Surety Goes Green with Paperless Office Initiative

Grab your paper shredder and a pair of scissors, because it’s time to go paperless. Surety recently became members of The Paperless Project, a coalition of content management providers who are dedicated to encouraging the adoption of electronic documents and processes within the office environment.

With the goal of reducing the reliance on paper, The Paperless Project’s Go Green Initiative’s mission is to identify processes by which offices can adhere to in order to decrease paper usage and encourage the adoption of electronic solutions. As a member, Surety will aid fellow content managers in making smart, proactive and thoughtful decisions about the security of their electronic documents.

For more information about The Paperless Project and the ways Surety is contributing to its initiative, check out their website and read about the benefits electronic records management authentication. You can also read the full press release announcing the partnership here.

Surety has joined the paperless green movement, have you? If so, tell us about it – we’re always interested in hearing about the ways companies are implementing electronic environments.

Before your organization invests in an Electronic Lab Notebook (ELN)…

Most enterprise-class Electronic Lab Notebook (ELN) systems can be expensive, cumbersome or even overkill for many organizations. Many don’t benefit from all the ELN’s features , and some never deploy and use the ELNs they have purchased because they do not meet their needs.

Before any organization invests in a commercial ELN, we recommend they take a step back. Consider how you can most cost-effectively and efficiently enable your researchers and scientists to focus on getting world-class products and ideas to market faster in a collaborative, workflow-friendly environment, with built-in intellectual property protection.

Chances are, if your organization already has an Enterprise Content Management (ECM) system like Microsoft SharePoint or Open Text Livelink, an email system, such as Microsoft Exchange, a database application like Oracle or SQL Server, and Surety’s AbsoluteProof Data Integrity Protection service, you have all of the core components to meet the most common objectives of an ELN, without the overhead, costs and complexity of deploying yet another enterprise-class system.

By purchasing a commercial ELN application, you will spend as much, if not more money tailoring it to fit your needs and with integration. Why not leverage your existing investments in software and applications you already have deployed today and easily “customize” an ELN that meets your EXACT needs, and save time, money and resources as a result?

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The New York Times admits to publishing digitally manipulated photographs

A note from The New York Times after claims that a published photograph had been digitally altered.

If a picture speaks a thousand words, does a screen shot as well? Check out the Editor’s Note posted by The New York Times yesterday:

The pictures in this feature were removed after questions were raised about whether they had been digitally altered.

What’s this all about? A different Editor’s Note posted by The New York Times today offers some additional insight:

A second Editor's Note posted by The New York Times offers more insight into the digital manipulation.

In case you can’t read it, here’s what the Editor’s Note says:

A picture essay in The Times Magazine on Sunday and an expanded slide show on NYTimes.com entitled “Ruins of the Second Gilded Age” showed large housing construction projects across the United States that came to a halt, often half-finished, when the housing market collapsed. The introduction said that the photographer, a freelancer based in Bedford, England, “creates his images with long exposures but without digital manipulation.”

A reader, however, discovered on close examination that one of the pictures was digitally altered, apparently for aesthetic reasons. Editors later confronted the photographer and determined that most of the images did not wholly reflect the reality they purported to show. Had the editors known that the photographs had been digitally manipulated, they would not have published the picture essay, which has been removed from NYTimes.com.

From what we have read and can gather, a commentator on the community blog MetaFilter may have been the first to spot the digital manipulation.

Evidence of digitally manipulated New York Times photographs, available at http://gurno.com/adam/images/abandoned-house-ps-evidence.gif

Unfortunately, this instance isn’t the first we’ve seen where a reputable media outlet published digitally altered or manipulated images, and equally unfortunately, we are certain it won’t be the last. The good news, however, is that solutions already exist that enable organizations to detect whether any electronic record – including digital images! – have been tampered or manipulated, either maliciously or inadvertently, helping them to avoid the reputation damage and loss of trust caused by a lack of data integrity safeguards.

News: Surety, LLC Joins Microsoft BioIT Alliance

http://www.surety.com/News/Press-Releases/Surety–LLC-Joins-Microsoft-BioIT-Alliance.aspx

Data Integrity Provider First to Bring IP Ownership into Discussion

Surety, LLC, the leading provider of data integrity solutions, announced today that is has joined the Microsoft-sponsored BioIT Alliance as the first and only data integrity protection provider of its kind within the alliance.

Utilizing digital timestamp technology, Surety’s solutions allow government and commercial organizations to validate the integrity of their electronic records and help prove their authenticity and intellectual property (IP) ownership when challenged in a competitive or legal situation. With the use of electronic records, files and additional digital content on the rise, the need for immediate and legally-defensible IP protection continues to increase as well.

Falsifying Records Can Put Lives at Risk

Photo credit: Aviationphotos.info

Falsifying electronic records has been a problem ever since they entered our everyday business lives. Time after time, we’ve seen instances where individuals maliciously tamper with IP ownership documents, contracts, budget numbers and other forms of electronic evidence. While these are all undesirable scenarios that have serious financial, legal and regulatory consequences, tampering of these records rarely results in injury or death. Some electronic records, however, are actually used in highly regulated industries to ensure safety of everyday citizens. Dependent on industry, these records might log things like hours worked, compliance training and safety procedures – all things that impact job performance and on-the-job safety.

Unfortunately, when records of this nature are purposefully altered, the consequences can be grave. Take Gulfstream International Airlines for example. According to a recent Wall Street Journal article, current and former employees allege that the airline tampered with electronic flight logs and falsified flight hours in order to allow pilots to fly additional hours than the federal safety rules allow.

