EXECUTIVE TECHNOLOGY BRIEFING
September 2001

The entire staff of Create-it! would like to express our deepest sympathies to the victims, their families and friends of the September 11 terrorist attacks. We salute the valiant effort of the rescue and relief crews who continue to work in the aftermath of this horrific event.

HOT NEWS IN THIS REPORT:

1. Strategies for effective business continuity planning
2. Promising Technology:: MyNetWatchman
3. Cool Tool: Enfish Personal

Executive Technology Briefing (ETB)
Editor/Publisher: Jordan Ayan
Contributing Editor: Chuck Frey

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STRATEGIES FOR EFFECTIVE BUSINESS CONTINUITY PLANNING

On September 11th, everything changed. The terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington, DC, combined with a deepening economic recession, are forcing many companies to rethink a variety of key business practices and policies, including:

- How and where to conduct business meetings when air travel is becoming less attractive and potentially more perilous for executives,

- Business continuity planning which outlines how a company should respond in the event of an emergency or other future business disruption,

- Adopting a more aggressive network security and anti-virus strategy to protect their computer networks and critical operating data against increasingly damaging "cyber-terrorism" -- virus and hacker threats that can disrupt key business operations and Web services. In this issue of ETB, our goal is to help you to adjust your organization’s technology strategies to the new realities we all face, as well as alert you to proven tools that can help you thrive during these difficult times.

- Rethinking business travel -

Faced with employee concerns about the safety of air travel, plus ongoing budgetary pressures created by the lingering economic downturn, a growing number of organizations are starting to rethink their business travel policies. According to a survey of over 1,600 training and HR managers conducted by the Masie Center (http://www.masie.com/survey) in the week following the terrorist attacks, 37% responded that they will allow their employees to make a personal choice not to travel during this uncertain time.

As we’ve shared in past issues of ETB, online collaboration and training tools are an affordable alternative to flying to business meetings and training sessions. Never has that been more true than today, as companies continue to look for ways to cut costs, and are faced with employees concerned about the safety of air travel. According to the Masie study, 45% of respondents said they are increasing their use of digital collaboration tools, such as audio, video and Web-based conferencing to conduct meetings and training.

During the last several years, online meeting, training and collaboration tools like WebEx (http://www.webex.com) and Astound (http://www.astound.com) have evolved into powerful, affordable Web-based platforms that are ideal for conducting interactive business meetings and training sessions with geographically dispersed participants. Both systems create virtual workspaces where participants can share documents, make presentations, poll meeting attendees and other advanced collaboration capabilities. During the week of September 11th, I was unable to travel to a speaking engagement, so I did the next best thing: I gave my presentation via a WebEx conferencing session. It went amazingly well, and was literally the next best thing to being there.

Another group of Web applications enable small workgroups to collaborate asynchronously -- that is, without having to be online at the same time. Notable applications in this niche include Groove (http://www.groove.com) and eRoom (http://www.eroom.com). Another collaboration tool, SiteScape (http://www.sitescape.com) is gaining popularity with organizations like the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE), which uses it to streamline the process of developing technical standards for on- and off-highway vehicles. Typically, these programs feature shared applications such as document libraries, threaded discussion areas, group calendars and other business tools.

- Guard against "cyber-terrorism" -

The Internet is not impervious to terrorists. Last week, many firms were hit by “nimda,” one of the most aggressive viruses ever unleashed by hackers. Unlike previous viruses and Internet “worms,” which only used one method of delivery (typically e-mail), nimda used multiple methods to propagate itself. While it hit corporate networks as a flurry of e-mail attachments, a worm component of the virus infected thousands of Web servers by systematically checking at least 6 vulnerabilities of Windows NT servers, and in some cases created a new guest user with administrator rights, so it could continue to propagate itself. Also, Web users could infect their PCs by simply visiting an infected Web site.

It’s likely that as the war against terrorism escalates in the coming months, we may also see a corresponding jump in “cyber-terrorism,” which could include dangerous new strains of Internet viruses as well as a growing number of attempts by hackers to compromise corporate firewalls and data. Here are some steps you can take today to improve the security of your company's computer network and critical business data:

- Virus protection -

- Keep your network security and virus protection software as up to date as possible, with the latest patches and virus definition files. Check to ensure that your server is configured to automatically check with your virus vendor’s server every night for new virus definition updates. In a client-server environment, you can also have your network server send the update files to all of the PCs when employees first log on to your network. Run your anti-virus software on all drives of your computer at least once or twice a week.

- Employee education about virus protection is critical. We still hear stories about employees who open e-mail attachments from people they don't know, and unwittingly spread viruses. Make sure everyone knows not to open any e-mail attachments from anyone… regardless of what the e-mail says. Remember: the time you must invest fixing the damage caused by viruses is lost productivity.

- Sign up for virus alert e-mail lists, so you can get an earlier warning on major threats before they bring your network to its knees. Trend Micro (http://www.antivirus.com/subscriptions) publishes a weekly e-mail newsletter as well as virus alerts that are sent out as soon as the company learns of new virus threats – even if you’re not one of their customers. The sooner you know of a virus outbreak, the faster you can react, and hopefully prevent or minimize its damaging effects on your company and its computer network. - Disaster recovery planning -

Does your organization have a written technology disaster recovery plan? If not, it should. A small investment of time and money now could prevent severe damage and disruption of life and business in the future. Every place is occasionally hit by some kind of natural or man-made disaster – fire, earthquake, flooding, power outages and civil unrest, to name a few. Even if your company isn't directly affected by a disaster, having a key supplier or customer hit by one could cripple your firm's operations.

