INSTITUTE FOR INFORMATION MANAGEMENT - Newsletters & Blogs

Women & Leadership Australia (WLA) Scholarships

9/7/2020

Scholarships of up to $5,000 for current and aspiring female leaders

Scholarships of $1,000 to $5,000 are currently available to women working in the information management sector to help support their participation in a range of online career building leadership development programs.

The initiative is providing junior through to executive women managers with scholarships to support their growth and development via participation in one of three flagship courses. Participants will benefit from course content such as Emotional Intelligence and Conflict, Career and Professional Growth, Team Dynamics, Leading Innovation and Change, and Empowering Teams.

Expressions of Interest
Find out more and register your interest by completing the Expression of Interest form here prior to Friday, September 11: https://www.wla.edu.au/funding.html

IIM Newsletter June 2020 Articles

26/6/2020

Vladimir Videnovic IIM National President

Dear fellow Information Professionals,

Informed about your changing environment.

Little we knew about the scale of changes we were about to face when the theme for the Information Awareness Month (IAM) this year was amended to seek how to be well informed about our changing environment, to reflect the unprecedented global transformations that were on horizon, with the first realisations of the impacts of the new killer virus on our health and life style.
Whilst Dalai Lama is optimistic, even in the midst of the COVID pandemic lockdown, seeing people helping one another, on the other side our world is stretched between the fights against the daemons from the past, united in the fight against racism, and daemons of the future, such as cyber-attacks, biosecurity threats and economy reset. The major trends that are still shaping our environment and our future include climate change, technology progress, inequality, discrimination, conflicts, violence and global health.
So, how do we individually contribute to the massive efforts needed to change our world for better? To start with, we need to be informed about our changing environment. That was our focus for the past weeks during the IAM 2020, and is likely to be the theme for some time to come.
According to the feedback from our members, the IAM this year was successful from several perspectives, including rapid change to a delivery of events online, enabling participants from remote areas to join the conversation, larger audiences and having dialogues with experts and our peers outside of our physical borders. In this issue of your IIM newsletter, we provide you with a few snapshots of discussions, latest news and events reflecting the ever-changing world around us.
Enjoy the read and I hope to see you at one of our future forums.

Vladimir Videnovic
National President

Leveraging Artificial Intelligence to Extract Business Value from Unstructured Information
Interview with Maurizio Mencarini, Global VP of Strategic Partnerships at Expert System.

Today, with advanced tools and technologies, such as the Expert System AI platform, companies can now understand the meaning of words in context by deploying a high-performance platform that was built for processing large quantities of text with the highest levels of precision. A platform that is able to capture, store and analyse what was once uncollectable and indescribable. Through in-depth analysis of content of all types, AI technology transforms raw data into actionable insight that can be leveraged across the organisation to benefit a variety of business processes and operations.

Read The full interview

Cyber Security

arlier this month, information resources of many organisations in Australia were subject to, as described by our Prime Minister, a "sophisticated state-based" cyber-campaign.

Over the last few weeks, the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) detected an increased number of cyber-attacks using various spear-phishing techniques and sophisticated methods to hide their work, in order to steal credentials, gain unauthorised access to information, harvest intellectual property and conduct a range of malicious cyber-activities.

This is a timely reminder for organisations to reassess their cyber-security walls. ACSC have prepared "The Essential Eight" a list of recommended fundamental mitigation strategies for Australian organisations to develop a robust cyber-protection of information systems and defend their information assets.

Australian Cyber Security Centre: "Essential Eight Explained - Strategies to Mitigate Cyber Security Incidents"
https://www.cyber.gov.au/publications/essential-eight-explained

In 2019, one of the Australian most prestige universities was a victim of a massive cyber-attack. This attack was so sophisticated, that it left some of the leading security experts shocked.

