The importance of protecting your key intellectual assets and confidential reports is critical in today's economic environment. I recently spoke with Johnnie Konstantas, VP of marketing for Varonis. With all of the requirements regarding compliance and new regulations being instituted by government agencies in 2009, the importance of automating and monitoring access to key documents is of the highest priority. Also, the ability to limit access to employees that have been terminated is just as important.  Following are 5 security predictions for 2009 from Varonis:

Automation is essential - a tough economy usually means being asked to do more with less. While IT departments tend to traditionally run lean, hiring freezes are likely to extend here as well. This potentially means that IT operations directors will take a look at processes and tasks that are essential but labor intensive, and look for ways and technology by which to automate the functions. This type of spend is likely to get approval especially if payback is quick.

Efficiency over innovation - efforts aimed at increasing employee productivity and getting more from existing investments will definitely have an audience. These are good times for companies to offer customers tutorials and guidance on getting more from the functions of installed technology, especially if those functions help them save time.

Expenses must map to business benefit - while some new technologies and projects may be approved, it's almost a certainty that all new IT expenses have to show clear return on investment. Business managers will need to see short-term time savings in both time and money before approving any expense - even those requisite for operating the business.

Transparency to asset use - incidents of data loss and misuse have been on the rise and likely to increase with layoffs and job insecurity, which has increased in regard to the economic downfall and will continue to increase in 2009. Companies are mandating greater protections for information assets and asking IT personnel to show proof of measures taken to that end. Organizations too are looking to implement processes that charge data stewards with the continuous monitoring and safekeeping of critical company information.

Risk mitigation is good enough - while most organizations aim at 100% data loss prevention, during a downturn business managers must weigh cost of protection against acceptable risk. Measures that significantly reduce risk and provide adjunct operational benefits will be preferred to strictly preventive solutions with lengthy implementation time frames.

Here's a number worth putting in your cell phone, or your home phone speed dial: 1-800-goog411 (1-800-466-4411). This is an awesome service from Google, and it's free -- great when you are on the road.

Don't waste your money on information calls and don't waste your time manually dialing the number. With this new service, if I am driving along in my car and I need to call the golf course but don't know the number, I can hit the speed dial for information that I have programmed. 

The voice at the other end says, 'City & State."  I say, '"Garland , Texas."  He says, "Business, Name or Type of Service."  I say, "Firewheel Golf Course."  He says, "Connecting" and Firewheel answers the phone.  How great is that?  This is nationwide and it is absolutely free!

Click on the link below and watch the short clip for a quick demonstration. 

http://www.google.com/goog411/

Though constituting less than 10 percent of the general population, four of the last six U.S presidents have been left-handed: Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton. Current President Barack Obama is also left-handed, as was his opponent in the 2008 election, John McCain. That now makes 5 of the last 7 with Obama. Here is what Wikipedia says about being left-handed.

By the way I am also left-handed but have no intentions of running for President, especially with how the last right-handed President, George W. Bush left the office. The next 4 years should be very interesting!