On the Mark: CIOs morph into CIMs -- carbon information managers, that is

Computerworld - This version of the story originally appeared in Computerworld's print edition.

CIOs are perfectly positioned to become the carbon information managers as well as the IT leaders for their organizations. n Just what your department needs: more work. n Carbon information managers will play "an emerging role" in the modern enterprise, according to a report released last month by the U.K.'s Carbon Disclosure Project and IBM. CIMs will lead the push to define how businesses measure

their carbon footprints and oversee the projects that are needed to reduce those footprints.

And have no doubt that it will be your company's goal to reduce its production of greenhouse gases, the report says. Not just to curb the rate of growth of production, but to make true cuts.

"This is a major, long-term issue," says Richard Hodges, CEO of GreenIT Inc., an IT consultancy in Sonoma, Calif. "It's not a fad."

Hodges says every international agreement he knows of has set greenhouse gas targets that are lower than today's production levels. In the CDP/IBM report, some of the companies profiled lay out specific carbon-emission goals, some of them calling for as much as a 50% reduction by 2020.

Leading a companywide effort to cut greenhouse gas production is fraught with challenges, Hodges acknowledges. Risk-averse CIOs will be leery of the task.

But who else in the organization, he asks, has insight into as many departments and groups as the head of IT? Hodges also contends that the tools needed to measure and reduce greenhouse gases will likely be IT-based, making CIOs ideally suited to shoulder the duty of carbon information management.

You should start with practical measures in IT itself, Hodges advises. First and foremost, remove useless or underused gear. And, yes, turn out lights in rooms without people. Go to double-sided printing. Eliminate personal printers from offices and cubicles.

Hodges says all these initiatives sound simple, but they involve corporate cultural issues that can hamper success.

Rolling out a new ERP system might be a walk in the park compared with removing a seldom-used printer from a VP's office.

PhishMe Targets Gullible Users

Intrepidus Group Inc. in Chantilly, Va., unveiled its PhishMe service late last month. In effect, it's a tool that lets IT departments phish their own end users.

CEO Rohyt Belani says the new software-as-a-service offering allows you to set up mock phishing attacks in order to measure how aware employees are of phishing and then educate them on how to avoid getting hooked by phishers.

Aaron Higbee, chief technology officer at Intrepidus, says identity thieves have moved beyond targeting PayPal and eBay users and are now training their sights on corporate workers with what are called spearphishing attacks. In these attacks, official-looking e-mails ask recipients to do things such as update their 401(k) information, with the intent of stealing the data, and possibly the funds.