It’s made us more vulnerable.

The technology that brought us the tools and databases which we rely on so heavily has also provided the means to attack them, either in deliberate (and hard to detect) attempts to steal information, or randomly - but no less devastatingly - by viruses and hackers. In times past we didn’t have to worry about hooligans running rampant through our offices, destroying files and records completely at random, or undetectably copying our correspondence. Now, in our electronic workplaces, we do.

Far too many companies still assume it won’t happen to them; they’re wrong. Viruses and hacker attacks are completely indifferent about who they hit; all they look for is an unprotected opening. And it’s a cliché that cell phone conversations are completely insecure and that plain-text messages sent over the Internet are the electronic equivalent of a postcard. It’s both operationally essential and a corporate responsibility to protect your systems and data with firewalls and anti-virus software, to encrypt confidential communications whenever possible and to be aware of who may be listening to your conversations or looking over your shoulder at your laptop screen.

And you do back up your systems every day, don’t you?

Back to Main Article