Crackers.. YES, who cares about the Sick & the Elderly

Diwali has come and gone. A huge celebration for us here in India. It is family time, we clean our homes, light lamps, put up decorations, making of sweets & burst crackers, have religious ceremonies ... yes, it is festival time , a time to celebrate for all.

Unfortunately this year for Diwali , I was in hospital as my wife had undergone an operation and was in the process of recuperation. Yes a hospital where there are sick people , some critical, some recovering, some being admitted , some in pain but hey that is what a hospital is about.

On the ground floor of the hospital there is a restaurant whose owner and employees decided to burst crackers in the middle of the night .. mind you this is the hospital building itself. So lets celebrate Diwali .. burst crackers in front of the hospital. Of course the owner had a big white car and wore a white attire so it had to be some politician or some affiliation to a political party (yes, our dear politicians, our elected representatives). Hey we have a right to celebrate Diwali ... especially in front of a hospital. Lets forget the 100 odd patients who need rest , we must celebrate our festival.

A hospital is a silence zone ......but wait .. sorry this does not apply during the festivals, obviously patients of a hospital are not important and the bursting of crackers takes precedence.. who cares about the sick... this is a time of celebration isn't it !? Why should we bother , we must celebrate, shouldn't we ?

Of course you must be out of your mind object, you would be accused of not respecting the religious sentiments of people, you would incur the wrath of the "connected" citizens and probably get thrashed in the bargain .. oh how accommodating & caring we have become...

The above incident at this particular hospital want the only case, it was reported all over the city.... celebration time we call it !

For heaven's sake, something is wrong with us. !!??!!

Where has our compassion gone ? Has our civic sense flowed into our sewers and more importantly have we forgotten basic decency ... at least leave the sick alone !!!!!

Dadsee ... you were indeed a religious man ...

It been about 3 months since my dear father - in - law Jerome Rodrigues passed away. He was really not well for the last year or so and had suffered a lot. I am so sure he is now in a happier place perhaps sitting on a beach (he loved Goa) in his shorts sipping a nice chilled beer (he loved his little drink) solving his sudoku or doing his crossword puzzle. We miss him..

Anyway the real point of this thought entry was his attitude towards religion. He was a devout Catholic, went to Church & attended Mass very regularly , prayed regularly and literally knew every word of the Bible but not once in my entire association with him did I ever hear him 'spout' or 'preach' religion.

I am a Zoroastrian who has married into a Catholic family but being of a different religion never came up in a discussion with him at any point of time. It was not only the spoken word but also in his actions towards me.

He spoke about values, honesty, family, not to encourage corruption but never really initiated a discussion about one's religion, Christianity or Zoroastrianism, their differences and whether one was better than the other. Sure we could discuss particulars about a certain religion but his general outlook never included the differentiation of people based on religion.

This I think defines being religious.. here was a man so deeply into his religion, have so much faith in his religion, living by the principals as defined by his religion but never imposing it on anyone else. He considered it his own personal belief and it did not go beyond that. Live and let live always seemed to be his advice.

We don't see this too often do we ... ? Someone so orthodox & conservative yet restricting the views & beliefs to oneself and not forcefully imposing it on others.... I think he truly understood what religion stands for and I wish there were more like him. The world would be such a peaceful place.

Dadsee, if I had a glass in my hand I would say "I miss you but Cheers to you ! & let the good times rock."

Is it recession or correction ?

This is based on my experience and knowledge of the field of Information Technology and Outsourcing and so my comments are based around that set of companies.

The economic meltdown is here, the nightmare has just started, tons of companies are shutting down left right & center, thousands are being laid off and many many more expected. The year 2009 does not look good for anyone & "global recession" is the latest buzz word. All of us have to 'hunker' down and try to survive.

But let us take a re look at a couple of issues that are taking place and that are defining the term 'economic melt down'

- The Banks are not lending money, there is a cash crunch
This means that companies will have to use their own money to run their routine business and not use credit for that. Well isn't this way a business is supposed to be run ? You get loans & credit for upcoming projects, you don't usually use loans to run a supposedly sustainable business do you ? Is this recession or correction ?

- The Banks / Investors will be tight fisted and it will require proper project projections and serious due diligence for money to be invested.

Strange, so what was the criteria thus so far ?...wasn't proper project projections & serious due diligence basic criteria to get funding anyway ? Is this recession or correction ?

- Salary raise will probably be a mere 5-10% as compared to 30-40% in 2008 ?

