Much Ado About NOTHING: Output Device Hard Drive security - of course, Congress has to Get involved - more waste!

Deficit?

Unemployment?

Crazy, religious zealots wanting to Nuke us and our friends?

Failing public education, yet successful indoctrination of our yoots ?

The heart and soul of a society?

The DEATH OF THE AMERICAN WAY?

You would think that with the above and oh so many other concerns, like regulating the substance we exhale(WTF!), congress would have many more important things to do.

Apparently not.

Congressman Edward Markey (D-MA) sent a letter today to the head of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) calling for an investigation into the, "retention of documents on the hard drives of digital copy machines..."

This is stupid, fear mongering, and yet so damn predictable.

Before you go off thinking I don't recognize this a real issue - I do, I did, back in 1999. That is not the problem.

The problem is simply this, the congress, indeed this administration, is using any perceived fear to leverage their way into the free market rendering the market a little less "free" with every effort. And right next to them, shoulder to shoulder, is CBS - the Dan Rather, made up letters, the Murphy Brown, a fictitious character, who takes on the spelling skills of a sitting Vice President of America, a non-fictional character - network.

Can the hard drives hold sensitive data? Yes.

Has the "industry", known this from the beginning? Yes.

Have these same industry players openly addressed the issue and presented solutions? Not all. But some have.

Have clients known about this issue? Not all, but those who were smart enough to see the potential, they acted. Some purchasing the hard drives out right at lease end. I know for certain, The Church of Scientology, has been practicing this level of security for at least a decade.

How come they were so smart 5 years ago and the manager at a Tommy Bahama's restaurant in Scottsdale isn't? Well, it's not his job.

And how does this figure into Managed Print Services?

It's so classic, it is almost nauseating.

Let's remember Stage One of the MPS adoption model - Control. Within this stage is the requirement of there being "one decision making entity". This addresses the "facilities handles copiers", and "IT handles printers" mentality. MPS can not exist if there are two separate decision making teams involved with output concerns.

Throw in the fact that IT is usually responsible for supporting corporate, IT, security policies - not facilities; not Purchasing - and we have a predictable, security hole.

So What?

This industry can regulate itself - we don't need any help from a congressman from MA.

Although...how delicious is it going to be when Veejay, Espe, and all the others from Canon, Ricoh, Konica, Kyocera, Oki, Brother, Lexmark and Panasonic are sitting at the same table, being grilled by congress - hide the Katana's!

Story here. I need a drink.

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