global economy

Transparency International, the international watchdog against corruption, claims the global ressession came about due to corruption, according to this article.

“Fostering a culture of corporate integrity is essential to protect investment, increase commercial success and ensure the stability sought by poor and rich countries alike, particularly as we climb out of an historical crisis,” saidTransparency International Chair Huguette Labelle.

 

Why am I not surprised? We need to find efficient ways of controling and fighting corruption, as corruption are not only found in the 3rd world - we are all surrounded by it. Just consider - when was the last time you either gave or recieved an expensive gift to a client, or from a vendor? This happens all the time, and the size and type of the gifts are ever increasing.

I do not mind a christmass card, or even a small flower or perhaps even a bottle of wine. But when expensive trips, horses (yes, this actually happend in Norway), cars, houses, contracts and so forth are becoming the standard, we have moved far off the target.

What experience do you have with giving or recieving gifts? What is acceptable to you? Where do you draw the line?

Thanks to @canadianPI for the tip!

This is a great read for anyone even remotedly interested in Information Security and the principles that relates to attack vs. defense. Most security people seems to forget that security is merely (and sometimes marrily) parts of "business as usuall", meaning security is never a means in it self, it is only there to sustain business. As such, there should be no chock that security is very closely related to economics, not to technology.

This paper was released in 2001, and is equally relevant today!

Go on! Read: Why Information security is hard - an economic perspective, by Ross Anderson.

Should you not like it, you are allowed to kick your own butt!

According to ScanSafe's Annual Global Threat Report, there has been a huge increase of threats during 2008. Some of their notable findings include a data-theft Trojans increased with 1559% from 2007 to 2008. Such a growth makes an impact on business - not only on security. We have been talking about data-theft malware for a long time, and finally it seems that this trend is truly coming alive. To you, this means it is due time to reconsider your information security strategy, and to implement a classification system for your information. Another interesting finding is that Q4 2008, ScanSafe saw "...the largest growth in this category [data-theft trojans]..." According to the report, the growth of these kinds of trojans are directly connected to the global financial chaos. You should be able to source a copy of the report by contacting ScanSafe directly.