Viruses. Worms. Trojans. Denial-of-service attacks. IT security professionals have long wrestled with these and many other external threats, and a bustling industry has sprung up to fend off the pests. Such risks and others posed by those aiming to compromise corporate IT systems and steal data have garnered nearly all the public attention. And from […]
Technology
Posted inTechnology
Auditing IT: Where to Focus Your Attention
For most of today’s competitive business environment, it’s a manager’s cliche: “Seconds count.” But when the job is auditing an IT system, the concept applies literally. “Having real-time access to information is absolutely critical,” says Michelle Dickman, chief executive officer of TriGeo Network Security, an IT consulting firm in Port Falls, Idaho. A post-mortem of […]
Posted inInternal Controls
Defense Giants Step Up IT Security Controls
The U.S. Army describes its Future Combat Systems program as a “cohesive system-of-systems” comprised of software, networks, and hardware (as in next-generation tanks) that will allow the future soldier “to see first, understand first, act first, and finish decisively.” Not long after Boeing was named a lead system integrator on the program in 2004, the […]
Posted inTechnology
Case Study: GeoEye’s Process Improvement
This “case study” is the latest in a series of articles aimed at helping public companies understand how other organizations are using technology to comply with new regulations and standards. These are not advertisements or marketing vehicles for the companies mentioned; Compliance Week’s editorial staff speaks with the public company that has deployed the technology, […]
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Adding Compliance Solutions To ERP Systems
Companies invest a lot of time and money in enterprise resource planning software—and yet, at the end of the day, those weighty ERP systems still don’t necessarily fulfill all a company’s needs when it comes to financial reporting requirements, such as those outlined under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. ERP systems aim to integrate all of the […]
Posted inData Privacy
Effective Access Control: Communication, Simplicity
The need for a fancy identity-management system to control access to IT systems depends on how big and complex you are and how much pain your company can take. Linda DiPaola, with less than 500 employees to track, does just fine without any system at all. DiPaola, director of internal audit at Empire Resorts, a […]
Posted inTechnology
Designing Seamless IT Compliance Systems
Once upon a time, Corporate America used technology pretty much for one reason: to help companies do things. IT systems were a constellation of computer programs to manage and manipulate data and recover information as needed. And in that environment, says Thomas Bookwalter, founder of the consulting firm FMDC. IT departments typically worked in their […]
Posted inData Privacy
Battling The Wide World Of Data Breaches
There is no “typical” data breach and, unfortunately, no simple set of steps exists to secure an organization’s critical information, according to a study of 345 U.S. data breaches reported in the year ended April 1. Schmidt But companies that pay attention to technology, process and people—“the proverbial whole matrix of security,” as Howard Schmidt, […]
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Could IT Spot Backdating? Experts Say No
With hundreds of companies under investigation in the ongoing stock option backdating scandal and billions in shareholder wealth up in smoke as a result, one would think the seemingly straightforward, inexpensive solution of time servers—computers to track and confirm when an option is granted—would catch on. It isn’t, say auditors, attorneys, and even time-server makers […]
Posted inTechnology
XBRL In 4 Hours? Press Releases For 10-Ks?
At least one technology analyst is arguing that the time has come for the Securities and Exchange Commission to mandate that public companies file at least some periodic reports in eXtensible Business Reporting Language. And to demonstrate how simple the process is, the firm converted several companies’ filings—including large companies like Boeing and General Electric—into […]