Bizzy’s Biz Links of the Day (062105)

Business items worth noting today (some links require registration and/or subscription):

Data Breach Specific Still Being Kept Under Wraps

It stunning (to me) that more about the compromise of 40 million credit card account numbers isn’t known to the general public yet. The Eweek column notes that “only” 200,000 accounts out of the 40 million appear to be at high risk.

There does seem to be a more general concern emerging about third-party processors like Card Systems, where the breach occurred:

While companies that handle sensitive data may have shored up their own network defenses, they often fail to follow the data trail and consider the security of third-party companies they partner with, Gibbons (a security official at another company) said.

“My sense is that companies haven’t thought this through from a protection point of view—they haven’t done real clear thinking about how to protect sensitive data and what do when incidents occur,” he said.

MasterCard said it intends to take a “close look” at third-party processors and is recommending that the U.S. government expand the reach of data privacy laws such as Gramm-Leach-Bliley to cover third-party processors that deal directly with consumers, Locke said.

This does seem to validate some of the general concerns expressed by many privacy advocates over the past few years about outsourcing certain sensitive functions.

The Big Two respond very differently to difficult times

BizzyBlog wrote a pretty thorough piece about Ford’s and GM’s troubles in late April and predicted that Ford had a legacy of union-management cooperation from its late-1970s problems that would help it through it current troubles, while GM, which is going through its first crisis of continued existence, will have a much more difficult time.

It turns out that the two companies are indeed responding differently:

• GM is offering their employee discount to everyone until July 5, a top-down, one size fits all approach.
• In another top-down move, GM is giving the union until the end of the month to agree to cut UAW members’ health benefits.
• Ford, on the other hand, is putting power in its employees’ hands by making each and every one of them a salesperson (link requires free registration):
  

  Ford workers learned of their company’s incentive offer in an e-mail message Wednesday, company spokesman Jon Harmon said. It runs through Sept. 30.

  “If every employee and retiree helps sell just one more vehicle, it would account for over 300,000 sales and an additional two points of market share,” Ford Vice President Steve Lyons said in the e-mail.

  Employees or retirees will get $50 for the first customer they draw. They get $75 for the second, $100 for the third, $150 each for the fourth through seventh and $175 for the eighth, he said.

  “The response so far has been positive from employees,” Harmon said.

People Downloading (i.e., stealing) Movies Will Not Be Pleased with This

Bit Torrent loses its virginity, so to speak, as a torrent of spyware often comes along for the ride. Some would call it poetic justice. I would just call it a reason not to download movies.