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Security Skins Replace
Walls in a Least Identity World
Building walls around our treasures has been a successful
practice for millennium. In the security realm these walls started
as physical security; bricks and concrete that protected our metal
boxes full of treasured data. The rapid evolution of communication
and mobile technologies has resulted in an explosion in the number
of system we must manage and secure. The wall as a security model
is failing us.
Biological ecosystems are complex interconnected
and messy. There are many stories of well meaning attempts to control
some aspect of an ecosystem that resulted in an ecological disaster.
DDT used to kill off malaria mosquitoes poisons birds, which kills
the cats, which allows an explosion in rats, which leads to an outbreak of plague.
As our technologies become increasingly connected in
a wireless world we are reaching a level of complexity
that is showing the behaviour of a biological ecology. New products
find ecological niches and radiate into the environment at an exponential
rate. Applications that cannot adapt quickly become extinct. There
are predator/prey cycles as hackers discover and exploit vulnerabilities.
How then does a security manager provide confidentiality, integrity
and availability in an increasingly complex technological ecosystem?
How do we keep the bad guys out in a "least identity"
world? Perhaps security needs to be viewed not as a wall but rather
a skin around each intelligent appliance. Get the paper as a HTML,
PDF
or RTF.
Best Practices Made Simple
Best Practices has become the buzzword for organizations
but it stands on a strong footing of Quality Management that uses
standardization practices to improve both efficiency and quality.
Starting a Best Practices process takes work but most of what is
required is just common sense. Starting small allows you a low risk
path to becoming comfortable with the methodology. Get the paper
as a HTML,
PDF
or RTF.
Applying Complexity
Theory to Change Management
Complexity Theory is considered the realm of ivory tower researchers
yet some of the more powerful results are easy to understand and apply. Change management is
written about endlessly yet change often surprises and defeats some of the most carefully
managed teams. What complexity theory adds is the realization that change management success
is dependant on the how close the system is to its optimum complexity point. Critical to
successfully managing change is a flexible leadership style that applies an appropriate level of
administrative control and balances the 3 R's of risk, reward and rate. Get the paper
as a HTML,
PDF
or RTF.
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My Help
Desk Has Nothing to Do
Help Desks are effective at providing a consistent and
measurable way to provide support to your business. Unfortunately
staffing a Help Desk is an extremely difficult HR problem and businesses
rarely consider this when they design their Help Desks. The result
is high turnover and inefficient use of Help Desk staff.
Putting the User
in the Middle of the Development Process
Users are a nuisance, they do not know what they want,
they do not appreciate what they have, and worse they do not appreciate
all the late nights, blood, sweat and tears of the development staff.
Yet 80% of all development projects fail in some way because of
missed timelines, budgets or functionality - as many as 60% end
up completely unusable. As annoying as the users are, their participation
is absolutely critical to the success of the project.
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Investing 101