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| GeoCommunity Mailing List |
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| Subject: | GISList: the sky is NOT falling.... |
| Date: |
06/12/2002 03:17:08 PM |
| From: |
Anthony Quartararo |
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I've just finished reading the latest EOM hardcopy issue (their online is a
few months behind). I noted with some initial interest the "Industry
Insider" article about security and offshore data conversion. It would
seem, that the author's contention that utilities and telecommunications
networks are in imminent danger by would-be saboteurs. Further, the author
recommends incredible overnight changes to the way data conversion
operations are run in the "Third World". We are at risk of piracy,
terrorism, industrial sabotage, not to mention a host of implied threats by
simply outsourcing data convesion functions to foreign companies.
The article contends that unless drastic measures are taken immediately to
turn otherwise humble production operations into Fort Knox fortresses, very
bad things may start happening. What left me dumbfounded was the sentence
that said "...cost savings is [sic] always an important factor...it should
never lead any business model." What? An article about outsourcing to
offshore companies claiming that price shouldn't matter? The point I
suppose is that Chicken Little is getting much too much press time, and has
crept into the GIS profession all too easily.
Look at every major ISV and consulting firm. A year ago, Homeland Security
would have been mistaken for some Pat Buchanan or Le Pen initiative. Now,
everyone has reinvented themselves and overloaded that tiny little Homeland
Security wagon, and people are buying it wholesale. They're buying it
because they are reading articles like this and thinking that because it is
published in a reputable magazine like EOM, it must have great weight.
If the FBI can't keep Robert Hanson from giving away secrets, what makes
anyone think that a GIS data conversion shop somewhere in India, Russia,
China, Malaysia, etc. can prevent someone from walking away with important
stuff. I'd even wager that plenty of onshore conversion vendors (there are
some left...) have absolutely no method to prevent someone walking off with
records. But its a moot point really. The sensationalism is not needed nor
warranted really, in my opinion, because bad things can be done by bad
people without involving GIS at all, and scaring up hysteria does no one any
favors.
Am I alone in my perspective on this ?
Anthony
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