The inaugural edition of the BW Security World Conclave and Excellence Awards 2023 was held on September 1 at The Imperial, New Delhi.
Speaking at the Inaugural edition of the BW Security World Conclave and Excellence Awards 2023, Session Chair Col. Kumar Vikram, India Head Security & Compliance, Cushman & Wakefield introduced the session by saying, “Ever since our childhoods, we have been taught what to do and what not to. It’s being taught because it’s not written anywhere, it’s not mandatory. What’s right for me might be wrong for you. When I talk about ethics, it’s what I feel or thing about something. We have been talking about ethics even in the time of wars back when we had kings. If I talk about communication, social media is a very powerful tool being used to spread knowledge and information, but unfortunately, it’s also being used for hatred, misinformation, and other undesirable things. That’s where ethics come in.”
Capt. Gaurav Bajetha, VP – Global Workplace & Risk Management at Urban Company stated, “It’s very important especially for new age startups like Urban Company which have a young workforce, the employees are exposed to a lot of digital data. The simplest way is to have recurring trainings for your staff at regular intervals. If you get a file which has salary information, anybody before opening that file should be aware that they do not have authorisation for the same and therefore they’re not supposed to access it even. That way, I think ethics are simple, you just must make sure that you have the right modes of communication with your staff and enough training with your staff, you also must keep reminding them through your training modules. So, I put Ethics and responsibility right at the heart of what is right and what is wrong.”
Talking about proactively preparing for security incidents like ransomware, Rekha Gairola, Regional Security Advisor, India & South Asia, Boeing said, “When you talk about ethics with regards to ransomware and other such incidents, the first thing is it’s important to know that if we have developed effective policies around it. Its important to have an advanced setup for prevention, the incident response teams need to be aware of what to do in case of such ransomware calls. Work with them in a very controlled environment, in the corporate world we call them table-top exercises where the team works on different scenarios. Another thing is collaboration between the legal team and the compliance team that is very important. These teams would help you draft policies for such incidents while keeping internal as well as external stakeholders in mind. Have proactive security measures in place, find out the best practices when it comes to security in your industry.”
Talking about legal action to ensure effective use of technology within ethical standard, Nand Kishore Bhatt, Chief Security Officer – Sesa Goa, Vedanta stated, “Having a very comprehensive privacy law is very important. These days when we speak about data, it’s basically the new currency. As an organisation, there’s a lot to be done on the legal part of ethics. Proactive measures to make sure your data is not being mishandled, such as data encryption, mock drills, and regular audits for the policies, procedures, and the technology that’s being used. The organisation should use data on a value-based system and ensure that the data being collected is being used for the right purposes. In the next five years, we are going to be the third largest economy in the world, such a thing comes with a lot of responsibility. The digitisation happening around us will play a major role in getting us there, our policy regarding digitisation must be in-sync with the kind of utilisation of data. I believe there should be a reward and punishment mechanism for following ethical policies. The bottom-line is data and how we use it.”
Session Chair Vikram concluded the session by noting that, “As long as there is technology progress, technology and ethics will go hand in hand. Conversations around technology and ethics will only grow in importance. Both need to grow together, our policies regarding ethics must evolve at the same rate technology is.”
