“Ransomware Doesn’t Scare Me; Listeria Does”:
The first type of company that came to mind for me are medical/health related institutions. It is absolutely essential that all confidential information is stored securely and protected in the case of a hack. Healthcare and medicine impact lives everyday, and this is an extremely severe matter. Whether it’s patient information or even perhaps documents on who is to be administered what treatment, if a hacker were to go in and mess with that information, people’s lives could be at stake.
Another industry that came to mind are banks. People store their life-savings in banks along with other confidential information. If it’s not well-protected, a hacker could go into a bank’s system and manipulate the data to transfer financials to their own account. This, again, is a severe potential issue with drastic consequences on both the company and its users.
“Who Invited Her?”:
If Sara had not spoken, things would’ve gone very differently—in a negative direction. This case is a great example of how important it is to bounce ideas off others and speak up, even if it’s in an uncomfortable setting or to your ‘higher-ups’. Because Sara spoke up, the team actually pondered for the first time whether the technologies they were using were vulnerable or not. In my opinion, questioning your process is essential in success; without being critical, you will never improve. As a result of Sara’s comment/suggestion, the company likely avoided things like another hack.
My Own Project
It’s very important to constantly think critically and question the process. This can definitely be applied to working in a group setting, such as with our project in this class. Because of Sara’s situation, I see the importance of speaking up even when it goes against what the mass majority says. If I encounter a situation where I have a dissenting opinion against the rest of my group, I’ll be sure to speak up and explain my reasoning. We can have a productive back-and-forth conversation about it; if it merits value, then we can move on from their together while being on the same page.
