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OECD guidelines seek culture of security for IT users - Page 2

© Alan Kotok

-- Reassessment. Participants should review and reassess the security of information systems and networks, and make appropriate modifications to security policies, practices, measures and procedures.

Ask the right questions

By itself, each of these principles seems so obvious as to qualify as a no-brainer. But taken together, they provide a way of thinking about security that can encourage governments, companies, not-for-profit organizations, and individuals to begin asking the right questions of their software and systems providers. The objective is not to build a culture of geeks, but rather a base of knowledgeable and concerned end-users that can drive future solutions development.

Another interesting feature of the guidelines is the inclusion of ethics and democracy principles. A focus on security usually means imposing top-down solutions, with security taking precedence over other values. The OECD guidelines suggest striking a balance that includes ethical and democratic concerns as part of the solution.

The OECD guidelines are voluntary, and have no force of law or treaty. But as we have seen with IT in Western society, good ideas can spread like wildfire, and OECD has plenty of good ideas to help build IT security awareness from the ground up.

Net Privacy: A Guide to Developing & Implementing an Ironclad ebusiness Privacy Plan Electronic customer intelligence gathering has been perceived as a major advantage of doing business online. Yet, according to a recent Business Week poll, 92% of Internet users are uncomfortable with the practice of ebusinesses selling their personal information to other businesses. In this timely guide, two acknowledged experts on the subject arm companies that do business online with a complete blueprint for developing and implementing a privacy plan that satisfies their customers' desire for privacy while permitting them the latitude they need to do business competitively over the Internet.

Links:

OECD home page (English language), http://www.oecd.org/EN/home/0,,EN-home-0...

OECD guidelines, http://www.oecd.org/pdf/M00033000/M00033...

Press announcement of OECD guidelines, 7 August 2002 http://www.oecd.org/EN/document/0,,EN-do...

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