Ah, the cybersecurity world in 2025—where ransomware gangs like Akira and Ryuk are the uninvited guests crashing every digital party, and the knee-jerk reaction is to slam every door shut. But as Romanus Prabhu Raymond from ManageEngine points out in this eye-opening interview, that's like curing a headache with a sledgehammer: effective in theory, disastrous in practice. Imagine auto-quarantining a hospital's MRI machine mid-scan or a bank's teller system during payroll—suddenly, the 'cure' is the crisis. It's a reminder that security isn't just about walls; it's about not accidentally locking out the heroes too.
Raymond's take on 'ethical by design' feels like a breath of fresh air in an industry often choked by paranoia. Think of it as neighborhood watch cams that spot trouble without spying on your Netflix queue—simple, right? ManageEngine's approach, refusing to monetize or snoop on customer data, flips the script on the usual vendor greed. It's pragmatic innovation: build trust into the code from day one, so you're not playing catch-up with regulations like GDPR. No rose-tinted glasses here; we all know breaches happen, but embedding ethics means you're less likely to be the next headline horror story.
Now, the AI angle? That's where things get spicy. With AI stepping up from sidekick to sheriff in security ops, Raymond's 'SHE AI' principles—Secure, Human, Ethical—make total sense. Secure it against hackers' tricks, keep humans in the loop for big calls (because who wants a rogue algorithm shutting down your grandma's pacemaker?), and explain decisions like a patient teacher, not a cryptic oracle. Humor me: if AI alerts were black boxes, we'd all be guessing like it's a bad magic trick. Instead, picture an alert saying, 'Hey, this endpoint's acting shady—too many logins, smells like trouble.' Transparent, actionable, and way less frustrating.
The innovation-risk tightrope is the real head-scratcher. Rush ahead without ethics, and boom—breach city. Clamp down too hard, and you're innovating like a tortoise. Raymond's 'trust by design' is the smart middle ground: innovate fast, but with brakes that actually work. And for quantum computing lurking like a digital boogeyman, ready to crack encryptions? It's a wake-up call to rethink foundations now, before the house of cards topples.
Props to ManageEngine for leading with a 'trans-localisation' strategy—local teams handling local rules builds genuine trust, not just checkbox compliance. For the rest of us, Raymond's advice is gold: board-level ethics charters, vet vendors for privacy smarts, and train teams on the 'why' behind the 'what.' It's not about slowing innovation; it's about making it sustainable so we don't end up in a dystopian surveillance state. Let's innovate responsibly—because in cyberland, trust isn't optional; it's the new currency. What do you think: ready to ditch the paranoia for principled protection? Source: Ethical cybersecurity practice reshapes enterprise security in 2025
