Little man's revenge

The lesson perphaps is simple. Companies which do not look after their people are most likely to suffer

Let the employer beware. A recent survey reported in this newspaper yesterday has found that Indian companies lose an average of Rs60 lakh a year because of data theft or loss. Most of this loss happens apparently because of badly paid disgruntled employees. Is this some sort of subversive rebellion which possibly represents the new way of keeping the blood-sucking capitalised bourgeoisie in check- the revenge of the proletariat on keyboards? Or is it a natural fallout of this information age in which we live, where large amounts of data can be moved around the world at the press of yes, key on a board?

Either way, it seems we are all at the mercy of a faceless army, a good proportion of which has the ability, skill and inclination to mess with our lives. After all, everything from our bank accounts to our phone bills, travel arrangements, credit cards even movie tickets are negotiated or monitored online. The internet has become our one-stop shop for most services and not all the sales people it seems are happy.

The interesting thing here is not just cyber fraud or robbery. That is easier to understand. The instinct o steal is strong and active on the real world. But this is cyber sulking, finding insidious ways to make an organisation's life miserable. Hackers after all started out to make money: they hacked because they could. Even now, the intent is often malicious not monetary.

The lesson perphaps is simply. Companies which do not look after their people are most likely to suffer. No matter how technologically advanced you are and how much you have reduced your dependency on manpower, the fact will remain that somewhere, somehow some human hands are operating your systems.And if you've been negligent or stingy, they have ways of making you bleed. The corporate system tends to give you bigger rewards the higher up the ladder you go. And as the world saw with the collapse of the global economy two years ago, the higher they went, the more fraudulent they became.

But now it seems that it is those left behind at the bottom of the ladder have the means to bleed an organisation slowly and effectively. It would make sense then to keep the nameless, faceless technicians, who really know what's going on, happy. Pay them well and feed their egos. After all, your company and your clients _ and all of us consumers - depend on them!