“And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music.” - Friedrich Nietzsche
I got into cyber – because I had a hobby interest in computers, networks, and communications. I was an Army Corps of Engineers officer from 1981 to 2002 and in the early 1990s, Uncle Sam directed me to serve in a Signal unit for a year to be in charge of their new tactical computer networks. I never looked back and wound up being one of the Army’s leading experts on “information security” which we later called cybersecurity.
For me, a positive cyber mindset is – always asking “why” things are the way they are, showing curiosity, seeking answers, looking for improvements. We are never 100% secure and should always be searching for that little odd thing which could reveal a much larger vulnerability or incident.
The quote I live by is – from Friedrich Nietzsche, “And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music.” Great security professionals hear the music long before others do and may appear to be reacting to things that others just cannot understand.
I like to collect – old encryption devices like the Enigma machine (Germany) or the Fialka (USSR). These relics from earlier eras of information security remind us of how vulnerable systems can be even if they are designed to be very secure.