By:
On:
In: *Connecting the Dots Blog*, Regulatory Compliance

  A new study by the Ponemon Institute shows organizations that perform internal audits spent less per capita on compliance than those that didn’t perform internal audits. Larry Ponemon is chairman of the Ponemon Institute and he commented:  “I believe that the reason why internal audits reduce compliance cost is that they help prioritize the organization’s overall compliance efforts.  This leads to greater efficiency in managing the total compliance burden. In other words, companies that do not conduct audits appear to be less efficient in their ongoing program management of data protection and privacy efforts.” From my experiences and from lessons learned I agree thatRead More →

By:
On:
In: *Connecting the Dots Blog*, Campus Safety, School Safety

  Seems like ‘winning’ is a popular word these days thanks to all the TV and radio shows that have jumped on the Mr. Sheen train. But is Mr. Sheen really winning or is he really reaching out for ‘HELP’? With the White House Conference on Bullying Prevention coming up tomorrow, it seems like ‘HELPING’ is a better word of the day.  As White House Blog points out, thousands of kids, teens, and young adults are bullied every day.  And estimates are that nearly one-third of all school-aged children are bullied each year which is upwards of 13 million students.  How are communities and schoolsRead More →

By:
On:
In: *Connecting the Dots Blog*, School Safety

  Pictures are worth a thousand words.  Pictures tell stories.  So what does a picture tell about alarming trends in schools? Financial Funding is Decreasing and the ‘funding cliff is coming’… School Safety obligations and costs are increasing School Safety liabilities and costs are increasing Regulations and Federal Mandates (OCR Dear Colleague Letter) for schools are increasing Compliance costs are increasing Legal Defensibility responsibilities and costs are increasing Behavioral and mental health responsibilities and costs are increasing Bullying and Cyber Bullying related costs are increasing Suicide related costs are increasing   Funding is decreasing for many reasons and funding will continue to be an ongoingRead More →

By:
On:
In: *Connecting the Dots Blog*, Campus Safety, Incident Reporting, School Safety

  In response to the January 2011 shooting at a Nebraska high school that killed one school administrator and seriously injured another, Sen. Mark Christensen of Imperial has introduced LB 516.  The bill would allow security guards, administrators and teachers to carry a concealed handgun at Nebraska public and private schools, including colleges and universities. The policy would be optional and would require a two-thirds majority vote by a school’s governing body, like the school board.  In Texas, lawmakers are also preparing to give college students and professors the right to carry guns on campus Is allowing administrators and teachers to bring weapons into aRead More →

By:
On:
In: *Connecting the Dots Blog*, Information Privacy, Information Security, Regulatory Compliance

  I recently came across an interview on BankInfoSecurity entitled, “Banks Must Assume Customers Will Compromise Themselves”. In this interview, Tom Oscherwitz, chief privacy officer and vice president of government affairs for ID Analytics, discussed why online security measures are failing due to basic authentication techniques.  With the use of current social networking sites, such as Facebook, customers are often revealing all the information fraudsters need to figure out their log-in credentials. Many experts (and vendors) are recommending banks increase their security measures and implement expensive fraud detection technology solutions and measures.  Unfortunately this is merely reacting to a symptom rather than preventing the problem. Read More →

By:
On:
In: *Connecting the Dots Blog*, Campus Safety, School Safety

  In recognition of National School Counseling Week 2011, Awareity would like to help focus your attention on the vitally important and long-lasting contributions school counselors provide in our nation’s schools. School counselors can have a tremendous impact on students of all ages.  Counselors not only help students plan for the future, but also help students deal with the everyday struggles and stresses of being a classmate, friend, peer, child, sibling, etc. Students face escalating challenges with bullying, cyber bullying, violence, safety, truancy and many other stressors.  Did you know these stressors can cause as many as 160,000 students skip school every day because theyRead More →

By:
On:
In: *Connecting the Dots Blog*, Campus Safety, Regulatory Compliance

  I wrote a couple blogs in December 2010 about importance of solving bullying problems and about the importance of awareness, accountability and measurability in solving problems.  The underlying message in each of those 2010 blogs was to point out the need to SOLVE problems rather than just talking about what SHOULD be done. So in honor of Groundhog Day and the movie Groundhog Day, today is the perfect day to shed some light (or shade) on the dreaded “should all over yourself syndrome”. And for you Tony Robbins fans, you may have heard Tony tell us all to:  “Stop shoulding all over yourself”. SoRead More →

By:
On:
In: *Connecting the Dots Blog*, Campus Safety, Human Resources, Incident Reporting, Risk Management, School Safety

  Already in 2011, tragedies in Tucson and Omaha have reminded each of us about the consequences of missed opportunities involving red flags and warning signs.  Lives were lost and lives will be changed forever because of these and many other tragic incidents. We are now learning numerous red flags and warning signs existed involving the gunman in each tragedy, which has many people asking why these two tragedies were not prevented and how can we prevent future incidents like these from occurring? Some people are suggesting new gun control laws in Arizona or new laws that do not allow guns within 1000 feet ofRead More →

By:
On:
In: *Connecting the Dots Blog*, Uncategorized

  I went on a trip to South Korea of the holidays and had a fabulous time. The trip was great because I had never been to South Korea, so there were many “firsts” for me.  I also love Korean food and had some “really fresh” seafood too! I got to see a lot of South Korea via airplane from Seoul to Jeju Island where I ate a bunch of delicious hallabongs (small orange like citrus fruit grown only in Korea) and rode on my first bullet train from Daejeon back to Seoul….which was very cool and very fast. My top 5 observations about SouthRead More →

By:
On:
In: *Connecting the Dots Blog*, Incident Reporting, Legal, Regulatory Compliance, School Safety

  Under a law signed by Governor Patrick in May 2010, all Massachusetts schools had a December 31, 2010 deadline for filing comprehensive bullying prevention and intervention plans. On November 10, only 3 of the 394 school communities had responded.  On December 31, it was reported early in the day that 355 had submitted their plans, but right before the deadline, a flood of plans came in, resulting in 99 percent compliance (only six schools failed to meet the deadline). I believe 99% compliance is an outstanding result, however I do have a few questions: Were the plans submitted comprehensive? Did the schools take theRead More →