Specifically, hapless users confronted with jargonated gobbledygook pertaining to Internet security threats are at risk of doing themselves more harm than good by glazing over, pretending it isn’t happening and hence falling victim to all manner of malware nasties.

Duval - popular in Belgium

“There are some people in the profession who to some degree enjoy the mystification of what they do,” claimed ex-US Homeland Security secretary Michael Chertoff, clearly after having consumed a few too many bottles of Duval. 

You are damn right Mr. er… Chertoff.

“With cybersecurity, the task is to make the architecture more user-friendly and to teach people better,” he added, before banging on about his old army stricture about being able to call an entrenching tool an entrenching tool (or perhaps not).

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Turn it off, wait, then turn it back on again

One positive use already identified for the doll – other than wedging the comms room door open – will be to raise the debate concerning women in the male-dominated world of IT.  Reading the reaction to this story in all the usual places, opinion is split between those apparently disgusted that Barbie still exists in 2010, and those (predominately female voices) who find it somewhere in a sliding scale between harmless fun and ‘empowering’.

Let’s not forget that Barbie is a doll for children, most likely girls under the age of ten.  In that context, the ‘tech support’ aspect of this toy is more laudable than most of the other get-ups we know Barbie for.  And we are dying to see the ‘Barbie’s IT Department’ action set that you’ll be able to get with it in time for Christmas.

Working at the ICO must be a bit like being a police officer attached to the ‘don’t drink and drive’ initiative circa 1975.  Everyone says it’s an important and worthy cause, but not enough to radically alter behaviour.  Not yet anyway…

Unlike the booze lobby who dragged their heels encouraging drinkers to leave their car keys at home, at least the ICO has an ally among the vendor and reseller community.  At least when they aren’t overdoing the FUD anyway…

Dare to look at your inbox and they’ll be sales pitches telling you that if it isn’t impending regulatory compliance of one form or another that is hours away from burning down your house and strong-arming your kids off to a Siberian gulag, then bet your bottom dollar the ICO will soon be rapping your quivering buttocks with court summons to pay a £gazillion data breach fine.   But scare tactics only work up to a point, and it’s encouraging to see that the ICO appreciate that fact.

What broke the back of the drink drive problem wasn’t just shock and awe, or education – it was honesty.  People were honest with each other, admitting they’d done it, that it was wrong, and that they wouldn’t do it anymore.

Honesty in terms of data breaches would start with many IT depts admitting they don’t have a terrific handle on exactly what the hell is going on event logging and reporting wise, and that in the event of a critical issue they wouldn’t have the internal resources to deal with it.  While that may necessitate a technical solution from a trusted source, internal corporate paymasters need to sit up and listen too.

Keeping data secure is a strategic issue, and not simply an operational one.  IT pros may or may not need help to solve it, but they could all do with extra time and resources to avoid it getting washed overboard by other ‘priorities’.

Fundamentally, the idea of automation is to free people from the endless tasks that swallow up valuable time, allowing them to concentrate on more productive and strategic activity. IT pros all too often have their noses to the grindstone. It’s hard to offer innovation when you have to root through all sorts of surprisingly arcane nonsense (most of which is undeniably important just unncessarily time intensive) when with automation processes in place, the innovation can flow.

Here at Automated IT Towers, we put faith in these problem solving systems, but we also value the expertise of the people in IT who keep these clever pieces of technology in order. IT automation can make the breakfast and make the beds, but it will also be people who make the difference.