e., patent trolls.”

http://www.boingboing.net/2006/05/18/supreme_court_makes_.html

 

Corps' Levee Work Is Faulted

“A wide range of design and construction defects in levees around New Orleans raise serious doubts that the system can withstand the pounding of another hurricane the size of Katrina, even after $3.1 billion in repairs are completed, a team of independent investigators led by UC Berkeley's civil engineering school said Sunday.”

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-levee22may22,0,1511117.story?track=tothtml

 

IT Process Improvement

Oregon Department of Human Services PMO Site

This site has a wealth of Project Management guidance, templates are links to further resources.  It’s an excellent site.

http://egov.oregon.gov/DHS/admin/pmo/index.shtml

 

Lessons in learning

“Unfortunately, companies often discourage staff members from furthering their education; employers worry employees will take their new skills and leave for greener pastures.  …  That sort of attitude toward education can backfire because it increases the likelihood that highly motivated, advancement-minded employees -- the very people an organization should retain -- will bail.”

http://www.infoworld.com/article/06/05/22/78463_21OPeditor_1.html

 

Legal and Regulatory Compliance

PCAOB Counters Legal Attack on Sarbox

“The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board earlier this week moved to dismiss a lawsuit charging that the board and its rules are unconstitutional.”

http://www.cfocom/article.cfm/6965356?f=alerts

 

Snow: SEC Should Decide on 404

“Asked about legislation that would roll back portions of the controversial provision and exempt many companies from its requirements, the Treasury Secretary looks instead to controlling its costs.”

http://www.cfo.com/article.cfm/6966559/c_6966781?f=alerts

 

PCAOB Roundtable Summary Available

KPMG’s 404 Institute has a summary of the PCAOB roundtable online.

http://www.404institute.com/docs/SEC_PCAOB_Rountable_Summary.pdf

 

UK law will criminalise IT pros, say experts

“Security experts fear that the UK government is on track to outlaw the supply of network security tools, and even scripting languages such as Perl”

http://news.zdnet.co.uk/business/legal/0,39020651,39270045,00.htm

 

Security and Risk Management

Report: Agency policies put air marshals at risk

“The Federal Air Marshal Service is jeopardizing the safety of rank-and-file officers with policies that could reveal the identities of the plainclothes marshals, congressional investigators said in a draft report obtained Friday by CNN.”

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/05/19/air.marshal/index.html

 

New Trojan targets Word

“Security vendor McAfee has warned users of a new Trojan program, called BackDoor-CKB!cfaae1e6, that secretly installs software on a computer. For the Trojan to work, however, hackers must first trick users into opening a malicious Word document. Once that has been done, though, the results can be nasty.”

http://www.computerworld.com.sg/ShowPage.aspx?pagetype=2&articleid=3694&pubid=3&tab=Home&issueid=89

 

HSBC adopts SAS fraud spotting system

“HSBC is using SAS's Fraud Management for Banking software to try and stem criminal activity around its customers’ accounts. The bank is using the technology to analyse its full transactional database to look for patterns that can signify such criminal activity.”

http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/Article.aspx?liArticleID=216025&liFlavourID=1

 

Allocate adequate funds to protect your network

“When it comes to security, companies get what they pay for. Jonathan Yarden recounts a recent troubleshooting experience with an organization and explains why there should be no room for exceptions in your security budget.”

http://techrepublic.com.com/5100-1009-5787257.html?tag=nl.e044

 

Promoting Global Cybersecurity

“A global opinion survey to assess trust of online transactions and awareness of cybersecurity measures was conducted by ITU in conjunction with World Telecommunication Day, celebrated on 17 May to commemorate the founding of ITU in 1865. The theme chosen this year — Promoting Global Cybersecurity — aims to highlight the serious challenges of ensuring the safety and security of networked information and communication systems.”

http://www.itu.int/newsroom/press_releases/2006/09.html

 

