Human beings are fragile, unique resources operating under different personal
circumstances and pursuing, individually, personal/career goals. If such a
resource is your organization's key strength, it can also be a key weakness. In
the context of operations, humans can:
Have poor security awareness,
apathy: One obliging sales executive responding to a fake phone call from a
caller pretending to be her boss's brother-in-law, couriered an important
file of trade contracts. She was ‘socially engineered', i.e. sweet-talked
into handing over, voluntarily, vital information to a convincing liar.
Carelessness and accidents can
lose data – one secretary to a CEO of a major North Indian concern took an
important file to his Boss's residence for signatures.On the way back, it fell off his
scooter, unnoticed…and found its way, by bad luck, into hostile hands. The
deal was compromised.
We give away too much
information in our ‘Job Advertisements': One ‘Help Wanted' ad was so
detailed about the type of person needed, it detailed the entire
(confidential) process, machinery, schedules, everything. You can be sure
many ‘dummy' applicants from rival organizations came for interviews – just
to find out more! And did!
Sales/Marketing/PR people are
often so keen to bag orders/project company image, they
over-enthusiastically reveal too much information on strategy, plans,
operations etc. One ad campaign was so informative that the rivals stole a
march over them.
Human beings, like
organizations, can also be exploited by rival companies, due to their own
vulnerabilities, be they financial or personal (proclivities). One
employees' ego, addiction and lack of awareness made him innocently reveal
his boss's travel plans for a tour to clinch a collaboration – only trouble
was, his friend's boss, who got the advance information, clinched the deal
instead.
The creative side of human nature needs outlet and appreciation. But unless
tempered by caution and security considerations, it can sometimes result in
serious information leakage detrimental to a company's image, future or both:
In larger corporations, such
as ICAR (Indian Council of Agricultural Research) or IARI (Indian Agricultural
Research Institute), [Which are herein mentioned only in the context of their
pioneering research and enormous contributions to the economy and society as a
whole, there being dozens more like them], highly qualified, talented
scientists may be neglected and smothered by bureaucracy. They eagerly seek
recognition by publishing research papers, some of which might turn out to be
extremely sensitive to India's bio-diversity or integrity of its traditional
plants and herbs (like neem, haldi) or agricultural produce (e.g. Basmati). It
will tempt pirate operators, both foreign as well as indigenous, to try and
monopolize/ commercialize the data. What would be the fallout, in case such an
incident happened in a security-sensitive department, can only be left to the
imagination.
In face of heavy competition
and challenging sales targets, marketers/ salespeople frequently go over board
in releasing as much information as they can lay their hands on. One division
of a major fan manufacturer even released commercials for TV/ cinema, much
before the product was launched, giving a rival ample time to copy/launch it
with an advertising slogan – “We invent the future”. It's a war out there – the
enemy is watching and listening.
It
is necessary to understand, and make others understand, the value of information
which has been hard won by research, but which could be unwillingly leaked to
competitors.
Many companies replace lack of
performance with a media blast and/or conferences and Press Releases. Unless
suitably monitored, such strategies can turn into disaster for many reasons,
one being the release of either too false or too true information of a
sensitive nature, both of which will be used by your company's adversaries
against you.
Many a false and misleading
media claim have received MRTP strictures. What is important is the leads
rivals obtain as to future strategies and present R&D efforts – in advance.
When a major multinational had to withdraw its skin care beauty products due to
a court judgment of ‘false and misleading claims' of arrest of the aging process
and removal of wrinkles, it was immediately a target for break-ins and
espionage, since this area of research along with biotechnology, is the real
concern of tomorrow-the fountain of youth. The competition wanted to find out
(a) what it had been doing,
process-wise (b) what it had NOT
being doing, to focus their own efforts (c) what it proposed to do in future.
ALL INFORMATION IS USEFUL, EVEN DATA ON FAILED EXPERIMENTS! THE ADVERSARY
LEARNS FROM YOUR MISTAKES. DON'T LET
HIM KNOW OF THEM!
HR Departments can get so
isolated from operations that they can sometimes fail to see larger issues. One
‘Help wanted' advertisement released by a major Western India-based motor
scooter manufacturer, in a bid to attract technical personnel for its proposed
(secret) four-stroke-engine scooter, revealed almost all that rivals needed.
Observe how a south-based manufacturer, known for innovation, craftsmanship and
efficiency, brought out its 4 stroke scooter first in the Indian market,
beating its older, slower rival on counts of performance, looks and efficiency,
to boot.
Just as radio and TV waves can
be intercepted, communications signals like phone calls and faxes, web surfing
and email, all can be monitored.
A
once-successful entertainment electronics manufacturer suddenly started losing
orders, results from developmental efforts and even personnel. After the firm
had been wound up, packers discovered a secret network of ‘bugging' microphones
and transmitters-the source of which can only be guessed. Can the sudden rise of
two rival firms in the identical business provide clues to the mystery?
Human nature and circumstances are unpredictable. Whatever secret motivations
lie beneath the surface-greed, need, or negative emotions like hate, envy,
jealousy or treachery-need to be addressed.
Screen people
properly before recruitment. One multinational company's website was hacked
thanks to a disgruntled employee who parted with IDs, passwords and other data.
Keep an eye on
people who start early and leave late, then take work home: Some of the most
successful corporate spies who had burrowed into a rival organization, were
rated as ‘excellent' workers.
Strengthen or
activate ‘incident reporting' procedures: If people tend to just ignore
apparent attempts at infiltration, it shows dangerous apathy, which might prove
risky if such attempts are repeated. The Kargil War and its high cost in terms
of Indian casualties can be, perhaps, attributed to (as reports and
commentaries suggest) apathy to repeated reports of intelligence agents that
the enemy was massing for a big strike. Here the Indian military intelligence
machine itself failed to react quickly, perhaps deluded by past ‘dummy'
attacks/border skirmishes.
Sanjay Bhatla, joined Samsung Electronics at their Jaipur office as Branch
manager in November 95. A seasoned, market savvy and hardworking professional
he was transferred to the corporate office and Delhi in March 2000 as AGM. On 1st
April 2000 he left, to join LG (in May 2000) taking with him a mass of highly
secret and sensitive marketing data he'd a accessed on the corporate intranet,
including country-wide dealer/region/product performance data, crucial to a
competitor. Samsung hasn't taken kindly to Bhatla's espionage triumph and
slapped criminal cases on him at Jaipur. Time will tell what course the law
takes. (July 7 – 21 – 2000, Business Today)
Giving out too
much information to employees, to avoid undue/ adverse publicity and so as not
to educate them on the methodology adopted by a would be infiltrator. [This can
prove counter-productive, as it prevents ‘proactive' measures]. No wonder banks
circularize detailed accounts of methodology used in each attempted (or
successful) fraud case, so as to educate all branches on need to strictly
follow the laid-down procedures and reduce risk. This is only, however, a
reactive' measure.
