“Everyone pays the price. Either you pay the price of discipline today or the price of regret later on.” That was one of the first business quotations I took to heart years ago and came from the legendary Zig Ziglar. The concept is true in saving money today versus spending, but it is also true in the confidence of technology. There is much to consider when making the tradeoff between convenience and necessity. Just because everyone else seems to be accepting of an idea or practice doesn’t make it wise.
First, a confession about the airport: watching workers carry coffee through the security line while being required to dump mine irritates me. I am not a hijacker, and I am not carrying a bomb. We submit to the inconvenience just in case the person next to us has other intentions besides their morning caffeine fix. There is also the little fact I have no option in the decision.
Putting your information into the world of cyberspace was a choice you made at one point. Now it is out of our control as companies and the government function in the cloud. Our firm included. Who you choose to allow your information to be stored and shared is somewhat limited but still in your control. How companies decide to safeguard that data is also in their control, but at the cost of size and scalability.
The percentage of our revenue required to maintain security increases every year. We have weekly attempts by uninvited guests to “borrow” our family information. We are vigilant and successful to this point, stemming from actually knowing and verbally speaking with individuals needing deposits or withdraws. “Not a week passes where someone doesn’t try to breach our data system. Our process is robust and requires constant updating and monitoring. Our success in protecting private information ultimately comes from our mandate to have a “known” human acknowledge and confirm transaction requests verbally,” adds Don Hodson, EA and Chief Compliance Officer at the Financial Enhancement Group.
Major corporations have not been as fortunate. As enterprises expand, the ability to “know” voices and personal circumstances is replaced by numerical protocol. The world of encrypted and multi-process verification has helped. Sadly, the enemy of privacy works just as diligently to get our information.
The statistics on the methodology of hacking and breaching systems are scary and overwhelming. Just because you can create an application for a phone or start a business doesn’t require a significant investment or interest in technology and protection protocols. The protection methodologies are seemingly inconvenient and costly for time, energy, and attention. Until the unthinkable happens.
Determine the potential risk and reward, as with all decisions. The exchange of “privacy” is necessary, but you get to decide who gets that information and have every right to ask how it is maintained and transmitted. The processes we and others use may seem inconvenient at times, but the tradeoff of protection is worth the effort on your part and the expenses on ours.
