RE: Down and outsourcing (July 30, 2001)
I enjoyed your article “down and outsourced” but couldn’t help but wonder if you haven’t gone over the edge.
Skepticism good. Cynicism bad. Your writing in this article appears somewhat cynical. Did some consulting firm screw you somehow? You almost sound like an embittered victim.
Ruts get deeper if you stay in them.
Mark Varley
Axois Consulting Group
RE: My first virus (July 26, 2001)
Your company must not have a very efficient IT team. Announcing over the loud speaker for all users to be wary of unknown emails is a ridiculous way to protect the company. I understand why you would want to hide the problem from your IT people.
For my company, I have set up Norton Anti-virus Enterprise. This means there is a central Norton server and everyone else has client software on their machines. Every couple of days I update the server with the latest virus fighting definitions and they are automatically dispersed to every computer in the company – without disruption, or the user ever even knowing it’s happening.
Chris
RE: My first virus (July 26, 2001)
It sounds like your previous employer let the IT guys run the company. Unfortunately, many support-type groups within companies assume they have a more central role than they really do. They tend to forget they are supporting the people who actually make the money that makes it possible for everyone to come to work.
I think you actually did the right thing, and you really didn’t create as big as risk as you think. When in doubt, delete the message. My suspicion is that your worry comes more from having an IT group that tries to control rather than help. Your job, first and foremost, is to do the things that will make your company money. IT, finance, HR, etc. are all there to help you, not dictate what you can and cannot do.
A better IT group would take two measures with the customers: prevention and education.
Prevention is the installation and proper maintenance of virus detection and removal tools, and maintaining some control over what users can and cannot do on their machines and the network. That second part is the hardest part of the job: where does the line get drawn between the right/need to do something with a machine, server, network, etc. and the need to maintain security, integrity and reliability of the corporate infrastructure. Having been there, I prefer to err on the side of being more open and allowing a bit more privilege and putting some trust in the users.
The right preventative measures combined with knowledge reduce risk to the company and keep everyone more productive.
Geoff Kratz
Chief Technical Architect
EFA Software Services Ltd.
RE: My first virus (July 26, 2001)
A very interesting piece. I’m just finishing up a book on viruses (Viruses Revealed, with David Harley and Urs Gattiker) and they make this very point in the chapter on incident management.
Rob Slade
RE: Stuck between a rock and a hard drive (Aug. 2, 2001)
Thanks for the kind words in your editorial on Fujitsu Canada’s accomplishments in Canada. We are very proud of our success to date and believe our local presence and channel partnerships have made it possible. We will now be even more proactive in the areas of Enterprise and Mobile drive segments. In fact, our SCSI RPM Program has been successful in recruiting resellers and will continue with a key feature of direct RMA with next day drive turnaround. Only the 3.5-inch IDE drives will be phased out over the next quarter.
Irving Frydman
National Manager, Marketing Communications
Fujitsu Canada, Inc.
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