Daily News Archive

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

Monday, October 23rd

"Not having a common understanding of quality puts more pain into an organization than anything else I have ever known.” -- Philip Crosby

 

The Picks of the Day

Silicon Valley companies line up to join Aim

“Dozens of Silicon Valley companies are lining up to float on Aim, London's junior market, as US businesses weigh up ways to raise funds at home amid the high cost of going public under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.  More than 100 technology companies have been considering listing on Aim, say industry insiders.”

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/15188925/

 

Audit watchdog to trim down Sarbox

“Sarbanes-Oxley, the onerous US corporate governance legislation, could be trimmed down before the end of the year, the chairman of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has said.”

http://www.financialdirector.co.uk/accountancyage/news/2167038/audit-watchdog-trim-sarbox

 

COSO: Controls Help Is on the Way

“Companies that have been asking for more guidance on how to assess internal controls over financial reporting will get some help soon.  The Committee of Sponsoring Organization of the Treadway Commission (COSO) has issued a request for proposal to develop guidance to help companies monitor their internal control systems.”

http://www.cfo.com/article.cfm/8070519?f=alerts

[COSO hopes to award the contract before the end of the year.]

 

Business.gov

This portal takes you to the various US Government websites with information for businesses.

http://www.business.gov/

 

IT Process Improvement / Quality Management

Using ITIL to Improve Sarbanes-Oxley Processes

[Webcast set for 10/31/2006]

“Many organizations have experienced cost and frustration associated with some of the processes that they have implemented to comply with Sarbanes-Oxley. ITIL offers many comparison processes that groups can leverage to improve their efficiency and effectiveness.”

http://cp.jupiterweb.com/index.php/3051_default/6036d693e5531837e1881e9af496afbf

 

Special Report on the Data Center

“CIOs and IT managers should stop thinking of the data center as a place and start seeing it as more of a process.  The idea of a data center as an enclosed, climate-controlled room where all of a company's computing takes place is being replaced by the concept of virtual data centers that draw on storage, computing and networking resources, wherever they may reside.”

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2033450,00.asp

 

Legal and Regulatory Compliance

Court blocks request to shut Spamhaus domain

“A U.S. judge has denied an order that would have suspended the domain name for The Spamhaus Project, averting a potential quagmire over how U.S. legal rulings apply across the global Internet.”

http://www.infoworld.com/article/06/10/20/HNspamhausdomain_1.html

 

Paulson Leads Drive to Ease Regulations of Sarbanes-Oxley Law

“Paulson, just three months on the job, has already offered a thinly veiled criticism of the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley corporate- governance law, endorsed a group aiming to curb investor lawsuits and make corporate prosecutions harder, and picked a former colleague from his days as chief executive officer of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to oversee domestic finance.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aDXx4PN5vA64&refer=us

 

HP not alone with "rogue" investigations: experts

“To think Hewlett-Packard Co., the world's second-largest computer company, is alone in pursuing aggressive internal investigations would be naive, say HP's former chairman, experts and lawyers; they do it all the time.”

http://ca.today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=businessNews&storyID=2006-10-08T144443Z_01_N08214177_RTRIDST_0_BUSINESS-INVESTIGATIONS-COL.XML

 

Security and Risk Management

CERT Podcast Series: Security for Business Leaders

“Practicing strong computer security is a nonnegotiable requirement for organizations doing business today. However, building security into an existing corporate culture is a complex undertaking. This series of podcasts provides both general principles and specific starting points for business leaders who want to launch an enterprise-wide security effort or make sure their existing security program is as good as it can be.”

http://www.cert.org/podcast/

[Thank you for sending this to me Julia.]

 

Global Warming May Be Mother of All Finance Woes: John F. Wasik

“If global warming triggers devastating climate change and disrupts world agriculture, financial markets will also react severely. It will be ‘”the mother of all market corrections.’”

http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601039&refer=columnist_wasik&sid=awatpNZCh5Yc

 

Diebold source code leaked again

“On Wednesday, former Maryland state legislator Cheryl C. Kagan was anonymously given disks containing source code to Diebold's BallotStation and GEMS (Global Election Management System) tabulation software used in the 2004 elections. Kagan, a well-known critic of electronic voting, is Executive Director of the Carl M. Freeman Foundation, a philanthropic organization based in Olney, Maryland.”