Human Error / Safety

Top official: Many states unprepared for bird flu

“Bird flu will hit the United States -- it's only a matter of time -- and not all states are ready to respond to the deadly virus, the Homeland Security Department's top doctor has warned.”

http://www.cnn.com/2006/HEALTH/05/19/birdflu.runge.ap/index.html

 

Testing birds for bird flu begins in Alaska

“Federal scientists have started testing migratory birds for signs of a dangerous bird flu that could show up in North America.”

http://www.cnn.com/2006/HEALTH/05/19/birdflu.testing.ap/index.html

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060521/ap_on_sc/bird_flu_alaska_2

 

Avian Flu: A primer

This is a very basic introduction to what the H5N1 strain of Avian Flu is.

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1148125450388&call_pageid=968350072197&StarSource=RSS

 

Outsourcing / Globalization / International

China marks completion of Three Gorges Dam

“China completed construction on Saturday of the controversial Three Gorges Dam, the world’s largest hydroelectricity project, and marked the occasion with a subdued ceremony broadcast live on state television.”

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/12880810/

 

Official: Africans pay $1,800 for 1GB of data

“African Internet users pay on average 90 times what Americans pay, crippling efforts by the world's poorest continent to become competitive, a senior Kenyan official said.”

http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/internet/05/18/africa.web.cost.ap/index.html

 

Lost in Translation

“What Arroyo didn't mention is that down in the trenches, the burgeoning BPO industry is already encountering growing pains—serious ones. The problem: many call centers can't keep up with demand because they can't find enough employees who speak ‘proper’ English.”

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12893038/site/newsweek/from/RSS/

 

Indian outsourcing industry is headed for a crash and an outright depression – here is why?

“Indian outsourcing industry is headed for a total and permanent collapse. India has systematically converted millions of its talented individuals into becoming phone operators and low-end software application programmers for American, European and Japanese companies. This will back fire like never seen before.”

http://www.indiadaily.com/editorial/8946.asp

 

Economics / Business / Misc.

Seagate swallows Maxtor

“Seagate has completed its merger with smaller rival Maxtor, after shareholders agreement yesterday. The deal, announced last December, values Maxtor at around $2bn.”

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/05/18/seagate_swallows_maxtor/

 

China's lead in tech

“As Internet technology moves toward the next generation, will lassitude doom the United States to relative mediocrity?”

http://money.cnn.com/2006/05/19/technology/fastforward_fortune/index.htm

 

Vista's Make Or Break Moment

“After five years of course changes, false starts and a host of beta and Community Technology Preview (CTP) builds, Microsoft is set to deliver a broad-scale build of Vista to two million testers. Microsoft is likely to drop the build – known by multiple names, including the consumer Vista CTP and Vista Beta 2 – as early as this week at the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) in Seattle, according to company watchers.”

http://www.microsoft-watch.com/article2/0,1995,1965429,00.asp?kc=MWRSS02129TX1K0000535

 

Thursday, May 25th

"A phenomenon will be said to be controlled when, through the use of past experience, we can predict, at least within limits, how the phenomenon may be expected to vary in the future” – Walter A. Shewart

 

The Picks of the Day

Cashing in on the value of compliance

“A succession of scandals from Barings Bank, to Enron and Worldcom, caused the pendulum to swing towards tighter rules, and since 2000, the list of regulations has grown steadily. It now includes the US Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the Basel 2 risk management rules for financial institutions, the International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) and the Market in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID).   This is only the start. In Europe alone there are about 50 current compliance directives, and more in the pipeline.”

http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2006/05/23/215989/Cashing+in+on+the+value+of+compliance.htm

 

Warning of Calamities and Hoping for a Change in 'An Inconvenient Truth'

“’An Inconvenient Truth,’ Davis Guggenheim's new documentary about the dangers of climate change, is a film that should never have been made. It is, after all, the job of political leaders and policymakers to protect against possible future calamities, to respond to the findings of science and to persuade the public that action must be taken to protect the common interest.”

[Yes, this is a movie review whose theme I think we should be very aware of and engaged in resolving.]

