Monday, March 1, 2010
Security Breaches in the News - #1
The names, addresses, and Social Security numbers of about 3000 people employed by a handful of state businesses were on a password-protected flash drive stolen from a Florida Department of Revenue employee in Georgia. The people were current employees of six large corporations that are being audited by the state.
Trade show tomorrow!
National Records Management is doing a trade show tomorrow in conjunction with the St. Catharines Chamber of Commerce. Please call us at 905-563-0847 for more details.
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Total Satisfaction Guarantee
National Records Management is a company that values our relationships with our clients.
We are also committed to providing our clients with the highest level of knowledgeable and helpful service.
We are so confident, that if you are not happy with our service after 90 days, we will refund your storage charges and deliver your boxes to your local office. No questions asked except "why"?
We are also committed to providing our clients with the highest level of knowledgeable and helpful service.
We are so confident, that if you are not happy with our service after 90 days, we will refund your storage charges and deliver your boxes to your local office. No questions asked except "why"?
Friday, January 15, 2010
Twelve Tips for Business Continuity Management in a Recession
Managing business continuity (BC) during a recession can be difficult. Every day, headlines in the media remind of us the impact of the recession on business and personal activities. Concern about where this is headed inhibits both planning and confidence. But suppose your organization recently had a large fire, or a cable was damaged and you had no electricity for three days. Incidents that can threaten a business occur in any economic climate. Below are some tips to help you leverage business continuity as you deal with the recession.
1. Use a business continuity management activity, such as a risk assessment, vulnerability assessment, to identify potential problems and improve processes.
2. Consider promoting the fact that you have a BCM program, this could be an important competitive factor.
3. When other firms are considering your firm for work, emphasize that you have a plan (only give out the index for security reasons).
4. If a full scale BCM is not in the budget, do smaller sub-projects over time.
5. Use a standardized business continuity format.
6. Identify, evaluate, and prioritize exposures, such as single vendor dependency.
7. Review outsourced work to ensure it will not be adversely affected by disruptions.
8. Review your current staff to make sure they are trained and available to maintain business operations.
9. Discuss emergency financing options with your bank to ensure availability of funds in a disruption.
10. Review business insurance coverage to ensure that you have sufficient coverage for identified outages or disruptions.
11. Even if your budget prohibits you from developing a full scale Business Continuity Plan, make sure that what you do is consistent with one or more standards.
12. Partner with a local first responder and other public sector agencies to ensure adequate protection.
1. Use a business continuity management activity, such as a risk assessment, vulnerability assessment, to identify potential problems and improve processes.
2. Consider promoting the fact that you have a BCM program, this could be an important competitive factor.
3. When other firms are considering your firm for work, emphasize that you have a plan (only give out the index for security reasons).
4. If a full scale BCM is not in the budget, do smaller sub-projects over time.
5. Use a standardized business continuity format.
6. Identify, evaluate, and prioritize exposures, such as single vendor dependency.
7. Review outsourced work to ensure it will not be adversely affected by disruptions.
8. Review your current staff to make sure they are trained and available to maintain business operations.
9. Discuss emergency financing options with your bank to ensure availability of funds in a disruption.
10. Review business insurance coverage to ensure that you have sufficient coverage for identified outages or disruptions.
11. Even if your budget prohibits you from developing a full scale Business Continuity Plan, make sure that what you do is consistent with one or more standards.
12. Partner with a local first responder and other public sector agencies to ensure adequate protection.
Monday, December 21, 2009
County native who worked for Perzel charged in probe
A Lancaster County native who once worked as a top aide to Rep. John Perzel is among 10 people charged in the wide-ranging probe of corruption at the state Legislature.
John R. Zimmerman, a 1965 Garden Spot High School graduate is accused of obstructing agents from the Attorney General's office as they sought evidence from a Capitol storage room in February 2008.
Attorney General Tom Corbett, speaking at a news conference Thursday, expressed frustration that Perzel aides allegedly tried to cover up an illegal scheme in which more than $10 million in taxpayer money was spent to help win political campaigns.
"You're interfering with justice; you're interfering with people finding out what truly happened," Corbett said.
Zimmerman, 61, formerly of New Holland, could not immediately be reached for comment. The Hummelstown resident did not return an e-mail message or telephone messages at his home or office Friday.
Zimmerman now works as the open records officer for the House Republican Caucus. Corbett said the obstruction charges against him stem from subpoenas issues by a grand jury investigating the alleged misuse of public resources and employees for campaign purposes.
The subpoenas, served on the House Republican Caucus on Feb. 26, 2008, sought "any and all evidence of campaign work" and listed a number of employees who may have performed the campaign work.
Two days later, a legislative employee told investigators that boxes containing campaign materials were being removed from a basement assigned to Perzel in the Capitol complex.
The next day, the grand jury issued a subpoena ordering the immediate production of any and all documents or materials removed from the storage room on Feb. 26 or during the prior 60 days. It also ordered the disclosure of any and all materials removed from the room.
On the evening of Feb. 29, an agent and a prosecutor from the attorney general's Public Corruption Unit went to the Capitol complex to inspect numerous boxes that reportedly had been removed from the storage room.
They were escorted by Capitol security officers, attorneys for the Republican Caucus and Perzel staffers Zimmerman and Paul Towhey.
When questions that evening, Zimmerman and Towhey denied any knowledge of boxes containing campaign material being removed from the storage room, Corbett said.
A subsequent investigation found that the boxes containing evidence of campaign work performed by public employees had in fact been removed from the storage room on or before Feb. 26, Corbett said Thursday.