7-10% is a well tried and tested norm for business for so many years. Everyone in the industry knew long ago that 30-40% increase yearly for salary for never be sustainable... so why the outcry now ?

- There will be continuous lay offs
It was common knowledge that most large IT companies in India are over staffed. They have so many workers on bench all the time and projects have been overestimated just so that more engineers could be billed for. The clients were paying so no one was asking. Now the clients are cutting project sizes to realistic levels and hence realistic levels of man - power. The rest will get laid off. Once why the noise ? It was all well known.. and it just catching up.

- Salaries will be restructured
Now I am surprised this is even being attributed to the recession. Anyone who has anything to do with the IT field knew the salaries were sky high and many a time just ridiculous. Even if a person did not have the experience, nor the skill and really did not deserve it , they still got mammoth salaries just to retain them... do you really think this would be sustainable over the long run ??. Salaries are going to come down to what they were supposed to be !

So would this be termed as recession or a correction. ?

I think we are just coming back to reality, we are being forced to accept one of the very basics of money... "Cut your coat according to your cloth ". Companies will now downsize to what they realistically are, their valuations will be more realistic, they wont have bloated reserves and yet use money from the bank, team sizes and project estimates will be what they are really supposed to be, salaries will be based on expertise and experience and finally we will back to "living, working & conducting business within our means."

So who is accountable ?

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Disclaimer: This post does not target any specific parent, any specific child, any specific teacher and any specific school. We as parents and our teachers try thier best but we all know it happens !
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Today we hear so much "blah blah" about accountability and corporate governance in India. We hear so much about accountability or lack of it in our public services & utilities.

Oh how we love to talk about it so lets talk about 'accountability' and lets see how accountable we hold ourselves towards something that is closer to home..."our children"

When a child does well in school, all love to take responsibility and credit for it , the parents, the teachers ...... oh how proud we all are. (we should be !!)

Ok, now lets change the equation a little bit...'the child does not do well in school', ' the child is having trouble coping with school', ' the child is getting in trouble in school'................ what are the conventional reasons you will generally hear ?

If you ask the parents... it would possibly be
"Oh the teacher is horrible", "there is so much work to do", "they just keeping having tests", "they don't correct the work or bother to do anything for the child" & so on.

If you ask the teacher... it would possibly be
"the child is not up to the mark", "the parents don't bother & expect us to do everything". "there are so many children, I cant take care of everyone", "we don't control the syllabus and have to complete it in time", " how much more do you expect us to" & so on

I am not disputing the above reasons given my both us parents and the teachers, I am just stating them, I am no judge as to whether they are wrong or right.

So let me get this straight , if the child is facing trouble in school both the parents and teachers seem to have perfectly good reasons for it and they themselves never seem to be part of it in most cases........ so my question is who takes final responsibility for it, who takes final responsibility to set it right........the child ? Are we seriously expecting the child to set it right ? Is there no one else who should be held accountable ? (oops I used the word accountable ..!!)

Reasons, excuses, you can call it what you like, but the child is in trouble, you have brought up this child, you have educated this child, shouldn't we as parents & teachers hold oursleves accountable for that child ?

I was under the impression that when we decided to have a child , it was one of our obligations to be accountable for the child's well being in heart , mind and soul . !!

I was under the impression that when one chooses the vocation of a teacher, it is one's obligation to be accountable for the child's welfare in heart , mind and soul while in school !!

Parents & Teachers together are responsbile for the child. Accountability does not mean blaming someone else and then leaving it.....

We talk about accountability in governance of the country but are we holding ourselves accountable as parents and teachers ? Perhaps lets start from there first before pointing our fingers at others.

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Disclaimer: (Before I get into trouble). This post does not target any specific parent, any specific child, any specific teacher and any specific school. But we all know it happens !
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Mamma Mia!

I know this post really has nothing to do with computer security and being a managing director of a software development firm but what the hell.. this is a personal blog and hence this entry.

After quite some time I went for a movie in a theater and it was called Mamma Mia! It was directed by Phyllide Lloyd and had a cast which included Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth , Christine Baranski and several other very talented people. It is a musical about a girl who is trying to find out who her real dad is and and the all sound tracks are based on some of the greatest ABBA songs like "I had a dream", "Mamma Mia", "Dancing Queen" , " Money Money Money" and all those wonderful yester year songs.

I LOVED the movie ! Not only was it because the sound track was so so familiar but it was a refreshing change. It was worth paying for the tickets, worth getting out on a Sunday and even worth the popcorn.