 

Study will test competence of sleepy doctors

“Sleep deprivation has been proven to impair manual dexterity and critical thinking, but the issue of whether medical errors stem from the grueling work schedules of medical residents house staff, as they are often called is about to be put to the test with a novel local study that may confirm our worst fears about how medical mistakes occur.”

http://www.canada.com/topics/news/national/story.html?id=e1454aef-b485-456e-9914-93e44ffb727b&k=22569

[Bear in mind that studies like this can be carried over to any complex activities such as application development, operations, security, etc.]

 

IT Process Improvement

Competing Vendors to Develop CMDB Standards

“For consortium participants—HP, IBM, BMC Software and Fujitsu Limited, as well as CA—the decision to pursue standards was influenced in large part by customers’ demands for the ability to share data that currently is scattered across organizations and resides in different vendors’ CMDBs and other tools.”

http://www.itsmwatch.com/news/article.php/3608331

 

ITSM From Theory to Reality

The 5/23/06 webinar on ITIL as a means to deliver quality to organizations is now available on demand.

http://www.jupiterwebcasts.com/_archives/2006/webcast_05-23-06/index.html

 

Legal and Regulatory Compliance

Where Cash Meets Trade

“The kind of information needed to manage a global supply chain is often the very kind of information needed to comply with Sarbanes-Oxley. This congruence along with increased global trade has raised the interest in and use of Global Trade Management (GTM) software.”

http://www.forbes.com/logistics/2006/05/18/sarbanes-oxley-logistics-cx_rm_0519sarbox.html

 

Why Sarbanes-Oxley is Good for American Business

“Taking a contrarian stance in the controversy surrounding the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX), which Congress passed in response to frauds at Enron and WorldCom, The Joy of SOX identifies ways that this controversial law can actually drive improvements in operational efficiency. The book uses a case study to help readers understand how to leverage and use service-oriented architecture (SOA) to meet the requirements for internal controls that are mandated by the SOX while preserving strategic agility.”

http://www.it-observer.com/news/6305/why_sarbanes_oxley_good_american_business/

 

Govt to review business compliance costs

“The Government is to review regulations affecting businesses, to see how compliance costs can be lessened.  A key focus will be whether the implementation of regulations are efficient and what improvements can be made.”

http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/latest/200605222049/104905e0

http://www.gisborneherald.co.nz/article.asp?aid=5020&iid=417&sud=27

 

Corporate fraud alive and well in U.S.

“The wave of high-profile corporate fraud cases involving companies like Enron, World Com and Tyco International was followed by criminal charges and new regulations that were designed to put an end to corporate fraud. But despite hundreds of millions spent on improved audit controls and several high-profile convictions, occupational fraud is alive and well in the post-Enron era.”

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/12762573/

 

Security and Risk Management

Data about millions of U.S. veterans stolen

“A computer disk with personal data of about 26.5 million U.S. veterans was stolen from the home of a Veterans Affairs analyst, the federal department said Monday.”

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/12916803/

http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/originalContent/0,289142,sid14_gci1189759,00.html?track=NL-102&ad=551700

And then it surfaced that they didn’t report it for two weeks:  http://msnbc.msn.com/id/12953600/

 

Security vs. Privacy: The Rematch

“But that trade-off between privacy and security is mythological. Giving up privacy does not necessarily result in greater security, and greater security does not necessarily require a loss of privacy.  As a country we need to move beyond this false security vs. privacy meme and craft laws that improve both -- laws that take into account the changing privacy landscape, and the indisputable need to fight terrorism.”

http://www.wired.com/news/columns/0,70971-0.html?tw=rss.technology

 

Human Error / Safety

Hundreds wrongly dubbed criminals

“Nearly 1,500 people have been wrongly labelled as criminals by the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB), it has emerged.”

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/5001624.stm

 

Africa on the brink of catastrophic change -- blame global warming

“Africa is facing the greatest catastrophe in human history. Climate change represents a nightmare scenario for the future of the people of the world's poorest continent, according to the official preparing a top-level report due to land on the desks of British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Chancellor to the Treasury Gordon Brown later this year.”

