@Risk

Commercial transportation fleet owners need to better screen and qualify drivers in order to ensure compliance with new federal initiatives, according to the LexisNexis 2011 Commercial Driver Safety Report released last week.

The study revealed several troubling trends indicating a growing gap between compliance and safety programs.  For instance, the research found that commercial driver applications with incomplete or inaccurate information increased 20 percent in 2011, reaching 31.42 percent, up from 11.78 percent in 2010.

In addition, commercial drivers’ motor vehicle reports (MVRs) with adverse findings, which can indicate one or more violations (such as a revoked license), are consistently increasing steadily year after year –rising from 48.2 percent in 2008 to 50.33 percent in 2011.

And, with regard to drug testing: (more…)

Last month, I reported that many companies are struggling to keep pace with the compliance and risk policies necessary for effective social media governance.

Now, HP has released new global research indicating that organizations also face increased threats from an even more fundamental policy and procedures issue: poor control and oversight of sensitive and confidential workplace data.

According to the new study conducted by the Ponemon Institute, many companies say they have well-defined policies for individuals with privileged access rights to specific IT systems. However, almost 40 percent were unsure about enterprise-wide visibility into specific rights, or whether those with privileged access rights met compliance policies.

The survey, which focused on more than 5,000 IT operations and security managers across the US, the UK, Australia, Brazil, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Italy, Japan, Korea, Singapore and Spain, also found that: (more…)

Human rights and labor standards risks for companies and investors are increasing on a global scale, according to a new study from the risk analysis and mapping company Maplecroft.

The fifth annual Human Rights Risk Atlas (HRRA) found that nearly half (48 percent) of the 197 countries studied now pose ‘extreme’ or ‘high’ risks of corporate complicity in rights violations. All told, citizens in 95 countries are now exposed to human rights violations by states –that’s a 6 percent increase in countries posing ‘extreme’ or ‘high’ risks to business and investors since 2010.

What’s the reason behind the increase in human rights and labor standards risk? Maplecroft cites three main factors:

• the violent crackdown on protesters by security forces during the Arab Spring uprisings,
• an emerging set of resource scarcity challenges for business, linked to large scale ‘land grabs’ in developing countries by foreign investors, aimed at increasing food, water and energy security at home, and
• the global economic recession continued to challenge the rights of workers and has resulted in a trend for the trafficking of migrant workers for forced labor in countries such as Malaysia, Russia, South Africa and UAE.

Here is Maplecroft’s ranking of the ten countries where there’s the most extreme risk for human rights violations: (more…)

Many companies are focused on emerging markets to fuel growth. But in order to achieve success, these companies typically must clear numerous –and sometimes daunting –hurdles.

For example, Deloitte recently surveyed business leaders from companies expanding into developing economies. They said their primary challenges to increasing revenues in emerging markets are:

• providing products and services at affordable prices that meet customer needs (43 percent)
• competition from local businesses (40 percent)
• brand awareness in the market (40 percent)
• navigating protectionist policies and government bureaucracy (39 percent)

Clearly, each individual business situation is different, and so each company that eyes expansion into emerging markets must carefully weigh options and design strategies around the special requirements of each country’s consumer and regulatory environments.

The Deloitte study found companies with successful emerging markets operations implement certain strategies to generate revenue. They: (more…)

How careful are employees when it comes to IT security?

Apparently, most aren’t careful, at all. What’s more, most aren’t really concerned whether or not IT policies are followed.

Take a look at these survey results. IT security expert Avira polled nearly 1,000 of its users in September and found that:

• Only 38.95 percent of those participating in the study said they adhere to security policies designed to protect their company.
• About the same amount (35.42 percent) admitted there are security policies in place at their business, but that they didn’t feel that anyone really cared whether those policies were followed or not.
• The remaining 25.63 percent said they see security as a system administrator’s responsibility and not an employee concern. (more…)