As threats proliferate, here are five areas where companies need to strengthen and update their policies and practices. It’s particularly galling when a company specializing in security issues gets monumentally hacked. That was the case for Stratfor, which suffered a massive data breach just before the holidays that exposed thousands of client names, e-mail addresses and credit card numbers. Adding insult to injury, hacktivist group Anonymous revealed on Twitter that it was able to get at … Read entire article »

Spurred by enthusiastic senior executives and rank-and-file employees, companies are starting to roll out iPads in the enterprise, especially for board meetings and sales staff. New security features from Apple and additional security and management tools from third-party vendors are boosting that effort, but companies are wary of employees’ using their own iPads and putting sensitive customer data on the devices. Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer noted that “employee demand for iPad in the corporate environment remains … Read entire article »

Enterprise software helps set rules for virtual worlds Consumer-friendly technologies like Web-based e-mail and instant messaging, Twitter and Facebook have all brought compliance challenges, with companies typically reacting after something has gone wrong. With virtual environments and meetings, however, companies can get ahead of the trend, setting guidelines and preferred platforms before employees start adopting their own. Enterprise-class platforms like Teleplace and ProtoSphere allow companies to control when new users … Read entire article »

Changes to revenue recognition rules may be beneficial but will lead to accounting headaches that new software can relieve. Last September, regulators issued new revenue recognition rules that allow companies to book product and service sales separately—a boost for the balance sheet, but a big accounting hassle. Prior to the new rules, effective 1Q of fiscal 2011, if a company sold a product bundled with a service contract, the revenue was allocated … Read entire article »

Securing corporate IT systems is crucial, but there are ways to make that effort more productive and less costly. Companies have spent years beefing up their information technology governance, risk and compliance systems.  With cutting costs now top of mind in corporate America, here are six ways to make IT GRC systems more productive and less costly. 1. Automate access controls. Today, most companies use a manual process to add users to … Read entire article »