By: Sonny Zulhuda
The process of digitalisation of work and lifestyle has continually brought wonder to us with its unprecedented level of efficiency and ease from time to time. Consequently, the traditional physical limit of space and time is increasingly irrelevant due to the availability of instantaneous communications, shared workspace and smart data processing.
The recent pandemic that makes people virtually glued to their computers and the Internet at work, school, trade and even personal activities shows just how much this digitalisation process will continue to define how things will work in future. Post-pandemic era does not show any difference, indeed.
Laying at the back of this digitalisation of works and lifestyle is the production, processing and usage of the digital data. From text messaging to video-conferencing, from online calendars to e-mail traffic, and from the sharing of documents on gadgets and clouds, various important data are produced, stored and shared which makes them valuable but vulnerable assets at the same time.
In the corporate realm, this triggers the concern on how much all those data assets are adequately controlled and protected bearing in mind that threats and potential breaches of data assets are getting increasingly rampant. An employee who is now working from the comfort of his home may not necessarily find the challenge of managing his work data comfortable at all.
Sharing a computer and connection with others at home may simply pose more threat to the company’s data. When any data incident takes place such as a spam or a phishing attack, the employees at home may not enjoy similar backup and support from his or her technical people who would otherwise be around in the office. Often a day-to-day decision on whether or not to continue clicking on a website, or to download any file attached in a received email, will need to be taken every time and then. Without sufficient presence of advisory support, employees working from home find themselves easy prey to those digital threats.
Many cyber security agencies in the world reported that cyber threats have drastically increased. The list of those threats ranges from fraudulent phishing emails to disinformation and misinformation. Online video conferencing has been disrupted by sabotage and abuses. Email inboxes are filled with hoaxes and scams. Online learning systems are threatened by data theft and abuse. Children at home are not spared from the threat of online stalkers. In sum, the digital space is never calm or peaceful just how much online work or learning can be potentially harmful.
What to do? – Quickly on this, especially at the organisational level, we need to look at some precautionary measures such as the data protection policy. The policy should include things like the usage of confidentiality clauses at work, data privacy policy, distribution of liabilities and due diligence, data subject access right, employee training as well as monitoring. Well, the more we dig, the more we would know what to do next.
At this juncture, we learned a bit from our ancient proverb (in Malay): “Sedia payung sebelum hujan”. Literally, it is “grab your umbrella BEFORE it rains”. We need to get ready to anticipate the risks of this digitalisation process. Sadly enough, most of us only grab umbrellas WHEN or AFTER it starts raining. Something serious we need to look at regarding data governance, risk management and (ultimately) compliance.
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