Privacy
You may have noticed my comments in the ICT news section above about Gmail and eGovernment. Both of these raise questions that I would have been keen to discuss with Marie Schroff, The New Zealand Privacy Commissioner, in her late August forum (though unfortunately I'm tied up that week and can't go). It is really good to know that in this country we have a Privacy Commission that is genuinely working to protect our rights as citizens, yet the digital age opens up such incredible opportunity for potential control of populations that it seems semi-inevitable that this control will one day be exercised.Why am I so pessimistic? The answer is history. Besides, democracy doesn't have a good track record; it's seldom been known to last more than about 200 years. Even now anti-terror laws have already stripped away quite a few traditional democratic rights, especially in the United States, and it would not be unrealistic to wonder if we're on a slippery slope.
I'm trying not to get political here, but the Internet in particular raises massive issues around privacy, the control of information and the long-term effects of the information age on society and government. I don't think we can turn the clock back, and I have to say I love the efficiency of on-line information, but as IT professionals it is a subject I believe we need to take seriously. If we can do nothing else we can at least do our best to protect OUR customer's client data. This is neither easy nor cheap, yet it may not be too hard to sell to customers if they understand the potential embarrassment and damage to their business that a breach can cause them.
Anyway, a good place to start in all this is finding out how to comply with the privacy act: privacy.org.nz/how-to-comply-with-the-privacy-act/. Your company may also benefit from entering into some security consultancy - if you would like a good contact in this field please let me know and I'll identify someone appropriate to your needs.
Here's one tip though from my own experience - avoid storing sensitive data in shared hosting accounts. Shared hosting can be quite vulnerable to cross account violations. Any on-line business that is collecting sensitive client information should at the very least be hosted on a VPS (Virtual Private Server), or even its own dedicated server. VPS space in NZ is available from about $60/ month upwards depending on additional services, space, etc. (e.g. www.net24.co.nz/vps_overview.php)
Posted by John Jones ~ Tuesday 15 July 2008
