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The PCI Security Standards Council (PCI SSC) released new Approved Scanning Vendor (ASV) requirements that must be followed when performing PCI ASV Scans.

by Ty Kiisel, @task - On the way home from work the other day, I stopped by the eye doc to get my eyes checked and update my prescription. After a few minutes of "Is this better?" and other miscellaneous tests to check my eye health, I wound up with a new prescription and some new lenses for my glasses. Driving into work this morning, I couldn't help but notice that I could see things a little more clearly and the glare of oncoming headlights had diminished a bit. I've worn glasses since I was fourteen years old and have come to appreciate that "visibility" is a good thing.

by Stephen Marchewitz, SecureState - Data Loss (or Leakage) Protection (DLP) has been a hot topic for a while now, and while as a concept DLP has a lot of merit, most organizations are not ready to implement.

by Ty Kiisel, @task - A friend of mine, Deanne Earle, who writes the Change Through Action blog, said in a recent post that "when employers talk about empowerment what they're really saying is they seek to encourage their staff to think for themselves, to come up with ideas, participate, and generally show initiative within a set of controls and after specific direction."

by David Sopata, SecureState - If you are in charge of IT and/or Security and you do not have that compliance and/or auditor twinkle in your eye, you might twinge each time someone says PCI, HIPAA, ISO, GLBA, SOX, or any other regulation or evil acronym that might be thrown your way. Depending on your environment and your experience with compliance, the hardest part is knowing what applies within your organization. If faced with an auditor, or even worse, a court room, you will have to show due diligence and due care. As they used to say at the end of every GI Joe cartoon: "Knowing is half the battle!" Due diligence is just that: knowing, researching, and understanding what regulations apply within your organization and how your organization complies with them. Due care is the act of implementation and remediation of issues found and showing that the proper controls are in place and are effective. Please note that this is a high level methodology to compliance. Additional assessment and expertise may be required depending on the size of the organization and what regulations were found to apply to the organization.

by Ty Kiisel, @task - When writing about and discussing project leadership with friends, colleagues and readers, I have noticed a recurring theme in some of the questions I get asked, including:

by Jason Suplita, SecureState - We have all heard the business adage that you cannot manage what you don't measure. For those in Information Security or Information Technology, this can have far-reaching implications. Without concrete data to query and present, business unit leaders are left wanting. It is difficult to grasp the importance of security or its necessity if there is nothing to back it up. A sound Metrics Program can help.

by Ty Kiisel, @task - As businesses turn to project management methodologies to manage the work done by teams in their organizations, the need to distinguish between leadership and management is becoming increasingly important. I have come to appreciate that effective organizations realize that you manage process, and lead people.

At 2:00 a.m. on Sunday, November 7, daylight saving time ends. Are you prepared? Do you really know how to set the clock on all of your gadgets?

by Ty Kiisel, @task - Forget everything you've ever learned about the Holy Grail from watching Indiana Jones or reading about King Arthur's quest. In project management, the Holy Grail is really all about accurate capacity planning and resource management.

by Daniel P. Dern - PDF, the Portable Document Format created by Adobe Systems (and released as an open standard in 1998) has become one of the more popular ways to create electronic documents that retain their look, feel and content, including text, fonts, images, layouts, and even hyperlinks, regardless of computer, OS, or application.

by Daniel P. Dern - I got an iPhone 4 in mid-August that displaced a years-old Nokia cell phone that I don't think ever had a text message sent from it. Based on my own experiences to date with the iPhone 4, here are some suggestions for using your iPhone to its best advantage. Ignore them at your peril (unless you think you know better, which, quite possibly, you do).

by Daniel P. Dern - Mobile broadband, whether for your smartphone or your notebook computer, can be a convenience or even essential.

by Ty Kiisel, @task