Australian Broadcasting Company: "As It Happened: Details of a Massive Cyber Attack Potentially Compromising Leaders Across the Globe"
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-10-02/anu-cyber-hack-how-personal-information-got-out/11550578

A comprehensive incident report that provides details of this attack can be found at: https://imagedepot.anu.edu.au/scapa/Website/SCAPA190209_Public_report_web_2.pdf

2020 has seen the COVID-19 pandemic drive overwhelming societal and organisational changes, such as challenges for cyber security and data theft. It has seen the continued disruption for many government agencies and enterprises, and has fundamentally changed the way they do business. As the backbone of the Australian economy, it is imperative that government agencies and enterprises not only adapt and recover, but are also set up for success in the next normal future. This will require extraordinary flexibility, coordination, adaptability and resilience during what may be a prolonged period of recovery, uncertainty and change.

In response to these challenges IIM has created the following resources:

“Data Breach Plan - Responding to a Data Breach”.

“Security, Cyber Security and Privacy Challenges Post Covid-19”

IIM Newsletter May 2020 Articles

19/5/2020

Dear fellow Information Professionals,
As we are slowly getting back to our normality, having access to the right and timely information has a new meaning and significance. The Information Awareness Month (IAM) 2020 is in a full swing, bringing many interesting topics related to the theme "Informed about Your Changing Environment".
This year's IAM started with a launch that had a record number of attendees. It featured great panellists and sparked a lot of interesting discussions (recording of the IAM 2020 Launch webinar is available). One of these dialogues will continue on Wednesday 20 May, with a seminar featuring Mr David Fricker, Director-General of National Archives of Australia, who will share with us his views on the "Preservation of Information and Misinformation in Critical Situations".
As part of our contribution to the IAM calendar, IIM and DAMA jointly organised two sessions of the "Artificial Intelligence @ Work"seminars:

Can Technology Help Us Discover and Manage Biological Threats?" on 12 May with Maurizio Mencarini from Expert System in Italy (recording of this webinar is available)
"Hybrid Models to Create Contextual Intelligence" scheduled for 28 May, featuring speakers from the World Economic Forum, who will provide an overview of the Strategic Intelligence platform, presenting the key features that enable the community of diverse stakeholders to better inform their decision making process, by highlighting the key factors of transformational changes

Following the overall IAM 2020 theme, in this issue of your IIM e-newsletter you will find several articles and resources that shed light on risks, concerns and good practices related to the public information, record-keeping and countering misinformation in situations like pandemic or natural disaster.
In closing, I would like to remind you that IAM 2020 is focused on the importance of the right information in critical situations. The IAM 2020 participating organisations prepared a range of interesting webinars and online events, which explored this theme from various perspectives. For details about upcoming events please visit www.informationawarenessmonth.org.
The IAM Organising Committee plans to finish this IAM in the same spirit. The IAM 2020 Finale scheduled for 29 May will feature the representatives from IAM affiliated organisations that will share their viewpoints on this theme, their IAM experience and how they see the future of the information management after COVID-19. The IAM 2020 Finale will include a Q&A session blended with a virtual networking End-of-IAM cocktail party with BYO food and drinks. I sincerely hope that you will be able to join us at this celebration.
Wishing you to stay healthy, COVID-smart and well-informed.

Vladimir Videnovic
National President

Countering misinformation about COVID-19
“Stop The Spread” is a global campaign which aims to raise awareness about the risks of misinformation around COVID-19, and encourages them to double check information with trusted sources such as WHO and national health authorities.
The UK government will offer a toolkit of the campaign assets to partner governments to translate and use in their countries, so there is a unified message across governments on this very important topic.

Recordkeeping during COVID-19
Queensland State Archives (QSA) recognises that usual business practices will likely be disrupted and that recordkeeping may not always be front of mind.
QSA would like to remind public authorities that their recordkeeping responsibilities under the Public Records Act 2002 remain as important as ever.
There is an ongoing need for records related to the pandemic AND as part of BAU to be created, managed and maintained.
Records created during this crisis will:

help support the success of the response
enable you to continue business as usual
ensure that there is evidence of the decisions made to support and enable this critical work
become key records for future generations to refer back to on how we all dealt with this event.

UNESCO and the International Council of Archives have released a joint statement regarding the importance of creating documentary heritage both now and for the future.

