In the case study, the potential drawbacks of over-networked systems are discussed. Bad actors can target vulnerable systems, leading to significant concerns in some cases. For example, the case study notes that hacking pasteurization sensors could lead to food contamination with listeria and is a serious health hazard.
Beyond this example, some other companies and products could risk public safety if managed by over-networked systems and then hacked. For example, healthcare companies and hospitals can be targets for malicious actors. Sensitive electronic healthcare records containing the personal information of patients can be hacked, and potentially cause problems like misidentifying a patient or giving a patient the wrong medication or wrong dosage. Furthermore, life-sustaining medical devices such as ventilators or dialysis machines can be connected to the internet or connected to a power source that can be remotely controlled. This offers an opportunity for malicious actors to perform actions that could be fatal for many patients. Thus, such elements, like the controls to life-sustaining medical devices, should never have access to the internet, and sensitive information such as electronic healthcare records should be carefully guarded. This would help prevent malicious actors from taking advantage of over-networked systems.
This topic is relevant to my team’s project because we must also consider ethical issues with collecting and storing sensitive user data. Our company aims to collect data from users in the form of photos and written prompts, and the content could be sensitive information that could reveal a user’s identity. Thus, we must take precautions in ensuring that data is safely handed.
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The case study also mentions how a woman, Sara Wilund, bravely spoke up during a meeting. Although many coworkers were not supportive, the CEO was supportive of Sara’s contributions. If Sara had stayed quiet or if the CEO had ignored her, a different perspective that others had not previously thought of would have been lost. Sara Wilund brought up the point that not everything needed to access digitally and doing so could lead to more hardware to hack. Sara’s valuable contribution which addressed important concerns would have been completely disregarded, leading to stagnation and danger.
Sara faced many implicit assumptions that she challenged. As a woman of a non-technical background in a meeting with coworkers with more senior roles and titles, it was very important that she challenged many assumptions associated with her position and identities. If she had not challenged these assumptions, this would have solidified the current undesirable culture and hierarchy and would have made it more difficult for others in positions of less power to contribute to discussions. This could result in the loss of many more future contributions that could be significant and innovative.
The topic of speaking up and including people of all different backgrounds in the discussion is also relevant to my team’s project. People have different perspectives, and it is important to include everyone’s thoughts in the conversation. This could lead to a more constructive and beneficial result.
