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Saturday, October 04, 2003No email use the phone
 Phones 4u bans not just personal email but any internal email, on the basis that employees are spending up to 3 hours a day dealing with it. Not doing so is predicted to save around £12m a year. Phones 4u are part of the highly successful telecommunications company, The Caudwell Group. Founded in 1986 by John Caudwell, the company operates in 5 countries employing over 3000 people worldwide. We wonder if this is really just a sign of bad management, and the company is further compounding it by banning what most of us regard as a indispensable tool. Max Nathan et al over at the iSociety part of the Work Foundation have a good few things to say about such things. There are plenty of tools to support the management of email and indeed IT generally in the workplace, for example email firewalls, and email archiving systems to get to grips on the inbox overload. Perhaps Phones 4u should look to deploy some of these, equally we suggest the company employs a good management consultant too. Related Links Easing the burden, Guardian Online article by Jim McClellan Phones 4u Birmingham City to gag staff The Work Foundation : iSociety posted by Robert Campbell 7:38 PM Watch what you say
 The need for Email Archiving is become more obvious and its not just restricted to regulated industries but in a more general sense it could protect you and your company from litigation. According to some reports the gossip mongers in cyberspace speculating on the professional footballers in the alleged rape case are at risk of being taken to court for defamation. Indeed it seems one such individual has already been so warned and has been suspended from work. ecommnet has some strong views on email archiving and have recently published a list of Compelling reasons to choose Mailstore rather than KVS's Enterprise Vault or EDUCOM's EAS for your email archiving requirements Mailstore is the only email archiving solution that natively supports digital signing and encryption of the archive, producing a truly tamper proof archive. Others such as KVS's Enterprise Vault rely heavily on EMC's Centera storage solution. KVS's reliance upon EMC for much of it's so called compliance is somewhat suspect too as EMC recently bought Legato and along with it acquired their own archival product, Legato EX which itself acquired last year from OTG. KVS make a big play on their relationship with EMC but in reality they are just another reseller. Legato's EX also suffers from all the same issues as Enterprise Vault and EAS, in that it does not address the real issues of audit and security. Related Links Compelling reasons to choose Mailstore rather than KVS's Enterprise Vault or EDUCOM's EAS for your email archiving requirements What Is EMC Up to by Buying Legato? Sarbanes-Oxley legislation Email rape gossip could land companies in the dock Football 'rape' case prompts net debate posted by Robert Campbell 6:39 PM Friday, October 03, 2003Disability Discrimination Act
 The Disability Discrimination Act is in the news again this week as the 1st of October is a landmark point in the phase implementation of the act. In 12 months time the act will effectively come into full force and the small company exemptions will be removed. While the recent news articles and Radio4's Today Program interview today concentrated largely on the physical issues of access there are other equally important measures companies must undertake.ecommnet is committed to providing accessible web sites and to encourage others to conform to W3C WAI Guidelines. The UK's Government Minister for Disabled People was interviewed by the BBC and warned companies to 'wise up' and face up to their responsibilities or face the prospect of court action, in this litigious age we think that's sound advice. Related Links ecommnet's accessibility statement Govt Disability web site at Dept. Work and Pensions Disability Rights Commission web site The Disability Discrimination Act posted by Robert Campbell 9:02 AM Thursday, October 02, 2003Canada Customs and Revenue Agency Stolen Laptop Computers
 Canada Customs and Revenue Agency. A recent theft of four computers from the Canadian Customs and Revenue Agency (CCRA) led to massive costs for the organisation. Concerns over potential misuse of the data lost in the incident meant that the CCRA had to send 120,000 letters to people potentially affected. They also have had to invest heavily to upgrade the security arrangements all across Canada. While the information stolen along with the laptops did not contain any personal tax data it did have details of subcontractors including some social security details of employees. In other words all the information necessary for identity theft, just what a terrorist might need to obtain a false passport; a credit card...Identity theft is becoming an increasing problem in North America and Europe with over 42,000 incidents in the UK last year alone. For more details on identity theft visit The US Federal Trade Commisions ID Theft Site At ecommnet we have a variety of laptop and mobile security products which can eliminate the risk associated with identity theft. For more information visit our laptop and mobile security page or why not attend our upcoming Mobile Security seminar in Soho Square, London on 19th November 2003. Related Links Computer Weekly's article Crackdown on identity theft an article from the BBC Thumb prints halve petrol theft Peterborough retailers take drastic measures. posted by Doug 9:50 PM Tuesday, September 30, 2003Eastern Flight Misses The Runway
 Further to my article earlier on in the week regarding web sites that fail to deliver, and David Bowen's article in the FT.com, I have another personal  example, Eastern Airways web site. Eastern's web site allows one to select a flight, departure, destination, times and dates, enter one's detailed personal and credit card details and then......it tells you the flight you have selected is not available. It does not tell you what has happened to your credit card details, or if the card has or hasn't been charged. It stark message is "We regret that the fare category quoted is no longer available...Please reselect ". That's it, no options, no comforting message that your card has not been charged not even a link to take you back to the form and preserve those key details that you have just spent the last 10 mins entering ....... nothing! Actually it's worse now that I come to think of it, as the selection form / process I completed allowed them to choose the fare category as I had selected 'lowest available'. If the £180 fare was not available, then why offer it and let me complete the buy on line process! why not just offer up the £290 fare that was! Related Links David Bowen: Keep it flowing posted by Robert Campbell 4:08 PM
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