Albert Einstein once said that technological change is like an axe in the hands of a pathological criminal. Most days, to IT, security and chief security officers, it must feel like the inmates are running the asylum. Change is the face of the corporate world and few areas of the business are impacted as profoundly by change as IT and security. It comes from everywhere.
Of course, no discussion of the impacts of change on IT is complete without a nod to the technology itself. In less than two decades, technology has changed so rapidly, that it literally boggles the mind. And, it’s not just processing power that’s exploded. Western civilization has become an amazingly mobile society--mostly a positive change for today’s worker, but a nightmare for physical and logical access controls.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology once dubbed wireless connectivity the “logical equivalent of placing an Ethernet port in the parking lot.” Workers surf on and off of networks from wired and wireless connections while hackers and troublemakers constantly test barriers for weaknesses to exploit.
Heck, even the hackers have changed. Hackers used to be kids in basements with nothing more sinister on their minds than a little web site defacing. These days, however, one never knows whether the crooks are on the inside or out and what shape their attacks will take, but it is certain that they’re coming and their goal is to cash in big due to exploited mistakes and vulnerabilities.