Marlijn Mulder

Marlijn Mulder

Consultant Security & Risk, Digitale Ethicist at Highberg

About Marlijn

Marlijn believes that we can use technology for good if we take a step back and try to see the bigger picture. She excels at identifying the key points within that larger context and asking the right questions at the right time.

Her motto is: "Doing the right thing well enough." As a Digital Ethicist, Marlijn helps clients ask the right questions and find responsible solutions to their digital challenges. Questions like: "Where do public values such as transparency and security intersect? And where do they conflict?" According to Marlijn, finding solutions to these questions and embedding them into long-term policy is the most rewarding part of her work. With a background in philosophy and public administration, Marlijn strives to ensure that technological possibilities align with ethical standards and promotes the responsible use of digital resources.

In the field of security, Marlijn has specialized in business continuity projects, security awareness implementation, privacy, and ethics, and she regularly facilitates crisis exercises. Marlijn is always open to discussing dilemmas, new technological implementations, and a good book.

Want to know more? Connect with Marlijn on LinkedIn.

Department & Services:

Digital, Data and AI

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Ethical considerations when dealing with ransomware: ‘To pay or not to pay?’

You have been hit by a ransomware attack, your files have been encrypted and a ransom sum is demanded, will you pay or not? On principle, this may seem like an easy choice: ‘I won't pay, because I don't do business with criminals’.[2] And the NCSC, the IBD and the Police also have this as their starting point.[3] After all, by paying you sponsor new criminal activities as well as giving criminals a reason to try again. However, practice is more recalcitrant. Every ransomware situation is different. Depending on which files are encrypted, to what extent backups are available and whether there is enough in-house knowledge to restore files, the decision may be to pay. Often in an attack, files are encrypted or there is a threat of data being put online. What you need to consider in such a ransomware situation is outlined below. Here are six important considerations to make:

How Effective Is Your Information Security and Privacy Policy? Measure It!

In today's increasingly digital world, effective information protection is a pressing concern. It's common to discuss information security and privacy, but when is protection truly effective? How can you measure it? Often, we measure that we are doing the right things (compliance), but not whether data is effectively protected. However, in practice, the latter is the most crucial aspect. After all, you do these things to prevent data breaches or information security incidents. Highberg uses the following seven best practices to measure the effectiveness of information security and privacy policies, with a significant role for data.

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Two pager: sustainably implementing Data ethics

In recent years, data ethics has become an important topic when utilizing data and data applications. Responsible data usage is often taken as a starting point. However, in practice, sustainably implementing data ethics within organizations proves to be challenging. Over the past few years, Highberg has undertaken various projects related to data ethics. Our experience has shown that data ethics is closely linked to organizational change.