I am not the kind who really enjoys movies that might have 'gooey' & ' mushy' elements but seeing this movie gave you a HAPPY FEELING about life. Not a great movie goer or movie critic but I think the cast & crew of the movie had a great time making the movie and that it turn reflects on the audience as well which had a great time seeing the movie. The audience including me were lapping up all the movie was giving, absorbing all the emotions happily. We laughed, we clicked our fingers and swayed with the music, we felt sentimental .... everyting all together.

The story line, the cast , the music , the settings everything was just right and after a very very long time I would take the trouble of seeing this movie again !

Pune IT engineers need rain to work ....need good mud too..

It is Thursday today.. lights usually go off, but we have battery backups to last us the day so not really anything out of the blue for us. I walk into office I see one of our ex-employees sitting at one of our workstations. It is strange to see her in our office during work hours.

Is everything OK ? I enquire ?... Yes Boss .. she says .. we were given the day off as we do not have lights & we were asked to go home.

So let me get this straight .. over 100 engineers of this specific company being asked to stop work today as there is no power, no battery back up power and no diesel to run the backup gensets either. On further query I find out to my surprise that several divisions of several other IT companies have also shut down today, resulting in 1000s of man hours of loss of work due to no diesel in their gensets... whats up with these IT companies ??? Huh ?? !! hello ?? is this happening in the IT super hub of Pune ? Large Buildings ... huge jobs, great salaries.. exponential growth, ISO / CMM certifications and ......... no lights, no fuel ..no work.. go home with full pay...... is this some sort of joke ??!! We are supposed to be an IT super - power ..

Aha !!, I think to myself, I thought agriculture depended on rains.. but it looks we need rains for our IT engineers too... ! ... and why do they need the rain ? .. well there is a shortage of diesel, apparently caused due to the excessive use of backup generators by our IT companies & malls...& why is there this excessive use of backup gensets ? .. well, there have been no lights.. & why have there been no lights..well, there have been no rains.

Hence conclusion IT engineers need rain to work ....& our emails to our clients will go something like this...

Dear So & So.
This is with regards to the work we are hoping to do for you tommorrow. As soon as we get into office tommorrow, we will look out of window, check the chances of rain and of course our value added services division will include a rain dance for free..should it happen to rain, we will complete your work..
Thanking you ....
CC. NASSCOM

I had to lay off some of my most loyal staff...

Well, our company is under going some serious corporate level restructuring and focus re-evaluation. In some cases this has involved cutting down of staff.

In this process, the most difficult part of the job (and it never gets easier) is giving staff their notice and asking them to leave. This becomes even more gut wrenching when it involves staff who have been loyal, good to the company and a great asset to the focus which unfortunately does not have any relevance now.

Yes, this is business and I have to make decisions so that it continues to run but times like this just do not seem to be fair for these employees.. they have been good for the company and they are being asked to leave for no fault of theirs. It is the company and the management who are responsible finally. Sure this is the "nature of business" but is it right to do this under the guise of "This is business and it is all about bottom line". ?

Just because they don't contribute to the bottom line currently, are they to be cast off as redundant.? We wouldn't have dared to lay them off when they were contributing to the bottom line earlier but we do it just the same today as such is "the nature of business". But is that correct or am I just getting emotional unnecessarily. ?

I know we have taken care of them as they have taken care of us. They have worked for us and we have paid them for the effort but we all know it is not as simple as that. As the years go by , you tend to treat them more as friends than as employees, you tend to bank on them more, you tend to take their advice more often, you involve them more and make them feel more than just employees and then suddenly one day you decide its time to "lay them off" as such is the "nature of business". I wonder "Is that right , it that correct ? "

People often say that you don't come to office to make friends or enemies , to trust people or not to trust people. You come to office to get your work done and go home leaving it all behind in the evening. Surely its not simple as that if you are with a organization for a couple of years. You make friends, your loyalty increases for the company, you not only work for the money but also for the company. You might even take on more work and extra duties with the belief that the company requires it and yet due to the demands of the so called "bottom line" and "corporate re-structuring" one day suddenly you are to be laid of. Is that correct ?

I am not saying that when I employed people , I guaranteed them employment for a life - time. They all know what they were getting into. They all signed a agreement which clearly stated that they would be given "1 months notice" in case of termination and sure I have given extra re numeration to several of them when I asked them to leave so that they can find another job without too much financial strain but my question still remains the same...

"I did what I had to do for the company bottom line and such is the nature of business but was it correct to do so ?"

The privalege not to make payments on time...

