I’m still processing a lot of the information gathered, shared, and created during our 8^th RIM Renaissance this past weekend in Minneapolis. One of our sessions focused on the creation of an information governance “treaty” that holds various organizational members to a high standard (consistent with our RIM principles). Please review the following draft document and let me know what you think.

I want to share an article with you that I think has a tremendous lesson for anyone in the business of building trust.  The article is from a recent edition of Foreign Policy (reprinted from Joint Force Quarterly), but don't let the source put you off.  Admiral Michael G. Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, writes about what it takes to establish credibility and build trust.

Admiral Mullen's perspective is different from yours and mine, but there are nuggets here that are vital no matter what your business.

Today we held a RIM College event featuring three noted experts in corporate privacy training programs -- namely, Dean Forbes (Merck), Bob Posch (Merck) and John Block (Media Pro).  Our focus is: what are leading companies doing to achieve awareness and knowledge about privacy and data protection requirements?

We are pleased to present The State of Privacy and Data Security Compliance study conducted by Ponemon Institute and sponsored by Sophos. The purpose of the study is to determine if various international, federal and state data security laws improve an organization’s security posture. What is the value of compliance and does it correlate with the value of the compliance effort?

The eGovernment movement is a good thing, and maybe too long in coming given how many years businesses have been taking advantage of technology to provide convenience and a higher quality of service to their customers. Constituent services have been available online for years, certainly, but only recently has the effort to modernize government been policy.

A warm thank you to everyone who made this past weekend's RIM Renaissance a success.  The discussions were lively and productive, and I think we all came away just a little bit smarter as a result of the candor.  We do appreciate the enthusiasm that seems to pervade these events, and the willingness to put aside your valuable time to join with us on these annual occasions, as well as the ongoing conversations that take place throughout the year.

Privacy pro: Do you ever feel like you are working overtime to meet overly ambitious expectations? Are you frustrated by your attempts to outline a plan for protecting sensitive personal information only to get the sense that you are talking to a brick wall?

CEO: Are you puzzled as to why the people your company has hired to address security and privacy concerns never seem to meet the objectives you have for them? Are you flummoxed by the fact that the investments you’ve made in data security aren’t helping to stem the tide of data loss? 

Welcome to my new blog. I look forward to sharing some of our thought provoking research. I also look forward to receiving your comments and questions. Stay tuned.

Does it surprise you to learn that, according to our recent study, Trends in Insider Compliance with Data Security Policies: Employees Evade and Ignore Security, employee compliance with corporate data security policies is on the wane?

Why do you think this is?  I’m seeing a confluence of conditions that appear to be contributing to this challenge to data integrity: the development of new, mobile technologies that empower employees to do more while away from the office; a failure of organizations to keep pace with the ways technology is changing the dynamics of data security; and current economic conditions that are putting increased pressure on individuals to be more productive with fewer resources.