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Sharing thoughts and ideas on business, security and photographyAward winning presentation on director interlocks on the JSE (SAAA conference June 2013)
Posted on July 14, 2013
My MBA dissertation was entitled “An analysis of director interlocks on the JSE -with reference to the top 40 listed companies” and took me quite some years to complete. There were complexities of having to collect all my own data due to inaccuracies in the CIPC database, having to relearn that matrix mathematics that I thought I would never use again after first year university 20 years ago, then figure out how all these analytical tools work.
During the completion process a few people commented that the only people who would ever read the document would be my supervisor and the two examiners (and even then I would be operating on faith). After all the work I had put in this was quite disheartening. When Leo Deodutt (my supervisor) suggested that we create a paper from the dissertation and submit it for the Southern African Accounting Association Biennial Conference to be held in Cape Town in June I jumped at the chance. What an opportunity to get the message out. Leo did a lot of hard work to cut down the dissertation to a 20 page paper, and in the process we had to restrict the paper to just one of the research questions covered in the dissertation. When the comments came back from the blind peer reviewer there was a nomination for best paper award, which was most gratifying. What an honour just to be nominated.
The presentation itself was again a challenge: to try to fit into 20m what took years to research, and to try to simplify the complexities and distil the message to one that can easily be conveyed to a broad audience. In the end this was achieved and the final presentation is attached. Leo is looking for opportunities to further present the work, and it is likely that we will present again at UKZN in the coming months. Mail me if you have ideas of appropriate forums who may be interested.
The day after the presentation I was absolutely thrilled to discover that we did indeed win the best paper award. I am pretty sure I didn’t stop smiling for a week. Thanks to Leo for all his hard work in making this happen.
Enjoy the presentation and leave any questions in the comments or drop me a mail.
Justin
Download a copy of the presentation : SAAA conference June 2013 – director interlocks on the JSE final
Please help Marketing Research students of the Commerce Faculty of UCT:LinkedIn Survey
Posted on August 04, 2011To whom it may concern, please fill out the following questionnaire with regard to your use of the social networking site LinkedIn. The completion of this questionnaire should not take more than five minutes. This survey has been issued by the Marketing Research students of the Commerce Faculty of the University of Cape Town. You will remain anonymous in your response and thus all your answers will be kept confidential.
ISACA Whitepaper “Securing Mobile Devices” #in
Posted on August 25, 2010ISACA have released a whitepaper on the securing of mobile devices. This is the first in a series of documents which will eventually include audit/assurance programs for such devices. The overview of these documents can be found here.
Abstract of white paper
Mobile computing devices have become a critical tool in today’s networked world. Enterprises and individuals alike rely on mobile devices to remain reachable when away from the office or home. While mobile devices such as smartphones, laptops, personal digital assistants (PDAs) and Universal Serial Bus (USB) memory sticks have facilitated increased convenience for individuals as well as the potential for increased productivity in the workplace, these benefits are not without risks. Mobile devices have been, and continue to be, a source of various types of security incidents. These stem from issues such as device loss, malware and external breaches. As the availability of human resources and systems continues to be critical to society and business operations, it stands to reason that mobile device usage will continue to escalate as will the features that these devices offer. It is therefore imperative that proper risk management be applied and security controls implemented to maximize the benefits while minimizing the risks associated with such devices.
Securitysearch.co.uk writeup on the whitepaper here.
Network security podcast covers Cisco 2010 Midyear Security Report #in
Posted on August 04, 2010I was listening to the Network Security podcast this morning (Blackhat mini-cast) and they had an interview with Mary Landesman, a Senior Cisco security researcher, who discussed the Cisco 2010 Mid-year security report that is now available. Download here. Direct link to PDF.
Quoting the intro from the report :
The Cisco 2010 Midyear Security Report examines the major forces of change reshaping the global security landscape. These changes demand that organizations rethink their approaches to enterprise security. Current shifts — from the virtualization of operations to collaboration and social networking — provide new opportunities for criminals to infiltrate networks and steal high-value business data.