Testimony of caucus messengers corroborated by Capitol security video footage confirmed that two cartloads of boxes were transferred from the storage room to Perzel's office suite in the main Capitol building, he said.
Corbett said the grand jury found that prior to Feb. 29 Perzel's secretary had twice gone to the storage room and examined the materials and told Towhey, who was then Perzel's chief of staff, of the existence of campaign materials.
Towhey, Corbett said, ordered her to have the materials transferred to Perzel's office suite and then to move the campaign materials and evidence of campaign work out of Perzel's suite to the House Republican Campaign Committee offices, located across the street from the Capitol complex.
The grand jury examined Towhey's phone records for the week of Feb. 25 during the times pertinent to the alleged hiding of the campaign materials. Corbett said they indicated that he was in frequent telephone contact with Perzel and Zimmerman during that time.
According to newspaper records, Zimmerman is a retired captain with the U.S. Marine Band who helped plan presidential inaugurals for Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan and supervised inauguration ceremonies for former Gov. Tom Ridge.
Zimmerman is charged with hindering apprehension or prosecution and obstructing administration of law or other governmental function.
John R. Zimmerman, a 1965 Garden Spot High School graduate is accused of obstructing agents from the Attorney General's office as they sought evidence from a Capitol storage room in February 2008.
Attorney General Tom Corbett, speaking at a news conference Thursday, expressed frustration that Perzel aides allegedly tried to cover up an illegal scheme in which more than $10 million in taxpayer money was spent to help win political campaigns.
"You're interfering with justice; you're interfering with people finding out what truly happened," Corbett said.
Zimmerman, 61, formerly of New Holland, could not immediately be reached for comment. The Hummelstown resident did not return an e-mail message or telephone messages at his home or office Friday.
Zimmerman now works as the open records officer for the House Republican Caucus. Corbett said the obstruction charges against him stem from subpoenas issues by a grand jury investigating the alleged misuse of public resources and employees for campaign purposes.
The subpoenas, served on the House Republican Caucus on Feb. 26, 2008, sought "any and all evidence of campaign work" and listed a number of employees who may have performed the campaign work.
Two days later, a legislative employee told investigators that boxes containing campaign materials were being removed from a basement assigned to Perzel in the Capitol complex.
The next day, the grand jury issued a subpoena ordering the immediate production of any and all documents or materials removed from the storage room on Feb. 26 or during the prior 60 days. It also ordered the disclosure of any and all materials removed from the room.
On the evening of Feb. 29, an agent and a prosecutor from the attorney general's Public Corruption Unit went to the Capitol complex to inspect numerous boxes that reportedly had been removed from the storage room.
They were escorted by Capitol security officers, attorneys for the Republican Caucus and Perzel staffers Zimmerman and Paul Towhey.
When questions that evening, Zimmerman and Towhey denied any knowledge of boxes containing campaign material being removed from the storage room, Corbett said.
A subsequent investigation found that the boxes containing evidence of campaign work performed by public employees had in fact been removed from the storage room on or before Feb. 26, Corbett said Thursday.
Testimony of caucus messengers corroborated by Capitol security video footage confirmed that two cartloads of boxes were transferred from the storage room to Perzel's office suite in the main Capitol building, he said.
Corbett said the grand jury found that prior to Feb. 29 Perzel's secretary had twice gone to the storage room and examined the materials and told Towhey, who was then Perzel's chief of staff, of the existence of campaign materials.
Towhey, Corbett said, ordered her to have the materials transferred to Perzel's office suite and then to move the campaign materials and evidence of campaign work out of Perzel's suite to the House Republican Campaign Committee offices, located across the street from the Capitol complex.
The grand jury examined Towhey's phone records for the week of Feb. 25 during the times pertinent to the alleged hiding of the campaign materials. Corbett said they indicated that he was in frequent telephone contact with Perzel and Zimmerman during that time.
According to newspaper records, Zimmerman is a retired captain with the U.S. Marine Band who helped plan presidential inaugurals for Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan and supervised inauguration ceremonies for former Gov. Tom Ridge.
Zimmerman is charged with hindering apprehension or prosecution and obstructing administration of law or other governmental function.
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Question
My company collects credit applications from customers. The form requires them to give us lots of financial information. Once we're finished with the application, we're careful to throw them away. Is that sufficient?
NO. Have a policy in place to ensure that sensitive paperwork is unreadable before you throw it away. Burn it, shred it, or pulverize it to make sure identity thieves can't steal it from your trash.
NO. Have a policy in place to ensure that sensitive paperwork is unreadable before you throw it away. Burn it, shred it, or pulverize it to make sure identity thieves can't steal it from your trash.
Sunday, November 8, 2009
What Are Records?
What are records?
Records are the evidence of what the organization does. They capture its business activities and transactions, such as contract negotiations, business correspondence, personnel files, and financial statements, just to name a few.
Records come in many formats:
- physical paper in our files
- electronic messages
- content on the website, as well as documents residing on PDA's, flash drives, desktops, servers
- information captured on various databases
When there's a lawsuit, all of these, including copies that individuals have retained or deleted, may be identified as a discoverable.
Records are the evidence of what the organization does. They capture its business activities and transactions, such as contract negotiations, business correspondence, personnel files, and financial statements, just to name a few.
Records come in many formats:
- physical paper in our files
- electronic messages
- content on the website, as well as documents residing on PDA's, flash drives, desktops, servers
- information captured on various databases
When there's a lawsuit, all of these, including copies that individuals have retained or deleted, may be identified as a discoverable.
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