Technology Abuse in the Wired World

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’.

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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