Offsite Virtual Office (OVO)
“Multiple backup sites seemed like an incredible extravagance
on September 10,” concedes Scott. “But on September 12, they seemed like
genius.” Robert G. Scott., former CEO of Morgan Stanley.
Morgan Stanley was one of the biggest occupants of the World
Trade Centre and as a part of their contingency planning; it had three recovery
sites, from where business could take place in case of any disruption.
A few days ago, I was at my company’s annual town hall,
listening to our leadership talk about IT. The interconnect between Digital,
Cyber and Technology. They were of the opinion that these will be growth areas
for the years ahead and internal audit will play a role in helping
organizations not just optimize but also secure their infrastructure and
strategy.
As I heard them talk, about the tools being developed to
protect organizations against cyber-attacks and how global players are seeking advice
on how they can secure their infrastructure. I began pondering.
I am no expert on cyber security but I am certain of one
thing, we may build the best code to protect our internal security but there is
always someone better out there.
I am an admirer of Steve Jobs, not because he gave us the
iPhone, iPad or iPod, these were by-products. He was a revolutionary because he
brought realism to the virtual world, be it through calligraphy or just the way
app icon looks a square with curved edges. These are simple things but they
make all the difference and his pragmatic approach turned around Apple.
So the thought that ran in my mind was,
a.
Cyber-attacks can at best be prevented,
b. If they
do happen what next?
Sony in 2014 witnessed a Cyber-attack, not only did it damage
the company’s reputation through leaking of confidential emails but it also
resulted in financial losses as the company had to shut down its PlayStation
network.
Since everything today is linked to the internet, for
instance Microsoft wants to push online office suite, services like Dropbox are
seeing traction on both personal and corporate side, and collaboration has been
redefined to mean being able to work across geographies. The intranet has
become the office space.
We can today work from any location all we need is the access
to surpass the gates protecting organizations confidential information. When a
breach occurs the gates are destroyed and a free flow of information begins. In
order to prevent this, organizations shut down services until they can
construct new gates and test if they can withstand the next attack.
Taking leap from what Morgan Stanley did prior to the 2001
attack, they created physical offsite offices in case the primary office was disrupted
or destroyed.
Can we today construct virtual offsite offices in case the
primary office is disrupted? Instead of building a new gate. Can we
effectively, efficiently migrate all the data to a new site, where the security
structure is already in place?
This was a thought I had and if we are able to build such a
solution, where we are able to take the concept of having physical off sites to
virtual off sites, the path to recovery from a cyber-attack could be faster.
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