Vertisys News

Vertisys Teams up With Hewlett-Packard to Address Sarbanes-Oxley

Vertisys Teams up With Hewlett-Packard to Address Sarbanes-Oxley! Vertisy Corp. and Hewlett-Packard recently teamed up to co-sponsor an event that outlined both the challenges of, and the solution to compliance with the "Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002".   As most are aware, Sarbanes-Oxley was the result of reaction by the United States Congress to the shocking failures of Enron, Global Crossing, and Worldcom, among others, in late 2001 and early 2002.  Introduced as bi-partisan House Resolution 3763 by Congressmen Paul Sarbanes (D-Maryland), and Mike Oxley (R-Ohio), HR-3763 was passed in the House of Representatives by a vote of 423-3, and in the Senate by a vote of 99-0.  It was sent to the President's desk and signed into law by President Bush on July 30, 2002.   Despite its intimidating size (66 pages) the only part of Sarbanes-Oxley pertinent to Information Technology and Records Management is one short section in the document:   TITLE XI, Section 1102 .  The dictates of these few sentences, however, are quite far-reaching in scope, and provide for severe penalties if an organization does not comply.  This section of Sarbanes-Oxley concerns itself with the treatment and retention of all documents, electronic or otherwise, and  lays out very strict rules for the lengh of time that these documents are to be retained, and exactly what information must be available for each.  Among other things, an organization must be able to not only produce documents that fall within the retention window (the window differs for different professions), but also be able to prove, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that the document has not only never been altered, but that is has never even been in a position where it was possible to alter it.

In many way, Sarbanes-Oxley has created more problems and questions for corporate IT and Records Management departments that it has solved or answered.  To define the problem, the scope of the legislation and what areas it affects must be defined, and then a solution that addresses the problem must be found.

Vertisys and Hewlett-Packard, recognizing the confusion presented by Sarbanes-Oxley, agreed jointly to co-sponsor a seminar in Atlanta, Georgia on March 17, 2005, in order to address these issues.   Recognizing that before the problems could be addressed, they must first be defined, Vertisys and Hewlett-Packard invited Mr. Randoph A. Kahn, Esq. to be the keynote speaker at the event.  Mr. Kahn is an attorney and a member of the ABA's Information Security Committee and Cybespace Committee.  He is an internationally recognized authority on the legal, compliance, and policy issues of electronic records, email management, and information technology.  In addition to teaching at George Washington University, Mr. Kahn is a colmnist for "E-Doc Magazine" on legal issues relating to information, and a regular contributor to "The Business Lawyer", "Business Law Today", "Digital Discovery", and "E-Evidence", so name a few.  Mr Kahn is frequently interviewed by publications such as "The Wall Street Journal", "Fortune Magazine", and "The Chicago Tribune", among others.  

Mr. Kahn, in a very compelling presentation, made it very clear to all in attendance that Sarbanes-Oxley compliance was an extremely serious matter, and laid out the problems associated with compliance in a clear and concise fashion.

After Mr. Kahn defined the problem, Hewlett-Packard stepped forward to outline the solution:  Mr. Scott Downs of Hewlett-Packard presented HP's RISS System (Reference Information Storage System) .  RISS, using the most current available computing and storage technology, including "Grid Computing", directly addresses all of the major issues presented by the Sarbanes-Oxley legislation, and when properly implemented, will insure compliance within an organization. 

Both presentations were extremely well-received, and several requests were made to bring Mr. Kahn back for an encore presentation.  Please watch this space for updates on the date, time, and place of Mr. Kahn's next presentation here in Atlanta.  In the meantime, if you would like further information on Sarbanes-Oxley, and how Hewlett-Packard and Vertisys can help to make you compliant with this far-reaching and landmark legislation, please call Joe Harden at 770-955-0596 or email him at jharden@vertisys.com .

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