Tag: CBK

On ‘paranoia’ – revisiting “Paid to be paraoid”

My fellow CISSP and author Walter Jon  Williams observed that

Paranoia is not a part of any mindset. It is an illness.

Ah, Walter the literalist!

Yes I agree with what you say but look at it this way

“We’re paid to be paranoid” doesn’t mean we’re ill.
It’s a job.

Now if your job is an obsession, one you take home with you and it interferes with your family life, that you can’t let go, then its an illness whatever it is.

“We’re paid to be paranoid”

Its a job. You don’t pay us Information Security Professionals to be pollyannas, to have a relaxed attitude. Continue reading On ‘paranoia’ – revisiting “Paid to be paraoid”

An “11th Domain” book.

http://www.infosectoday.com/Articles/Persuasive_Security_Awareness_Program.htm

Gary Hinson makes the point here that Rebecca Herrold makes elsewhere:   Rebecca Herold
Awareness training is important.

I go slightly further and think that a key part of a security practitioners professional knowledge should be about human psychology and sociology, how behaviour is influenced. I believe we need to know this from two aspects:

First, we need to understand how our principals are influenced by non-technical and non-business matters, the behavioural persuasive techniques used on them (and us) by vendor salesmen and the media. many workers complain that their managers, their executives seem t go off at a tangent, ignore “the facts”. We speak of decisions drive by articles
in “glossy airline magazines” and by often distorted cultural myths.  “What Would the Captain Do?”, or Hans Solo or Rambo might figure more than “What Would Warren Buffett Do” or “What Does Peter Drucker Say About A Situation Like This?”. We can only be thankful that most of the time most managers and executive are more rational than this, but even so … Continue reading An “11th Domain” book.