Chris Conrath

Creating a secure and safe computing environment is never an easy task, especially when you are responsible for the diverse requirements needed at one of Canada's largest school boards.

Carleton University in Ottawa opened a new computer security research centre on last month in part to focus on narrowing the gap between academic-driven theoretical research and practical business applications.

With obligatory PIPEDA compliance less than a month away, the law firm Gardiner Roberts LLP held a seminar in Toronto on Monday in an attempt to help clear up some of the misunderstandings surrounding the new federal act.

With a series of malevolent events hitting corporate Canada over the past 12 months, from SARS and the massive blackout to attacks from the SoBig and Blaster worms, companies are intensifying their disaster preparedness but finding that a siege mentality often exists between departments.

As of Jan. 1, all Canadian companies will have to abide by the rules and regulations set forth by Canada's Personal Information Protection and Electronics Document Act (PIPEDA). Yet by all accounts, thousands of companies are still far from ready, and further still from understanding the implications of the Act.

Today's workers are inundated with data that is, for the most part, useless. That is not to say it has no absolute use, but rather that it has no use to its specific recipient. Spam notwithstanding, how many of the dozens of messages in an e-mail inbox are of use?

Creating a secure and safe computing environment is never an easy task, especially when you are responsible for the diverse requirements needed at one of Canada

A veritable who's who of global computer virus experts descended on Toronto recently forrn the 13th Virus Bulletin international conference, where discussions covered everything fromrn worm charming to educating end users.