IAM 2020 Launch Webinar Recording

11/5/2020

Information Awareness Month 2020 Launch Webinar held 1st May 2020 with panellists:
David Fricker - Director General National Archives of Australia,
Elizabeth Tydd - NSW Information Commissioner,
Kathryn Dan - Committee Member Blue Shield Australia and,
Tim Graham - Senior Lecturer (Digital Media), QUT

We are pleased to advise the recording of the session is now available in both high and low resolution:
Link to Low Resolution Recording.

Joint statement on COVID-19 and the duty to document

7/5/2020

During Information Awareness Month, we have joined with our interstate and international counterparts to emphasise the importance of documenting decisions, preserving records and providing access to information throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

COVID-19: The duty to document does not cease in a crisis, it becomes more essential
Australian and New Zealand Information Access Commissioners join with their international counterparts in their clear call for documentation, preservation and access to information as governments, businesses and citizens deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. The following statement has been released by the International Conference of Information Commissioners and aligned organisations to recognise and promote sound information management practices as part of Information Awareness Month. It calls for:

Decisions to be documented
Records and data to be secured and preserved in all sectors
Security, preservation and access to digital content to be facilitated during the shutdown

We, the signatories of this statement, call on governments, businesses, and research institutions around the world to document their decisions and transactions now and for the future.

Building on the UNESCO communique ‘Turning the threat of COVID-19 into an opportunity for greater support to documentary heritage’ and reinforcing the call that decision-makers in the public and private sectors recognise the value of records management and archives.

Read more

April 24th, 2020

24/4/2020

Fusion or Crossing the line between Records and Document Management - By Rainer Krause - Managing Director - ELO Digital Office

This fusion of disciplines is one of the components of the next generation of Information Management tools that provide end-user a better and more intuitive way to use, share, and interact with information in any number of the organisation’s activities. There has to be also a shift in the mindset and the methodology or approach in the deployment of the product and the development of the solution. This article takes a look new approaches and discusses how DMS and RM are different disciplines. New approaches that apply not only to the product but to the project team charged with the implementation of the product and turning the product into a solution for the benefit of the organisation.

The Five Levels of Remote Work — and why you’re probably at Level 2 by Steve Glaveski

COVID-19 has forced companies the world over to enact — or create — remote working protocols. The likes of Box, Amazon, Airbnb, Facebook, Google and Microsoft have all told their employees some variation of “work from home”. But so too are more traditional organisations across fields such as real estate, accounting and local government. This article introduces the Five Levels of Remote Work.

21st Century Information and Data Security Challenges – Unchartered Territories for Information Management Professionals - By Linda Shave

21st Century information and data security challenges are complex and deserve to be discussed. The presence of cybercrime has given rise to a vast number of cybersecurity legislative, regulatory initiatives and jargon. The full impact has yet to be seen. However, one thing is certain this paradigm shift will provide challenges for information management professionals.

This article will introduce information management professionals to a range of terminologies used across a number of fields, in order that, information management professionals can better understand the different jargon and participate in future discussions.

Privacy Awareness Week 2020 - "Reboot your privacy"

14/4/2020

Filling a Cyber Security Gap to Protect Australia's National Identity - A presentation by Anne Lyons

9/4/2020

Anne Lyons GAICD

Event Sponsor

As organisations, governments and individuals scramble to protect important data and critical information systems from cyber threats, we commonly overlook datasets that are perhaps even more valuable.

In a global environment of cyber-attacks, information manipulation and grey-zone cyber conflict aimed at disrupting nations and democracies, the threat to our national identity assets is real.

These assets are the evidence of who we are as a nation - from our electronic land titles and biometric immigration data, to the outcomes of our courts and electoral processes and the digital images, stories and national conversations we are having right now.

By far the greatest part of Australia's discourse on cybersecurity is focused on the protection of systems: the software, the hardware and the communication networks. Thorough analysis of security threats also requires the assessment of intent and more often than not, the intent is access to data.

It's the data that needs to be protected from exfiltration, manipulation or destruction, because it's the data that underpins information critical to Australia's government and success as a sovereign nation. To date, however, there has been very little serious analysis of Australia's critical data assets or the national policy settings required for the proper recognition and management of this important national resource.

