Technology Magazine August 2021 | Page 5

FOREWORD The rise of geopolitech

Yes , yes , I ’ ve made up a word . But we should all be watching geopolitics closely or face costly consequences

“ Technology ’ s wars are becoming insidious ”

TECHNOLOGY MAGAZINE IS PUBLISHED BY
The technology industry loves to think of itself as geographically unspecific , like some sort of ether for humans to breathe in their daily lives . And of course , such a nirvana might be possible were it not made by humans .
But for all the buzzwords – ‘ democratisation ’ has always been a big one – technology is rife with international and civil warfare . And while intercompany spats may be entertaining from the outside , technology ’ s wars are becoming insidious . The actions of Russian ransomware groups or the Chinese government have hit the headlines in the past few years and we are beyond the point where they can be comfortably ignored as outliers .
IT procurement is going to have to work out risk profiles – both for hardware and software – that can mitigate the risks of rogue components or compromised data . Skip this step at your peril , because the cost of disentanglement from large-scale implementations can far outweigh the perceived cost benefits at the buy-in . Just ask the Western governments desperately de-Huaweiing their 5G networks .
Keep one eye on ‘ geopolitech ’. It ’ s a believable buzzword . More to the point , It ’ ll save you money in the long term .
PADDY SMITH paddy . smith @ bizclikmedia . com © 2021 | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED technologymagazine . com 5