Cautionary Tales of Technological Slip-ups - Part Four

A warning against failing to hire information security engineers or information security firms.

Many officials believe that the tasks of an employee in the information technology department or division are a single task, and that all technicians and engineers are capable of carrying out all tasks. So you find the technical support employee assigned the tasks of protecting systems, developing software, managing projects and data systems and analyzing them, systems analysis, databases, networks, strategy, and so on. We have seen such behavior often, and unfortunately it is what has placed the level of technology departments at the lowest ranks, so that instead of operating with strategy and future planning, they become a burden and a weight on the organization.

Information technology departments are divided into main branches that cannot be mixed, just like bringing a pharmacist to perform open-heart surgery! Every role and task has its own special respect. In general, information systems departments and divisions consist of: the infrastructure management section, which includes networks, servers, and what relates to them; the technical support management section (operations) to provide technical support to clients and users; the systems management section, which is concerned with developing and managing software and systems; the research and development management section, which is responsible for searching for new solutions, innovating systems, and trying new and different methods; and the information security management section, which is the focus of our discussion here.

An organization may not need these sections due to its relatively small size, but it most certainly needs people specialized in these tasks, even if there is one person for each section. The tasks of an employee in the information security management section are something independent, a large science requiring effort and continuous follow-up, and it is essential to appoint, at the very least, an information security officer or engineer who has the tasks of following up and overseeing system security, monitoring vulnerabilities and the reports of periodic penetration tests, tracking activity and data movement and permissions and infiltration attempts, reading the data points from all the data, using important monitoring tools, and taking immediate action. Depending on the size of the organization and its working hours, you may need an information security team or at least one employee, and then contract with experienced information security firms that have a strong and seasoned team. The absence of even a single person is considered something very dangerous, like a body without an immune system.

A warning against neglecting an organization's Twitter account

There is no doubt that social media is extremely important, and it also requires officials and department managers to engage in social media, and on Twitter in particular, if their concern is developing services and then directly viewing comments, suggestions, and their strengths and weaknesses in their administration. This work indeed indicates that the manager is a leader who cares about development, providing the best services, and making the most beneficial decisions, for ignoring public opinion and users is among the worst practices by which an entity is classified and by which a manager is classified. We have seen the collapse of huge organizations for this reason, such as what happened with Nokia and others, by not following up on the desires of their customers, and some of it is on a much larger scale. We see lamentable cases of forgotten accounts or a complete lack of presence from some organizations and managers, a sad matter and a frightening and regrettable indicator.

A warning against buying televisions without approved systems

Televisions have developed greatly and steadily in the past period, and buying a television without services and applications has become something whose time has long passed. But people stumble when buying due to the misleading practices of some companies who write 'smart TV' when it in reality runs on an unknown operating system, with applications that fall short, a miserable store, and even official applications such as YouTube and Netflix are dubious on it, updates are nearly nonexistent, and the system in general is poor.

In this regard, we mention 3 of the best systems. The first is the Tizen system, dedicated to Samsung televisions, which is considered the most successful and finest of television systems and contains the majority of applications such as Shahid, OSN, Netflix, Apple TV, and others. It is fast, easy, and smooth to use, with very many features, and is constantly updated. The second system is Android TV (the name may change to Google TV), which is misleadingly available on a group of companies that claim the system used is Android TV, when in reality it is a system built on open-source Android that is not dedicated to television, so you find in it many flaws and shortcomings. The best companies that provide a true Android TV system are Sony, Philips, Xiaomi, and some editions of Hisense and Toshiba, and they must be verified before purchase. The last of the smart television systems is WebOS, specific to LG televisions, which is considered good in its design, though it is considered in third place. Here it is also worth warning against using primary accounts on systems of unknown origin, such as Android Box devices from unknown companies, which must be watched out for, and instead using approved devices such as the Xiaomi Mi Box and Nvidia Shield for non-smart televisions.

A warning against failing to lay network cables in homes

A home today that is devoid of network wiring is like a home devoid of electrical wiring, for network wiring has become a very important matter. There are points we need to pay attention to, such as providing a trunk for the cables along the boundary of the home's wall underground for future wiring, as well as in the home's ceiling for installing cameras from the top of the house, installing the network inside the kitchen and extending it to the annexes and outer rooms, and likewise at the door for installing smart doorbells in the future, and ensuring that these cables are Category 6 (Cat 6) or Cat 7 if the price difference is small.

An encouragement to restart smart devices from time to time

Some devices such as phones, computers, smart TVs, and other devices need to be restarted from time to time, every week for example, for several reasons including clearing the memory, applying updates, and other reasons

Engineer Ahmed Al Zarooni, Al Roeya UAE newspaper https://alroeya.com/article/2139638

Read the previous parts: Part One, Part Two, Part Three