Technology Leaders Take Center Stage, Financial Tech
IT leaders at successful financial institutions are essential to achieving organizational goals and, therefore, must be highly attuned to the needs of the business and have the abilities to meld technology and business into a winning formula.

Keeping Secrets Secret, CSO Magazine
These new approaches to protecting the security of your sensitive data, although largely ignored, show great promise for protecting against outside attackers and malicious insiders.

2006 predictions for IT in the Financial Services sector,  IT-Director.com
This IT columnist’s financial-industry forecast for 2006 calls for crisis, combat, and exploitation arising from financial sector events.

Today's Budget, Tomorrow’s Plan, Intelligent Enterprise Magazine
To get a sense of technology priorities in 2006, this reader survey explores spending plans in 28 categories and IT adoption plans for leading-edge technologies. Security tops the trend list.

CIO priorities: 2006 To-do List, TechTarget
The CIO’s top priority is clear: Gain competitive advantages with strategic IT while taking security to the next level. The catch is cash flow – CIOs must "create business results without a significant up-front investment."

The Changing CIO Role: The Dual Demands of Strategy and Execution, CIO
This report discusses CIO survey responses on how—and why—the job has changed since the first "State of the CIO" report in 2002. For many CIOs, the strategic aspect of their jobs has become much more prominent.

The Evolving CIO, Finance Tech
Today's banking CIOs are called upon to achieve corporate objectives as partners of the business, making strategy as much a part of the job as technology, according to three industry CIOs profiled.

Compliance Laws Boosting IT budgets, TechRepublic
Corporate governance, SOX, and related compliance laws are driving IT spending by 10% to 15% according to a poll of audit, finance, and IT professionals in North America and Western Europe.

Information On Demand, Line56
This IBM white paper details the company's Information On Demand approach to information management which uses IBM tools designed to work with other databases to deliver analysis by integrating all the information throughout an organization.

Survey: Shortage of Tech Workers Ahead, BizJournal
Baby-boomer retirements and a shortage of information-technology graduates are expected to create a shortfall in the number of skilled technology workers in 2006 at a time when regulatory deadlines and long-delayed upgrades demand additional staff.

The Awful Truth About Compliance, NewsFactor Network
Despite the billions of dollars spent on compliance efforts, the consensus is that 100% compliance is "fundamentally impossible” as companies still struggle to establish viable compliance frameworks.

A for Effort,  Bank Systems & Technology
When the 9/11 Public Discourse Project -- a private group established by the 9/11 Commission -- issued its bleak final report earlier this month, the only positive news was the A-grade it awarded the government for its efforts to halt the financing of terrorist networks giving the financial services industry at least indirect recognition for its role in the war on terror.

John Dugan and the Lessons of History, ABA Banking Online
The new Comptroller of the Currency comes to the job with substantial credentials and a great deal of modern banking history; his modus operandi -- stress fundamentals of sound banking without over-regulating.

To Convergence (and Back), CSO Magazine
A converged organization is positioned to make security a functional strategy and a business opportunity with the overall goal of embedding security into business processes and executive decision-making.

Final Regulation Implementing Section 312 of USA PATRIOT Act, FDIC
FinCEN’s final regulation implementing the international correspondent banking provisions and the private banking provisions related to accounts for foreign individuals includes a key provision requiring enhanced due diligence .

Online Delivery of Banking Services: Making Consumers Feel Secure, FDIC: Supervisory Insights
To retain and attract customers, banks must create an online experience in which customers have confidence that their assets and personal information will not be compromised. Effective customer authentication is key when offering internet-based products, services, and transactions.

Interagency Guidelines Establishing Information Security Standards, Small-Entity Compliance Guide, FDIC Press Releases
Intended to help financial institutions comply with Security Guidelines, this guide summarizes obligations of financial institutions to protect customer information and illustrates how certain provisions apply. Also included are resources for assessing risks, implementing security programs, and working with outside consultants.

What Really Drives Your Strategy?, Harvard Business School Working Knowledge
Why do so many companies veer off their strategic plan? Look for a disconnect between strategy and resource allocation at the operating level, where decisions can change the de facto strategy.

Will Independent Directors Produce Good Corporate Governance?, AEI Online
That public companies should be governed by independent directors has become conventional wisdom; but , many years of academic research provide little empirical support for the idea.

Who Should Lead Compliance? CFO
Regulatory compliance is an increasingly costly and data-intensive function that requires collaboration. This study explores how finance executives view their role in regulatory compliance, overall satisfaction with their compliance capabilities, and investment priorities for compliance-related activities.

An Intro to Risk Management, TechRepublic
Everybody's talking about risk management, but do you know what it really means and how to implement it within your IT organization? This how-to guide for small businesses on a tight budget provides straight talk about establishing an IT risk management plan.

Model Governance, FDIC: Supervisory Insights
The use of models as a management tool is a significant advance for the industry; however, the models themselves represent a new source of risk. Strong governance procedures can help minimize model risk.

Best Practices in Loss Prevention, Business Finance
Taking a proactive approach to identifying and preventing losses in all forms is one of the best ways companies can protect their bottom line.

The Gain and Pain of Sarbanes-Oxley, Forbes
Despite its drawbacks and costs, SOX has helped boost shareholder confidence, and it may even boost shareholder value by helping companies operate more efficiently going forward.

Scaling COSO by Company Size - Smaller Businesses, CFO
A recently released COSO draft, while designed for smaller public companies that typically lack the in-house talent to help them embrace the criteria of the original COSO framework, has applications for larger companies as well.

The Impact of Sarbanes Oxley on Companies, Investors, & Financial Markets, Sarbanes-Oxley Compliance Journal
The cost of SOX compliance comes with a higher price tag than originally estimated by the SEC.

Survey Reveals SOX Costs Will Decline, Association for Financial Professionals
A Big Four survey on second-year implementation costs of Section 404 shows that the costs will drop substantially and identifies cost and savings factors.

IT Control Objectives for Sarbanes-Oxley, SACA® - Serving IT Governance Professionals
This ITGI publication reflects the latest thinking on this increasingly global topic and is a reference for executive management and IT control professionals evaluating an organization's IT controls as required by Sarbanes-Oxley.

Internal Attacks On IT Systems Are Surpassing External Attacks, Sarbanes-Oxley Compliance Journal
According to the third annual Global Security Survey, thirty-five (35) percent of respondents confirmed encountering attacks from inside their organization within the last 12 months.

.