performed along the way. Many would argue that crowdsourced software development is as safe as, if
not more secure than, in-house software development.
Organizations like the US Dept of Energy, NASA, Harvard, Land O’Lakes, the Olympic Diving Team,
Booz Allen Hamilton, and more have embraced crowdsourcing and see measurable success with the gig
economy workforce. They turn critical IT projects into secure, online challenges and make them available
to a global community of developers who compete to provide the solutions. The combination of
competition, public recognition and monetary rewards is the ultimate pay for performance model, and you
can bet that security and confidentiality are a priority.
Four security tips for crowdsourcing in the gig economy
Contracts, rules and regulations—Checking references, doing background research, being upfront
about rules/expectations and signing contracts seem like obvious “must haves” in a freelancing
arrangement, but companies get caught up in the need to get something done ASAP and mistakenly skirt
around important housekeeping items. Mutual agreement on engagement is the very first notch on the
totem pole in terms of establishing security measures. In the digital age, it’s important to protect corporate
assets: quality crowdsourcing professionals will understand that, as well as the importance of protecting
themselves.
Furthermore, an experienced crowdsourcing platform will go way beyond that baseline and have other
specifics in place to qualify gig economy workers. It’ll also know how to enforce them, so ask for examples
of relationships gone badly, as well as good.
Security/IP screening and confidentiality—When it comes to security, the best offense is a great
defense. IT departments must be vigilant about data security, considering the volume of IP being shared
throughout global development teams. Confidentiality -- the ability to hide, anonymize, or otherwise
obfuscate information from those people unauthorized to view it -- is non-negotiable.
An advanced crowdsourcing platform protects the integrity of intellectual property, like data, code,
designs, and algorithms, on an ongoing basis by incorporating monitoring and automation into the
lifecycle of the project. If the platform you’re considering doesn’t offer secure channels to transfer IP with
automated security checks, it’ll be impossible to systematically monitor and track digital assets throughout
the process and something will be missed.