Last column we introduced the concept of using the Internet as an excellent source of best practice information.
This month the Web Browser Hit List (below) focusses on Year 2000, Electronic Commerce, and IT Security. The recommended sites should advance your efforts in successfully addressing Year 2000 challenges, ramping up E-Commerce initiatives, and securing your critical corporate data.
WEB SITE OF THE MONTH
The featured site this month is a comprehensive web site organized by the US Government’s Council of CIOs. Accessing www.cio.gov will lead you to a wealth of ‘best practice’ and ‘lessons learned’ reports.
The Chief Information Officers Council is the principal interagency forum to improve the design, modernization, use, sharing, and performance of resources.
The Council’s role includes: developing recommendations for IT management policy, procedures, and standards; identifying opportunities to share information resources; and assessing and addressing the needs of the US Federal Government for an information technology workforce.
The site includes recent and comprehensive information regarding Security, Project Management, Capital Planning, Year 2000, and numerous other management topics.
REPORT OF THE MONTH
Our featured report is a multi-year research study by the Information Systems Audit and Control Foundation (ISACF). Entitled Control Objectives for Information and Related Technology (COBIT), it was released in April 1996 and updated this past year. It can be found at www.isaca.org.
The COBIT mission is to research, develop, publicize and promote an authoritative, up-to-date, international set of generally accepted information technology control objectives for day-to-day use by business managers and auditors.
Next time around we’ll provide a list of sites that focus on three important areas: Project Management; IT Strategic Planning; and Audit and Control of IT Initiatives.
Dan Swanson is a management consultant with LGS Group in Winnipeg. He specializes in system and management consulting and can be reached at dswanson@lgs.ca
Web Browser Hit List
Best Practices for IM/IT
www.cio.gov
www.sei.cmu.edu
www.itpolicy.gsa.gov
www.itrb.gov
Year 2000 Support
www.mitre.org/research/y2k
www.gao.gov/y2kr.htm
www.year2000.com
www.y2k.gov
www.nerc.com/y2k
Contingency Plan Support
www.contingencyplanning.com
www.globl2k.com
www.sia.com
www.sec.gov
www.bis.com
Disaster Recovery
www.disaster-resource.com
www.drj.com
Electronic Commerce
ec.fed.gov
www.ecomworld.com
www.dw-institute.com
IT Security
www.cse-cst.gc.ca
csrc.nist.gov
www.auditnet.org
www.isaca.org
