City welcome centres up tech

Self-service information kiosks in the US are replacing traditional welcome centres as Corpus Christi's tourism ambassadors, states Caller.com.

The kiosks are stand-alone touch-screen computers that provide access to the Corpus Christi Convention and Visitors Bureau Web site. The bureau purchased 13 kiosks over a three-year period from San Antonio-based DynaTouch for $8 400 each, bureau CEO Keith Arnold says.

Michelle Horine, vice president of nature tourism and communications, says the bureau used incentive money received from the city to purchase the machines.

Eastern Michigan University (EMU) says one of its computer servers has been hacked, potentially leaking sensitive employee and student information, says Click On Detroit.

The university said the server that hosts the university's passwords and self-service PIN codes was compromised, meaning some employees' passwords may have been stolen.

"The area that was compromised did not contain social security numbers, birth dates, or personal banking information. It does contain login information, though, that could allow access to employees' self-service information, including direct deposit information," the university wrote in its e-mail update on the incident.

With identity management staff becoming increasingly overworked, many organisations are looking at a self-service user identity management model that leverages IT-aware end users to take charge of managing their own identity profiles and access, states Securitysearch.com

But, there should be limits to the extent that employees are able to manage their identity experience. This causes organisations to ask: "How much self-service is too much when it comes to identity and access management (IAM)?"

In IAM, there are two overwhelming risks in utilising a self-service model. The first is that, without strict controls, the quality of the data that is input via self-service IAM interfaces will suffer. When this information is used for business systems, bad data can have huge repercussions on the organisation's operations and projects. The second is the risk that unauthorised users will gain access to sensitive information.