Category Archives: advice

I was digging a hole to plant my blackberries plants when I kept hearing a noise of something moving around the corner of my house. I stopped digging and walked around the house to see what was making the noise. I didn’t see anything anywhere so I shrugged it off and went back to digging the hole. Shortly thereafter I heard the noise again so I went back to look around the corner. Again, I didn’t see anything so I went back to work thinking maybe it was the wind. After a few minutes I heard the noise for a third time and this time I was determined to figure out what was making the noise. I went around the corner of my house but I still didn’t see anything. Then I looked down to my right to my basement window well that sits below ground and saw what was making the noise. Sitting next to my window inside the window well was a squirrel, which wasn’t moving since it saw me standing right above it.

I walked a few feet away so the squirrel couldn’t see me but I could still see it. I stood on top of my air condition unit to see what the squirrel was doing. After a minute, the squirrel started to move around. Not just in any manner but it started to walk the boundary of the window well making a circle. As I stood there watching the squirrel I realize what occurred. I built up the soil on that side of my house to prepare for our garden but this caused the soil to be close to the top of my window well. The squirrel must had been walking and fell into the window well before I was able to buy window well covers. The trapped squirrel searching for a way out turned it into a routine. The routine of walking in circles trying to find a way to escape but not finding one. The squirrel keeps walking searching for a way out. In the end, the squirrel is just walking in a small circle. As I was watching the squirrel I could see it had been trapped for some time; maybe for hours or maybe the entire day.

I thought about how I could help the squirrel escape without it biting me. My first attempt was to put a branch into the window well. This way the squirrel could climb up the branch to escape. I dropped the branch down into the window well and went back to my spot to watch what happens. The squirrel started to walk the circle and approached the branch. Then the squirrel walked over the branch and continued looking for a way out. My first thought was maybe the branch was too small so I replaced it with a piece of lumber. The same thing occurred with the squirrel walking right over the lumber and not seeing that the wood was its way out from being trapped. I stood there watching the squirrel and thought to myself the squirrel is trapped in its own routine. For hours the branch and lumber were not there so the squirrel was walking right past it since it was not expecting it. My neighbor came over to help me get the squirrel out. It took a few minutes but he was able to manage to lift the now freaked out squirrel out of the window well with the shovel. The squirrel panicked and jumped right back down into the window well. However, this time the squirrel was no longer trapped in its routine since the experience with the shovel was a jolt to its senses. My neighbor now struggled to get the squirrel on the shovel so he decided to set a brick on the bottom of the window well. The squirrel immediately saw the brick and used it to jump out of the window well to free itself.

At times we can find ourselves trapped in our routines and this is especially true when performing analysis for security monitoring, digital forensics, or incident response. Routines make our job easier because we can perform certain actions without having to think really hard about how to do it. The downside of routines is they tend to put us on auto-pilot, which blinds us to seeing something new that is right in front of us. Similar to the squirrel’s routine blinding it to seeing the way to escape. Every now and then when you are performing routine analysis tasks take the time to stop and think about what you are doing, what you are trying to accomplish, and what you are seeing. If you don’t then you may never see what you are missing because we don’t have the luxury of someone giving us a jolt to break us out of our routines. Continue reading Breaking Out of Routines→

I was digging a hole to plant my blackberries plants when I kept hearing a noise of something moving around the corner of my house. I stopped digging and walked around the house to see what was making the noise. I didn’t see anything anywhere so I shrugged it off and went back to digging the hole. Shortly thereafter I heard the noise again so I went back to look around the corner. Again, I didn’t see anything so I went back to work thinking maybe it was the wind. After a few minutes I heard the noise for a third time and this time I was determined to figure out what was making the noise. I went around the corner of my house but I still didn’t see anything. Then I looked down to my right to my basement window well that sits below ground and saw what was making the noise. Sitting next to my window inside the window well was a squirrel, which wasn’t moving since it saw me standing right above it.

I walked a few feet away so the squirrel couldn’t see me but I could still see it. I stood on top of my air condition unit to see what the squirrel was doing. After a minute, the squirrel started to move around. Not just in any manner but it started to walk the boundary of the window well making a circle. As I stood there watching the squirrel I realize what occurred. I built up the soil on that side of my house to prepare for our garden but this caused the soil to be close to the top of my window well. The squirrel must had been walking and fell into the window well before I was able to buy window well covers. The trapped squirrel searching for a way out turned it into a routine. The routine of walking in circles trying to find a way to escape but not finding one. The squirrel keeps walking searching for a way out. In the end, the squirrel is just walking in a small circle. As I was watching the squirrel I could see it had been trapped for some time; maybe for hours or maybe the entire day.

