More Data Privacy Stats, Plus, Bell Hosts A Royal Visit

As luck would have it, more data about data privacy breaches sailed into my inbox right after I filed my last observations. I felt it worth recounting. The results are from a survey of more than 700 executives, IT managers and security officers in midsize and large enterprises. The study was conducted by Ponemon Institute on behalf of ScottScott, which is a technology services firm specializing in privacy and network security, so the agenda is obvious but no less compelling.

According to the ScottScott study, more than 85 percent of the responding organizations said they had experienced a lapse or breach in data privacy. Of those, about 43 percent had a plan in place to respond to the incident and more than 82 percent did not consult a legal counsel before responding. Moreover, almost half of these companies still don't have an encryption plan in place for mobile devices, even in the aftermath of an incident.

So, there you are.

Onto more positive and altruistic concerns. For you anglophiles out there, I learned last night that distributor Bell Microproducts in San Jose, Calif., was the recipient yesterday of a royal visit from Prince Edward. Yes, THAT Prince Edward, the queen's youngest son.

Seems Bell Microproducts CEO Don Bell shares the prince's interest in mentorship and developing the next generation of business leaders, which is something the royal supports with an awards program. The visit was intended to promote the Duke of Edinburgh's Award Young Americans' Challenge, a non-profit self-development program being supported in California, Mississippi, Maryland, Georgia and Florida. California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger got in on the action last week.

With close to 500 employees in the United Kingdom, Don Bell apparently became aware of the award last year while working there last year and was inspired to promote its principles to high-tech leaders in Silicon Valley. "Every young person, regardless of social or economic status, should have the opportunity and the choice to challenge themselves to achieve their personal best," said Bell in a statement released by the distributor.

I would be remiss if I didn't provide an update on the education-related activities being encouraged by Autodesk.

First off, the company in April received a CODIE award from the Software and Information Industry Association for its online Student Engineering and Design Community. The site, found at www.students.autodesk.com provides free downloads of Autodesk software to educators and students, subject to certain licensing restrictions. More than 75,419 students and educators have signed up for the collaborative learning community since the launch in September 2006.

Both Autodesk and its partner community have been active in education for some time. For example, Advanced Solutions, an Autodesk VAR in Louisville, Ky., in May donated $300,000 worth of Inventor Pro, the 3-D mechanical design application, to the University of Louisville. (The university is Advanced Solutions President and CEO Michael Golway's alma mater.) Mastergraphics, a Platinum Club Autodesk VAR in Madison, Wisc., is likewise sponsoring $10,000 in scholarships for high-school and middle-school students focused on creating more fuel-efficient vehicles. (The money is going to the Wisconsin Supermileage competition.) The VAR has also contributed more than $17,000 to other competitions in conjunction with Autodesk. A third Autodesk Partner, Ronald A Williams Ltd. in Richmond, Va., was involved with the software company in supporting the F1 in Schools Technology Challenge, which is an annual national competition for high-school and middle-school students in which teams research, design and manufacture scale-model Formula One race cars. Three students from Breckinridge Middle School in Virginia won the state and national competition and competed in the finals in Australia in March.

Boy, I wish school was that much fun 20 years ago! Er, maybe closer to 25.

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