Anne Lyons discussed the security gap around our national identity digital assets and what can be done to address that gap.

Anne Lyons joined the Australian Strategic Policy Institute in February 2018 following 12 months as a Visiting Fellow with ASPI's International Cyber Policy Centre and more than 20 years as a senior executive in both the public and private sector. Her ground-breaking ASPI report Identify of a nation: protecting the digital evidence of who we are identified the importance of digital heritage and identity to Australia's national security.

Download Powerpoint Presentation

IIM Newsletter - March 2020

2/3/2020

PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE
Dear fellow information professionals.
With a sincere hope that you are safe and healthy, your IIM is providing you with the latest choice of content related to our profession, interest and passion. As we all are overwhelmed with the flood of information about the current pandemic situation, your team at IIM has prepared some carefully selected articles that will hopefully spark your interest and assist in your dealing with the current situation.

With May fast approaching I encourage everyone to participate in the Information Awareness Month (IAM) events. IAM is a collaborative event between various bodies within the records, archives, library, knowledge, information, and data management communities. We collectively plan several events that will take place in the safety of the cyber-space, well at least from the biological virus perspective.

As one of many consequences of the COVID-19 outbreak, all IIM events will be held on-line until further notice. In this newsletter you will find a link to a survey that will assist in the planning of events. The survey should only take 5 mins, and I would ask everyone to complete this. It will help us structure our events and activities and aligned them closer to your needs, aspirations and interests.

In this month's newsletter we will focus on pandemic information, system integration and inter-operability. Integration being the processes of integrating existing information technology systems (such as proprietary-based systems and wireless communications technologies), as well as the important role that standards play in improving the ability of systems, services or software to exchange and make use of information and portability through greater inter-operability of components.

I hope that you will find the content of this IIM e-newsletter issue useful. I welcome your feedback, ideas, suggestions and content contributions.

Wishing you the best of health.
Vladimir Videnovic
National President

Securing work-from-home arrangements at scale
A McKinsey & Company Article
Authors: Jim Boehm, James Kaplan, Marc Sorel, Nathan Sportsman, and Trevor Steen

The rapid, widespread adoption of work-from-home tools has put considerable strain on security teams, which must safeguard these tools without making it hard or impossible for employees to work. Conversations with CISOs in Asia, Europe, and North America about how they are securing these new work-at-home arrangements highlight the changes these executives are making in three areas: technology, people, and processes.

MIT Technology Review: “How Facebook Uses Machine Learning to Detect Fake Accounts”

Last year, Facebook discovered and took down close to 2 billion fake accounts per quarter. Fraudsters use These fake accounts are used by cheats, hoaxers and fraudsters around the globe to spread spam, phishing links, fake news, fraudulent activities or malware. It's a lucrative business that has devastated many innocent Facebook users.
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/615313/how-facebook-uses-machine-learning-to-detect-fake-accounts

The Virus that Stopped the Planet

A comprehensive overview of the Novel Coronavirus 2019 Disease (COVID-19)
provides details what we deal with, including predictions by Bill Gates after Ebola outbreak five years ago, how containment helped China to contain the outbreak, key steps to avoid infection and/or spreading the virus, important facts and statistics, as well as how to deal with misinformation related to this pandemic.

COVID-19 Strategic Intelligence

We are constantly bombarded with news and information related to the COVID-19 outbreak. This article describes one of the most comprehensive sources of detailed information about various aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic and its global impacts provided by the World Economic Forum (WEF). WEF publishes Strategic intelligence, which explores and monitors various global issues, including COVID-19 pandemic.

Data Integration for Dummies – By Brian Underdahl – Compliments of Informatica
Data integration refers to an industry category and a technology designed to make it easy for you to combine different sources of data together to produce useful business information.

This book shows you what data integration is, how it works, and how you can use the technology to become more competitive as you combine your existing data sources with new data sources to provide the business intelligence your organization needs to compete effectively.

This book was created with and for Informatica.

Interoperability for Dummies - IHE Edition, InterSystems - By Anita Samarth
Interoperability can be a daunting concept for any industry. In healthcare, it’s even more complex, given the number of stakeholders: patients, doctors, nurses, staff, hospitals, nursing homes, payors, and vendors.

