Always prepared. Always.

Photo: Michael Krigsman

I'm not sure I remember what life was like before Covid came along.

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Somehow, it's invaded every form of behavior, in one way or another, and emerging from it seems an unlikely dream.

I've been wondering, indeed, how the people who hold our systems together -- IT professionals -- managed to keep our systems together as everything seemed to crumble.

This recurring thought invades my mind every time I hear of a new corporate hack -- hullo, T-Mobile, your faces aren't deep pink, they're magenta, right?

With constant invasions from those who'd do harm, and constant missteps caused, at least in part, by so many working from home, IT Whack-a-Mole becomes more like a headspinning Whack-a-Hole.

It must be eternally maddening. Or is it.

You see, I just stumbled upon a relatively recent survey that revealed the surprising innards of the IT mind.

Conducted on behalf of OpenSystems, which styles itself as a "cybersecurity service innovator for future-ready enterprises," the survey offered the promise of today-ready psychological insight.

It was entitled: "What IT Pros Are Feeling, Doing and May Be Overlooking in the Post-Pandemic Environment."

During the pandemic -- which doesn't feel all that post- to me -- several things I've felt and done have caused me to overlook far more important things I haven't felt and done.

My feelings of inner despair for humanity, for example, have led me to overlook several things on my grocery shopping list.

While the survey dwelled on how there's been an increase in cyberattacks and how the pressure on IT professionals has never been greater, it also offered one overarching, and frankly beautiful, conclusion: 90% of these 210 IT professionals insisted they'd been mostly or somewhat prepared for the pandemic.

I stared at that and thought: "IT professionals truly are special people. They're undervalued. They're occasionally derided. Inside, however, beat minds of steel. So much so that I can't understand why more superhero movies don't have IT professionals as their main characters."

I fear you might think I'm jesting. But here's a survey from last year -- deep in the heart of the pandemic -- in which IT leaders claimed, quite openly, that they hardly ever get things wrong.

As you unfreeze your jaw, may I offer you more? 55% of the IT professionals in the OpenSystems survey said they were perfectly prepared for the pandemic because they had already established "better processes."

Should one conclude, therefore, that these processes really did include dealing with a mass exodus of millions of employees from offices and into large houses, tiny bedrooms, cramped kitchens, shared living spaces and, yes, Idaho?

It must have taken an unusual prescience, most often seen in kingmakers, oddsmakers and post-rationalizers.

Perhaps most staggeringly, a mere 22% of these IT professionals declared that, now that they've endured the pandemic experience, they're evaluating their organization's incident response plans.

Please don't be concerned. Well, too concerned. We're all in good hands.

There may be a few kinks in the firmament here and there, but it's all going to be fine.

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