COVID-19 Infects Tech

My how things change. In an eyeblink, the social media and tele-work sector went from being perceived Privacy and Information Vampires to the salvation of business and quarantined individuals.

The other side of the coin is this: with all these novel users
in the telecommuting space, a lot of critical data is at risk
of being lost or compromised.

Because the telecommuting change was made “overnight” (literally, in many cases), corners may have been cut in the way companies archive data as it flows between teams and customers. We also have thousands of users who are not accustomed to using these platforms, and therefore might miss out on critical archiving protocols. Add these factors together and the possibility for loss of critical communication about deliverables, payment schedules, and work product somewhere in the ether between email, slack, Zoom and Facebook chat seems like a real possibility. This proliferation of data platforms has been a main driver of quashed telework programs in the past.

We also see risk in the simple fact that several new data centers and work platform setups were done in a heartbeat. Companies can anticipate data privacy issues in the next six months due to configuration mistakes may have crept into the setup. When you’re building new systems that fast it’s practically unavoidable.

However, now that telework is necessary, we are all eager to see how information usage and capture is reshaped in this new business landscape. My sincere hope is that all goes smoothly, and employees now have a whole new option for work/life balance available to them.

Download a PDF of the full article here: IRL April 2020