I thought about how I could help the squirrel escape without it biting me. My first attempt was to put a branch into the window well. This way the squirrel could climb up the branch to escape. I dropped the branch down into the window well and went back to my spot to watch what happens. The squirrel started to walk the circle and approached the branch. Then the squirrel walked over the branch and continued looking for a way out. My first thought was maybe the branch was too small so I replaced it with a piece of lumber. The same thing occurred with the squirrel walking right over the lumber and not seeing that the wood was its way out from being trapped. I stood there watching the squirrel and thought to myself the squirrel is trapped in its own routine. For hours the branch and lumber were not there so the squirrel was walking right past it since it was not expecting it. My neighbor came over to help me get the squirrel out. It took a few minutes but he was able to manage to lift the now freaked out squirrel out of the window well with the shovel. The squirrel panicked and jumped right back down into the window well. However, this time the squirrel was no longer trapped in its routine since the experience with the shovel was a jolt to its senses. My neighbor now struggled to get the squirrel on the shovel so he decided to set a brick on the bottom of the window well. The squirrel immediately saw the brick and used it to jump out of the window well to free itself.

At times we can find ourselves trapped in our routines and this is especially true when performing analysis for security monitoring, digital forensics, or incident response. Routines make our job easier because we can perform certain actions without having to think really hard about how to do it. The downside of routines is they tend to put us on auto-pilot, which blinds us to seeing something new that is right in front of us. Similar to the squirrel’s routine blinding it to seeing the way to escape. Every now and then when you are performing routine analysis tasks take the time to stop and think about what you are doing, what you are trying to accomplish, and what you are seeing. If you don’t then you may never see what you are missing because we don’t have the luxury of someone giving us a jolt to break us out of our routines. Continue reading Breaking Out of Routines→

As we marched across the parade deck from the side we looked as one. The sound of about 70 Marines’ heels hitting the pavement but sounded as one. The sound of the hoarse drill instructor’s voice echoed throughout the 3rd Battalion. The sight from the side must had been one to see. 70 Marines appearing as only a few walking in a single line. In one instant, in one brief moment the few became many. The drill instructor echoed one command followed by quickly correcting himself with a different command. The 70 Marines who were marching as one became many as they tried to adjust. The stress of making a mistake on his first platoon must have added to the pressure. As the Marines marched across the parade deck the drill instructor kept echoing the wrong commands forcing the Marines to adjust. The stress of the Marines striving to take first place must have added to the pressure. They lost their focus and were no longer in sync with the Marine standing next to them. It must have been a sorry sight from the side seeing close to 70 arms and legs marching with the sound of 70 heals hitting the parade deck at different times. Cluster is the most G-rated description one can give seeing the Marines march across the parade deck that afternoon.

The evaluation was over and the 70 Marines filed back into their barracks. The brief moment of reflection in their minds was broken as the sound of a footlocker being kicked broke the silence. The roar of the two other drill instructors’ hoarse voices followed the loud bang of more footlockers being kicked. The blame for the cluster on the parade deck was placed squarely on the recruits. That afternoon the Marines spent quality time doing sandpit hopping across 3rd Battalion in Parris Island. For those not acquainted with this tradition the following is what occurs. Recruits are forced exercise in what seems like a giant sandbox by following the orders barked by their drill instructor. Jumping jacks, mountain climbers, jumping jacks, push ups, mountain climbers, etc.. This goes on for a period of time before the recruits then run to the next sandbox to be smoked again in the same manner before running to the next sandbox. This continues until the drill instructors get bored or the recruits need to be somewhere. Words don’t do justice describing getting smoked so please take a few minutes to see a Pit Stop in action. In the sweltering heat of South Carolina, the recruits had sweat powering down their faces as they were covered in sand with sandfleas biting them. As much as they tried to ignore it they could only focus on the feeling of bugs feasting on them and not being able to do anything about it (one scratch typically ends with a lot longer time being smoked). That afternoon the recruits (me being one of them) thought to ourselves why are we being punished when our drill instructor messed up.

It was easier to blame even though it was hard to tell what even happened. It was easier to blame then it was to take responsibility so it wouldn’t happen again. It was easier to blame then it was to admit we messed up; despite the circumstances we lost focus and resembled nasty civilians instead of Marines marching in sync. It was easier to blame to distract us from our current reality of shit.


Moral of the Story

It is wise to direct your anger towards problems – not people; to focus your energies on answers – not excuses.