It has been about 15 years in the business of software development for me and yet I am still not able to fathom this basic question..

Why do most clients have the privilege not to pay in time while supplier/vendors are expected to deliver on time. ??

Now those in business will always say you must to a client audit and ensure that you do work only for clients who pay on time..ask for a 100% advance... C'mon give me a break, I am sure all of us have clients who still don't pay on time and we continue to service them in fear of loosing business.

Of course the excuses they give for not paying on time is even better like

"I made the payment but I don't know why the bank has not processed it"
"I will make the payment within 24 hours"
"My Accountant is out of station and the payment could not be processed"
"It will sent by the beginning of next week"

One of my best ones being 'silence' and no correspondence from the client at all, suddenly out of the blue his email has gone kaput or he is out of town. Oh, of course the much used excuse in recent times.. "I have not been paid so I cant pay you ..." ...... hey who gives a sh#@# whether you have been paid or not , we need to be paid, we also have a business to run.

As the grey hair increase on my head I look at these clients with disdain and a certain amount of disgust but have enough of a sense of humour to laugh at their pathetic excuses. They just use the vendors / suppliers money either to increase their cash flow or fund their so called business initiative. It is the vendor / supplier who should take credit for running his business. These "late payment as a strategy" clients just have no shame.. yes I know this is business but business is based on 'respect for money and who it is owed to & owned by'.

Of course to be fair we have also had clients who hired us for our programming services and have paid on time every time but they have been to few & far between. God Bless them :-). They ensure some credibility of this industry.

Compared to the state of payments for our programming services, I love it when customers buy our software product USB CopyNotify! instead, they have to pay in FULL for it before they can use the full version. What a feeling it is..being paid up front , on time for good work done. It makes all the effort worth it.

We are reducing the size of the company & consolidating.

The software scenario in India is fast changing and some of it has not been good for the small offshore software development services companies like ours. Rising salaries, retention problems, massive competition, clients not paying on time, some clients not paying at all have just some of the reasons that forced me to realize that we just cant survive this way and the end in our current state was near.

Also one of my biggest mistakes was not to specialize in a domain hence not adding premium to my services and not having any differentiation from the 1000s of other software companies doing the same thing. All we offered were programming services in environments such as vc++, c, c++, .NET etc irrespective of domain. We should have been offering specialized services in banking, insurance, embedded systems, some specific domain, some niche offering.. Anyway hindsight is always 20/20 and nothing can change the past.

We have reduced the size of our team, continued our programming services only to a selected few clientele and have also decided to concentrate on the development and marketing of our end point security solution USB CopyNotify!. I think our only chance of survival is to offering programming services only in a particular niche areas as well as taking care only of our long term loyal clients, trouble shooting consultancy and to forge ahead into software product development. We have tons of experience in product development but all this while it was for somebody else now we are doing it for ourselves.

After 15 years of having our focus only on offshore programming services based on programming environment, this is a very radical change for us but this is the only way to go otherwise it is curtains for us.

and then she touched my feet ....

For those who are not acquainted with Indian traditions & customs, the action of touching someone's feet is considered as a mark of respect for an elder. It also could be a mark of respect as shown by a student to a teacher in appreciation for the impartment of knowledge.

A couple of days ago, I had a software engineer resigning from her post in our company for better prospects. She was a good engineer and I was confident she would do well in her new job. Just before she left , I spoke to her and I gave my new pence of advice of what she was good at and what she needs to work on. It had been a good association but it was time to part ways. She then came upto me and touched my feet and said "thank you for everything".

This simple action came as a jolt out of the blue for me. This is the second time this has happened to me , the first being one of my senior engineers giving me this respect. Both times I have not known how to react and both times I am reminded of the immensity of the responsibility that we as employers/bosses/managers carry on our shoulders. This is the responsibility of not only ensuring that our people work well and get their projects done on time, within budget and of the quality required but also ensuring the growth of these youngsters both as a good engineers and more importantly as a good people. Once they step into our offices it becomes our responsibility also to mentor them, to groom them and work on building their self confidence.

When they step out of CygNET, they step out as better people and better engineers and that if nothing else I do believe this has been something I have always been able to achieve. They have learnt to respect their abilities, their work, their team mates and their clients. My engineers have always stepped out of CygNET as self confident and technically good engineers and more importantly I hope as better human beings.

Lately, our company has not been doing well at all for a variety of reasons and all sorts of thoughts crosses one mind when in a situation of adversity. You tend to question the level success of running a business and whether all the effort has been worth it.

