JOIN USInformation technology (IT) is becoming more and more powerful and pervasive. Whether we like it or not, many of the familiar livelihood activities will soon disappear because of the march of IT. One way to look at it is that IT is helping us get out of mundane chores and creating more productive opportunities.
Forbes, quoting the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), lists some 20 occupations expected to decline between 2010 and 2020. Along with the traditional clerks and switchboard operators, the list includes data entry and computer operators, jobs which came into existence because of IT adoption! This, however, is not all about eliminating jobs. IT also creates highly skilled jobs and business opportunities.
Developers are focused on introducing newer products with improved functions. While getting the product out for that first-mover advantage is a priority, security and elimination of vulnerabilities become mere afterthoughts. Committing crime is easy, but not so without leaving trails. Deleting files, accessing confidential information and sharing them with others too look prima facie simple and tempting. Given this context and the rising incidence of cyber crimes, the IT industry is developing new expertise in areas such as cyber forensics, eDiscovery, and cyber security.
Demand for computer forensics pros
Recently the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) discovered serious data integrity issues with some Indian pharmaceutical companies. The warning letter issued by FDA accuses Cadila of failing to have in place “proper controls … to prevent the unauthorised manipulation of electronic raw data”. FDA found that electronic raw data generated by gas chromatography units were connected to standalone computers capable of deleting data and the company “failed to have a backup system for the data generated”.
Similarly, FDA’s letter to Sun Pharma pointed out that its inspections revealed the deletion of chromatograms on a company computer and said “pervasive practice of deleting files” is unacceptable. Those responsible were unaware that computer forensic analysis would provide telltale trails about their criminal actions and intent. With such crimes on the increase all over the world, there is an upsurge in demand for skilled computer forensics professionals and services.
Computer forensics experts can restore and examine deleted emails, documents, research intellectual property theft, identify files that have been copied and carry out similar other tasks. They can dig out details such as who performed such acts, and when. Computer forensics is a relatively new discipline that deals with information and digital evidence gathering from computers, identification of sources, analysis, preservation, and presentation of acceptable findings in a court of law.
EDiscovery helped Apple in court
EDiscovery is yet another new discipline and often computer forensic specialists work alongside the former. EDiscovery experts provide information to legal teams in a reviewable format for analysing evidence. A good example of the vital role of eDiscovery is the case between Apple and Samsung in the US, involving the smartphone patent.
To prove its case, Apple initiated the eDiscovery process, which meant identification of electronically stored information (ESI) and their analysis to create necessary evidence. Apple reportedly produced 338,860 documents, totaling 2,944,467 pages, as evidence.
EDiscovery played a crucial role in the court upholding some of Apple’s claims. Retrieving and reconstructing the information and producing them as legally acceptable evidence calls for very high-end multidisciplinary skills.
Huge demand for experts
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the US Department of Labor, employment openings for information security analysts is projected to grow 37 percent from 2012 to 2022, faster than the average for all other occupations. Demand for information security analysts that include computer forensic, eDiscovery, and cyber security experts, is expected to be very high. Reports quote Senator Thomas R Carper, a member of the US Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, of having pointed out, “…The demand for cybersecurity experts in the government greatly outpaces the supply, and many agencies have had difficulty attracting the best and brightest and retaining those already in service.” Reports also quote US Government Accountability Office of having said that more than one in five mission-critical cyber security-related jobs at a key Department of Homeland Security unit are vacant. Globally there is shortage for such professionals, and India is no exception. “Despite having a reputation as an IT powerhouse, India faces a shortfall of around 500,000 such experts,” says reports attributed to the chief executive of the Data Security Council of India. These developments present new opportunities for IT professionals and domestic IT companies to expand and outgrow career or business beyond outsourcing. Developing competencies in these frontier areas would be highly rewarding. Are they ready to make the most of it?
(The author is an independent industry analyst/columnist and automation consultant)