The Cisco 2010 Midyear Security Report includes:
- Results and analysis from two new Cisco studies — one focused on employee collaboration and the other on the concerns of IT decision-makers worldwide
- International trends in cyber-security and their potential impact on business
- Insight into how hackers penetrate “soft spots” in enterprise security to steal sensitive data and sell it to the highest bidder
- An update on global spam trends since late 2009 and spam volume predictions for 2010
- Guidance from Cisco security experts to help businesses improve their enterprise security by 2011
Read the Cisco 2010 Midyear Security Report, and find the best strategies to help you meet current security demands for your organization.
During the podcast it was also mentioned that Cisco put out weekly and monthly reports. I hadn’t seen these reports before and have just whipped through some quickly and it’s quite interesting, definitely something I will come back to and have a look at on a weekly basis. To quote the site blurb “The weekly Cyber Risk Reports provide strategic intelligence that highlight current security activity. The reports address seven major risk management categories: vulnerability, physical, legal, trust, identity, human, and geopolitical.”
You can find the weekly reports and supporting podcasts here.
MSc/PhD Scholarships:The Dept of Science & Technology and National Research Foundation, Cosmology,Radio astronomy
Posted on July 30, 2010Thanks to @cecilia_vdm for tweeting about this :
The South African SKA Project is a project of the Department of Science and Technology and the National Research Foundation and comprises Africa’s bid to host the Square Kilometre Array Radio Telescope (SKA), the design, construction and operation of the Karoo Array Telescope (MeerKAT) and a youth into science and engineering programme focused on supporting science and engineering students and postdoctoral fellows. Africa has been short-listed with Australia to host the SKA. If Africa is selected to site the SKA,the core of the telescope will be located in the Karoo region of the Northern Cape.
Scholarships are being offered aligned to the SKA project. The research focus for the SKA PhD and MSc scholarships must align very closely with specific areas of MeerKAT, SKA, PAPER and C-BASS science and technology where research is required.
For 2011, the research projects must be in the following general fields:
• Observational radio astronomy and cosmology.
• Experimental cosmology
• Radio astronomy engineering and instrumentation technologies
Alternatively, if a student wishes to undertake a project that does not appear on this list, he/she is free to submit a proposal for consideration, together with motivation for why the proposed project is relevant to the design, construction and scientific research goals of the MeerKAT and / or SKA.
Closing date for applications is 31 August 2010.
This project sounds really interesting and there are some wonderful research opportunities here. Go and read up further on their website. http://infoscholarship.net/nrfsa-ska-phd-and-msc-scholarships-2011-south-africa.html
P.S. If you are interested in scholarships being offered around the world in many diverse research areas, follow @infoscholarship on Twitter.
Help out an MBA student by completing questionnaire on Phishing
Posted on July 23, 2010I, RAJAN MUNIEN, an MBA student, at the Graduate School of Business, University of Kwazulu-Natal, hereby invite you to participate in a research project entitled “Internet Phishing – Hook, Line and Hopefully not Sunk…” The aim of this study is to gain a better understanding about online user’s awareness to the problem of Internet Phishing (IP). Through your participation I hope to determine the level of awareness amongst users and to present a strategy in creating further awareness on the problem. The results are intended to contribute towards implementing an awareness programme that will prevent further users from becoming victims to the threat of Internet Phishing. Your participation in this project is voluntary. You may refuse to participate or withdraw from the project at any time with no negative consequence. There will be no monetary gain from participating in this survey group. Confidentiality and anonymity of records identifying you as a participant will be maintained by the Graduate School of Business, UKZN.
If you agree to the above and want to proceed to the questionnaire, please click on the link below. This survey will take you approximately 10 minutes to complete.
http://internetphishing.questionpro.com
If you have questions at any time about the survey or the procedures, you may contact the author hereunder:
Rajan Munien, Cell : 084 – 5800 176, email : rajan.munien@gmail.com
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