Digital resilience is a topic that has not been comprehensively explored generally, and more so in the Caribbean region, though it is relevant and should be actively developed in organisations and at home. With Natalie Maharaj, the Director of the ICT Services Division of the Ministry of Public Administration, Trinidad and Tobago, we discuss among other things: the difference between digital resilience and cybersecurity; how organisations can become more digitally resilient; why psychology and technology are crucial in digital parenting; and ways in which we as individuals can be more digitally resilient.

 

This episode is also available on SoundCloud, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music!!

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, ‘resilience’ means, “The quality or fact of being able to recover quickly or easily from, or resist being affected by, a misfortune, shock, illness, etc.” We thus tend to associate this term with individuals and businesses, for example. However, business resilience is often conflated with business continuity; but the latter could be considered a subset of the former, with the former moving beyond continuity planning to a more proactive approach to risk mitigation.

In a similar vein, when we think of ‘digital resilience’, which is not a widely used term, the odds are the focus is almost exclusively on cybersecurity, which is an important topic that deserves our active and sustained attention. However, as this episode highlights, cybersecurity could be considered a subset of digital resilience, which if included in the conversation would result in us having more robust structures in place – both at work and at home.

Having said this, the home dimension, be it cybersecurity and even digital resilience in the home, is rarely discussed. Hence, though we spend some time highlighting digital resilience in the workplace in this episode, we emphasise digital resilience in the home as this is where we, as individuals, and our families are often the most vulnerable.

 

Introducing our guest

Natalie Maharaj

For over twenty years, Natalie Maharaj has been an ICT practitioner with extensive multi-sector experience in both private and public sectors and in verticals such as airline/aviation, energy and international manufacturing industries. Currently, she serves as the Director of the ICT Services Division of the Ministry of Public Administration, Trinidad and Tobago, where she leads the strategic planning, implementation, and governance of the ICT infrastructure and systems that support public service delivery across Trinidad and Tobago.

Natalie is passionate about enhancing the security, efficiency, and innovation of the ICT services and solutions that the Government delivers to its internal and external stakeholders. However, her voluntary work has allowed her to extend her expertise to guide the next generations of techies and to highlight and support the resolution of a broad range of social issues that plague Caribbean society.

 

Insights into our conversation

At the time when we were recording this episode, Hurricane Lee was in the North Atlantic and its path was uncertain: whether it would stay away from land masses, or whether it would eventually hit the eastern seaboard of the United States. Hence our discussion on resilience seemed to have resonated more than it might under different circumstances.

Off the bat, Natalie’s knowledge and expertise were evident as she helped us understand what digital resilience is and highlighted a variety of scenarios. However, as a parent, she did an excellent job highlighting several aspects of digital resilience in the home and of digital parenting, especially many of the challenges parents are currently experiencing in the face of trying to raise ‘well-balanced digital natives’ 😊.

Below are select questions posed to Natalie during our conversation.

  1. When you hear the term “digital resilience”, what does it mean to you?
  2. What would you say is the difference between digital resilience and cybersecurity, if any?
  3. To that end, In the workplace, what are key elements organisations ought to consider to ensure that they are more digitally resilient?
  4. Focusing on digital resilience in the home, what are your initial thoughts on digital resilience in the home, and how well it is being addressed?
  5. What can parents do to ensure that their children are more digitally resilient?
  6. For parents, and by extension individuals, what can we do to ensure that we are more digitally resilient?

 

We would love to hear your thoughts!

Do leave us a comment either here beneath this article, or on our Facebook or LinkedIn pages, or via Twitter, @ICTPulse.

Also, if you or a member of your network is interested in joining us for an episode, do get in touch.

Let’s make it happen!

 

Select Links

Below are links to some of the organisations and resources that either were mentioned during the episode, or otherwise, might be useful:

 

 

Images credit:  N Maharaj; Ketut Subiyanto (Pexels);  Kampus Production (Pexels); Thomas Park (Unsplash); N Maharaj

Music credit: The Last Word (Oui Ma Chérie), by Andy Narrell