Well thinking of these 2 your engineers , I do believe I have achieved a certain degree of success. During their tenure at CygNET , I have been able to touch their lives , I have been able to make them grow both professionally & technically and in return I have been awarded the respect that they would reserve for one own family only. This doesnt happen to everyone.

I think that is a achievement in itself.

Energy Conservation in a small office is not as difficult as it seems....

According to me it has only been recently that issues such as energy conservation, effects of global warming, saving the earth etc. are really been taken more seriously by the small business office. Better late than never I would say.

We are all to blame for this as we all felt that as small business owners there was not much we could do and very conveniently left this responsibility to our governments hoping their agreements and efforts of decreasing the release of green house gases by the industrialized & developing nations as well as stopping the deforestation in South America would be some of things that would really solve the problem.

But if given a thought seriously all of us could really contribute to saving the earth and conserving energy in our own little way.

How do we conserve energy in a small office ?

1. Switch off Lights, Fans & Air Conditioners when not in use
More often that not, we leave electrical equipment such as lights, fans and ACs on even when there is no - one in the room/cabin. It could be that all have gone for lunch or for a meeting so if there is a room that is empty and and not in use it really makes no sense to leave the lights, fans or ACs of that room on. Not only would you be conserving energy but also reducing your electricity bill.

2. Those 24 X 7 Lights in the toilets and washrooms.
This is one place where I have always noticed that the lights are always on. Why do you need a light on in the toilet and the wash room when not in use ?

3. Printers , Printers & Printers
Switch on the printers only when you need to take print outs. It will give you some exercise too if it is not next to your desk. No need to leave it on the whole day.

4. Switch off computers when not in use.
I have seen so many employees so often leave their computers on when they leave for the day or perhaps when they go for lunch / tea. Switch off the inactive computer or put it into hibernate as this would definitely help in the conservation of energy.

I had noticed this so often in my office that I decided to add Save Energy Alert feature in our data protection software, USB CopyNotify!. As soon as it detects a computer has been on and not being used for over 15 minutes , it sends me a notification of it. I then look into the matter and ensure that the computer has not been left on unnecessarily.

5. Use Energy Saving Bulbs.
I have now replaced most of my bulbs in office with energy saving bulbs and have noticed a notable reduction in my electricity bills. Might be slightly expensive to replace them all together but you could do it over a period of time and you can see for yourself that it does help. Electricity bills being less means less energy consumed means more energy conserved.

6. Lifts and Elevators are such a waste of energy

If your office is located on the 1st, 2nd, 3rd or 4th floor/storey of a building, use the stairs and avoid using the lift/elevator. Not only is the exercise good for your health but a LOT of evergy is saved bu not using the lift/elevator

These are 6 simple yet effective steps that would help conserver energy.

Perhaps the difficult part is to be disciplined and consistent about it but if you consider the fact that is our Earth at stake it will be well worth the effort. We have only one Earth so lets do everything to save it.

This work is useless and I will not pay for it. !

I have had this statement thrown at me several times during my tenure as Managing Director of CygNET. It still never ceases to amaze me of how shameless people can be when they don’t want to pay for something and the flimsy excuses that they come up with to justify the same.

Not that we have had a flawless run of projects in the history of CygNET, its just that we have been ALWAYS paid finally for genuinely problematic projects while this line "This work is useless and I will not pay for it. !" always seems to come for perfectly implemented projects.

On postmortem of these "useless" projects, it always turns out that the client just does not want to pay and will pick on anything to justify the non payment. No matter what you put in front of the client in terms of justifications such as deadlines were being met, requirements & quality standards were being met, the client seems to just wake one day and decides not to pay. Most often they seem to even get away with it.

How can one do that ? Yes business is fluid and situations might be ever changing but you have to pay for the work done so far and respect its utility even if it does not serve your purpose any more. More importantly you do not run down its creators as a lot of time and honest
effort has been put into it.

We were hit by this recently. We were sent a spec sheet of a project by a supposed reputed company based in the UK and we were asked to estimate for it. On first glance of it, I knew it was a rather large project and hence requested dedicated time to study and estimate it. We estimated the study time, got it approved by the client and began the work.

The progress was regularly reported and prototypes / documentation of the same were also regularly delivered. There was regular communication and the client knew exactly what was happening. Not once thru out 90% of the estimated time was anything wrong even indicated.

Suddenly towards the end of this study period even before the deadline date, the project was cancelled and the line "This work is useless and I will not pay for it. !" cropped its ugly head up.
Here we go again.