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9004339&source=NLT_VVR&nlid=37

 

Spam Trojan Installs Own Anti-Virus Scanner

“The Trojan, which uses peer-to-peer technology to send commands to hijacked computers, has been fitted with its own anti-virus scanner—a level of complexity and sophistication that rivals some commercial software.”

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2034680,00.asp?kc=EWNAVEMNL102306EOAD

 

Do Not Enter

“The most significant trend in the online business world over the last year has been the shift among hackers and other criminals from attacks aimed at disabling corporate infrastructure to threats that specifically look to steal companies' money and customer information.”

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2035144,00.asp?kc=EWNAVEMNL102306EOAD

 

Human Error / Safety

Aviation tech cannot eliminate all error

“Air traffic control was invented half a century ago largely as a way to prevent planes from crashing into each other, and mostly, it works. Twenty-five years ago, airlines began using on-board collision warning systems for those times when it doesn't.”

http://news.com.com/Aviation+tech+cannot+eliminate+all+error/2100-1008_3-6123910.html?tag=nefd.top

 

Russia building nuke barge to power Arctic

“The Russian nuclear-energy company Rosenergoatom is planning a mobile plant to deliver electricity to hard-to-reach northern territories near the White Sea, where harsh weather makes regular coal and oil fuel deliveries unreliable and expensive.”

http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/10/13/floating.nuke.plant/index.html

 

Australia pledges millions to fight global warming

“With Australia in the grips of its worst drought in a century, the government is set to announce this week a 500 million Australian dollar (US$379 million; €300 million) package aimed at preventing global warming.  Australia, already one of the world's driest continents, has been suffering from below-average rainfall for the past several years, crippling farm production and raising concerns about the possibility of irreversible climate change.”

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/10/23/asia/AS_GEN_Australia_Climate_Change.php

 

Outsourcing / Globalization / International

Japanese firms find India viable for outsourcing

“Japanese information technology companies are mapping out a new base to outsource software development in India, according to Nihon Keizai Shimbun on Monday.  Japanese firms, which have long shifted their software development to China for low costs, are now faced with a lack of local engineers and deciding to expand their India operations.”

http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1826822,001300460000.htm

 

R&M Issues Study on Indian Insurance Outsourcing

“Dublin-based consultants Research and Markets has announced the addition of ‘Insurance Outsourcing: India Gains Momentum As Offshoring Intensifies - Trends, Insights And Key Vendor Profiles’ to their offering.”

http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/international/2006/10/23/73489.htm

 

RP [Republic of the Philippines] more globally connected, says survey

“The Philippines is becoming more globally connected as its ranking improved two notches from a year ago, according to the 2006 A.T. Kearney/Foreign Policy Magazine Globalization Index.  The report released last week showed that the Philippines climbed to 31st among 62 countries, from 33rd last year.”

http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/storypage.aspx?StoryId=53945

 

Outsourcing in India booms - 27,500 IT professionals joining the country's five biggest firms during the past three months

“Indian IT firm have reached world class and they are hiring like crazy. TCS, Infosys, Wipro, Satyam Computer and HCL Technologies added a total of 27,583 employees to their payrolls in the July-September quarter.”

http://www.indiadaily.com/editorial/13858.asp

 

Economics / Business / Misc.

Ford loses $5.8 billion in the third quarter

“Ford Motor Co. said Monday its loss widened to $5.8 billion in the third quarter, weighed down by the costs of its massive restructuring plan aimed at reshaping the company and cutting expenses so it can compete better against lower-cost rivals from overseas.”

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/15384829/

 

Five Biggest Data Center Concerns

Gartner identifies four – BCP, Virtualization, Storage and 24x7 effectiveness.  The author then adds in command and control.

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2034037,00.asp