Information Management Journal articles from January 2009

Information Management Journal archives from January 2009

Here's to a prosperous New Year!(IN FOCUS: A Message from the Editors)(Editorial)
January 1, 2009... Entering 2009, organizations are facing tremendous economic challenges, including staff and budget cutbacks and tighter competition. Coupled with increasing regulations and litigation, these challenges make records and information management...

IT executives still resist e-mail archiving.(E-MAIL)
January 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Despite the risks to their businesses, some IT professionals are still not taking e-mail archiving requirements seriously, according to a recent survey by Osterman Research. The September 2008 survey...

Obama presidency will be 'wired'.(WEB)
January 1, 2009... His campaign for president used the Internet in ground-breaking fashion and, according to President-Elect Baraek Obama's aides, his presidency will be the first truly "wired" one. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] During his almost two-year-long...

State Dept. staff snoop in passport records.(PRIVACY)(Lawrence Yontz)(Brief article)
January 1, 2009... A former U.S. Department of State employee has pleaded guilty to illegally accessing the confidential passport records of hundreds of celebrities, politicians, and other public figures, according to ComputerWorld. Lawrence Yontz, 48, of...

Mass. passes tough data security law.(DATA SECURITY)
January 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Massachusetts has passed stringent data privacy and security regulations that may influence the practices and policies of companies nationwide. As of January 1, Massachusetts requires businesses that collect...

Top-secret files sold with camera.(DATA SECURITY)(Brief article)
January 1, 2009... The winning bidder on a camera sold through online auction site eBay got more than he paid for. The camera, purchased for only 17 [pounds sterling] ($25), contained top-secret documents along with photos and fingerprints of well known...

Chinese hackers crack White House network.(DATA SECURITY)(Brief article)
January 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] According to U.S. officials, Chinese hackers have cracked the White Houses e-mail archives multiple times. The Financial Times reported that the raids are suspected by U.S. government cyber experts to have been...

Good compliance cuts legal costs.(COMPLIANCE)
January 1, 2009... "When it comes to how, much a company spends on legal expenses, its not the company's size that matters, but rather the practices and policies it has in place for compliance. A recent survey of 235 U.S. firms by the IT Policy Compliance...

Patient IDs would improve healthcare.(INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY)(patient identification number )
January 1, 2009... Creating a unique patient identification number for every person in the United States would help reduce medical errors, simplify the use of electronic medical records, increase overall efficiency, and protect patient privacy, according to a...

U.S. agencies work toward digitization guidelines.(ARCHIVES)(Brief article)
January 1, 2009... The Library of Congress (LOC) is joining a dozen federal agencies to establish a common set of guidelines for digitizing historical materials. The Federal Agencies Digitization Guidelines Initiative will address a variety of issues related to...

NARA joins World Digital Library.(National Archives and Records Administration)(Brief article)
January 1, 2009... Archivist of the United States Allen Weinstein and Librarian of Congress James H. Billington announced that the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) has become a founding partner in the World Digital Library (WDL). NARA will...

Lawyers: e-discovery drives up court costs.(E-DISCOVERY)(Survey)
January 1, 2009... Lawyers say electronic discovery is driving up litigation costs--so much so that, in some instances, the cost of getting information is much higher than what the case itself is worth. According to a report by the American College of Trial...

UK wants "black boxes" to record citizens' Internet use.(United Kingdom)
January 1, 2009... The United Kingdom is considering a plan to monitor Internet traffic, including every e-mail sent by UK citizens. As part of the plan, raw data on every phone call, Internet hit, and e-mail sent and received in the United Kingdom would be...

Historic records saved from scrap pile.(International Business Machines Corp.)(Brief article)
January 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] More than 7,000 documents dating back to British Columbia's time as a British colony were almost lost forever. Copies of the historic records had been digitally copied at the University of Victoria during the...

NASCIO Awards Outstanding State IT projects.(National Association of State Chief Information Officers )
January 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) has announced the 2008 Recognition Awards for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Information Technology in State Government. NASCIO's...

Federal CIOs announce new committee.(chief information officers)(Brief article)
January 1, 2009... The Federal Chief Information Officers Council (Federal CIO Council) introduced a new committee--the Security and Identity Management Committee (SIMC)--to address the continuing critical need for improvement and coordination for a secure,...

