High-Tech Security A High-Wire Act
Source: NewsDay.com
For those charged with securing the computer systems of entities as diverse as the Metropolitan Transit Authority and Astoria Federal Savings, the job has come to combine the more challenging aspects of juggling with the potential consequences of a fall from the high-wire.
Their mission: To balance the need for higher levels of internal security with the demand for open access necessitated by the Internet - all on a tighter budget in a time of war.
With an eye on the events of Sept. 11, technology officers at the region's leading public and private sector companies have worked to batten down their computer systems. A panel of local security experts shared its updated "best practices" at a meeting last week of the Association of Information Technology Professionals.
Rise Jacobs, director of information security and corporate contingency planning at Astoria Federal, was only partly joking when she told a crowd of more than 100 local technology officers, "Don't let anybody [in your company] access the Internet."
