Several weeks ago the Securities and Exchange Commission announced that its new extensible business reporting language had reached a milestone, with twice as many companies participating in this year’s pilot program as last year. Unfortunately, the news also shows that XBRL has miles and miles ahead of it, too. The pilot program so far has […]
Technology
Posted inTechnology
Linux And SOX: Compliance Issues May Be Overstated
The freewheeling world of open-source software has unsettled the financial reporting community lately with rumors that using improper versions of the popular Linux operating system might violate the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. The twisty discussion was sparked last month when Wasabi Systems, a Virginia-based developer of Linux-based data storage software, suggested that other software makers might be […]
Posted inTechnology
Report: IT Spending On Compliance Triples Since ’04
Spending on technology to grapple with Sarbanes-Oxley and other compliance obligations is consuming voracious amounts of corporate IT budgets, as companies double or even triple their expenditures, according to a new survey. The Gartner Group says preliminary results from its 2005 financial compliance survey show companies will increase their IT spending on financial compliance management […]
Posted inData Privacy
FTC Enforcement Raises Questions On Data Security
The Federal Trade Commission seems to be stepping up enforcement activity against companies that don’t safeguard customer data, and has heightened expectations for how that data must be protected. Until recently, the FTC only targeted companies that had broken promises they had made regarding data security, notes Deborah Birnbach, a partner with the law firm […]
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Case Study: Documenting Controls At Congoleum Corp.
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, […]
Posted inRegulatory Enforcement
Electronic Discovery Proposal Influencing Judges
The U.S. Judicial Conference recently took an important step toward addressing electronic discovery issues by approving proposed amendments to the Federal Rule of Civil Procedure that will force e-discovery issues to be addressed early in the litigation process and protect companies from having to dig up data that is not reasonably accessible. Although the amendments […]
Posted inTechnology
Case Study: $7.8b SunTrust Implements SOX Software
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, […]
Posted inData Privacy
MIT Researcher Talks IT Risk And Impact On Enterprise
Companies engaged in risk assessments typically review financial and operational risks, sometimes at the expense of technical risks. We recently tracked down and spoke with Dr. George Westerman—a researcher at the Center for Information Systems Research at MIT’s Sloan School of Business—to hear about his research into IT risk and effective risk management practices. An […]
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“Zubulake” Decisions Raise Expectations For E-Records
A series of rulings by a federal judge in New York have significantly raised expectations for corporations and their lawyers when it comes to preserving electronic evidence in the face of threatened litigation, experts tell Compliance Week. Kotler The often-cited rulings by U.S. District Court Judge Shira A. Scheindlin came in an employment discrimination suit […]
Posted inData Privacy
Companies Deal With New Data Security Regulations
In today’s corporate digital world, where paranoia over data security abounds, at least one business believes in the value of getting inside a person’s head—and it may be onto something. First Financial Credit Union, serving 70,000 members in California, falls under data-security regulations mandated by the Graham-Leach-Bliley Act. Also known as the Financial Modernization Act, […]