The purpose of a disaster recovery plan – also known as a business continuity plan – is to anticipate the most common calamities that could affect your company, and then to create action plans that your employees can use to guide their actions if any of these emergencies actually occurred. Here are some questions you should ask and factors you should consider when creating such a plan:

FACILITIES
What would you do to continue your firm's operations if your office, plant or store was suddenly rendered unusable? How could you get back up and running as soon as possible? Consider storing spare supplies and inventory off-site, in a location separate from your company's main facility or office.

OPERATIONS
Determine the location of your command center, its requirements and what special security/access control procedures need to be established in advance. How will you resume your production and distribution capabilities and get your finished goods to market? Identify your recovery teams and their tasks. Determine if you should have a back-up generator so in the event of a power failure, your facilities electrical systems (computers, lighting, refrigeration, security) can continue to operate. At minimum, make sure that you have battery back-up power supplies on all computers that are critical to your operation.

INFORMATION & COMMUNICATION
Back-up all critical records -- accounting, employee data, customer lists, product plans, formulas and specifications, and inventory. Store key data both on-site and in a secure off-site location. Replicating or “mirroring” your data on a continuous basis will help to ensure that you have a complete, current set of data that you can quickly switch over to in an emergency. Many of the financial services firms that were in the World Trade Center towers mirrored their data at server farms at other geographic locations, so they were able to get back up and running quickly from a leased data center after disaster struck on September 11th.

Determine if your network’s file server was built with what’s called a “RAID array,” which enables it to store your files on one hard drive, and continuously mirror any changes to a second drive. This strategy will help you to protect against data loss if your server’s primary hard drive should ever fail.

Develop contingency plans for your vital computer hardware vendors, so they can expedite replacements immediately if your primary hardware is damaged. Store invoices, shipping lists, and other documentation of your system configuration off site, so you can quickly order replacement components when needed.

Keep up-to-date records of employee phone numbers, network and Internet logins and other critical user data in an accessible location.

Also, remember that while the Internet can significantly enhance your business, it can also dramatically increase the risks to your company, by causing it to rely heavily on technology. If a key customer wants to buy products from your company's Web site but the site is down for even a short amount of time, you may miss a key selling opportunity. If service outages persist, they could damage your company's reputation.

For more information on creating a disaster preparedness or business continuity plan, we recommend the following Web sites:

Small Business Administration - guidelines for disaster preparedness
http://www.sba.gov/disaster/textonly/getready.html

Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
http://www.fema.gov/about/prepare.htm

Contingency Planning & Management Online
http://www.contingencyplanning.com/disruption

A disaster resource portal site
http://www.disaster-resource.com

To determine how well your contingency plans work, test them. This is your opportunity to make sure that the procedures, strategies, and logistics you have developed are sound. Also, because today's business environment is constantly changing, this plan should be reviewed on a regular basis and updated as needed.

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COOL TOOL: ENFISH PERSONAL

http://www.enfish.com

For many busy knowledge workers, one of the most frustrating experiences is trying to find a specific file or e-mail message that contains a key nugget of information – the proverbial needle in a haystack.

Enfish Personal 3.0 from Enfish Corporation aims to solve this problem by automatically cataloguing and cross-indexing every e-mail, contact, document and other text-based file on your computer into a powerful, searchable database. It combines all of this in a multi-paneled, browser-like interface that enables you to access, work with and organize all of your information in meaningful ways. You can even send e-mail messages and create new documents from within Enfish Personal, making it a powerful, centralized knowledge “dashboard” for many of your daily activities. It also keeps this personalized “knowledge base” continuously updated, so you don’t have to waste time finding, organizing and retrieving valuable information.

We used the trial version, and found it to be highly customizable and easy to use. Also, its indexing system lets you continue working in other software programs, without depleting system resources – very impressive! Enfish Personal costs $99, and can be purchased online; a trial version is also available from the company’s Web site.

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PROMISING TECHNOLOGY: MYNETWATCHMAN

http://www.mynetwatchman.com

As more small businesses move from dial-up Internet access to persistent, high-speed connections, these “always-on” connections need a firewall to prevent hackers from attacking their servers and desktop PCs. But most individuals and businesses haven’t been able to fight back against hackers – until now.

MyNetWatchman is a new service that enables you to download a free agent software package, which filters your personal or network server’s file logs, and reports any attempted hacks to MyNetWatchman’s servers. MNW automatically generates abuse report e-mails to the ISPs or administrators responsible for the attacking systems, urging them to stop the attacks. According to MyNetWatchman, many hack attacks are launched from home users or corporate systems with compromised security, where a virus or “worm” is using the host PC or server as a platform to generate further attacks of which the owner is unaware. What makes this service unique is the level of automation it provides between the agent software and MNW’s servers, which allows the system to quickly identify escalating threats and alert ISPs, so they can take action against the hackers.

MyNetWatchman already has 1,100 agents installed worldwide, reporting hack attacks to its central servers, and the system’s effectiveness should increase dramatically as more users register and download the MNW agent to monitor their firewall logs. I think this technology has a lot of promise, and I urge you to check it out.

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That's all for now. I welcome your comments and feedback on the Executive Technology Briefing.

Jordan Ayan
President
Create-It! Inc.