By silicon.com, 25 November 2005 17:25
In the world of the press release the man who is prepared to swap credibility for sensationalism is king. Albeit very much a case of being 'king for a day'.
Take a release out today from a company called TSSI Systems (OK, so the link tells you we wrote about it, so it worked on one level). The release details some interesting results from a survey into attitudes towards deception, forgery and fraud in the UK.
The survey found that many of us will bend the rules lend people our office pass cards or log on to somebody else's machine to read an email, for example. Often this is done with permission but is still essentially against the rules.
Taking it a step further, a surprising number of us have forged doctors notes, lied about qualifications and faked letters of reference.
So what is the problem here beyond fostering an awareness that we should be careful who we trust? In business there are some serious concerns about the compliance implications of a situation which if accepted could in time breed more serious breaches.
After all, shredding a page of accounts and deleting some spreadsheets aren't a million miles away from forging a doctors note to defraud your employer of sick pay. And accessing a colleague's personal email to get a contact's phone number isn't a million miles away from accessing that person's email to send a controversial email you wouldn't want originating from your own account.
Similarly, forging documentation to get served alcohol as a minor requires similar disciplines to obscuring the identity of a fraudster.
But the angle TSSI Systems chose to lead with is the idea that this situation is likely to prove a threat to national security because it will make the terrorist witch-hunt a little trickier.
The levels of terrorism - compared to the levels of fraud which genuinely affect the UK - suggest talk of the latter is based in reality while talk of the former is largely clouded in hype.
The findings are relevant. The angle and subsequent discussion aren't.
It's a classic case of rescuing defeat from the jaws of victory.
Comments
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1. K Robinson
Relevant-irrelevant..... Is it just the UK or if another country were chosen would the same things pop up... and more to the point be deemed more serious.
Is it true for USA, Russia, France, Germany etc. If little bits of research are being relased is'nt better to have something to compare it to before making sweeping statements.
2. Mike
JC broke the rules some 2000 years ago, when he cured a man on the Sabbath; His defence was that he was doing good!
The defence of "a greater good" has long been part of our common law.
However, it has increasingly been whittled away by small minded authoritarian bureacrats, with the support of "office seeking" lobby fodder.
Help to defend our freedoms by re-enshrining the defence of "Reasonableness" over and above any absolute defence.
Of course juries will accept reasonable behaviour, but recourse to juries is also being whittled away!