Industry Expert Reveals March 4, 2024 Selim Maalouf 4 min read
Last week, I touched upon the sudden reality shift that the industry had witnessed. Everyone is still working from home, everyone is still learning to cope with separating their work from their personal lives. For me, the line is easy to draw: work stops the moment I enter the kitchen, the bathroom, the bedroom, or the living room. Those of you who assumed I have the income to allow a standalone office, have obviously missed a funny joke that my bosses wouldn't find funny either way.
The growing pains are starting to show and the tenuous grasp on the necessity of office work is slipping through business owners' fingers. But fear not, micromanagers, for your silver bullet has not yet been shot.
Security Theater puts on a great show
Most of you haven't heard of this concept before, but every single one of you experiences its repercussions in your daily life. Some of you love it: it makes you feel safe like a kid holding onto his blanket to protect himself from the closet monsters. Believe me, kid, if anything is coming out of that closet, it will scare your parents more than it will scare you...
Some of you, however, can see right through it. And its costs bring you to a constant state of rage and indignation.
Security theater is the practice of organizations or security teams implementing publicized or superficial measurements that create an atmosphere of safety that may only achieve the appearance of heightened security. Or you know...Fake security.
Remote work vs Pandemic: Double feature in Security theater
Make no mistake: some countries have handled the pandemic quickly and effectively. Others were too busy looking busy.
Many countries lost the battle even though their populations thought they had it under control. Press conferences and media coverage don't stop the spread of viruses. They do, however, reinforce a sense of control and authority.
Data Security Experts are your data's doctors. Listen to them, they know what they are doing. Managers and executives should not be in charge of your data security, the same way presidents shouldn't give out medical prescriptions on social media. Both lead to a false sense of security and distract from the real threats.
Some countries resorted to confining their residents inside their homes. Businesses followed suit. No, no, we didn't shut down operations... Yes, we're still expected to hit our targets even if the market is in recession.
Businesses followed suit by confining their employees into VPNs and remote desktop sessions.
The tighter you squeeze, the less [security] you have
Thomas Merton will have to excuse my liberal use of his quote, but it rings true. The stricter your security protocols, the more your employees will reject them and the more they will try to find ways to circumvent them.
Trust in employees seems like a dead concept in today's cyber-connected world. Why develop trusting relationships when you can create an iron dome around them that ensures they cannot see the light of day even if they tried?
The cycle of mistrust has been churning long before computers and the internet. So much overhead and resources are spent on monitoring and enforcement of the rules. However, I have never met a management team that was aware that they lost sight of their goals.
Data security and work efficiency need considerable effort to co-exist. So businesses drop the latter in favor of the former.
Cybersecurity helps Management sleep at night
Hastily cobbled together Cybersecurity solutions do more harm than good. Before deploying your ship at sea, proper leak testing should be mandatory before declaring your ship safe from the elements.
I am by no means a security expert, nor am I a descendant of Nostradamus to be able to foresee this pandemic flooding our professional and our personal lives.
But in an increasingly connected world, remote work should not be an emergency measure you put together during crises. It should be a long-term goal, a hedging strategy against future turmoil.
But what do I know... I'm just a disgruntled worker who happens to sleep in his work clothes... or work in sleep clothes...
I lost track, is it Tuesday? Let me know in the comments what day is it.
