3. Ask Tough Questions. Has Our Company Done a Critical Assessment of Our Business Practices…?

Are functional needs of security and safety decided by a team; or are they relegated responsibility of a Security Director, Human Resource Manager, Safety Manager or even Facility Manager? How much thought goes into arriving at a business matrix that factors security needs against type of business? Are security budgets based on offerings of technology devoid of unique aspects of personnel security as part of security posture or is there justification for one or other or both? I pose these additional questions for your consideration.

-Are Security Plans, Policies and Programs adequate? -Are Threat and Crisis Plans incorporated in training programs? -Do I have an Emergency Evacuation Plan and do employees know their roles? -Are Homeland Security Protective Measures integrated in Security Plans? -Do I have knowledge or familiarity with police and hospital response plans? -Is company prepared to handle a Bomb Threat? -Are my mailroom and mail handling procedures adequate? -Does Personnel Security Plan address myriad of concerns including travel and VIP Security? -Is Counter-terrorism factored into my Workplace Violence Prevention Plan? -Whose responsibility is it to coordinate Security Awareness Training? -How do I organize a Threat Assessment Team? -Am I relying on police and response time or do I have a plan? -Is Workplace Violence a threat to your business in event of business disruption and continuity?

4. Security Business Matrix…

Merely appointing a security chief and purchasing security technology without essential critical assessment or evaluation of your business situation is not employing best security strategy. Collaborating of resources and synchronizing plans are positive steps to take in developing a business matrix that drives security strategy. No longer can decision maker delegate security function as a separate and apart responsibility without having any input into strategy, philosophy and objective of security plans. The assumption we make about investment against intangible benefits of a proactive or preventive security policy having no immediate impact on Return on Investment (ROI) must die a quick death. A critical assessment of your business practices will clearly provide an appreciable and measurable business matrix to motivate application of this philosophy in Threat Assessment Phase.

They claim little box does nothing Windows doesn't already and slows your computer down 10%! (I believe them. I remember how much faster computers were before we loaded it, and my computer at home has been fine without it.)

4. "Internet Explorer (IE) won't work!"

This was my big problem for over a year. It started (coincidentally) about same time I loaded Netscape 4.7. I've heard of other people having problems with Netscape and IE on same computer, so I assumed Netscape was problem.

I tried installing Netscape and re-installing it. I tried uninstalling IE and re-installing it. Nothing worked.

Sunday night, my antivirus program (Aladdin's E- Safe Desktop) gave me an error when IE accidentally popped up. I unloaded program, and IE started to work! I don't know why I didn't think of it before. I uninstalled program and now IE works fine.

IE has ActiveX, a language that has been found capable of delivering viruses, and Microsoft is constantly using it to send update information to users. My virus protection software shut down program for my computer's own good!

5. "What about McAfee?"

Well, maybe McAfee is better. It's been working okay on my computer for about a week now. However, I've heard horror stories about them from some of my subscribers as well! In past, I've had problems with updates.

"There's always hope!"

I polled my subscribers about best antivirus solutions, and Trend Software's PC-Cillan won. You can download their software (priced competitively with Norton's AntiVirus and McAfee's Virus Shield at http://www.trend.com/

One subscriber also recommended a free solution: AVG anti-virus from http://www.grisoft.com

Good luck!