Z I M N AT
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 84
assessed the entire landscape. This outsider’s view of security was essential as it highlighted the
data and put in some standards around the
level we needed to be operating
password policies and internet usage to
at in terms of security.
secure a community where people were start-
“PwC gave us some level of
ing to exchange and move data. The email
comfort that we could actually
platform was also upgraded from an open-
start delving into the data issues
source model to Gmail, so we were essentially
once we had attended to the
outsourcing to an organisation that already
high-risk areas. We updated all
had security structures in place.”
the software updating systems to
The implementation of any new measures
current versions because that
can often cause temporary shifts in process
was a big vulnerability that we
times. Chirokote and his team witnessed
had. Then we updated our poli-
a slight drop in efficiency. “The tightening of
cies which related to a
the environment was now creating slowness
bricks-and-mortar environment.
in terms of productivity. They felt it was inhib-
We looked at the interchange of
iting the way they worked. We strengthened
J U LY 2 0 1 8