Did You Know? offers a quick look at the broad scope of activities underway within the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) Federation of members and partners, highlighting recent accomplishments and new resources related to standardization.
Standards Australia Announces Plans for More Strategic, Open Processes
Standards Australia, the nonprofit standards organization representing Australia, has announced process improvements for the coming year that will be implemented as part of its Technical Governance review.
The changes have been developed to make the organization:
- More strategic in development priorities, and in stating the impact of its work
- More open in its processes, with a focus on inclusion, transparency, and community accessibility
- More proactive in quality assurance, particularly in quality of input, standards development decision making, and standards development dispute resolution
"This is an exciting step forward for Standards Australia," said Kareen Riley-Takos, general manager - operations at Standards Australia. "Each year, Standards Australia works with over 5,000 contributors to publish hundreds of standards, meaning any step to improve our processes will have a substantial impact on a number of sectors."
Learn more in the Standards Australia news item.
ASC X9 Publishes Documents on Fraud Mitigation and Distributed Ledger/Blockchain Technologies
ASC X9, an ANSI member and accredited standards developer, has published two new documents available for public download.
Card-Not-Present (CNP) Fraud Mitigation in the United States: Strategies for Preventing, Detecting, and Responding to a Growing Threat (Technical Report 48) is a technical report providing information on the primary types of CNP fraud attack trends in the payments industry. Readers will learn about different types of CNP fraud mitigation tools, and the strategies used by industry stakeholders. The report also outlines how to evaluate current approaches for mitigating CNP and reducing overall fraud losses. The free report can be downloaded from ANSI's webstore.
ASC X9 Study Group Report - Distributed Ledger and Blockchain Technology Study Group is a white paper developed by a group of industry experts that assesses what types of standards for distributed ledger technology, specifically blockchain, would be most beneficial to the financial services industry. The group also analyzed what standards would support a more effective adoption of this technology. The report includes a glossary of related terms. Access the free white paper on X9's website.
Learn more about these two reports in the
AMCA White Paper Outlines Effects of Fire-Sprinkler Trade-offs
The Air Movement and Control Association International (AMCA), an ANSI member and accredited standards developer, has published a white paper that analyzes the use of automatic fire sprinklers at the expense of passive fire safety features, such as fire, smoke, and combination fire/smoke dampers.
Impact of Fire-Sprinkler Trade-offs on Occupant and Building Safety found that overreliance on fire sprinklers, an active fire safety feature, with reduced use of passive fire safety features such as fire, smoke, or combination fire/smoke dampers, leads to a measurable decrease in building fire-safety scores. The use of both active and passive features is an established, recommended safety practice to assure protection in the event that an individual system fails to function as designed.
Learn more and access the free white paper on the AMCA website.
AIIM Article Discusses Educating Employees on Protection of Sensitive Company Data
AIIM, an ANSI member, has published an article on improving an organization's cybersecurity by educating employees on how to protect against the threat of a hack.
The article includes three tips for management and employees to consider:
- Use strong passwords. Passwords should be over eight characters - preferably 16 characters - and include letters, numbers, and special characters. They should not be shared with coworkers, used in multiple terminals, or written on sticky notes.
- Keep hardware and software updated. Most updates are developed to defend against hackers.
- Inform employees of cybersecurity measures. Seek their input and expertise to improve cybersecurity measures.
Read more about each of these tips in the AIIM news item.