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

  A recent investigation of anti-bullying efforts in Minnesota schools revealed a major weakness across local school districts.  Most schools are not tracking bullying incidents…which makes it almost impossible to gauge the effectiveness of their bullying prevention and intervention efforts. So just how important (and expensive) is it when schools do not track and document bullying incidents? One of the major gaps we have seen when incidents are not documented is a failure to connect the dots and allow at-risk students and individuals to fall through the cracks. For example, Let’s take a look at the following scenario…student Bobby Jones is bullying other students inRead More →

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In: *Connecting the Dots Blog*, School Safety

  May 17, 2011 is National Cyber Awareness day, as well as the release day for The Parent’s Guide to Texting, Facebook, and Social Media: Understanding the Benefits and Dangers of Parenting in a Digital World.  Awareity is proud to be a supporting launch partner for this excellent resource for parents. Has your child ever been the victim of cyberbullying? If not, the odds are pretty high that one day he or she will be. The sad fact is 50% of teens admit to being bullied online or by text message. Today’s youth are falling victim to the perils of social media and cell phone messaging.Read More →

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

  A review of security practices and investments at 46 global organizations finds that compliance with industry security standards actually saves money over the long-term.   A recent Ponemon Study revealed that companies that consistently comply with security requirements and standards save three times more in security-related expenses annually than non-compliant companies. Lessons Learned: Compliance does not equal security, but security can benefit from compliance.  Organizations investing in comprehensive compliance programs are better prepared to prevent expensive breaches, lawsuits, fines, etc. and save money and resources over time.Read More →

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In: *Connecting the Dots Blog*, Financial, Human Resources, Information Privacy, Information Security, Regulatory Compliance, Risk Management

  Recent attacks continue to show that spear phishing is quickly emerging as one of the society’s greatest threats.  Technology alone is NOT going to solve this problem.  It is critical for consumers to be more vigilant and aware of what they are clicking on, sites they are visiting, e-mails they are responding to, etc. Lessons Learned:  Financial insitutions should make consumer education a higher priority.  Awareness training, handouts, seminars, etc. can be a great way for organizations to connect with their customers, improve trust, enhance reputations and help prevent potential incidents, breaches, lawsuits, etc. down the road.  Security awareness training and education can become aRead More →

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In: *Connecting the Dots Blog*, Business Continuity, Financial, Information Privacy

  OCEG recently announced poll results from a One Minute Poll about Policy Management.  In their poll, 429 members replied to the following question: How do you primarily manage lifecycle of internal policies, procedures and guidelines? 32% use an internally developed database or intranet system 24% have no formal structure 18% use file folders or centralized network drive 14% use document or policy management software  8% track changes in Word  4% use other methods   Lessons learned:  Bad guys already know what the results from this poll clearly reveal…People are an organization’s weakest links.  As long as 86% or more of organizations continue to useRead More →

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In: *Connecting the Dots Blog*, Health Care

  Check out this recent overview of 10 of the largest data breaches from 2010 resulting in the loss of millions of data records. Lessons Learned: Is your organization providing ongoing situational awareness training?  People are the weak link for the majority of data breaches which are caused by human error, lost devices, social engineering attacks and numerous other poor decisions.  It is critical for organizations to educate their employees (and third-parties) ongoing as risks, threats, requirements, and ’next’ practices are constantly changing.  Lessons learned clearly reveal that once-a-year general training is not enough.Read More →

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In: *Connecting the Dots Blog*, Human Resources, Regulatory Compliance

  OCEG recently announced poll results from a One Minute Poll about Policy Management.  In their poll, 429 members replied to the following question: How do you primarily manage lifecycle of internal policies, procedures and guidelines? 32% use an internally developed database or intranet system 24% have no formal structure 18% use file folders or centralized network drive 14% use document or policy management software  8% track changes in Word  4% use other methods   Lessons learned:  Bad guys already know what the results from this poll clearly reveal…People are an organization’s weakest links.  As long as 86% or more of organizations continue to useRead More →

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In: *Connecting the Dots Blog*, Uncategorized

  How important are platforms? What if you had a great football coach, but no platform (fields, training rooms, etc.) to bring it all together? What if you had a great cast and a great play, but no platform (stage, props, etc.) for performances? What if you had some great software, but no platform (PCs, servers, etc.) to use it on? Most organizations would tell you their people are their greatest assets, but many organizations do not have a platform that empowers people to come together, keep up with constant changes and achieve better results. With regards to people, lessons learned reveal the following: PeopleRead More →

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In: *Connecting the Dots Blog*, Incident Reporting, Workplace Violence

  The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services needs to improve the way its staff and contractor staff process complaints from its waste, fraud and abuse hotline.  Long timeframes and inefficient processes have delayed starting work on many complaints.  On average, more than five months passed between CMS receiving complaints from OIG and contractors beginning work on them. Lessons Learned: It is critical for government agencies and all organizations to improve responses to tips and hotline complaints.   Not only are five months of inaction un-excusable, but  employees aware of this timeframe will no longer trust and will no longer report incidents to hotlines that doRead More →

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In: *Connecting the Dots Blog*, Government, Human Resources, Workplace Violence

  The Ethics Resource Center’s (ERC) recent survey revealed that 40% of employees observing misconduct do not step forward to report it out of fear of retaliation, mistrust or feel their reports will be ignored. Lessons Learned: Organizations must develop secure, anonymous and/or confidential reporting solutions to empower all employees (and third-parties) to report suspicious incidents, violence, fraud, misconduct, ethical violations, etc.  And once an incident has been reported, all appropriate personnel (ethics, legal, management, compliance, safety, law enforcement, etc) should be immediately and automatically notified to ensure a timely response and ensure red flags do not fall through the cracks. Based on other surveysRead More →