“Yesterday, Evernote announced some changes to its privacy policy that proved to be very controversial. To help with its machine learning efforts, some employees would gain the ability to see users’ personal notes.
The changes weren’t meant to go into effect until January 23, and now they won’t be. In fact, the firm has admitted that it has made a mistake, and is now trying to make sure that its users know that they can still trust it.”
And really, shouldn’t they have known better? Maybe stop and think before violating your user’s privacy?
Fact – Google is an advertising company first and foremost. Fact – When you decide to use a Google product, it will track everything it knows about you in an effort to “provide useful information” to you, whether it is actually a paid ad or not, and you may not know the difference. That’s kind…
Sarah Anderson lays out one area where being a “know-it-all” is actually pretty dangerous. Unfortunately, many cybersecurity professionals either refuse or fail to accept the basic premise that he/she does not and cannot know everything. This failure or refusal is dangerous as cybersecurity requires a constant education and re-education from uncommon sources – news, Twitter,…
I think Sarah makes a great point about how we should just all be more aware of the mental health state of the people around us. It just so happens that for most adults, the people who are around much more than anyone else, are the people they work for and with. “As a licensed…
It makes sense, for the reasons Jim points out. Your ability to collect ransom payments is diminished if the organization has backups they can simply rebuild with. So, if you can find a way to lock not just the live data, but also the backups, you stand to make more money.
What I wonder is if this will cause organizations to look at that old-school offline backup option? Keep a copy of your data physically away from your network, locked in a drawer or closet, etc.
Or as I would put it, if you don’t even know my wife’s name, or can’t remember that I don’t have kids, maybe start there before you ask about my mental health, cool?
Suddenly asking someone you barely know anything about outside of work about mental health, will be a shock, and quite frankly, will seem threatening more than it seems supportive. As in, “why is my boss asking about this? Does she think I’m not doing my job, am I about to get fired?”
I’m assuming that’s not how you want them to feel, so be thoughtful about how you bring these subjects up. By all means, work up to it, and work up toward helping your reports feel comfortable, but do it in a way that actually works, not in a way that makes them feel less safe.
