Monday, August 8, 2005

Technology apathy?


Lots of talk about patches and vulnerabilities of late, just when I was thinking some of the bigger items were behind us there looms some huge potential issues. However, I have taken a moment to step back to try to look at the larger picture. The following are some key points I noticed,

  • Sloppy software development techniques
  • Rushed release dates
  • inflexible software developers (e.g. support and patching)
  • irresponsible vulnerability disclosure
  • general acceptance for BETA software in production environments
  • unskilled administrators
  • unskilled end users
  • lack of resources

I could grow that list a bit more of I wanted, but that is a good enough start. What do those bullet points mean? Overall, those are all contributors to the larger problem that is facing us today… What is it?

I would tenetivly call it technology apathy.

Each of those is a symptom of this issue and often are found in the business world driven by non-technology skilled decision makers. They all have technology apathy…

moreover, they embrace it!

Now how many times are these same people babysat with the technology they need to do their jobs. How much money have they cost their organization by their apathy? That is the possibly one of the deepest roots of the problem.

How many front line administrators have stood up and stated that XYZ needs to be changed or implemented, but it was not allowed for a myriad of reasons? (E.g. Budgets, politics, time issues, or worse apathy towards understanding the true need for the change, product, or service).

There is virtually no job function or industry that is not impacted by technology today and is only going to continue, however as long people are allowed to embrace technology apathy, the symptoms above and many more will continue to plague us.

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