What does interoperability really mean for you? This book was written to help explain exactly that. Health information integration and interoperability aren’t just for IT departments, CIOs, and informatics people anymore. Clinicians, patients, consumers, and payors all need to know that the right people are getting access to the right information at the right time in the right place in the right way.

Big Data Analytics Infrastructure - Barry Schoenborn – Compliment of IBM
The Infrastructure for Big Data and Analytics (BD&A) is the combination of components that produce an architecture that delivers business outcomes. While developing this architecture isn’t rocket science, it is computer science. You can’t build a house without a foundation, right? It’s the same with BD&A. The finest software in the world won’t run without optimal processing power and storage capacity as a foundation. So in developing a BD&A solution, you start with the foundation, which is the infrastructure. Infrastructure must be an early part of your planning. Infrastructure matters. Don’t leave it for last.

The book talks about companies of different sizes in different industries. Almost any business can benefit from a BD&A implementation.

IIM February 2020 Newsletter Articles

3/2/2020

PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE
Dear fellow information professionals.

As Australia started a lengthy and difficult process of recovery from the bushfires that engulfed our country in recent months, we are faced with another crises that is spreading around the world. The coronavirus has already spread to 25 countries all over the planet, infecting over 20,000 people.

In his recent press conference statement in relation to the Novel Coronavirus epidemic, Prime Minister Scott Morison highlighted that "...a key part of our armoury in dealing with this coronavirus issue is Information and having the right information and ensuring people are going to the right source of information and making decisions based on that accurate information. And I would encourage all Australians to focus on getting that information from the trusted sources ..."
(Scott Morrison, Press Conference, 29 Jan 2020, Australian Parliament House).

As information is in the core of our interests, passion and specialisation, we echo this message and strive to provide you with the intelligent information for smarter decisions.

Among many other interesting articles, this issue of your IIM newsletter aims to provide you with some essential information about coronavirus, how it is spreading, how it works, how to protect yourself and make smarter and informed decisions about the safety and well-being of your family.

Understanding the essential facts related to viruses and having right information are fundamental for the proper understanding, protection and response in crisis like this, in order to minimise the health risks to yourself and people around you.

Vladimir Videnovic
National President

Novel Coronavirus Outbreak Information

Coronaviruses is a family of viruses that can cause mild illness, such as the common cold and gastrointestinal infections, as well as more severe illness. We are currently exposed to an outbreak of a new strain of coronavirus called ‘novel coronavirus’ or ‘2019nCoV’.

This article provides some additional information about the coronavirus, how it works, how it spreads and what to do to protect yourself and people around you.

Globalisation and Health

The importance of information sharing for the prevention and control of infectious diseases has long been recognised. In recent times, public health emergencies such as avian influenza, drug-resistant malaria, Ebola and now coronavirus outbreak have brought renewed attention to the need for effective communication channels between health authorities, particularly in regional contexts where neighbouring countries share common health threats. However, little empirical research has been conducted to date to explore the range of factors that may affect the transfer, exchange and use of public health data and expertise across borders.

Reinventing Cybersecurity with Artificial Intelligence – The new frontier in digital security – Capgemini Research Institute

A constantly evolving IT/OT landscape and ever-expanding attack surfaces lead to increasingly complex security challenges. Many firms have already begun exploring how AI in cybersecurity can help mitigate these risks: AI in cybersecurity adoption rates are on the rise. For firms that have yet to start using AI in cybersecurity – as well as firms that are already using it - there are a number of steps that are critical to realizing AI’s cybersecurity potential. Organizations next need to build a roadmap that addresses infrastructure, data systems, applications landscapes, skill gaps, best practices, governance, and use case selection and implementation.

AI-fuelled organisations – Reaching AI’s full potential in the enterprise

To become a true AI-fuelled organisation, a company may need to fundamentally rethink the way humans and machines interact within working environments. Executives should also consider deploying machine learning and other cognitive tools systematically across every core business process and enterprise operation to support data driven decision-making. Likewise, AI could drive new offerings and business models.