Corruption - A social disease (Part 76): Our challenge is not an information technological one
Information and technology are parts of the entire fabric of our modern lives. Everything and everyone are connected.
We are connected via social platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. We send correspondence all over the world via email and do business transactions online.
The more data we make available online, the more we are connected and the more vulnerable we are. By implication, we trust the binary code that runs our lives and runs our world (Goodman).
Our technological insecurity is not just a computing problem. We do not have an information technology problem. Technology is part of the entire fabric of our modern lives.
We also have social problems (we communicate on screens instead of communicating verbally), personal problems (some of us can get so entangled in gaming on IT that it is addictive to the point where it rules our lives), financial problems (credit card fraud), health care problems (fraudulent payment for services not delivered and/or inflated services), manufacturing problems (we use our resources unsustainably and do not apply adequate re-use, recycle and reduce), public safety problems (all our information is available on social platforms with no guarantee against misuse and abuse thereof, read for example the disclaimer of LinkedIn), governance problems (government websites tend to be outdated and not interactive), a paradigm problem (we are still stuck in the paradigms of traditional and outdated public administration and new public management and only elements of network governance exists in Namibia to solve socio-economic problems), transportation problems (we do not have one-stop border posts to save us costs and money where countries can share border control information), energy problems (we still rely on fossil fuels to drive our economic growth and development), privacy problems (any information you post on Google and Facebook, in fact on any social platform, can be misused), and human rights problems (e.g. online stalking, hacking and identity theft).
In order to cope with these corruption related challenges, we need to update digital security systems frequently, use more secure passwords, verify sources from where we download, turn our devices off when not in use, and encrypt our digital life (Goodman).
References
Goodman, M. 2016. Future Crimes. London: Penguin Random House.
[email protected]
We are connected via social platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. We send correspondence all over the world via email and do business transactions online.
The more data we make available online, the more we are connected and the more vulnerable we are. By implication, we trust the binary code that runs our lives and runs our world (Goodman).
Our technological insecurity is not just a computing problem. We do not have an information technology problem. Technology is part of the entire fabric of our modern lives.
We also have social problems (we communicate on screens instead of communicating verbally), personal problems (some of us can get so entangled in gaming on IT that it is addictive to the point where it rules our lives), financial problems (credit card fraud), health care problems (fraudulent payment for services not delivered and/or inflated services), manufacturing problems (we use our resources unsustainably and do not apply adequate re-use, recycle and reduce), public safety problems (all our information is available on social platforms with no guarantee against misuse and abuse thereof, read for example the disclaimer of LinkedIn), governance problems (government websites tend to be outdated and not interactive), a paradigm problem (we are still stuck in the paradigms of traditional and outdated public administration and new public management and only elements of network governance exists in Namibia to solve socio-economic problems), transportation problems (we do not have one-stop border posts to save us costs and money where countries can share border control information), energy problems (we still rely on fossil fuels to drive our economic growth and development), privacy problems (any information you post on Google and Facebook, in fact on any social platform, can be misused), and human rights problems (e.g. online stalking, hacking and identity theft).
In order to cope with these corruption related challenges, we need to update digital security systems frequently, use more secure passwords, verify sources from where we download, turn our devices off when not in use, and encrypt our digital life (Goodman).
References
Goodman, M. 2016. Future Crimes. London: Penguin Random House.
[email protected]
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