CBA snail-mails board docs on USB

The Commonwealth Bank (CBA) has revealed it uses the low-tech approach of mailing encrypted USB keys when distributing top-level documents to its board of directors.

The bank often attracts attention for large-scale technology projects that have huge budgets, lengthy development cycles and an impact right across the business -- for example the CommSee customer relationship management system that had made headlines in the last 12 months.

However, the bank's executive manager of enterprise IT, Jon Davies, told an identity management conference in Sydney last week the CBA also realised simpler solutions could sometimes be more appropriate.

The company recently resolved to distribute documents to board members electronically, the contents of which are "highly confidential", Davies said. Several ideas were considered by the technology department, ranging from simple to complex.

"An obvious one would be to create some sort of means by which the board members could come in through our network and then get hold of the papers, and only they get hold of the papers," Davies said. But this option was left by the wayside as the board's level of computer literacy forced a rethink.

"Most of the board members ... I assume they are a bit older, less tech-savvy ... and they do struggle with trying to dial in, connect, and get papers using a sophisticated document management system," said Davies.

Instead, the bank devised an easy-to-use solution: documents are loaded onto memory sticks in an encrypted format and posted to board members for the regular monthly meeting.

"They get these memory sticks, they plug it into their PC and they can see the board papers. They can't download the board papers off the stick," said Davies. "They pass them in at the board meeting, and then we shred the information on the sticks, and then we load the next board papers up."

"So it was a nice simple way of distributing board papers without all the technology."