Of late, we've spent a lot of time considering the effects on the enterprise of recently enacted legislation asd well as increased security measures, resulting from well publicized security breaches and corporate scandals. Unfortunately for all of us these incidents are expected by many to increase over the coming years.

As a result of these incidents and threats, corporations are turning inward - both in corporate governance and controls as well as in implementation of internal security measures. Discussions with members of the Outlook CIO/CTO council as well as senior management at large and small enterprises suggest that this is a problem for the Board of Directors or executive leadership which then impacts IT and other functional areas within the company.

On the brighter side this represents an opportunity for both entrepreneurs and the venture community. Hence Outlook Ventures has spent a good deal of time in the past several quarters in areas of corporate governance, internal controls, policy management and network security. In this issue of The Outlook you will find information on Reconnex, our newest investment in the network security space, as well as our insight into the implications of recently enacted legislation. We welcome hearing from entrepreneurs who are designing the next wave of applications and infrastructure in this space.

The Outlook Ventures Team
October 2003