What are other companies / products that could risk public safety if they were managed by over-networked systems (e.g., healthcare) and then hacked? What are some elements of those products that should never have access to the Internet (e.g., sacred family recipes), and those that should be carefully guarded (e.g., logins to the pasteurization sensors)? Why?
This article uses a made-up cheese company to illuminate the ramifications of over-network systems, depicting how bad actors can target vulnerable systems and cause “listeria” for any company. Other companies and products in many different domains risk public safety if their over-networked systems were hacked. The first industry that comes to mind is absolutely healthcare. Patient health records are sensitive, confidential information that, if hacked, could lead to mistreatment of patients (a very extreme threat to personal and public health) and abuse of patient data. Medical tools, devices, and machines, including ones that treat, test, diagnose, and more, if given access to the Internet could be hacked and consequently abused as well (again, another very extreme threat to personal and public health).
How might this discussion have gone differently had she stayed quiet, or the CEO ignored her, etc.? What would have been lost? What were the implicit (technical, hierarchical, gender) assumptions that she challenged, and why was it important that she did so?
Sara, who made the brave decision to speak up, is a woman and in a non-technical role, as deputy to the COO. Given the mass disapproval and scoffing from her male coworkers, the concern that she raised might have never even been brought up in the first place. It follows that there would not have been the productive company-wide discussion and investigation that pointed out the ramifications of the company’s over-networked system. Sara’s decision is brave given the implicit assumptions she challenged—she is female, she is non-technical, and she is a deputy. By vocalizing a contrarian thought and thereby risking her own reputation (and potentially her own job) in this setting, she proved her commitment to the success of the company. It was important she did so because (optimistically) it set up a precedent for the company that other similar coworkers who may face negative bias should feel comfortable and encouraged to voice their thoughts, especially in the interest of the company.
How might the topics of this case study be relevant to your own project?
The potential ramifications of over-networked systems and over-digitization is relevant to the technical components of our project, too. Our initial idea, as of now, heavily relies on user data and machine learning to make recommendations and gradually learn a user’s fashion preferences and style. Some topics that our team has been discussing include how much user data we collect, what we use the data for, and who has access to the data.
