[BC] IT troubles

[Rich Wood]

------ At 09:02 PM 1/9/2008, Mike McCarthy wrote: -------

>You know....those who don't have anything thing to hide or worry 
>about revealing, have nothing to fear.  If you mind your business 
>and don't go playing around or discussing sensitive matters, then 
>there isn't much to worry about.

I wish you had phrased it differently. Many of us are very tired of 
the "if you're not guilty, you have nothing to fear" assumption. It's 
the standard justification for stripping privacy. How many people 
with "nothing to fear" are have had to spend a fortune on lawyers to prove it.

I worked for a company where everyone was sure their offices were 
bugged, along with phones and Internet use. We would use our own cell 
phones (not those issued by the company) and made sure there was a 
radio playing when we had to discuss private personnel issues.

As a Senior Vice President I had access to the security monitoring 
department. One high level executive was fired and the company kept 
his laptop under the guise that he had sensitive information on it. 
The laptop only had Internet access and was not connected to the 
internal network.

>OTOH, for executives who deal in strategic matters where "eyes only" 
>security is important, this can be a rather severe security leak 
>risk if the wrong people have access to or monitor the messages as 
>they come and go.

It's always amazed me that corporate executive offices are locket 
tighter than a drum. The only people who have access beyond the 
occupant is the cleaning crew. The people with the least loyalty to 
the company have the greatest access. Many executive don't think much 
about it and are lax in locking up sensitive information.

In this case, there should be no laptops. How often have we read 
about government people taking very sensitive information home and 
had their laptops stolen?

In the case of email one should consider it as secure as a snail mail postcard.

Rich