– Jeremy Reis is the founder and president of That Network, an interactive publishing firm. This article originally appeared here. The views expressed are his own. –
WikiLeaks is in the news due to their release of U.S. government files, but for many years the site has been releasing both government and corporate secrets – and with a pending release of files from a large U.S. bank, it provides an opportunity to think about the lessons this teaches business managers.
A business generates a lot of internal documents from the inane emails to complex, secret business processes that provide us a competitive advantage. Learn five lessons every manager should know from the WikiLeaks affair.
1. There are no completely secure systems
Most companies have systems which they consider business sensitive and possibly even secret data. These systems contain financial data, customer information, or documentation about internal business processes. Though you may consider these systems secure, as the top secret government data file leaks have shown, there is no such thing as a truly secure system. You should make an effort to secure your systems and your data, but understand the risks involved with a data breach.
2. Weigh the risks of a data breach
Since there are no truly secure systems, what are the risks if your data is breached? What are the financial penalties that could be levied? What embarrassing information do you have on file? Should you have some electronic communication refresher courses for your employees to re-teach them what is and isn’t appropriate to communicate via email or instant messenger?
