Week 10: Describe a project you’ve been working on that’s helping your department: Condensation

                Because our legal department is also our compliance department, and because our legal department is two attorneys, a paralegal, and a temporary intern, there’s far too much work to go around.  I never get to devote a lot of time to any one thing for too long before something new pops up- and I’m not even a full-fledged attorney yet. 

           

     But if there is one thing that I’ve spent the most time on this summer, it is Dwellworks efforts to implement legally compliant, cutting edge, contract-satisfying, and ultimately, effective and efficient data privacy and security policies.

          

      We hear the stories all of the time, almost weekly it seems: another new virus comes out, someone leaks sensitive files, the government is “spying on us,” Target (etc.) got hacked.  It’s an endless cycle, protecting sensitive information from those who seek to profit off it.  It’s easy to fall into feeling like it’s a battle we’re just gradually losing.  And the United States is woefully behind the times when it comes to protective laws. 

             

   In that chaotic environment though, Dwellworks (and everyone else) still needs to do business, and business is increasingly digital.  So I’ve been researching laws and best practices, trying to find out what other people are doing and recommending.  In the end, it’s all distilling down into policies and procedures we’ll roll out at some point (likely a fair bit past when my time here is up).  But it’s not as simple as copying other companies, even companies in our own industry.  The state of technology changes daily.  New technologies emerge, and any threat at all perceived is automatically real enough to warrant protection against.  What everyone else has done in the past is already at least a little outdated.  We have to find out what works best for Dwellworks now, and do that.

              

  So it’s tricky.  We’re working on it.  Cloud computing alone is going to vastly change how everyone does everything as more and more people adopt it exclusively.  My role has been to find out as much as possible and come up with steps to suggest we take.  We need to make comprehensive data security an integral part of how Dwellworks does business.    We’re on our way, and I’m glad, this summer, I could help get us pointed in the right direction.

-Zack