The Pledge
We all know it. Each of us can feel it gnawing at the back of our minds. It’s there every time someone mentions another breach. Social Security Numbers, banking information, passwords… It’s there every time some non-technical person shows you an astoundingly useful app they generated in an hour. If coding has become this easy, what’s next?
The Turn
This new age is as exciting as it is scary. The wonders of the technical age in the hands of anyone. Some say Cybersecurity will go away because AI will simply fight AI. That will play a part – no doubt. Yet, this cannot be a whole solution because AI doesn’t solve the most fundamental riddle of all technology: identity. From the first Caesar Cipher, it’s always been about separation – those who are allowed to see and those who aren’t. Modern computing has only accelerated this. Identity used to be as simple as whoever’s at at the keyboard. No admins, users, remote, human, AI, etc.. AI cannot solve all of this because it requires the perplexing ability to judge intent. After all, the only difference between a System Administrator executing a command to close a ticket, and a hacker executing a similar (or identical) command which results in a data breach, is motive. Security tools, even those with AI, have yet to solve, accurately predict, or fix these issues. They may get closer in the future. Code, auditing, hardware may become “perfect,” but the current headlines are clear: what we’re doing right now isn’t working and attacks are getting more sophisticated and breaches more often. Cybercrime is far more likely to reach your company before that dawn of “perfection.”
Prestige
But that level of perfection, even if it does arrive, is not required. It’s entirely possible to keep your company from suffering loss – now. Today. The answer is one every champion knows: victory belongs to the most tenacious. We don’t know what motivates your company, but here’s what drives us. The simple belief that security does not exist to serve itself; it protects innocence. The literal translation of Samurai is servant to nobility. This attitude is core. And what does protecting the trustful innocence of a business look like? Humility, learning, hardening, loving AI, testing, auditing, documenting, tearing down insecure business practices, hating AI, apologizing, begging for budget, teaching, and charging full-force into wherever the battle of security needs to be fought today. This is not without reward. In those fleeting moments of calm at the front lines, we glance back and see HR, Finance, IT, and others… safe. The business as it should be, completely unaware of us. Trustful innocence, and our joy.