Federal Statutes

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act:
Requiring every business who accesses or uses an individual's protected health information to issue a privacy statement that notifies such individuals on an annual basis how that information is collected and used and to comply with its stated privacy policy to protect the privacy of such information;

The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act:
Requiring every business who accesses or uses a customer's personal financial information to issue a privacy statement that notifies its customers “in clear and conspicuous language” on an annual basis how that information is collected and used and to comply with its stated privacy policy to protect the privacy of such information;

The Sarbanes Oxley Act:
Requiring accountants who audit or review Financial Statements for a business to retain certain business records relating to that audit or review; and imposing criminal liability on any business that engages in document destruction, even if such document destruction occurs before the business has any formal notice of an official proceeding, and without the necessity of proving a bad intent for the destruction, i.e., a “corrupt persuasion.”

Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC):
A 1997 amendment to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Act requires financial institutions to keep records of digital communications between broker/dealers and customers. Records must be stored on media that are not subject to change, are easily accessible for the first two years and retains unchanged for no fewer than six years.

What is required to be compliant?

• Do your employees need to regularly enter data or retrieve information from a centralized server or database? The more they rely on this, the stronger the case for managed services.
• Do your employees rely primarily on e-mail communication with important clients, vendors and partners? Again, the higher the impact on your bottom line, the more you should consider managed services.
• Do you use e-commerce? You don't want that capability lost for a minute - period.
• Does your network go south occasionally? And, consequently, are your employees unable to use e-mail or access network data? One of the ways to justify managed services is to calculate the cost of your people sitting on their hands.

If you answered "yes" to one or more of these questions, you now need to talk to someone who can help you identify the specific issues related to your company. The difficult part is deciding who to talk to. These are the four points you should consider:

It's Not Easy Being Green!
Written by: David Tan, CTO

Traditionally, standard business practice for Information Technology has dictated that the primary focus of IT decisions and initiatives is based on the economic impact and viability. In other words, how much will it cost, and how much will it save me over time, and when will I recoup my investment. This mindset has started to change drastically in the last year or so, as companies adopt a Green IT mentality, and start to consider not only the economic impact of their decisions, but the environmental and social as well. The problem is, for IT, it’s not easy being green.

Green IT is one of those industry catchphrases we love to use so much. Essentially it is the practice of using computer resources in a more efficient and environmentally conscientious way. This can include everything from reduced power consumption to recycling and safe disposal. The trend is growing fastest among large enterprises, but clearly this is something everyone can do, even the smallest business and home user. As a caveat, going green can also mean more green for the company – in the form of cost savings or tax benefits. Reducing power consumption can clearly lead to lower utility costs. Server consolidation can free up valuable office space for other revenue generating functions. Many states are offering incentives for the safe disposal of old computer components – and some that aren’t are starting to enact regulations mandating the practice. This is something you need to be thinking about for your business immediately.

Here are some tips you can think about to help get you started:

October 2008

Watch What You Install On Your Server
by Christopher Elliott
reprinted with permission from the Microsoft Small Business Center

Download warning: Watch what you install on your server.

Today's server operating systems, including Microsoft Small Business Server 2003, are so user-friendly that you could be left with the impression that anyone with the ability to put a CD into a computer disk drive could successfully deploy a new application.

That is the wrong impression.

When it comes to adding any new software — and particularly third-party applications — you need to be extra vigilant about what you're putting on your server and how you're doing it.

A server isn't as forgiving as a desktop computer. Take it from someone who just spent the better part of a week trying to recover data from a server that had been hopelessly corrupted by several applications that, in retrospect, were probably incorrectly installed by yours truly.

Here are a few things I wish I had done:

Just for Laughs