2 minute read
We are all just bricks
CRAIG FORD
Cyber Enthusiast, Ethical Hacker, Author of A hacker I am vol1 & vol2, Male Champion of Change, Special Recognition award winner at 2021 Australian Women in Security Awards
COLUMN
We are all just bricks
I have worked in the IT industry for a while, first in general ICT and then in security. I have written more articles than I can remember, a few books—and I have more to come—and I have been part of quite a few panels, webinars and podcasts. You can probably guess I like to share my knowledge and thoughts with my peers. I want to be an active contributor and make a real difference in helping keep people safe from cyber risks.
I like to think of our industry as a house in which each of us is one of the bricks that help hold our house together. Each individual brick is of little significance. It could be a nice brick, it could be a really smart brick and it might even go out of its way to help people, but that one brick cannot hold up the house or protect what is inside the house without support from the other bricks: some holding others up, some at the top of the wall holding up the roof, some holding the doors and windows, keeping them strong and secure.
In security, each brick—each individual—has a job to do. Together we stand strong, even if a couple of us are slacking and do not want to work well with the others. Security would be much easier if we were all working towards the same goal, but that may never happen. I know collaboration—everyone coming together with one purpose—is not easy. I have tried it a few times, but it can be achieved.
Think of our brick house in the context of the nursery rhyme about three little pigs. The third pig’s brick house stood strong against the big bad wolf (in our case a malicious actor) because all the bricks held together and held off the big bad wolf’s attacks. In some versions of the story, the pig in the house of straw and the pig in the house of wood get eaten. In others, they escape to the brick house and survive. We as an industry can learn from our mistakes like the three little pigs. Like them, we have lost some battles, but together we can be strong: a house of bricks in which each brick supports and is supported by the others.
You are probably thinking: what is Craig talking about? He started by calling all security people bricks. Then he made these bricks into a house before invoking a fairy-tale story about three little pigs.
Let me put it another way: we security people are not isolated individuals; we are members of a village. If we cannot find a way to stand together, to stand as one, the whole village will fall. Things will get very dark and society as we know it will collapse. If we all try a little harder to leave our egos at the door, to actually listen to people instead of just talking at them, we will all be better for it. Then, maybe that village will succeed. Everybody will be happy. Everybody will be safe. It surely can’t be hard. Right?
