Thursday, March 06, 2008 Ng: Protect your files, yourself By Wilson Ng Wired Desktop
BEFORE having your desktop or your notebook repaired, consider what happened to a Hong Kong movie star as a warning.
Young and handsome movie star Edison Chen, who is also a good singer, had his notebook repaired. In his notebook were private photos showing him in bed with several famous celebrities and movie starlets.
Apparently, and without his knowledge, the repair technicians saw the photos and made copies of these. After a few weeks, the photos started to appear in websites, and scandal after scandal followed.
The star in the Walt Disney movie, “High School Musical,” she was also a victim of such. She had some very compromising photos of herself and this was sent via private e-mail to somebody close. Before long, the photos started appearing in the Internet.
What is important to know is that information is very easy to replicate nowadays, and many people have become victims of text messages or e-mail that end up in the wrong mail boxes.
If technology has created a problem, it also offers a solution.
One of the features of the new Windows Vista (available in some editions) is bitlocker technology. It encrypts your files so that if your notebook falls into the wrong hands, (whether it is being stolen or repaired), your sensitive data will be kept private.
But while technology helps, you should be careful about giving your notebook to other people if you have confidential data.
EXODUS OF WORKERS. Certainly, it is not good that the dream of almost every Filipino is still to work abroad, where they believe they will have better pay. Many companies I know have invested a lot in training people only to watch them resign and go overseas. The exodus of Filipino workers discourages many companies from spend large sums of money for training.
This was why I was interested in the programs of the Commission on Higher Education (Ched) and Department of Science and Technology (DOST). Ched and DOST train deserving students and give them scholarship.
Before accepting the scholarship, the students are made to accept the condition that they have to work in the country for a certain number of years before they can entertain plans to go abroad.
The way I understand it, DOST and Ched have the cooperation of the Department of Foreign Affairs to ensure that scholars, still under obligation, will not be issued passports or are covered by a hold departure order issued by the Bureau of Immigration.
If private companies can be allowed to do the same for workers, more companies would be encouraged to invest in human resource training.
But the arrangement on government scholars worked against our company. I had an employee whom we planned to send overseas for training. On the day of his departure, he found out that he had a hold departure order. Upon investigation, we found out that the hold order was from Ched, and we did not understand why.
Later, we found out that he had applied for Ched scholarship, but while he did not proceed with it, a hold departure order was issued against him. Believe it or not, it took us five days to have the hold departure order lifted. He was finally able to go but after so much delay and costs.
This proves a good idea can become a bad one if abused or not properly implemented.
