Incite 3/30/2016: Rational People Disagree
It’s definitely a presidential election year here in the US. My Twitter and Facebook feeds are overwhelmed with links about what this politician said and who that one offended. We get to learn how a 70-year old politician got arrested in his 20s and why that matters now. You also get to understand that there are a lot of different perspectives, many of which make absolutely no sense to you. Confirmation bias kicks into high gear, because when you see something you don’t agree with, you instinctively ignore it, or have a million reasons why dead wrong. I know mine does. Some of my friends frequently share news about their chosen candidates, and even more link to critical information about the enemy. I’m not sure whether they do this to make themselves feel good, to commiserate with people who think just like them, or in an effort to influence folks who don’t. I have to say this can be remarkably irritating because nothing any of these people posts is going to sway my fundamental beliefs. That got me thinking about one of my rules for dealing with people. I don’t talk about religion or politics. Unless I’m asked. And depending on the person I might not engage even if asked. Simply because nothing I say is going to change someone’s story regarding either of those two third rails of friendship. I will admit to scratching my head at some of the stuff people I know post to social media. I wonder if they really believe that stuff, or they are just trolling everyone. But at the end of the day, everyone is entitled to their opinion, and it’s not my place to tell them their opinion is idiotic. Even if to it is. I try very hard not to judge people based on their stories and beliefs. They have different experiences and priorities than me, and that results in different viewpoints. But not judging gets pretty hard between March and November every 4 years. At least 4 or 5 times a day I click the unfollow link when something particularly offensive (to me) shows up in my feed. But I don’t hit the button to actually unfollow someone. I use the fact that I was triggered by someone as an opportunity to pause and reflect on why that specific headline, post, link, or opinion bothers me so much. Most of the time it’s just exhaustion. If I see one more thing about a huge fence or bringing manufacturing jobs back to the US, I’m going to scream. I get these are real issues which warrant discussion. But in a world with a 24/7 media cycle, the discussion never ends. I’m not close-minded, although it may seem that way. I’m certainly open to listening to other candidates’ views, mostly to understand the other side of the discussion and continually refine and confirm my own positions. But I have some fundamental beliefs that will not change. And no, I’m not going to share them here (that third rail again!). I know that rational people can disagree, and that doesn’t mean I don’t respect them, or that I don’t want to work together or hang out and drink beer. It just means I don’t want to talk about religion or politics. –Mike Photo credit: “Laugh-Out-Loud Cats #2204” from Ape Lad Security is changing. So is Securosis. Check out Rich’s post on how we are evolving our business. We’ve published this year’s Securosis Guide to the RSA Conference. It’s our take on the key themes of this year’s conference (which is really a proxy for the industry), as well as deep dives on cloud security, threat protection, and data security. And there is a ton of meme goodness… Check out the blog post or download the guide directly (PDF). The fine folks at the RSA Conference posted the talk Jennifer Minella and I did on mindfulness at the 2014 conference. You can check it out on YouTube. Take an hour. Your emails, alerts, and Twitter timeline will be there when you get back. Securosis Firestarter Have you checked out our video podcast? Rich, Adrian, and Mike get into a Google Hangout and… hang out. We talk a bit about security as well. We try to keep these to 15 minutes or less, and usually fail. Mar 16 – The Rugged vs. SecDevOps Smackdown Feb 17 – RSA Conference – The Good, Bad and Ugly Dec 8 – 2015 Wrap Up and 2016 Non-Predictions Nov 16 – The Blame Game Nov 3 – Get Your Marshmallows Oct 19 – re:Invent Yourself (or else) Aug 12 – Karma July 13 – Living with the OPM Hack May 26 – We Don’t Know Sh–. You Don’t Know Sh– May 4 – RSAC wrap-up. Same as it ever was. March 31 – Using RSA March 16 – Cyber Cash Cow March 2 – Cyber vs. Terror (yeah, we went there) February 16 – Cyber!!! February 9 – It’s Not My Fault! Heavy Research We are back at work on a variety of blog series, so here is a list of the research currently underway. Remember you can get our Heavy Feed via RSS, with our content in all its unabridged glory. And you can get all our research papers too. Resilient Cloud Network Architectures Design Patterns Fundamentals Shadow Devices The Exponentially Expanding Attack Surface Building a Vendor IT Risk Management Program Program Structure Understanding Vendor IT Risk Securing Hadoop Architectural Security Issues Architecture and Composition Security Recommendations for NoSQL platforms SIEM Kung Fu Getting Started and Sustaining Value Advanced Use Cases Fundamentals Recently Published Papers Threat Detection Evolution Building Security into DevOps Pragmatic Security for Cloud and Hybrid Networks EMV Migration and the Changing Payments Landscape Applied Threat Intelligence Endpoint Defense: Essential Practices Cracking the Confusion: Encryption & Tokenization for Data Centers, Servers & Applications Security and Privacy on the Encrypted Network Monitoring the Hybrid Cloud Best Practices for AWS Security The Future of Security Incite 4 U That depends on your definition of consolidation: Stiennon busts out his trusty spreadsheet of security companies and concludes that the IT security industry is not consolidating. He has numbers. Numbers! That prove there is a