The client had seen the work so far and even approved of it but hey there was no convincing him, he just was not going to pay. He even went to the extent of insulting our capabilities and integrity in an effort to justify why he should not pay.

Why did this happen ?

When the project was initiated, they were under the impression that it was a small, quick and inexpensive project. On near completion of the study, they realized that it was a much larger project than anticipated and hence decided to shelve it due to anticipated costs. In the process of shelving they unilaterally decided to further save costs by not paying us for the study as well. As far as they were concerned the study was now useless as the project has been discontinued.

So what do they do..."This work is useless and I will not pay for it. !"

Again I repeat, how can one do this ? When you claim to be a business professional, you should be a professional in all scenarios including the ones that are difficult for you. You will never be able to grow your business with this habit and what is more, you should have the courage to stand up and give the real reason. Not only are you not paying for hard & honest work done for you, you further decide to insult the people that have done the work so as to back up your false claims. This is unacceptable.

Your actions not only cause undue financial strains on people that don’t deserve it but your actions have demoralized them too.... it is just not done.

Common Sense Steps for Data Security in office.

Its been a while since I have added to my blog, its been on my mind for a while so this Sunday morning took some time off, made some coffe and added this entry.

We have recently launched USB CopyNotify, a network security software for the Small Business Segment and this in turn has got me in touch with several business owners and IT administrators who are very concerned about theft of confidential data from their networks.

There has been a lot of exchange of ideas, strategies, recommendations of software to be used but in all this I am suprised that we in general tend to forgot to implement some basic common sense procedures in office which in itself would minimize confidential data from the network being taken out of office.

I am no top notch , certified security consultant but I do know that following these simple steps would help in minising the leak of confidential data from your office

1. Educate, Educate, Educate

Your staff / employees should be educated about confidentiality of data and its importance. They should be told that this data belongs to the office or its clients and should not be used un appropriately. They should be made to understand that data is associated with a value and it is property of the company or its clients. They should be taught the professional ethics behind it too. They should also be reminded of the Non Disclosure Agreements they have signed with the your company in which it clearly indicates that unauthorized copying of data could lead to serious consequences.

You will be suprised that if you drill this into the staff regularly, a correct attitude about corporate data and its usage get automatically inculcated in a majority of the employees and often education could become one of the most effective means of securing your data.

2. Backup and delete data that is not currently required.

This happens in every office, a task/assignment/project is completed, the data is backed up but several times a copy of this data still remains on the computers. After archiving it, delete this data. The less data you have, the less you have to worry about people stealing it.

3. Avoid personal belongings being brought into the work area.

This might sound a little draconian but employees should not be allowed to bring in their hand bags, haversacks, pouches into the work area. They should leave it outside. This will at least minimize the risk of them bringing & using external devices such as CDS, DVDs and USB devices such as External Hard Drives/Flash Drives/iPODS/Digital Cameras to copy data that they are not supposed to.

Of course today, USB Flash Drives unfortunately are so small they can be put in the pocket or as a key chain and no-one would know. Other than strip searching the employee (which is not always possible as a routine policy) you wont be able to detect these devices brought into office.

In fact this was one of the reasons I use USB CopyNotify! myself in office. It alerts me of USB Device usage on the network.

4. Use Login Names and Passwords

Very often , we tend to ignore the importance of the User Name and Password that is asked for during start up of the Operating System. Either it is not set or all computers have the same user name / password or everybody knows everyone else's password (it is public domain).

Take this security feature seriously and educate your employees to use it in the appropriate manner. Only you and the user of that machine should know the login name and password. This will at least reduce the risk of other people sitting on the machine and accessing the data inappropriately.

5. Internet Access

Ok, this is a tricky one as Internet access in several offices in available on all machines in the office for the purpose of email, research, uploads & downloads etc. Perhaps web based email should be restricted and only email access only via the office intranet should be allowed ie there is only a single point of entry/exit for email from/to the outside world. This would at least allow you to monitor what data & the amount of data being uploaded out of office via email.

Another simple way of finding out whether the web is used for Internet Research or for uploading data is by monitoring the amount of data transfer is taking place on the machine. I get this report every morning. When I see an increase of data transfer or an unnecessary amount of data transfer on a computer, it gives me a automatic indication that the Internet access is not only being used for browsing but only for upload/download of large files. This itself gives me an idea that the Internet is being used to transfer data out of the office.

So as you can see all the above steps are simple, cost effective and very easy to implement and would help in the increase of data security of your network.