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Internet: Rewiring the Brain? Or Just Evolving?

By Thomas M. Stockwell

A recent article in Wired Magazine by Author Nicholas Carr: The Web Shatters Focus, Rewires Brains is talking about the impact of the Internet and the World Wide Web on our abilities to focus our brains. The point of the article is that, as we access the Internet to gain information, we’re shattering our abilities to retain that information. The impact of Internet access on our minds is being studied at a number of institutions and the outcome of these studies is still inconclusive and mixed. For instance, one study at UCLA resulted in an article entitled “First-time Internet users find boost in brain function after just one week”

FTP Best Practices

In my previous posts I've tried to identify why FTP - as used by many organizations today - is such a security issue. The protocol is old, and the implementations of security normally used don't stand up in B2B transactions.

In this post I'm going to talk about the ideal FTP implementation for a small to medium-sized organization where FTP is used to communicate information between business partners.

Deploy a System-wide, Comprehensive, and Configurable Methodology for File Transfers

In the past IT had no system-wide approach to file exchange: FTP alone was considered to be enough to get the job done.

But today, as business-to-business transfers proliferate, it’s time for IT to deploy a strategy that meets the overall requirements of security, flexibility, and ease-of-use.

Here are some basic guidelines that can help IT devise this strategy.

How to Begin a Search for Secure File Transfers

The manner by which businesses are using FTP needs to be reexamined and strengthened. But how should IT begin?

The first step is to examine how FTP is being used in your organization.

What kinds of sensitive data is being sent or retrieved over FTP?
Where do the FTP client applications currently reside?
What are the reasons for distributing FTP functions (if any) to personal computers or departmental servers?
Where are FTP scripts being used on personal computers and departmental servers?
Which business applications have embedded FTP functions or scripts?

This are the basic questions that must be answered, and they will require that IT do a thorough investigation. It's almost impossible to develop a comprehensive security policy for the use of FTP without this investigation. And, since every personal computer in the organization has FTP capability -- and indeed many generic PC applications have embedded FTP functionality (including browser applications, some spreadsheet applications, etc.) -- the examination of how FTP is actually used is bound to create some heat for IT.

Nonetheless, the answers to these and other investigative questions will help you understand the breadth of the security and management problems facing your organization with FTP.

So what are the next steps?