Shawna McAlearney

To work in IT you have to have a tech background, right? Nope. With the right set of management skills, even a nontechnical person can make it as a successful manager. Sure, it helps to understand the bits and-bytes of each employee's area of expertise. If nothing else, it means the manager can appreciate what the staff does right and recognize weaknesses. But how can managers accurately evaluate team performance or assign tasks when they know little or nothing about what the individual does? According to some technical employees, the answer is communication.

Making the Case for Tech Skills

That's not to say you can be a bozo about the area you're responsible for. People sometimes assume that a good manager can manage anyone. However, a case can easily be made that tech managers should have at least a rudimentary idea of what their teams do. To manage effectively, the manager needs to understand enough to allocate resources and to schedule reasonable time frames for project completion.

Gadget lovers were dealt a blow on Wednesday when two researchers outlined what they called a "hole" during a Black Hat presentation.

"The attacker can forcibly install Google Gadgets; they can read the victim's search history once a malicious gadget has been installed in some specific circumstances; they can attack other Google Gadgets; they can phish usernames and passwords from victims, and so on," said Robert Hansen, also known as RSnake, a founder of security consultancy SecTheory. "Really, the sky is the limit, once the browser is under the control of an attacker. And that point is exacerbated by the fact that people trust Google be a trustworthy domain, making the attacks even easier."

Measures that can help preserve your company's reputation in the event of a data breach can also be a competitive differentiator. They can even increase business.

The Department of Justice's indictment of 11 people for the organized hacking of nine major U.S. retailers (including the TJX companies) and the theft and sale of more than 40 million credit and debit card numbers drives home the level of risk to all businesses. While actual costs and reputational harm can be quite damaging to a company, a little planning can make all the difference.