ZIMNAT
244 were now looking at what the data actually meant .”
Obviously with increased harvesting and analysis of data comes issues of cybersecurity . Chirokote introduced a number of preventative measures . “ The first thing we did was to call in PricewaterhouseCoopers , who did a security audit of our processes , systems , firewalls ; the complete architecture . This took two to three months during which they assessed the entire landscape . This outsider ’ s view of security was essential as it highlighted the level we needed to be operating at in terms of security . “ PwC gave us some level of comfort that we could actually start delving into the data issues once we had attended to the high-risk areas . We updated all the software updating systems to current versions because that was a big vulnerability that we had . Then we updated our policies which related to a bricks-and-mortar environment . We looked at the interchange of
data and put in some standards around the password policies and internet usage to secure a community where people were starting to exchange and move data . The email platform was also upgraded from an opensource model to Gmail , so we were essentially outsourcing to an organisation that already had security structures in place .”
The implementation of any new measures can often cause temporary shifts in process times . Chirokote and his team witnessed a slight drop in efficiency . “ The tightening of the environment was now creating slowness in terms of productivity . They felt it was inhibiting the way they worked . We strengthened
JULY 2018