What constitutes HRM is constantly being redefined and HR professionals are finding themselves increasingly being drawn in to the IT concerns of their business. This is partly because of the natural invasion of digital media into every aspect of our lives, but also because of the mounting bureaucracy created by data protection legislation that IT departments do not want to handle. Furthermore this makes sense (you can hear IT Directors reason) because data protection is, after all, about “personal data” – and therefore the province of ‘personnel’ specialists.
But IT is a confusing world, largely because it has surrounded itself with “techy” jargon to mystify itself and raise its status – like in the legal field when scribes turned to lawyers hundreds of years ago. But to operate effectively HR professionals need to cut through such barriers and put their new accountabilities into a broader context.
Take, for instance, the latest IT-related measure to be launched within the European Union. The ‘Network and Information Security Directive’ now approved by the European Parliament will establish a network of computer incident response teams across the EU and also a ‘Cooperation Group’ made up of representatives from all member states. The European Commission has also launched a “public-private partnership on cybersecurity” and is going to invest 450m euros ($US500m) in bringing together “cybersecurity market players”.
These are fairly typical responses of the EU to issues that they barely understand and in reaction to recent scares like the “Panama Papers”. Even the use of the expression “cyber” is dated and betrays how out of touch the EU is with the IT industry. Such incidents are easily avoidable however – as the Panama security breach was largely due to a failure to update WordPress internet software. Everyday thousand of rogue bots are scanning the Intenet to find security glitches. But the technology already exists to deal with them through free software resources such as “wordfence” that locks hackers out if they try to second guess passwords. The computer “incident response teams” are hence a needless measure, as what really requires strengthening are the powers and tracing technologies of law enforcement agencies to detect hackers and close them down.
When the Internet was launched it was not as new as most reports suggest – as packet switching had been around for years (FedEE newswires went out on Prestel in the UK). But it did not take governmental intervention to establish the necessary protocols. Microsoft and Mac operating systems also came about through natural market competition. The European Union wants to create a “Digital Single Market” to make it appear relevant and private sector IT companies are happy to take their funding to develop their own businesses. But it is largely a way of subsidizing the IT industry across the EU – which it could not openly do without generating opposition from other governments in the interests of their own IT sectors. Appearance and reality – once again so much a jaded world apart.