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Current News - Information Technology

August 15th, 2008

States to Tax On-Line Music Sales

With retail e-commerce sales now estimated to exceed $130 billion a year, and iTunes song purchases topping 5 billion, state politicians and tax collectors have begun to levy new fees on digital downloads.

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In 2008 alone, at least nine states have considered digital download taxes, and at least five of those states have enacted them into law. Nebraska's governor signed a digital download tax bill into law in April, and a similar measure was adopted in Tennessee in June. As CNET News reported a few months ago, Indiana, South Dakota, and Utah also enacted digital download taxes this year.

The push stems from an odd legal quirk: because most states' tax laws were written long before the Internet existed, they may accidentally immunize downloads from taxation. This is the case even in otherwise high-tax states like California, where physical CDs are taxed heavily but iTunes downloads remain tax-free for now.

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August 11th, 2008

Apple Continues On Closed System Path - Believes It Is Big Brother

With the iPhone many thought that an open architecture platform was on the horizon.  However Apple continues to "control" hardware and software that carries its label.  In a story published The Wall Street Journal, the CEO of Apple Steve  Jobs acknowledged that Apple has a "kill swicth" it can activate remotely to disable applicationn downloaded to iPhone and iPod Touch devices.

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Jobs argued. "Hopefully we never have to pull that lever, but we would be irresponsible not to have a lever like that to pull."

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August 6th, 2008

Step to Create a Secure Disaster Recovery & Business Continuity Plan

The Janco Disaster Recovery Plan & Business Continuity Template utilizes a framework that is compliant with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Contingency Planning Guide for Information Technology Systems. The standard is targeted at government agencies that deal with sensitive information and is fairly long and complex, but the framework is straightforward, consisting of the following seven steps from the Executive Summary:

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  • Develop the contingency planning policy statement. A formal department or agency policy provides the authority and guidance necessary to develop an effective contingency plan.
  • Conduct the business impact analysis (BIA). The BIA helps to identify and prioritize critical IT systems and components.
  • Identify preventive controls. Secure Disaster PlanMeasures taken to reduce the effects of system disruptions can increase system availability and reduce contingency life cycle costs.
  • Develop recovery strategies. Thorough recovery strategies ensure that the system may be recovered quickly and effectively following a disruption.
  • Develop an IT contingency plan. The contingency plan should contain detailed guidance and procedures for restoring a damaged system.
  • Plan testing, training and exercises. Testing the plan identifies planning gaps, whereas training prepares recovery personnel for plan activation; both activities improve plan effectiveness and overall agency preparedness.
  • Plan maintenance. The plan should be a living document that is updated regularly to remain current with system enhancements.
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August 1st, 2008

Security Requirments Can Not Be Ignored

Sensitive Information Policy Personal Data Security Security Audit Program

 

Security ComplianceRegulations like Sarbanes-Oxley, which affect publicly-held companies, get most of the press. But there are plenty of regulations with security implications that hover over smaller businesses, including HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act), CaliforniaÂ’s SB1386databreachdisclosure law, and the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, which covers those who prepare income tax returns, debt collectors, consumer credit counseling and reporting agencies, and real estate transaction settlement services. All of these - and others - carry the force of law, and failure to comply can result in fines and even criminal charges as well as civil lawsuits. In addition, other standards that do not have the force of law - notably PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard), which covers credit card transactions and is legally mandated in at least Minnesota - can impose fines or the loss of essential privileges on violators.

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July 22nd, 2008

Wrong E-Mail Address Cause Procution by NYC

(PC Magazine) A message is not always from the person it purports to be "From: ".

Someone should have explained this problem to the New York City Police department and the Bronx County District Attorney, both of whom used an e-mail sent by one party to a second party, following an error by that second party, in order to prosecute a third party for sending it. In fact, in this case the header may have been accurate and the problem simple laziness in examining it.

eMail PolicyBronx resident William Hallowell was arrested on complaint of his supervisor, Robin Berson. Ms Berson had attempted to send an e-mail to Mr. Hallowell, but typed in the wrong address and sent it to a Ben Hallowell. Ben Hallowell's response made reference to illegal activities and hit on Ms. Berson in a crude way. Still not realizing what she had done she finked on William Hallowell to the Police who, despite a shocking absence of evidence against him, arrested him and held him for more than 30 hours. Prosecutors then took 4 months to dismiss the case. All these claims are as made in Hallowell's civil rights suit filed recently against police and prosecutors.

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July 18th, 2008

Intel and AMD Are Going Green

AMD and Intel have put in a lot of time and effort devising CPU power management schemes for their multicore devices aimed at trimming the energy draw of the server farm. But new questions are being raised as to whether these techniques are the most effective means to lower energy bills, particularly as virtualization becomes more popular throughout the enterprise.

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Both AMD and Intel use some form of on-chip processing to shut down idle cores, allowing energy to be diverted elsewhere. Intel's platform provides for individual control of processors - ostensibly to preserve laptop battery life  - and it is tying it to a server power management system that allows admins to direct power within individual server racks. But according to some critics, enterprises shouldn't expect much from the on-chip power-saving tools, particularly those that seek to manage idle cores.

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July 6th, 2008

Record Retention Mandated by New Federal Rules

Record Retention PolicyThe new Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP) have set high standards for the discovery of email and Electronically Stored Information (ESI). In as little as 30 days after litigation is filed, an organization may need to provide detailed lists of what ESI exists and be able to produce that ESI quickly. The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure also require organizations to protect ESI as evidence from willful and/ or accidental destruction.

  • An organization must know at the beginning of a case what relevant ESI exists, where it is, and how hard it is to access.
  • An organization must quickly produce all relevant electronic information from active systems.
  • The opposing litigants want to track changes to documents and view metadata, and the organization has to help them.
  • An organization can destroy ESI as part of a routine, pre-arranged process until there is reason to believe that organization

Type of Data

Minimal Backup Policy

Backup Retention Policy

System
software

Latest Version plus patches
 At Least Weekly

Annual (verified) Backup
Monthly Generations
Weekly Generations

Application
software

Latest Version plus patches
At Least Weekly

Annual (verified) Backup
Monthly Generations
Weekly Generations

System
data

Daily

Annual (verified) Backup
Monthly Generations
Weekly Generations
Daily Generations

Application
Data

Daily with real time transaction files

Annual (verified) Backup
Monthly Generations
Weekly Generations
Daily Generations

Software licenses,
Encryption keys,
& Protocol Data

Weekly

Annual (verified) Backup
Monthly Generations
Weekly Generations

 

  -  more information

 

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