The Office x Hackers + Boy Emperor = Digital Pearl Harbor

The Office x Hackers + Boy Emperor = Digital Pearl Harbor

The Digital Culture Club is a weekly newsletter at the intersection of technology, pop culture, and leadership where I'll pick one article that made me think, and we'll discuss its implications for leaders.

No matter where you work, odds are if you have colleagues then you've experienced office drama. Whether it's someone stealing CLEARLY LABELLED food from the fridge (my personal rage trigger), passive aggressive emails, or just general personality differences, every office has its share of conflicts.

But what happens when that office drama plays out against the backdrop of American national security in the CIA's hacking department?

We must talk about this long read from the New Yorker.?

Please, make time to read this one properly. Like, make a cup of tea and sit down somewhere uninterrupted and savor this absolutely bonkers story.?

It has everything: stupid office nicknames. Petty grievances. Disgruntled employees, legal maneuvering, child pornography (just a passing mention, nothing explicit or triggering), and oh yeah - a gigantic data leak of sensitive CIA documents done out of spite.

The article covers the investigation into the identity of the person who leaked Vault 7 - a treasure trove of covert CIA cyber-weapons.

Four thoughts to consider:

1. Despite all the efforts that companies invest in cybersecurity, one of the biggest risks remains?disgruntled employees (and really stupid weak passwords). With the current dissatisfaction raging through corporate America, I wonder if we'll start to see more of these leaks.?Laura Gassner Otting has some great advice in How to Re-Engage a Dissatisfied Employee in the Harvard Business Review.?

2. As the Pandemic forced a full-on race to digitize everything, companies should be thinking about the?scope of their digital footprints. Beyond emails, digital communications platforms like slack channels, texts, and whatsapp groups, are all potentially sensitive sources of information that could cause harm to your brand.

3. One of the items used to incriminate Josh Schulte was his own search history, handed over by Google to federal investigators, another?example of how your own data could be used against you?(more on this in an upcoming dispatch).

4. Josh Schulte's personality (described as the Boy Emperor) in the article is becoming an increasingly familiar profile that?mixes misogyny, racism, anti-semitism, and contradictory political views with technical mastery creating a toxic sludge?that is infecting many aspects of our society. We need to start talking about the radicalization and indoctrination of young men into these types of ideologies and how to counteract it before it's too late.

One of my favorite quotes:

We live in an era that has been profoundly warped by the headstrong impulses of men who are technically sophisticated but emotionally immature. From the whoopie-cushion antics of Elon Musk to the Panglossian implacability of Mark Zuckerberg, a particular personality profile dominates these times: the boy emperor        

Happy Reading!

Rahaf