Kevin Beaver's Security Blog

When’s political correctness going to impact infosec?

Witnessing the Thought Police’s handling of the Tracy Morgan debacle I can’t help but wonder if political correctness is not the beginning of dictatorships, Communism, etc. where the population is not allowed to speak up or out against anything.

Don’t get me wrong. Being a libertarian, I’m pro-choice on everything…To each his own. As long as you’re not affecting the life, liberty or property of someone else, then say what you need to say and do what you need to do. Sure, I know we need to be sensitive in certain situations. The problem is that political correctness leads to the legislation of our thoughts and feelings…Tell me, just how different is that from dictatorships and Communism in parts of the world where, ironically, people cry out for “human rights” because of the oppression brought on by, well, ourselves?

It’ll be interesting to see how political correctness invades the very fiber of information security and privacy in businesses down the road. Will we eventually reach a point in the not so distant future where it’ll be politically incorrect (esp. here in the U.S.) to tell people what websites they can or cannot use or what applications they can load on their endpoint devices connected to the business network? Will it be demeaning to others when we suggest strong passwords or we point out how security oversights brought on by people making poor choices are bringing the business down?

I’m just saying…People are complex and these are things that are impacting us personally now and likely in our work down the road. How are you going to handle it?