That is not my job!

The last one hundred years has wrought many changes to human society. One of the major impacts to people across a large portion of the population is specialization. In the 21st century almost everyone in the modern workplace specializes in a particular area or function to the detriment of society in a broader sense. The focus on an area of specialty has resulted in people not being well rounded and self-sufficient. This, in my opinion, makes society weaker than the gains offered by the specialization that permeates modern society. I would gladly discuss and offer support of my assertions if anyone would like to follow up with me. Alongside this focus on skill specialization, another phenomenon has increased as well and that is the abdication of responsibility. ?This abdication is noticeable all throughout society, but it absolutely permeates the workplace. How many times have you heard, “That is not my job” uttered at your workplace? In many small to medium sized companies the IT department has become more of the “tag your it” department as the catch all for all services that everyone else declares as not their job. This is especially true for help desk staff. ?If you took a poll at almost any company in America and asked, “Who within your company is responsible for security?” I would wager a year’s salary that 95 out of 100 respondents would say the IT department. The correct answer to this question is everyone. All employees at every level of a company are responsible for being mindful of security. The IT department may be responsible for overseeing the tools that assist with security operations but that does not make it solely their responsibility.?All manner of organizations are collective groups of people brought together to work towards common goals. In commercial organizations, upper management is responsible for setting goals, communicating those goals and guiding the collective to achieve those goals. Security is a collective goal and upper management must fully support it for it to be successful. In the current climate, only those companies that actualize this fully supported top to bottom collective security mindfulness will find continued success in the coming decade. The unfortunate reality that we all find ourselves living in is one of increasing world political tension and all indicators point to the real chance of another world struggle on the horizon. Technology is meshed into every level of society and attacks on that technology will accelerate as tensions rise. Even in harsh times, those organizations that are prepared can make the best of a bad situation and still come out ahead. I would urge that someone in every entity take up the banner of security champion and push for the full endorsement of security at every level of all organizations so that collectively our society is better prepared to face what is just over the horizon.