Phishing Scheme Targeted at Gmail Users
A recent phishing scheme targeted as many as one million Gmail users with a dummy app that looked like Google Docs. Google has shut down the attack by removing the app, prohibiting other developers from using “Google” in naming their third-party apps, and introducing a new security feature to warn users about possible phishing attempts.
Our View: Educate your employees to build strong security awareness and share best practices to deal with phishing schemes. Our presentation, Training Materials – Phishing, focuses on phishing and includes different types of phishing techniques used against end users, how to detect and report potential phishing emails, and an activity to assess end-user awareness.
Benefits of Scaling Projects
Bruce Maas, vice provost for IT and CIO at the University of Wisconsin, advises that CIOs “need to stay up to date on developments that are occurring within the field and realize that scale matters. Doing things at scale whenever you can will yield a better bottom line than if you are treating things as a one-off. Cloud scaling is the obvious one, but there are other types of opportunities." He also recommends that CIOs and other IT leaders stay current with changing technologies and developments by nurturing a diverse IT workforce.
Our View: While getting better at project management is the key, it’s common for organizations to overshoot and adopt best practices that far exceed their current levels of process maturity. This results in an excessive overhead that time-strapped project managers and teams typically can’t sustain for very long. The right amount of upfront planning is essential to improve project throughput and closure. Right-sized initiation and planning rigor will provide more reliable scope statements, more well-rounded requirements definitions, and increased executive buy-in and engagement. For more information on project planning, see our research, Tailor Project Management Processes to Fit Your Projects.
IT Quality Management and Biopharmaceutical CIOs
As the biopharmaceutical industry becomes increasingly competitive, the role of a biopharmaceutical CIO must evolve to keep pace with the business and not hinder its growth. These CIOs must ensure IT has the right people, processes, technologies, and IT quality management systems in place to keep pace with the constantly changing quality, legal, and financial regulations.
Our View: According to Info-Tech research, 74% of our clients feel that IT quality management is an important process, however, only 15% said they actually had effective quality management. CIOs are facing greater pressures to be innovative, agile, and cost-effective, but cannot do so without stable operations, an accountable staff base, and business support; all of which are achieved by high IT quality. Use our quality management methodology that’s detailed in our research, Drive Efficiency and Agility with a Fit-for-Purpose Quality Management Program, to promote innovation, agility, lower costs, and improved operations.
The Lift: Serious Art Can Be Funny
Art gallery viewers are often quiet and contemplative when observing art, but Glen Johnson and Ray Fenwick, two Winnipeg artists, want their art viewers to laugh. “Comedy is good at exploring difficult truths and teasing out ironies. It can destabilize cultural norms and upend habitual assumptions, offering the kind of sudden, perspective-altering moments we associate with so-called ‘serious’ art,” writes Arts reporter Alison Gillmor.