Personal Safety and Data Security – Beyond the Data Center

Those of us within the data center, telecom, Datacom, and other mission critical industries take great precautions with the design and operations of our facilities striving for extremely high levels of personal safety, data integrity and security, and pride ourselves on the availability levels and SLAs we can maintain. Yet the moment we walk out the door we often ‘break protocol’ with many of our standard industry practices. So today, a brief refresher on personal safety and data security.

As a frequent traveler I share with you my own personal lessons and first-hand observations. And before we get too far into this I must confess to being ‘guilty’ in the past of some of these behaviors myself.

Let’s start with Social Media and one of my personal favorites – the ‘Check In’ feature that many platforms make extremely convenient based upon your phone’s (or other electronic device) GPS and/or cellular location data. Some of these social media platforms go so far as to provide a drop-down menu so you can further select the location and the actual event you may be attending. With all that information handy, and a convenient selfie, we even go so far to say “Hey, look at me in the airport. I am traveling to another airport / city / destination” and screaming to the world my family/significant other is home alone for at least X days. Or that your home / office is now vacant. Just back the truck up and take whatever you want.

From a business perspective it may tell us a lot more. Let’s say you are a person in the aircraft business and you post you are going to Atlanta for a few days on a business trip. And we notice on social media that wow, several international executives from ACME and their partner companies are also flying to Atlanta. It doesn’t take much for your competition to figure out what is going on.

My recommendation – save those selfies and wonderful destination photos, videos, and reviews to post at a later date. Try time shifting your posts by a week or even two. Everyone will still be impressed with your travels, food, view, activities but now your family, home, office, and business / clients are protected.

Next up – the voice or personal / digital presence that is too loud for the situation. Now this is typically observed in public places like coffee shops, airports, and restaurants where the ambient noise level is quite high. To compensate we speak even louder than normal. Typically, with little concern for who may be listening to the call because let’s face it – few people are either directly involved in the data center industry or even know anything about it.

Oh, if you only knew. Not only are you the obnoxiously loud person, or person with the smartphone / laptop / tablet font so large people 100 feet (33 meters) away can clearly read what you are working on but in today’s world with IT everywhere odds are extremely good two or more people in your vicinity know what you are talking, texting, writing about.

Now I am not about to suggest you cease all work when outside of your home or office. But do take reasonable precautions. I cannot begin to count how many times I’ve sat next to, across the aisle from or behind someone on a plane where I was able to read everything they had displayed on their laptop or notepad. Not that I make a habit of spying on seatmates but it happens. If you do not know the people around you assume at least one is a competitor. So, turn your screen brightness down to low, shield your work from view, and/or use a computer privacy screen. Full disclosure – I have been guilty of this in the past. I now take many precautions using my laptop in public locations.

When it comes to speaking a little too loudly or freely in a public setting I offer up one of my favorite examples of why you should never assume the setting is ‘safe’, the audience ‘friendly’, and your message and business information will be ‘secure’. This scenario was reported by my daughter almost immediately upon her arrival home at LAX from a week-long business trip to Boston.

In this case my daughter was already in her seat on the plane, wrapping a few last-minute emails, when a young man approaches to say he has the middle seat. After wrapping up her emails my daughter introduces herself as the director of recruiting at The Dry Bar. The young man, we’ll call him Mr. Clever (not his real name) says his girlfriend frequents the Santa Monica location and that he is a ‘technology sales executive’ working in the data center industry. And before my daughter can say anything about data centers Mr. Clever goes on to explain they are massive building used to hold thousands of computers, use a lot of power, and are mission critical enablers of our digital life.

So, my daughter is thinking Mr. Clever is a bit rude but very animated. Maybe he works with my dad at Vertiv. I’ll let him talk a little before I pin him down further on his role.

