The Ant and the Contact Lense
June 15, 2010
Brenda was almost halfway to the top of the tremendous granite cliff. She was standing on a ledge where she was taking a breather during this, her first rock climb. As she rested there, the safety rope snapped against her eye and knocked out her. ‘Great’, she thought. ‘Here I am on a rock ledge, hundreds of feet from the bottom and hundreds of feet to the top of this cliff, and now my sight is blurry.’
She looked and looked, hoping that somehow it had landed on the ledge. But it just wasn’t there.
She felt the panic rising in her, so she began praying. She prayed for calm, and she prayed that she may find her contact lens.
When she got to the top, a friend examined her eye and her clothing for the lens, but it was not to be found. Although she was calm now that she was at the top, she was saddened because she could not clearly see across the range of mountains. She thought of the bible verse ‘The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth.’
She thought, ‘Lord, You can see all these mountains. You know every stone and leaf, and You know exactly where my contact lens is. Please help me.’
Later, when they had hiked down the trail to the bottom of the cliff they met another
party of climbers just starting up the face of the cliff. One of them shouted out, ‘Hey, you guys! Anybody lose a contact lens?’
Well, that would be startling enough, but you know why the climber saw it? An ant was moving slowly a
cross a twig on the face of the rock, carrying it!
The story doesn’t end there. Brenda’s father is a cartoonist. When she told him the
incredible story of the ant, the prayer, and the contact lens, he drew a cartoon of an ant lugging that contact lens with the caption, ‘Lord, I don’t know why You want me to carry this thing. I can’t eat it, and it’s awfully heavy. But if this is what You want me to do, I’ll carry it for You.’
I think it would do all of us some good to say, ‘God, I don’t know why You want me to carry this load. I can see no good in it and it’s awfully heavy. But, if You want me to carry it, I will.’
God doesn’t call the qualified, He qualifies the called.
How a Security Response Plan Can Help Your Business Expect the Unexpected
May 24, 2010
by Lesley Fair
Taking steps to protect personal information in your files and on your computer can go a long way toward preventing a security breach. Nevertheless, breaches can happen. That’s why the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recommends that companies have a plan in place to respond to security incidents before they occur. Putting together a “What if?” action strategy now may help reduce the impact an information breach can have on your business, your employees, and your customers.
Here are some tips from the FTC about customizing your company’s security response plan.
- View from the top. Senior management sets the tone for any organization’s commitment to data security. That’s why drafting, coordinating, and implementing your company’s response plan isn’t a job for a newcomer. Designate a well-respected senior official to head up your response team. Select someone with a reputation for working well with every part of your operation — sales, financial, personnel, information technology, etc. — and give him or her a “hot line” to the head of the company.
- Put a plan in place. Once you’ve put together your response team, have them draft contingency plans for how your business will respond to different kinds of security incidents. Some threats may come out of left field; others — a lost laptop or a hack attack, to name just two — are unfortunate, but foreseeable.
- Trust your gut. Experience sharpens intuition. If your staff suspects a breach, investigate it immediately. Waiting days to convene a committee or “run it up the corporate flagpole” can waste precious time.
- Pull the plug. If you suspect a computer breach, immediately sever the compromised computer’s access to the Internet and to your network. To assess the impact, ask your IT staff to preserve any available network logs, file transfer logs, system logs, and access reports. Investigate if intruders opened files or placed new programs on your computer. Did they release viruses or other malware? By diagnosing the damage and retracing the fraudsters’ steps, you can help your company shore up unanticipated vulnerabilities.
- Making contact. Consider whom to inform in the event of an incident, both inside and outside your company. You may need to notify consumers, law enforcement agencies, customers, credit bureaus, and other businesses that may be affected by the breach. In addition, about 40 states have laws addressing data breaches. Have that information on file before you need it.
For more information, read Protecting Personal Information: A Guide for Business.
Lesley Fair is an attorney in the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection who specializes in business compliance.
