|  | | 2005 News and Press Releases | | |
HEADLINE NEWS:
The Awful Truth About Compliance
Staff Writer – Infoworld Electronic News
Securities Mosaic. December 12, 2005
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EXCERPT: Several years into an era of strict corporate-governance laws -- most notably Sarbanes-Oxley and HIPAA -- companies across a wide spectrum are still struggling to find their footing as they try to establish viable compliance frameworks. Despite the billions of dollars spent on such efforts, the consensus among experts in the field is that 100 percent compliance is "fundamentally impossible," according to Gartner analyst Robert Handler. That reality is ratcheting up questions about risk and vulnerability, leaving some industry insiders aghast at the head-in-the-sand mentality that persists within the IT sector. It's also leading those who are tasked with bringing their organizations into compliance to ask: If we can only do so much, what should that "so much" be? Anne Bonaparte, president and CEO of MailFrontier, says that in recent months she's had several jaw-dropping conversations "over many conferences and many drinks." One IT director recently told her, "Our compliance policy is to pray." Incredulous, Bonaparte pressed the issue and was told, "We have written policies, and we hope users do the right thing, but we live in fear that they won't." A high-ranking communications director at a global financial services company recently said that because of the growing deluge of regulations, the Netherlands-based bank for which he works has begun to re-evaluate the merits of doing business in the United States. A lawyer himself, he cited the astronomical costs of hiring staff to meet requirements associated with separation of duties and of hiring an army of lawyers to assist with auditing and personnel matters. "At what point do you say, 'Screw it, we can't do all this,' and look elsewhere?" he asks. |
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