It didn’t take Mr. Clever very long to explain he had been traveling most of the week visiting various company factories and engineering centers to learn about new products, solutions, and capabilities that in his opinion were going to revolutionize how they supported their customers. He started to go into a layman’s explanation of some of these solutions when my daughter felt it the opportune time to save Mr. Clever any further embarrassment lest he truly divulge some competitive information.

My daughter turned directly to Mr. Clever and said – perhaps I should fully introduce myself. You may very well know my father, Jack Pouchet. At which point Mr. Clever became rather dumbstruck. It turns out he worked for a competitor.

Let’s just say Mr. Clever learned a few life lessons that day.

Let’s explore a few basic safety, data security steps to consider when outside the office.

One overarching tip: Think OPSEC (operations security) first, foremost, and always.

1, Know your surroundings, keep an eye open for potential threats and identify two or more exit paths and/or safe spaces.

2, Protect your physical assets, wallet, purse, keys, phones, laptops, USB sticks, Passport and any other documents or data you may be traveling with. Loss and theft of these items are still one of the largest data security threats we face daily.

3, Develop Social Media safety and security practices beyond the ‘user settings’ to encompass your personal use and implications on your business and family. Remember, loose lips sink ships.

4, Trust no one. A bit harsh but no matter how well you know those around you there is no telling where they may be tomorrow nor how well they will safeguard anything you share with them.

5, Trust the Internet – trust it to rapidly distribute anything and everything you share in electronic form. Take precautions with everything you post be they photos/videos, likes, messages, tweets, rants (be really careful and avoid completely if possible), travel information, etc.

6, Everyone is listening / looking all the time whether you see them or not. Act accordingly, protect your conversation, lower your voice / move to a secure setting, shield your work / laptop. Remember – “The walls have ears. Doors have eyes…..” 

7, Passwords, use them, make them reasonably robust, and change them often. If your systems permit consider using a phrase, comprising upper, lower case letters, numbers, and a character (not all systems like characters) that is easy for you to remember such as: IusedtoLiveinCleveland@40122ndStreet. However, do not use a real former address. Those are all available in public data bases.

8, Speak in less exact terms when in public settings. Not suggesting you be vague and dodge every question but you don’t need to tell everyone where you are going, how you will get there, and when you will return. For example, when calling home say, “I will see you later” instead of “I will see you when I get home next Tuesday.”

9, Carry some cash. Not a lot but don’t count on the electronic infrastructure to always be available. In an emergency cash may be the only acceptable form of payment.

10, Be a safety aware airline passenger. Perhaps a personal pet peeve as a frequent flyer but I see people all the time confused/frustrated by something as simple as the airplane seat belt.

Allow me to build on #10.

When you take your seat on the plane fasten and unfasten your seat belt a few times. Reach down to familiarize yourself with where it is on your lap and what direction to pull the clasp. Why? It is most likely NOT where your automobile seatbelt is located nor does it function the same way. Studies of fatal airplane crashes have found that some passengers were alive but failed to unclasp the seatbelt and died in the subsequent fire.

Identify all nearby exists and familiarize yourself with the operation. I strongly suggest you close your eyes briefly and imagine you are near that exit. Try to open it in your mind. Should you ever really need to open an emergency exit you can bet the circumstances will not be serene. Mental practice may facilitate your operation of the exits and the certainty you will be able to find them.

Know where your life preserver / jacket is located and how to properly use it on evacuation. Why? Because the plane may be dark, noisy, wet, and you confused and a bit disorientated. Plan ahead with not only the life jacket but seat cushion as a backup. And know where the life rafts are located.

Ever wonder why the airline safety announcement says to not inflate the life jacket until you are exiting the plane? Ok, where are my data center engineers and physics majors? The plane is likely going down and tilted with the tail of the plane higher up. As the plane sinks the effective ‘surface’ moves further back towards the tail. If your life jacket is inflated you will float UP. Up in this case is further aft towards the tail section. You will not be able to exit the plane. Again, crash studies and science prove the point.

Wishing you safe, productive, and enjoyable travels.