Monday, April 12, 2004

Government regulated protection racket

A task force on computer security for the department of Homeland Security this week issued a report threatening corporate CEO's with government regulation if they didn't voluntarily comply with the task force's guidelines.

The guidelines, though, are drawn in a way that benefits security firms (such as RSA) as their products are likely to be seen as more compliant than home-grown security tools. The chairman of the task force is Arthur Coviello of RSA Security.

By aiming at CEO's, already beleaguered by Sarbanes-Oxley and other regulatory challenges, the task force may be trying to bypass the relevant input of enterprises' IT staff. Its a remarkably despicable approach, combining fear of terror attacks and fear of government prosecution in an attempt to drum up business.

Regulations already exist covering the protection of both customer data as well as corporate secrets. Shareholders do have recourse should a corporation have security problems. This is a report which should be shot down and buried.

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