 Chris Foster |
GIE MEDIA NAMES NEW PRESIDENT
GIE Media Inc., Cleveland, publisher of Secure Destruction Business, has announced that Chris Foster has joined the company as President & COO. Foster, who has spent the past five years on the Board of Directors for GIE Media, rejoins the company after serving eight years in various IT and business management capacities in the New York metropolitan area.
"GIE Media is a dynamic business with a portfolio of leading B2B communication products and services. It’s a company filled with great employees and a strong management team…and I’m thrilled that Chris has returned with his great energy and talent to lead our company into the future", says GIE Media Chairman & CEO Richard Foster. "His publishing background, combined with the technology expertise he brings to the table, will be a driving force in expanding our business position as a diverse media company with a deep commitment to meet the needs of our business-to-business market customers, as well as to contribute to the quality of life of our employees and our local community."
Foster began his business career with GIE Media in 1989 upon graduation from Schiller University in Heidelberg, Germany, with degrees in international marketing and international business administration. He held several key management positions with GIE Media from 1989 to 1997, including IT operations management, general manager and CFO.
Foster left GIE Media’s full-time employment in 1997 to expand his business experience beyond the scope of the company, serving most recently as vice president of product development for InsightExpress, on online research firm. At InsightExpress he helped develop the company’s award-winning technology and had a direct and positive impact on the company’s impressive five- year growth span. In addition to his experience at InsightExpress, Foster also served as CTO for eCommerce Corp. and as a global division director of Attachmate Corp.
GIE Media Inc. has delivered award-winning, industry-leading business-to-business publications for 25 years. Among the markets served by GIE are the professional horticulture, public health, recycling, snow management and specialized manufacturing industries. GIE Media offers its clients a wide range of marketing and communication opportunities within its comprehensive group of leading magazines that include Secure Destruction Business, Recycling Today, Golf Course News, Lawn & Landscape and Pest Control Technology.
GIE Media produces 11 industry-leading publications as well as companion conferences, interactive media, and reference products. GIE Media can be found on the Web at www.giemedia.com.
WEYERHAEUSER LOCATION JOINS IPSA
Information Protection Solutions of America (IPSA), headquartered in Chicago, has announced its approval of Weyerhaeuser Co.’s Sacramento document destruction center for membership. IPSA is the largest AAA National Association for Information Destruction (NAID) certified document destruction company in the United States.
Weyerhaeuser is one of the world’s largest integrated forest products companies, and its Recycling Division is one of North America’s largest recyclers of recovered office paper, newspapers and corrugated boxes. The company collects, consumes and markets more than 6 million tons of recovered paper annually.
Like other IPSA partners, Weyerhaeuser’s Sacramento facility is a AAA-rated NAID certified facility. The plant combines advanced shredding and recycling capabilities, such as locked protection of documents before transit, padlocked trucks during transit, certificates of destruction and video verification services.
"The certification requirements for IPSA membership coincide well with our own standards for document destruction," says Dave Claugus, Weyerhaeuser Western Region Manager. "Our customers understand the importance of security when handling confidential information. And because Weyerhaeuser has a built-in need for post-consumer recovered paper, we can put our customers’ shredded documents to immediate reuse and avoid the costs and possible security issues of multiple handling."
Formed in 2004 by 26 document destruction companies, IPSA has grown to more than 54 member companies throughout the United States. IPSA helps U.S. corporations protect against fraudulent use of information and comply with new laws dealing with consumer identity theft, corporate espionage and sabotage in the workplace. IPSA also provides secure on-site and off-site shredding of paper documents and other confidential material. Highlights of the service include professionally screened, bonded and insured uniformed representatives who come to client offices and remove secure containers for either on-site or off-site shredding.
Ockenfels Assumes NAID Presidency
Chris Ockenfels of Document Destruction and Recycling Services (DDRS), Cedar Rapids, Iowa, has assumed the post as president of the National Association for Information Destruction Inc. (NAID).
Ockenfels will serve as NAID president for two years, supervising the affairs of the international trade association for companies providing information destruction services, as well as suppliers to the industry.
He has been a NAID board member for eight years, also serving as director, secretary and president-elect. Ockenfels has also served on several NAID committees, including the Complaint Resolution Council, the Government Relations Committee, the Public Relations Committee and the Certification Committee.
Ockenfels was installed as president at NAID’s Annual Conference in April, replacing John Bauknight IV of Shred First LLC, Spartanburg, S.C.
Also at the NAID Conference, Allen Judkiewicz won the ballot contest to serve as NAID’s president-elect and eventual president. Judkiewicz is with Mobile Document Shredding Ltd., Lewisville, Texas.
HIPAA NOTICES BOOST PUBLIC CONFIDENCE
Federal government regulations to protect the privacy of medical records appears to be having a positive effect in increasing public confidence that personal information will be handled properly.
The number of U.S. adults who believe that their personal medical information has been disclosed improperly has fallen, and most people who have received health privacy notices under the new regulations say this has increased their confidence that their privacy will be protected.
Those are the results of a nationwide Harris Poll of 1,012 U.S. adults surveyed by telephone between Feb. 8 and 13, 2005, by Harris Interactive. The survey was designed with Professor Alan Westin of Columbia University and the Center for Social and Legal Research.
Reports of improper disclosure of medical information have fallen sharply. In a previous survey released in 1993, fully 27 percent of U.S. adults believed that their personal medical information had been released improperly in the previous three years. In this new survey, only 14 percent believe this has happened. In both surveys, health insurers and hospitals or clinics were seen as the main culprits.
SEN. FEINSTEIN CALLS FOR NOTIFICATION
California Sen. Dianne Feinstein introduced S. 751, which calls for federal agencies and institutions engaged in interstate commerce that are in possession of personal data to disclose any unauthorized acquisition of such information, before the U.S. Senate in April. The bill is in response to recent breaches in which more than 2.5 million records may have been exposed to thieves at data broker ChoicePoint, retailer DSW, news and information broker LexisNexis and Bank of America, which lost computer data tapes for 1.2 million federal employees, including U.S. senators.
Feinstein’s S. 751, the Notification of Risk to Personal Data Act, would require government and businesses to notify individuals when there has been a security breach, which has resulted, or could result, in their personal data being compromised.
Breaches that include data such as Social Security numbers, driver’s license or state identification numbers and account, credit card or debit card numbers would require direct written or e-mail notification. In cases where notifying individuals of the breach would exceed $500,000 or 500,000 people or the institution does not have sufficient contact information for the individuals, the bill would call for substitute notice through the responsible party’s Web site and to major print and broadcast media, including major media in metropolitan and rural areas where affected individuals live. The bill also would call for media notices to include a toll-free phone number through which individuals can learn whether their personal data was included in the security breach.
S. 751 was read twice before the Senate and has been referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.
Addressing the committee, Feinstein said, "Every day as people go about their business—every time they withdraw cash from the ATM or buy groceries using a credit card or get a traffic ticket—their information is entered into these huge databases without their ever knowing about it or giving their approval."
She added, "Not doing anything is not an option. It would be criminal to expose millions of additional people to the risk of their personal information falling into the hands of those who have no right to it. This is a David vs. Goliath battle. We need a national notification standard now."
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