Failing to prepare is preparing to fail

I find it quite sad to read that after all these years most companies still have to rely on a few good people pulling their weight to get out of sticky situations (Firms rely on British pluckiness at times of crisis, 28 April).

The effort and dedication shown by such employees is fantastic, but it is sad that in times of non-stress or no burning platform, organisations do not have the foresight and patience to put in place processes that work, and train people to understand them. Why should they after all, if the only benefit would be the well-being of their employees?

Firms perhaps consider that investing in disaster planning processes and training is wasting time, as it does not raise revenues. But ultimately it would, because contented employees work better. However, that is a longer-term approach: not typical of our plucky British firms, apparently.

F Smieja

Why firms must heed the BCS

Further to the news that the British Computer Society (BCS) is urging the government to strengthen the laws governing the penalties for inadequate data protection, it is important for all businesses to fully realise the extent of the situation and ensure their security solutions are up to date and able to defend against all possible threats (Calls for tougher data rules intensify, 5 May).

The BCS should, of course, be commended for its commitment to this worthy cause, but organisations are best advised to take responsibility for their own actions from the outset. The loss of customer data is incredibly embarrassing from a brand point of view, with bad press and irreversibly damaged customer confidence far surpassing the impact of any financial penalties.

The move by the BCS should serve as a reminder that firms can and should be doing more to protect their data.

Graham Cluley, Sophos

Time for world to go out with a bang

Cern’s Large Hadron Collider plans might explain why we haven’t contacted any alien life out there (Is Cern about to wipe out life on Earth, 5 May). Maybe that’s just the way of the universe, blowing ourselves up. Technology has already messed up this planet beyond repair, so why not end it all today instead of dragging this slow death out.

Adam

Credit card firms have got a cheek

I believe that I have been the victim of a potential credit card fraud (Experts lambast fraud protection system, 14 April). Barclaycard sent me out a new credit card as my old card was nearing its expiry date. A large sticker on the card gave a contact number that I had to call to verify card arrival, which I dutifully rang.

My details were verified and I was then given a lecture on how card fraud is on the increase, followed by a sales pitch to try to get me to pay £70 to protect myself in the event that I become a fraud victim because the credit card companies are not doing enough to combat this growing crime.

If card providers continue to accept card-not-present transactions then they only have themselves to blame. To try to sell cardholders protection from something the credit card companies created themselves is surely fraud.

Phil Howes, IT services manager

Crunch is unlikely to eat into IT budgets

While the economy is under increasing scrutiny, we have yet to experience a real downturn (Economic gloom puts pressure on IT budgets, April 21). In fact, salaries are higher than ever and the demand for skilled workers is still strong.

And, in IT at least, this is likely to remain the case. Unlike in the last economic downturn, where the dot-com bust led to recession, technology is one area that will be relatively untouched by any current boardroom doom-and-gloom.

IT has become a business necessity, central to many organisations’ growth plans. Making cutbacks now could have a harmful long-term impact, and affect a company’s future development. As such, while it’s possible there may be a slight reduction in spending, IT remains a hot area for investment.

Gary Ashworth, InterQuest Group

Users are doing IT for themselves

Firms need to wake up to the fact that sales departments are happy to use technology without the involvement of IT (Time to get with the Web 2.0 programme? 21 April). You only need to look at the success of Salesforce.com and LinkedIn as proof of that. And you can bet there is more of this business-led uptake of technology on the way, as Web 2.0 presents even more innovative ways of interacting with existing and prospective customers.

Ian Hendry

Second Life is a cut-throat world

I’ve been in Second Life since summer 2006 and a lot has changed since then (Real dangers lurk in virtual worlds, 7 April). It was a far more innocent time back then.

Now the problems are intellectual property theft, much like software piracy. But in this case imagine you work hard to create a furniture set and sell it for £600. Tomorrow you run across a shop on the other side of town selling a set identical to yours for half the money – and out-spending you in advertising. This is only one example of what’s happening in there now.

Ari Blackthorne

A vital piece in the anti-fraud jigsaw

There is no magic bullet to stop online card fraud (Experts lambast fraud protection system, 14 April). All anti-fraud solutions, including MasterCard and Visa’s 3D Secure, are part of a jigsaw puzzle. No single piece is sufficient, but put some of the pieces together and you start to see the whole picture.

3D Secure is a small but effective piece of this fraud-protection jigsaw. If a cardholder is enrolled in the scheme, the merchant can authenticate the customer via their password. Even if customers are not enrolled in the scheme there is a favourable shift of chargeback liability from the merchant to the issuing bank, as long as the merchant checks for enrolment. These two factors make it overwhelmingly good value for merchants to implement 3D Secure.

It is not perfect – but nothing is. Merchants worry that the extra steps will lead customers to abandon their shopping carts and we have certainly seen cases where dropout rates increase after deployment, but this can generally be offset with careful implementation and customer education.

Another worry is that the enrolment process for customers is not rigorous enough, opening the door to fraudsters enrolling stolen cards themselves. This does worry me, although there is no official data to show it is happening. The fact that it can happen in theory is not an argument to stop using 3D Secure. Thieves can pick locks, but that doesn’t mean everyone should stop using them.

Akif Khan, CyberSource

Networking tips for Vista users

In response to the recent letters about issues with Microsoft Vista (Letters, 7 April and 21 April), I have experienced problems connecting the latest Windows operating system to a network, but have come up with a number of solutions.

My own machine at home will not connect to the internet if it detects more than one network connection trying to connect. It has dual Ethernet, and disabling one of those resolved the problem. Also my home computer will not connect to the internet at all unless the router is on prior to the computer being turned on – I always have them off when not in use having come from a security background.

My work laptop will not connect to the corporate network if Vista detects two connections to the network. Because I use a docking station, disabling the wireless card also resolved the problem.

Finally, a friend’s computer would not connect to her ISP, even though an XP machine did instantly. Putting in static rather than dynamic TCP/IP settings, issued from her router, resolved the problem immediately.

Emma Taylor

Being green makes business sense

James Woudhuysen suggested that the race for green IT is a fad that is narrowing the ambition of those in the industry (Race to be green saps creative energy, 31 March).

For Rackspace, developing a green agenda not only makes environmental sense but also economic and business sense. We have designed our new datacentre to our own specifications to enable us to incorporate the latest ideas in datacentre management, including zoned cooling – a more efficient and greener way to cool such a facility. Power will be drawn from the Slough Heat and Power energy centre, which uses wood chips and fibre fuel, both renewable biomass energy sources.

It is in our interests and the interests of our customers to work with suppliers to improve the energy efficiency of equipment and to seek out reliable, low-cost sources of power that also benefit the environment.

Doug Loewe, Rackspace