Security and Privacy - the non software part March 12, 2006
Posted by in : ZENworks , 1 comment so far-
Here is an interesting social experiment - can you resist not looking at a presentation being written on someone elses laptop screen?
Thought not; it’s human nature!
If I then asked you to list your top actions within the IT department for handling the barrage of regulations and laws that cover personal data and information - I’d not be surprised if you included a lot of Novell’s award winning solutions.
Novell Identity Manager, Secure Login, ZENworks, Novell iChain - and many others - play a vital part in securing data and workstations wherever your employees happen to be.
One thing that many people forget is that laptop users often work in public places. As an example I am writing this blog post at San Francisco International Airport. I’ve also been using my laptop on a flight in from London Heathrow this morning. On my flight across I saw presentations being written for many different industries - including those for Novell competitors and partners! One person on the flight was even writing annual performance reviews.
Not so good eh?
Written at: SFO, San Francisco, CA
The issue becomes more critical when you consider the privacy implications of HIPAA, Gramm-Leach-Bliley, Data Protection Legislation - and others.
I saw about a dozen people using laptops - and not one person thought to consider the audience around them. [As a side note: I’ve not been working on confidential information on flights for about two years now for this very reason]
Several vendors make security screens - 3M have an advertising campaign right now - but there are many others available.
The moral of this story? Consider the ‘non technology’ aspects of a data security policy too!
Share your own best practices here; let me know your horror stories too.
Written at: SFO, San Francisco, CA
Edinburgh, Delays, Snow
Posted by evilzenscientist in : evilzenscientist, travel , 1 comment so far
I was due to travel from Edinburgh to London Heathrow this morning on the 6.30am flight - scheduled to arrive at London Heathrow at 8.00am
I heard from the people in the Novell Scotland office and a few others that heavy snow was forecast; I decided to travel down from Scotland early - “Just in case”.
Smart planning. Edinburgh Airport was closed for several hours this morning; flights started leaving at 9.30am. My scheduled flight arrived at London Heathrow at 11.30am - much later than my connecting flight to San Francisco.
Phew! I may have had a hectic Saturday travelling down to London - but at least I made my flight and I’ll be back home tonight.
Posted at: San Francisco International Airport, San Francisco, CA
Stalkers?
Posted by evilzenscientist in : Novell, Novell BrainShare, ZENworks, evilzenscientist, fun stuff , add a comment
Mark Schouls sent me a link to this Tshirt site; I don’t know whether to be worried by this…
Someone in Germany (or maybe Austria/Switzerland) is either surprisingly supportive of the Evil ZEN Scientist concept.. or I have a doppelganger. (I hope it’s not a stalker!)
Reminds me of my good friend Jerry Chadwick - who used to be the engineering manager for Novell Application Launcher. He had ‘NAL groupies’ who would follow him around at BrainShare - even into the restroom. 
Written at: London Heathrow Airport, England
