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In: *Connecting the Dots Blog*, Information Privacy, Information Security, Risk Management

Teachable Moments vs. Ongoing Awareness Reminders As a follow up to the previous blog regarding the sensitive ethics document from the Committee on Standards that ended up in the hands of The Washington Post, I wanted to take a look at teachable moments vs. ongoing awareness reminders. If you go to the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct web site and look up their training requirements for 2009 you will see an example of once-a-year training requirements and you will see individual training requirements are based on pay scales.  This seems ironic to me since the Committee on Standards blamed a low-level staffer for theRead More →

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In: *Connecting the Dots Blog*, Information Privacy, Information Security, Risk Management

Low-Level Staffer Blamed for Committee on Standards Breach In case you missed the story last week, multiple lessons learned and teachable moments have emerged from an incident involving a sensitive ethics committee document that ended up in the hands of the Washington Post.  The ethics document exposed numerous ongoing investigations into the conduct of more than two dozen House members.   Most articles seem to be blaming the unauthorized access to the sensitive ethics document on a low-level staffer working from home on their personal laptop using a peer-to-peer file-sharing program which provided unauthorized access to the ethics document.  Asking good questions can be a greatRead More →

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In: *Connecting the Dots Blog*, Human Resources

A recent story made headlines in The Washington Post, providing an excellent example of how a lack of implementation can lead to embarrassing headlines and illegal and costly results. This story came up because of a previous story The Washington Post (and other media outlets) reported involving Obama officials being invited to intimate dinners at the home of Post publisher Katherine Weymouth, each sponsored at a cost of $25,000. In response to the initial story, White House counsel Greg Craig reportedly sent out an e-mail (megaphone management) with the 9-page White House policy attached that covered dos and don’ts involving gifts, relationships and invitations toRead More →