– William Arthur Ward

Continue reading Blaming Others→

As we marched across the parade deck from the side we looked as one. The sound of about 70 Marines’ heels hitting the pavement but sounded as one. The sound of the hoarse drill instructor’s voice echoed throughout the 3rd Battalion. The sight from the side must had been one to see. 70 Marines appearing as only a few walking in a single line. In one instant, in one brief moment the few became many. The drill instructor echoed one command followed by quickly correcting himself with a different command. The 70 Marines who were marching as one became many as they tried to adjust. The stress of making a mistake on his first platoon must have added to the pressure. As the Marines marched across the parade deck the drill instructor kept echoing the wrong commands forcing the Marines to adjust. The stress of the Marines striving to take first place must have added to the pressure. They lost their focus and were no longer in sync with the Marine standing next to them. It must have been a sorry sight from the side seeing close to 70 arms and legs marching with the sound of 70 heals hitting the parade deck at different times. Cluster is the most G-rated description one can give seeing the Marines march across the parade deck that afternoon.

The evaluation was over and the 70 Marines filed back into their barracks. The brief moment of reflection in their minds was broken as the sound of a footlocker being kicked broke the silence. The roar of the two other drill instructors’ hoarse voices followed the loud bang of more footlockers being kicked. The blame for the cluster on the parade deck was placed squarely on the recruits. That afternoon the Marines spent quality time doing sandpit hopping across 3rd Battalion in Parris Island. For those not acquainted with this tradition the following is what occurs. Recruits are forced exercise in what seems like a giant sandbox by following the orders barked by their drill instructor. Jumping jacks, mountain climbers, jumping jacks, push ups, mountain climbers, etc.. This goes on for a period of time before the recruits then run to the next sandbox to be smoked again in the same manner before running to the next sandbox. This continues until the drill instructors get bored or the recruits need to be somewhere. Words don’t do justice describing getting smoked so please take a few minutes to see a Pit Stop in action. In the sweltering heat of South Carolina, the recruits had sweat powering down their faces as they were covered in sand with sandfleas biting them. As much as they tried to ignore it they could only focus on the feeling of bugs feasting on them and not being able to do anything about it (one scratch typically ends with a lot longer time being smoked). That afternoon the recruits (me being one of them) thought to ourselves why are we being punished when our drill instructor messed up.

It was easier to blame even though it was hard to tell what even happened. It was easier to blame then it was to take responsibility so it wouldn’t happen again. It was easier to blame then it was to admit we messed up; despite the circumstances we lost focus and resembled nasty civilians instead of Marines marching in sync. It was easier to blame to distract us from our current reality of shit.


Moral of the Story

It is wise to direct your anger towards problems – not people; to focus your energies on answers – not excuses.

– William Arthur Ward

Continue reading Blaming Others→

Things have been quiet on jIIr since I over committed myself. The short version is I had zero time for personal interests outside of my commitments, $dayjob, and family. Things are returning back to normal so it’s time to start working through my blog idea hopper. In the meantime, this post is sharing some of my recent random thoughts. Most of these thoughts came in response to reading an article/email, seeing a tweet, hearing a presentation, or conversing with others. 


~ We need to stop looking to others (peers, vendors, etc) to solve our problems. We need to stop complaining about a lack of resources, information, training, tools, or anything else. We need to start digging into our issues to solve them ourselves instead of looking for the easy answers.

~ As we work to better defend our organizations, we need to take to heart R. Buckminster Fuller’s advice. “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.” Our focus needs to be on building and improving the new reality while ignoring the haters who are stuck in the past.

~ We need to stop saying we don’t have enough resources. We need to focus on our workflows and seek out ways to improve, automate, and become more efficient. Slight changes on existing workflows can free up resources for other areas.

~ We need to start using this new technology called Google. There is no such thing as a stupid question but there are questions that can be easily answered by doing a simple Google search.

~ Let’s get our current generation tools working properly before talking about next generation. If we can’t properly configure and use our current tools then getting a so called “next generation” tool won’t solve anything.

~ We need to stop saying we need more training. We need to stop saying for me to do task X I need to be sent to training Y. We just need to realign our priorities to spend time on self-development. Turn off the TV, buy a book, build some virtual machines, conduct some tests, and analyze the results.

~ How about we talk more about detecting and responding to basic security threats. If we can’t alert on commodity malware infections or web server compromises and have effective workflows triaging those alerts then hunting shouldn’t even be in our vocabulary. Forget about hunting and focus on the basics.

~ Let’s stop generalizing by saying if company X was monitoring their logs then they would had detected the compromise sooner. That is until there is more published practical information telling organizations how they can actually set up their security monitoring capability. If there is very little practical information or assistance about building a security monitoring program then we shouldn’t be surprised when organizations struggle with the same complicated process.

~ On the same note and while we are at it. Let’s also stop saying if company X looked into their alerts then they would had seen there was a security issue. We need to start providing more published information instructing others how to actually triage and build workflows to respond to those alerts. If we don’t share and publish practical information about triaging workflows then we shouldn’t be pointing out the failures of our peers.

