[vox-tech] Legal Ethics Tech Question

[Tony Cratz]

Bob:

Bob Scofield wrote:
> I'm studying everyone's responses, and checking some stuff out on the 
> Internet.  I'm leaning toward buying a commercial disk encryption program and 
> a firewall.  I can now see that my laptop should be encrypted regardless of 
> whether I am using a wireless connection.

	I'm glad to see you are planning on taking steps to protect your
	client data on your laptop.

	Now let me throw a few more things to think about:

	What about the clients data in your office. Are you protecting
	your client data there? Is it encrypted?

	What happens if someone breaks into your office and steal your
	firms computers?

	Do you use an outside person or firm to repair your firms
	computers? Have you heard of the news where a chain store
	employee copied personal pictures of the family and put them
	up on the Internet? Why was the employee looking through the
	file system?

	Who does the cleaning of the building? Have their background
	been checked by *your* firm? If not, why not?

	How about your home? Do you have any client data on your home
	computer?

	What have you done with your old computers? How about their
	hard drives?
<personal note>
A friend of mine was over in Napa when another person dropped off their
computer for recycling. My friend asked if he could have the computer
instead. He came away with the computer and we found the hard drive
was NOT wripped clean of data. My friend (against my objections) spent
time looking at the data on the hard drive. After about 15 minutes I was
able to get him to wipe the drive.
</personal note>

	One of the newer laws requires a company to notify ALL of their
	clients if their data is obtained by anyone outside the company.
> 
> I appreciate people responding to a legal ethics question that they otherwise 
> would not be interested in.  So a specific "Thank You" to Tony, Alex, Bill 
> Broadley, and Brian.

	You are more then welcome. Security is an area which a lot of
	people do not think about.

							Tony