Summary:
The illicit transgressions by Enron and those alike in the late 1990s, lead to regulations created to standardize the trustworthiness of financial institutions and public companies. Companies facing SOX compliance will need to consider the following: what are the best practice processes, how do these processes differ from existing practices, how should new processes be implemented, and how can short term processes be balanced with longer "term strategic goals?"
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A World Before SOX:
The enterprise world had a rude awakening after a series of well-publicized corporate financial scandals. Many stories of misappropriated corporate dollars surfaced in the late 1990s involving the likes of Enron, Tyco and WorldCom. Legislation soon responded to the multitude of gross transgressions committed by the upper echelon management of the enterprise world.
Offenses committed by these industry heads ranged from extravagant multi-million dollar trips to exotic locals, large private gifts to spouses and shuffling company funds to bankroll other investments. The corporate world needed to be held accountable for its misdeeds. SOX (Sarbanes-Oxley Act) or the Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act of 2002 came into fruition to improve corporate governance and help police possible future misdeeds.
The 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires publicly traded entities to define, evaluate and document processes which lead to senior management accountability. SOX requires that audits or substantial verification controls must be in place to ensure senior management is held culpable for their financial actions.
Why Should Privately Held Businesses Care About SOX?
While SOX applies directly to publicly traded companies, those privately held businesses who wish to do business with businesses traded on places like the NASDQ must also become Sarbanes-Oxley compliant.
Many large public corporations will simply refuse to do business with privately held companies who are not SOX compliant. Private firms who want to do business with large public entities are now also thrown into a SOX compliant landscape .
SOX affects a broad range of industries who "touch" information of those traded firms, they include and are not limited to:
Acceptance of SOX by private companies is not an issue, as "73% of private company CEOs said SOX has done at least a decent job of improving financial governance and transparency for public companies."(1)
Who's Responsible for SOX Communication Compliance?
SOX requires incoming and outgoing correspondence be monitored. Depending on the business's structure, communication exchanges can be monitored by the Chief Compliance Officers (CCOs) Chief Information Officers (CIOs) and Chief Risk Officers (CROs). These executives are responsible for the security, accuracy and the reliability of the organization's reporting and messaging systems.
Well-groom organizations have policies set in place by their high level primary officers outlining what sorts of information may or many not be communicated outside a department and outside the organization. While these rules exist, firms often don't take the necessary steps to make sure employees within the organization understand these rules, and their importance.
What are the Key Elements of SOX Which Relate to Electronic Data Storage and E-mail Security?
The Sarbanes-Oxley Act focuses on corporate governance, accountability and the reporting practices of publicly held companies. Yet the act also impacts private firms that one day might become public and those who do business with publicly traded companies.
What are the Holes in Your SOX Compliance?
While sharing information online is a convenient luxury of e-commerce, it also creates a great vulnerability as information, data and correspondence are traded from business to business. Data and email exchange can pose both SOX compliance and privacy concerns.
This errant misuse of company information isn't exclusive to U.S. companies. Staff at 18% of large UK firms gained unauthorized access to information during 2005, the report says. Nine per cent of those large firms saw staff misuse restricted information.(2)
How Can Your Firm Sew Up its SOX Holes?
Executive management seeking to be SOX compliant must have the fortitude and commitment to strategic planning and execution to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act's directives. The firm's CEO, CFO, CCO/CRO and CIO must cooperate and have demanding attention to detail when establishing policies to be SOX compliant. The need for creating and implementing strong electronic data and email retention policies and compliance in line with SOX has never been greater than in today's fluxing electronic business world.
Email is not necessarily secure against interception. Whether or not email is encrypted in transmission depends on your software. It is therefore our policy not to send emails to you that contain identifiable information about you, your household, or business.
Andy Purdy, acting director of the National Cyber Security Division of the Department of Homeland Security in a 2006 interview with CNET identifies the importance in protecting a company's important digital assets:
Before Sarbanes-Oxley, corporations saw a gross abuse of executive power at the cost of earnest growth in business. Today, stiff criminal and civil penalties for violations of securities law will be instituted against companies who do not meet SOX standards.
How can private firms flourish in today's email reliant arena, while being SOX compliant. Introducing strong compliance policies in line with SOX which include firewalls, up-to-date virus protection, encryption and email anti-theft measures can help a business work cooperatively with publicly traded companies.
Benefits of Email Anti-Theft Sofware
Implementing email anti-theft allows a company to grow in credibility, reputation and trust; all factors which lead to increased clientele and revenue.
With security measures to keep company correspondence as well as protect outbound email, SMB firms can be both prudent with their technology budgets and well-armed with the tools and resources necessary to be industry compliant. Clients will feel more secure about sharing their personal information with compliant SBM offices, paving the way to better and safer communication.
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End Notes:
1.) Rob Preston "Time to Regulate the Regulations" Information Week, 27 February, 2006, 78.
2.) BBC News, "Firms lax on ID theft safeguards" 16 March 2006, BBC Online; URL:
3.)Joris Evers, "Newsmaker: Locking down America's Net defenses" 16 February 2006, CNet New.com - []
There is a growing concern in the world today as obesity takes over. We are seeing more and more health problems due to obesity and a big concern and a critical one is Fertility.
There have been reports that people who are obese may have fertility problems, one example is that men may have low sperm count.
Women who are overweight or obese have greater health concerns. The health of the mother and the child are at risk. The following are some of the risk, they may suffer.
1. infrequent menstrual cycles leading to increase risk of infertility.
2. increased or higher incident of miscarriages.
3. greater risk of high blood pressure which can further lead to heart problems for the mother or lead to fetal distress.
4. greater incident of developing diabetes during pregnancy.
5. greater incident of having high birth weight infants.
6. increase of high birth weight infants, leads to increase risk of Cesarean section.
7. increase risk of having birth defects.
Another huge concern today is the health risk involved in having IVF treatments when obese.
The BBC News reported - "The British Fertility Society is recommending women with a body mass index of 36 and over should not be allowed access to fertility treatment."
However the NHS (National Health Service) guidelines say "overweight women should be advised of potential health risk but don't ban the treatment".
The health risk, for obese women during fertility surgery, is the concern that when extracting the egg, due to the excess fat, this excess fat may push the ovaries up higher, therefore making it harder for the needle to reach the ovaries to extract the eggs. As well, during the surgery the needle is guided by using a scan. It may be difficult to get a clear image of the ovaries as having to scan through excess fat which impedes the scan.
Couples who want to start a family or have children but wish to have more, but have become overweight or obese, should look at improving their health and weight, before trying to conceive. To avoid disappointment and frustration trying to get pregnant, it is better to combat your weight and the best way is to look at a lifestyle change rather than a diet.
By understanding your body, what foods cause you to gain weight and which ones help you to lose weight, as well as understanding portion size and when to feed your body, will help you in the years to come rather than a quick fix.
Be healthy, not only for yourself, but for your family. Your children will want to have healthy happy parent and enjoy a full lifetime with them.
A good program can be found at mnb-weightlossprogram.com