Flexibility vs. Structure: How to Manage Reliably Continuously Emerging Threats in Malware Protection

High Reliability Organizations (HROs) operate in risky and safety-critical environments where failure avoidance overrides cost efficiency and other traditional performance measures. Research on military, air traffic control, and similar domains has identified five key HRO characteristics: preoccupation with failure, reluctance to simplify interpretations, sensitivity to operations, commitment to resilience, and under specification of structures. There are fewer studies on digital technologies\´ role in HRO operations. We address this gap with a case study in a leading malware (e.g., Anti-virus) protection firm, which must establish high reliability in its digital operations. While the daily influx of millions of samples and the continuous mutation of malware attacks requires large-scale automation in malware protection, it also calls for continuous fine-tuning and re-engineering through human intervention. We examine the constant balancing of automated and human effort driven by the preoccupation with potential hidden vulnerabilities. This provides a starting point for conceptualizing "digital HROs" as a new research domain for organizational research.