Technology Abuse in the Wired Workplace
Inspired by ancient Greek Wisdom
By John Kyriazoglou
Liability risks,
productivity losses, service shutdowns, financial losses, brand and
reputational damage, customer data and personal data breaches and large
security gaps, to state only a few of the after-effects of intrusions are
causing many board directors and managers to wonder what kind of ‘Pandora’s box’ they opened when their
companies and organizations entered the electronic age by connecting to the
Internet and carrying out their operations primarily via the Web and other
e-Commerce platforms and applications.
In ancient Greek
mythology, the story of ‘Pandora’s Box’ goes like this: ‘Pandora (Greek for
‘all-gifted’) was the first woman on earth. Zeus (the master of gods) ordered
Hephaistus, the god of craftsmanship, to create her and he did it, using water
and earth. The gods endowed her with many talents: Aphrodite gave her beauty,
Apollo music, Hermes persuasion, and so forth. Hence her name: Pandora,
‘all-gifted’. When Prometheus (ancient Greek for
‘Forethought’) stole fire from
heaven, Zeus took vengeance by presenting Pandora to Epimetheus
(ancient Greek for ‘Afterthought’),
Prometheus' brother. With her, Pandora had a jar which she was not to open
under any circumstance. Impelled by her natural curiosity, Pandora opened the
jar, and all evil contained escaped and spread over the earth. She hastened to
close the lid, but the whole contents of the jar had escaped, except for one
thing which lay at the bottom, and that was Hope’.
Full details are
available, at: http://ipmajournal.com/articles/Vol12_Iss6_Article5.php
So we see that up to this day, whatever
evils are upon us, hope never entirely leaves us; and while we have that, no
amount of other ills can make us completely wretched.
I think the meaning of this story is
that we have to manage technology and its impact (contained in Pandora’s jar)
in all aspects of our personal and business life to benefit, as much as
possible, the greater society2.
Coming back to the central issue of ‘how
to manage these impacts better while gaining the benefits of the Internet
technology’, the questions are:
Is the company
making best use of IT systems, personnel and resources?
Are corporate
managers prepared for both the tremendous responsibility and liability this
places on both the board and the IT department?
Has the company
implemented the best business management and IT controls to mitigate the
intrusion and other risks while managing the debilitating effects of hacking
and avoiding the huge fines imposed by the regulatory authorities on personal
data and other breaches?
Full details are
available, at: http://ipmajournal.com/articles/Vol12_Iss6_Article5.php