Information Security Risks Linked to Employees

Image credit: Computerworld UK

Forget about blaming hackers and competitors for a security breach of your businesses’ information. According to a recent ComputerWeekly article, an organization’s own employees are often times the biggest threat to the security of your information

“The majority of major data breaches that have occurred over the past 18 months can be directly attributed to employee behavior, an inability to follow policies and procedures that has had catastrophic results; millions of personal records being compromised, a plethora of government investigations, heavy fines and sanctions, reputational damage and the media baying for blood.”

This is something we’ve talked about before but it remains a massive misperception among IT and business executives that the largest threats are those outside your own walls. So, what’s an organization to do?

News: Surety, LLC Survey Exposes Concern About Data Tampering Risks in Collaborative IT Environments

2009 SharePoint Security Survey Proves Organizations with High-Value Electronic Records Need Additional Data Integrity Protection

Surety, LLC, the leading provider of data integrity solutions, has announced the results of its 2009 SharePoint Security Survey. The survey of more than 330 respondents spanned a broad spectrum of information technology job titles across markets, and the results revealed overwhelming concerns about the risks of data tampering in collaborative environments, particularly Microsoft® SharePoint®.

Alarmingly, nearly one-quarter of respondents lack confidence that their organizations’ electronic records or other digital content are protected when they are being shared within the SharePoint environment, and of the respondents whose organizations have suffered a data breach within their SharePoint system, 67 percent indicated that the tampering was at the hands of a person with access to SharePoint from inside the organization.

Surety Podcast Series: Informatics Trends Emerging in eR&D

This is part four of a four part podcast series.

Podcast Presenter: Michael Elliot of Atrium Research & Consulting.

Curious to know what sort of informatics trends are emerging in the electronic R&D space? And what about the success stories for ELNs? Listen in as Michael Elliot with Atrium Research & Consulting discusses both.

1. Tools and Technology Trends in eR&D
   SharePoint and other records management systems, combined with data integrity protection technologies, will play an increasingly growing role in how electronic records and other digital content are managed and secured. (Michael Elliot only)
   Register to download podcast segment. (6 MB)
2. eR&D Success Stories, A Real Life Analysis
   (Michael Elliot only)
   Register to download podcast segment (4 MB)

(Photo Credit: Ian-S)

Electronic Health Records – Calling for Security and Authentication

Photo credit: ohmygov.com

Electronic health information technology is transforming the delivery of healthcare. Nineteen billion dollars of the economic stimulus package has been set aside for the modernization of health records, and the federal government has set a goal of 2014 for the creation of an electronic health record (EHR) for all Americans . The move from paper records to EHRs —including electronic medical records (EMRs), personal health records (PHRs) and e-prescriptions –can solve a host of problems for medical organizations, allowing them to run more quickly, more accurately, and more efficiently. With complete and immediate access to patient records through EMRs, healthcare providers are able to provide better, faster and more personalized care, raising the level of both medical care and personal attention. As the number of patient charts is reduced, medical organizations are also dramatically reducing the costs associated with creating, storing and maintaining paper charts.

Beyond EMRs, the increasing use of electronic prescribing contributes to patient safety. A 2006 study by the Institute of Medicine reported that 1.5 million people in the United States are harmed each year – and 7,000 killed – by medication errors. E-prescriptions improve patient safety through more complete and accurate prescriptions, direct transmission of the prescription to a dispenser where fill status can be monitored, and elimination of the need for the dispenser to decipher and transcribe, often illegible, handwritten fax or paper prescriptions.

While the increased use of EHRs is integrally related to improving patient care and safety, their adoption introduces new security concerns, including the opportunity for data loss or destruction (both accidental and malicious data tampering), inappropriate corrections to medical records and e-prescription forgery. In order to address areas of potential risk and remain compliant with medical organizations must adopt policies and procedures that are compatible with EHR systems and compliance with regulations like the U.S. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), which contains provisions for the protection of data stored electronically.

Surety Podcast Series: Electronic Content Management Silos, More of a Hindrance Than a Benefit

This is part three of a four part podcast series.

Podcast Presenters: Michael Elliot of Atrium Research & Consulting and Timothy Carroll, Partner at Loeb & Loeb, LLP.

When it comes to enterprise-wide data-level security controls in an ELN environment, why are organizations putting in more robust controls when it comes to regulation by the Federal Drug Administration than in areas and units that are solely focused on drug discovery? What are the risks in this particular scenario?

Learn this and more on why implementing robust controls in certain silos of an organization’s infrastructure may prove to be more of a hindrance than a benefit.

What about organizations that are proactive versus reactive in electronic content management?

What are the pros and cons of each strategy and which one will come out on top?

1. Risk of Enterprise-wide Disparate Data-level Security Controls: How Much is Good Enough?
   In this podcast, Elliot and Carroll talk through the motives of why organizations choose to use disparate data-level security controls. Just how much (security measures) is good enough?
   Register to download podcast segment. (6 MB)
2. Safeguarding eData Against Tampering, Theft & Misappropriation
   Find out from Elliot and Carroll how disparate record keeping programs and an organization’s lack of safeguarding its electronic records is grounds for data theft or intellectual property misappropriation.
   Register to download podcast segment. (4 MB)
3. Proactive vs. Reactive Electronic Content Management
   Proactive versus reactive security management of your electronic information, which strategy is best for electronic content management? Are there benefits to each? Where does your organization reside on the scale?
   Register to download podcast segment. (3 MB)

(Photo Credit: Leonid Mamchenkov)