(re) blog: dialogue with Redemtech

60 Minutes Showcase on Spying Hints at Dirty Secret: E-waste Contains Classified Data

An interesting story on last Sunday’s 60 Minutes program showcased a pervasive foreign spying threat against the United States. In the program, U.S. government officials identified China as one of the top threats to our nation’s information security. But it’s clear the threat goes far beyond national security.

Dog Days of Summer Suggest a Busy 2011

With the annual Labor Day holiday fast approaching, it seems like a good time for me to slow down and take stock of what’s been an unusually busy summer. The pace of the last three months—the surge of proposals we’ve been sending out and the high volume of inquiries we’ve fielded—suggest that many companies are beginning to take a hard look at investing in IT asset management systems after more than two tough years of what’s being called the Great Recession.

(re) newal at Redemtech

Sometimes you get lucky. Sometimes you have to grab with both hands and hang on for dear life.

It was just about this time two years ago when the opportunity to write Green IT For Dummies came my way. Despite swearing I’d never write a book again, this book felt too important to ignore. It needed to be written and I knew that if I agreed to write it, it would get written, and so I agreed. Writing nights and weekends with a lot of help from co-authors and contributors, we had a manuscript together in several months. By April 2009, the book was in print.

The Curious Case of Donating IT Equipment

For several years, TechSoup Global has been working on the strangely difficult problem of increasing the volume of five-year-old-and-newer computers donated to our Refurbished Computer Initiative (RCI) program and other refurbishers that supply IT equipment to schools, nonprofits and low-income families.

Three Reasons Why Prof. Eric Williams has It Wrong About a Ban on E-waste Exports

Prof. Eric Williams, a professor in the department of civil and environmental engineering in the School of Sustainability at Arizona State University in Tempe, recently wrote an article titled Three Reasons Why a Ban on e-Waste Exports is Wrong in Discovery News. The gist of this article is:

• Given the increased use of electronics, the problem of e-waste is bound to get worse.
• But trade bans can cut jobs and push recycling to the black market.

Prof. Eric Williams' analysis is wrong in three areas. I reprint each of his faulty statements below and provide an alternative analysis.

HIPAA Violations Could Cost $834 Million

A week and a half ago when I wrote a blog about the excessive number of data breaches occurring at healthcare organizations, I wondered how much of a financial impact these incidents had on the entire industry.

What It’s Like on the Back Page

Hidden behind the grander story of the recent BP oil well disaster in the Gulf of Mexico was another environmental catastrophe that did not gain much attention. A pipeline owned by Canadian-based Enbridge Energy Partners ruptured on July 25 in southern Michigan, pouring an estimated 1 million gallons of crude oil into the Kalamazoo River and devastating the natural environment along at least a 30-mile stretch of once-pristine marshes. Environmental officials predict long-term damage to the habitat for ducks, geese, swans, herons, muskrats and frogs, and the insects and mussels that are the base of the food chain, which have been suffocated by the oil.

Healthcare Organizations Grieved by Data Breaches Should Take a Lesson from Vaudeville

There’s a gray-bearded joke that probably started in vaudeville where a man goes to see a doctor, flapping his arms like a chicken and complaining of pain.

“Doc,” the man exclaims. “It hurts when I do this.”

The doctor replies: “Then stop doing that!”

That old chestnut would actually apply to the healthcare industry today as issues of data security become more serious and, unfortunately, more common.

Keeping An Eye on Technology Costs During Downsizing

We’re just beginning to emerge from an historic slowdown in the economy, a season in which many companies, large and small, have unfortunately had to pare their workforces. For some, that has also meant having to close facilities.

Futurama Gives E-waste Its Due

Art often mimics reality, especially in an age when animated television programs such as The Simpsons and South Park often poke fun at what’s happening in the world around us. Futurama, now seen on Comedy Central, has ventured where no modern animated series has gone before by poignantly illustrating the global e-waste crisis in a recent episode.