“Follow the path of the unsafe, independent thinker. Expose your ideas to the danger of controversy. Speak your mind and fear less the label of ‘crackpot’ than the stigma of conformity.” – Thomas J. Watson, Jr.I've found that it's a great way to live your life too. :)...
Continue Reading...The inability to think long-term, to see the bigger picture consequences of our choices, is no doubt at the root of most information security problems. Here's an example of what I'm talking about...what's wrong with this car?No, this isn't a race car with Hoosier racing slicks...it's a street car owned by someone working or shopping at a Wal-Mart who has chosen to drive with improper equipment. Like many people who ...
Continue Reading...IT department optimism does not translate into IT department budget. That's what Jonathan Feldman wrote about in this Information Week piece. Their study provides lots of interesting insight into how many working in IT see things compared to, well, the rest of the business. I'm not surprised. While we're on the subject, I've recorded a video on IT's role in fixing this problem and wrote a new piece for TechTarget's ...
Continue Reading...Be it executives with their heads in the sand over security or know-it-all propeller heads who can't see the big picture of business risk, I've found that you just can't reason with the unreasonable. Here's something that Robert Schuller said that underscores the issue and helps us understand why being the bigger person is most important:"People are unreasonable, illogical and self-centered. Love them anyway. If you do good, people will ...
Continue Reading...Not long ago I had a conversation with a colleague of mine who's also a consultant. We were discussing the topic of how, even with today's shaky economy, people still goof off on the job as if they had nothing to lose.Are you seeing this too? I wrote about this phenomenon over three years ago. Funny how not much changes internally given all the external forces pressing down on us.Not ...
Continue Reading...I said my farewell to the RSA Conference Tuesday evening but had some final thoughts about the show that I wanted to share with you.In addition to the keynotes I talked about, I attended a mock trial session involving malware, a digital certificate acquired for ill-gotten gains, and a healthcare company that ignored all things HIPAA (heard that a million times!) as well as a session by HP's Jacob West ...
Continue Reading...I'm live at the RSA Conference and here are my thoughts on the first two keynotes along with why you need to come to this show....
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