Firms offer PIPEDA compliance support
Soltrus, a Canadian provider of digital trust services, is among the firms eager to help your organization ensure its compliance with the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) which confers extensive rights on individuals to control the collection, use, and disclosure of their personal information by organizations in the course of commercial activity. Professional consultants with this Canadian affiliate of VeriSign work with organizations to identify immediate security concerns, pinpoint the gaps between the current infrastructure and PIPEDA requirements, as well as overall system security. Once this is complete, Soltrus provides recommendations to ensuring compliance with PIPEDA privacy requirements, data privacy best practices and risk mitigation solutions. Privacy Solutions Limited of Toronto offers a PIPEDA Compliance Resource Kit. This is a CDROM which contains a 10-step program for implementing a compliance plan. It includes forms, templates, sample policies and legal agreements. The product is based on the successful H.I.P.A.A. compliance kit produced by PrivaPlan Associates Inc. of Santa Fe, New Mexico and in use by over 5,000 health care facilities in the U.S. www.privacysolutions.ca
Microsoft offers customers SOX compliance support
Last December, Microsoft Corp. announced the March 2004 release of Microsoft Office Solution Accelerator for Sarbanes-Oxley to help companies meet growing compliance requirements in a cost-effective way with software they already license. Mike Bulmer, product manager for Microsoft Office in Canada, points out that in 2003, AMR Research conducted an online survey of U.S. Fortune 1000 companies and found that 85 per cent of those companies predicted that complying with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act would require changes to their IT infrastructure and 61 per cent expected to upgrade their internal controls, automate records management and reporting, and overhaul their business processes to improve risk assessment and financial visibility. “The number of companies affected by this legislation is obviously smaller in Canada than in the U.S. but those organizations that are affected are likely to have to undertake similar reorganizing initiatives. That work is going to require a lot of manhours and support from IT teams, so a solution like the Office Solution Accelerator for Sarbanes-Oxley which streamlines document and information management, optimizes process automation and work-flow, improves communication and collaboration and helps build dependable monitoring and reporting will be a key tool to keeping costs down and making compliance easier.” The Office Solution Accelerator for Sarbanes-Oxley is designed for customers using the Microsoft Office System since it will require one or more programs, servers or services associated with the Microsoft Office System.
RSA demos new RFID blocker technology
Although still in its early research stage, RSA Security Inc. demonstrated a prototype of the RSA Blocker Tag technology at its data security conference in San Francisco in February. RSA promises that, when completed, the tag will enforce consumer privacy when dealing with RFID tags. RSA said in a statement that “in a naive, RFID-enabled world without technical forethought” RFID blocking technology is essential to disallow anyone that happens to have an RFID reader to gain access to sensitive information. – Lindsay Bruce
April Markham conference promotes RFID
Forrester Research sees Wal-Mart’s plan to adopt RFID by January 1, 2005, as “setting the stage for a decade-long retail renovation.” A one-day conference on RFID set for April 28 at the Radisson Hotel in Markham, Ont., promises to share the facts and dispel the myths about this growing technology as it relates to supply chain, logistics, healthcare, e-commerce and standards. Billed as the 1ST Canadian RFID Conference, it is presented by R. Moroz Ltd. and the Town of Markham, and sponsored by TI-RFid, Philips and FEIG Electronic. The day of speakers, workshops and exhibitors will be preceded by an afternoon educational seminar with exhibits, networking and a presentation by Texas Instruments. $240.75 Details at (905) 513-8919, ext. 25, or www.rfidcanada.com.