Most data breaches involve paper.(DATA SECURITY)
January 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] If current headlines are to be believed, data breaches involving electronic devices occur with mind-numbing frequency. Stories about missing laptops and stolen passwords appear daily, yet a recent study debunks the...

SEC fines financial firm $275,000.(United States. Securities and Exchange Commission)(Brief article)
January 1, 2009... The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said LPL Financial has agreed to pay a $275,000 penalty for violating customers' privacy. LPL, which has more than one million customer accounts, agreed to pay the fine but did not admit to or deny...

NARA records center set for St. Louis.(National Archives and Records Administration)
January 1, 2009... The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), working through the General Services Administration (GSA), said it will lease a new built-to-suit facility in St. Louis, Missouri. The new facility will replace the 1950s-era Military...

Australian doctors must turn over patient records.(PRIVACY)(Brief article)
January 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In Australia, doctors will have to turn over private patient records to auditors as part of a government crackdown on doctors who overcharge Medicare for their services. The measure is part of a new policy to...

Nevada mandates e-data encryption.(DATA SECURITY)(Brief article)
January 1, 2009... The state of Nevada is the first in the United States to pass a law requiring that businesses encrypt all personal customer information sent electronically. The law, which took effect October 1, 2008, defines personal information as first...

Xerox offers self-erasing paper.(INFO TECHNOLOGY)(Xerox Corp.)(Brief article)
January 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Xerox has introduced self-erasing paper, which it said works like normal inkjet paper except that the text disappears 16 to 24 hours after printing. It says businesses can save money with the paper because...

A walk in the cloud: Internet- or "cloud"-based tools, are making their way--sanctioned or not--into more and more workplaces. Two records management experts suggest how organizations can leverage their benefits while mitigating their risks.
January 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Perhaps no technology buzzword has engendered as much discussion in records management circles as Web 2.0. It's been hailed as everything from the solution to all of our information management problems to the death...

Web 2.0: benefits & considerations.
January 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Organizations will move faster or slower to Web 2.0 depending on their regulatory environment and tolerance for risk. But they are moving toward the technology--for a number of reasons. 1. Tools are simple to...

Web 2.0: issues & risks.
January 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Organizations are moving to the cloud, some faster than others. However, moving to the cloud presents the enterprise with a number of risks to assess. Depending upon an organization's risk appetite, these risks may...

Selecting the right tools for records management: SharePoint is popular as a collaboration tool, but is it robust enough for managing records enterprise-wide?
January 1, 2009... Microsoft's SharePoint is becoming ubiquitous. If it isn't in your organization yet, it most likely will be soon. There are several beneficial reasons for this from an infrastructure and architecture standpoint. But, as a records and...

Will red flags detour ID theft? The new "red flag" rules under the U.S. Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA) going into effect May 1 require U.S. banks and creditors to implement a program to identify, mitigate, and prevent potential consumer identity theft.(PRIVACY)
January 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] According to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC), consumers lose an estimated $50 billion annually to identity theft and recovery expenses. During 2007, the FTC received 813,899 consumer fraud and identity theft...

Writing for professional development and for the profession: the RIM field needs its professionals to write and contribute to the field's knowledge, but many do not do so because they are not aware of many basic, helpful tools available to them.(CAREER PATH)
January 1, 2009... Records and information management (RIM) practitioners often strenuously argue for the need for good, practical publications to aid their work. Although the major RIM professional associations all feature energetic publication programs, there...

Making the most of your historical assets: re-evaluating archival records and their place in history can open the door to new awareness, promotion, and publicity for any organization.(ARCHIVES)
January 1, 2009... Whether in a private, public, or government setting, all information professionals interact with their institution's history on a daily basis. Positive or negative, those legacies are vital to the future of any organization. Research projects...

Rethinking records management for the Web 2.0 world.(Managing the Crowd: Rethinking Records Management for the Web 2.0 World)(Book review)
January 1, 2009... Managing the Crowd: Rethinking Records Management for the Web 2.0 World Author: Steve Bailey Publisher: Facet Publishing, London Publication Date: 2008 Length: 172 pages Price: $115 ISBN: 978-1-85604-641-1 ...