Security managers often end up being the bad guy when they delay a project. The reason is they are not fully consulted or included in the project. To avoid delays security managers should be included in the project life-cycle management process from the beginning.
Mathias Thurman a security manager by trade came up with 13 criteria that dictate whether a project needs security consideration. Project managers can look over the criteria when they initiate a new project and quickly determine whether it will require the attention of security management.
To ensure the project team includes security management in the project, Mathias has created an easy to use Excel spreadsheet of requirements that project managers can use to ensure that security in included early in the project’s life cycle. A downloadable version of the spreadsheet is available here.
Source: Computerworld
Microsoft announced that they will post four security updates on May 13, 2008. Three of them are critical and the fourth is moderate.
The three critical updates patch remote code execution vulnerabilities in Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Word and Microsoft Publisher. The forth moderate update patches a denial of service vulnerability in Windows Live OneCare, Microsoft Antigen, Microsoft Windows Defender and Microsoft ForeFront Security.
The Microsoft Word patch also applies to Microsoft Office for Mac, Microsoft Word Viewer 2003 and the Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack.
For more information read the Microsoft Security Bulletin Advance Notification for May 2008.
Overwhelmed by trying to organize your email? Xobni offers a new way to organize and search your Outlook email. It creates profiles for each person that emails you. These profiles contain relationship statistics, contact information, social connections, threaded conversations, and shared attachments.
Xobni (inbox spelled backwards, pronounced zob-nee) is a free Outlook plug-in 
that adds some great features to the Outlook sidebar. Each Xobni profile contains:
- Relationship statistics such as the number of emails to and from the contact as well as their overall rank. A profile picture can also be included.
- Xobni extracts and displays phone numbers in the sidebar. You can also add a phone number if it can not be extracted. Also included are selections to schedule a meeting or email the contact.
- Related people between you and the contact. This allows you to easily remember the common contacts you have.
- A threaded chronological list of recent emails to/from the contact (USEFUL!)
- A chronological list of exchanged file attachments (VERY USEFUL!)
- Useful statistics such as rankings and graphs that display the time of time you get emails from the contact.
Here is a video preview of Xobni features.
Xobni is a valuable tool to not only manage your email, but will make you more productive in Outlook. Try it out for yourself. I don’t think you will be disappointed. To find out more about Xobni visit the Xobni web site.
Get Connected TV takes a less nerdy look at understanding technology for home and business. They offer in-depth reviews, tips and how-to segments on the newest technology products.
From their web site you can view the last 5 TV shows and listen to the Podcasts of their radio show. They also offer Podcasts and RSS feeds for both the TV and radio shows.
The last TV shows topic was Security and included:
- Maxtor/Sentry Safe - QA0004 Hard Drive: The world’s first and only fire resistant and waterproof hard drive that ensures your data is safe in almost any environment.
- Steganos Safe - Security Software: Encryption software to make sure your personal and work files are safe with full control over accessibility.
- Apriccorn Biometric Hard Drive: This super-secure portable Hard Drive will only work if you swipe your finger on a fingerprint sensitive touch pad.
Lab Rats TV hosted by Sean Carruthers and Andy Walker offer a source of free technology related videos. They cover a wide variety of topics, but seem to be aimed at hardware and software technology.
Both instructional and sometimes entertaining, they offer some good how-to related videos. Here are some examples of interest to IT Service Depot managers and technicians.
- BIOS Basics
- Instant Notebook Upgrades
- Registry 101
- Clean Your Computer
Currently offering well over 50 episodes, Lab Rats TV offers free technology related videos that are timely and informative.
Recent episodes:
- Should You Care About the Mac Book Air?
- Camera Settings Demystified
- Next Generation Flash Drives
Episodes are offered for download in QuickTime, iPod, Windows Media, Divx and MP3 formats on their Lab Rats TV web site. Alternatively you can view many of their free technology videos on Veoh. Their forum also offers answers to a variety of technology topics.
Microsoft’s Hyper-V server virtualization technology could ship as early as June or July. This is shorter than the 180 days projected after the launch of Microsoft Server 2008 which launched in February.
Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V is a next generation hypervisor server virtualization technology. It allows you to consolidate multiple server roles as virtual machines (VMs) running on a single physical machine.
It will add to the VM options already offered by VMware and Xen derivatives by Citrix (Citrix purchased XenSource in 2007), Red Hat and Oracle. With the desire by IT for lower TOC and a higher ROI, virtualization offer cost-effective and flexible solutions. This makes Hyper-V a timely release for Microsoft.
IT Operations professionals are faced with the constant worry of threats such as IT outages, power failures, and disasters. During challenging financial times IT Operations is finding it more difficult to secure the funding needed for disaster recovery from management.
Disaster recovery preparedness can run into millions of dollars depending of the level of continuity you desire and the size of your company. Since the ROI is often seen as how to avoid what might happen, management is often unwilling to properly fund these efforts.
Given the potential loss to the business should such disaster or even a power outage occur IT operations should approach management with facts and cost effective solutions.
Close to 71 percent of U.S. retailers are turning to a broad set of virtualization solutions as way to save money, maximize space and gain better control of their IT infrastructures according to Microsoft’s “Virtualization in Retail Survey 2008″.
Touchpaper, a IT Business Management provider announced the launch of the Touchpaper Asset Management Process Pack, designed to extend the reach of Configuration Management into the asset management process.
“The Asset Management Process Pack is a total lifecycle approach to asset management that allows IT directors to keep track of an organization’s computing assets through the entire lifecycle; from procurement, ongoing management and change of IT assets, to their eventual disposal.”
A project goes wrong. A flaw was missed. A product was released into production that has caused many problems. Who is to blame?
- “Well it wasn’t me!”
- “We did our part!”
- “I told them this would happen!”
- “Not my problem!”
Too often the blame game is started. People are more concerned about covering their collective rear ends than the mistake. Often extraordinary measures are taken to deflect any blame. Insulating oneself or department is seen as a defensive measure to ensure blame for any failure cannot be reflected back on them. I see this as counterproductive, but that is another article.
Mistakes WILL happen and the blame game has been around a long time. How you choose to handle situations like this will say a lot about you personally and as a manager. Your first reaction should not be to find the person or group that made the mistake and rail them up one wall and down the other.
Your first reaction to should to step up and take control of the situation.
- If upper management is not yet aware of the mistake you should be the one bring it to their attention. It is much better if it comes from you than someone else.
- Take the lead with a proactive approach to reducing any further damage the mistake may cause.
- Find the root cause of the mistake and put into place measures to try and ensure such a mistake cannot happen again.
- If the mistake can be traced back to a particular employee look at what you could have done or can do to help them.
- Examine your Quality Assurance process to see how it slipped through.
See a mistake for what it can be, an opportunity for growth and improvement for you, your group or team and the individual. Don’t look for others to share the blame. Whatever has happened step up and take responsibility for it. If you try to affix blame on others you play yourself as the victim. Rise above such petty thoughts. Even if it is not your fault to play the victim will be seen as a weakness.
