CIO Essentials: ID theft, wobbly keyboards and Google

Ever wondered what CIOs are reading on silicon.com? Our CIO Essentials feature puts you in the picture. Each week a leading IT chief picks his or her top stories from the past week and explains why they matter.

This week we hear from Neil Bath, IT director at Brewin Dolphin Securities.

ID management in the security spotlight
Certainly one of the top worries at the moment, particularly in the financial services industry. How does one meet the conflicting requirements to gather lots of information on your clients and confirm it with them on a regular basis, without exposing them to having their wealth and identity [revealed]? It's a challenge.

Motion-sensing tech gives keyboards the wobbles
Fantastic - a return to the pinball wizard days. I can imagine the scene now with 'tilts' galore as systems don't behave themselves. But what will health and safety do without ergometric keyboards or RSI to worry about?

CIOs lack skills for growth
I'm always a little confused by this one. To me, business innovation and development should be a team effort. Why should responsibility rest with one area? If senior executives and managers know their business well, ideas for the application of new technologies will flow. It can be very dangerous, and expensive, for the business if IT is allowed to drive business strategy.

Techies vote for flexible working
Work-life balance is vital for a productive and happy workforce. Organisations and individual managers have to be more focused on 'output' not 'input'. In many roles, as long as tasks get done to deadline and all responsibilities met, does it really matter where or when the actual work is done?

Google helping Utah with its searchable data
Data is definitely king but the rise and rise of the search engine means that we are soon to be totally in the hands of the king-makers.

If you are a UK-based IT director or CIO and would like to take part in the CIO Essentials series by choosing your top five stories of the week, send us an email here at silicon.com.