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/270809_africa21.html?source=rss

 

AIDS Vaccine Testing Goes Overseas

“But as the trial moves forward, at a cost of more than $120 million, some researchers are raising questions about its validity. They disparage its science, question its ethics and doubt its efficacy.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/21/AR2006052100960.html?referrer=email&referrer=email&referrer=email

 

Outsourcing / Globalization / International

India beginning to pick up U.S. accounting work, too

“U.S. accounting firms are outsourcing a growing amount of tax compliance and bookkeeping work to India, where labor costs are low.”

http://www.mlive.com/business/ambizdaily/bizjournals/index.ssf?/base/abd-2/1148280040286280.xml

 

Opportunities for India as Financial Services Adopt Sourcing Lessons

“The financial-services industry is going down the same offshoring and outsourcing route pioneered by the manufacturing industry according to new research, finds a survey by the London Business School and the Capco Institute. According to the survey, this could result in rapid growth for companies and employees in India across the industry and not just in call centers and transaction processing.”

http://www.globalservicesmedia.com/sections/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=188100822

 

U.S. Companies Benefit from Outsourcing Experiences, Finds Study

“The study of 288 executives, conducted for Capgemini by CFO Research, observes that 72.9% of the U.S.-based companies plan to outsource more functions in the coming years, and 22.6% are interested in outsourcing ‘a broad range of functions and processes’ or ‘everything that’s not core to the business.’”

http://www.globalservicesmedia.com/sections/news/showArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=X0XOKPVLU5GL2QSNDBOCKICCJUMEKJVN?articleID=188101939

 

Managing Globalization: EU slow to create high-skill jobs

“For wealthy countries, globalization offers a special challenge: the loss of high-skill jobs to workers in emerging economies. Those jobs are not coming back anytime soon, so the question is how to replace them with new positions and even with new industries. In the European Union and the United States, governments are trying to come up with answers - with mixed results.”

http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/05/23/business/glob24.php

 

BPO industry could face sustainability issues, says study

“UAP Professor Ceferino Rodolfo said in his report, ‘Sustaining Philippine Advantage in Business Process Outsourcing,’ that the fluid political situation, intermittent threats to physical security and continued graft and corruption still continue to discourage BPO investors, particularly from overseas.”

http://news.inq7.net/infotech/index.php?index=1&story_id=76743

 

Economics / Business / Misc.

Hard-drive Maker Frees Up Desk Space

“Seagate Technology, the largest manufacturer of computer hard-disk drives, announced that it will lay off about half the employees of recently acquired rival Maxtor.”

http://www.cfocom/article.cfm/6969593?f=alerts

 

Google retains its search crown

“Google's share of the US web search market continues to edge beyond Yahoo! and Microsoft, according to the latest monthly numbers released by analysis company ComScore Networks.”

http://networks.silicon.com/webwatch/0,39024667,39159043,00.htm

 

Banks to battle for orcs' gold?

“Once thought of as an escape from real world hassles such as money, virtual worlds - such as World of Warcraft (WoW) and Second Life - are beginning to operate just like real-world economies.  These virtual worlds have enough members spending enough real and virtual money to have the same financial muscle as many small countries - a fact not overlooked by banks which are looking at this area with increasing interest.”

http://www.silicon.com/financialservices/0,3800010322,39159061,00.htm?p5=3bx

[This is the third article I’ve seen in the last couple of weeks about virtual world economies.  The whole concept really requires us to rethink our perceptions.]

 

Enterprises Increasing Technology Spending to Drive Supply Chain Innovation, Says New Aberdeen Report

“With globalization of supply and more customer-specific fulfillment mandates, the need for supply chain technology is accelerating. In analyzing the plans of 208 enterprises, Aberdeen finds that supply chain executives are seeking new capabilities and technology features for their next-generation supply chain solutions.”

http://www5.sys-con.com/read/225726.htm