~ Let’s stop focusing our security strategy on the next new product instead of looking at how to better leverage our existing products. New products may address a need but we might be able to address the same need with existing products and use the money we save to address other needs.

~ Let’s stop with the presentations and articles pretending to tell other defenders how to do something while the author says they are not saying how exactly they do it to prevent threats from knowing. This serves no purpose and is counterproductive since it’s actually not telling other defenders how to do something. What’s the point of saying anything in the first place?

~ Please let’s stop adding noise to the intelligence sharing echo chamber. Whether if its products or conferences, most say we need more threat intelligence and we need to start sharing more. No other specifics are added; just that we need it and others need to share it. In the end we are just echoing noise without adding any value.

~ We need to stop saying how we have a shortage of talented security staff to hire. It is what it is. We need to start talking about how we can develop highly motivated people who want security as their career. We may not be able to hire talented security staff but we can definitely grow them to meet our needs.

~ We need to expand our focus on detecting and responding to threats from being primarily end point focused to server focused. A good percentage of articles, intelligence sources, and products talk about end point clients with very little mention about servers. How about detecting and responding to compromised web servers? How about database servers? How about CMS servers such as Joomla, WordPress, and Drupal? Our conversations are only talking about a part of our IT infrastructures and not the entire infrastructures.

~ We need to stop complaining that our management just doesn’t get or take security seriously. The issue can be two things. Maybe we aren’t communicating in a way for them to care. Maybe security really is not a high priority. Either way, we need to either: fix it, move on to another organization, or just accept it and stop complaining about it. Continue reading Random Thoughts→

Things have been quiet on jIIr since I over committed myself. The short version is I had zero time for personal interests outside of my commitments, $dayjob, and family. Things are returning back to normal so it’s time to start working through my blog idea hopper. In the meantime, this post is sharing some of my recent random thoughts. Most of these thoughts came in response to reading an article/email, seeing a tweet, hearing a presentation, or conversing with others. 


~ We need to stop looking to others (peers, vendors, etc) to solve our problems. We need to stop complaining about a lack of resources, information, training, tools, or anything else. We need to start digging into our issues to solve them ourselves instead of looking for the easy answers.

~ As we work to better defend our organizations, we need to take to heart R. Buckminster Fuller’s advice. “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.” Our focus needs to be on building and improving the new reality while ignoring the haters who are stuck in the past.

~ We need to stop saying we don’t have enough resources. We need to focus on our workflows and seek out ways to improve, automate, and become more efficient. Slight changes on existing workflows can free up resources for other areas.

~ We need to start using this new technology called Google. There is no such thing as a stupid question but there are questions that can be easily answered by doing a simple Google search.

~ Let’s get our current generation tools working properly before talking about next generation. If we can’t properly configure and use our current tools then getting a so called “next generation” tool won’t solve anything.

~ We need to stop saying we need more training. We need to stop saying for me to do task X I need to be sent to training Y. We just need to realign our priorities to spend time on self-development. Turn off the TV, buy a book, build some virtual machines, conduct some tests, and analyze the results.

~ How about we talk more about detecting and responding to basic security threats. If we can’t alert on commodity malware infections or web server compromises and have effective workflows triaging those alerts then hunting shouldn’t even be in our vocabulary. Forget about hunting and focus on the basics.

~ Let’s stop generalizing by saying if company X was monitoring their logs then they would had detected the compromise sooner. That is until there is more published practical information telling organizations how they can actually set up their security monitoring capability. If there is very little practical information or assistance about building a security monitoring program then we shouldn’t be surprised when organizations struggle with the same complicated process.

~ On the same note and while we are at it. Let’s also stop saying if company X looked into their alerts then they would had seen there was a security issue. We need to start providing more published information instructing others how to actually triage and build workflows to respond to those alerts. If we don’t share and publish practical information about triaging workflows then we shouldn’t be pointing out the failures of our peers.

~ Let’s stop focusing our security strategy on the next new product instead of looking at how to better leverage our existing products. New products may address a need but we might be able to address the same need with existing products and use the money we save to address other needs.

~ Let’s stop with the presentations and articles pretending to tell other defenders how to do something while the author says they are not saying how exactly they do it to prevent threats from knowing. This serves no purpose and is counterproductive since it’s actually not telling other defenders how to do something. What’s the point of saying anything in the first place?

~ Please let’s stop adding noise to the intelligence sharing echo chamber. Whether if its products or conferences, most say we need more threat intelligence and we need to start sharing more. No other specifics are added; just that we need it and others need to share it. In the end we are just echoing noise without adding any value.

~ We need to stop saying how we have a shortage of talented security staff to hire. It is what it is. We need to start talking about how we can develop highly motivated people who want security as their career. We may not be able to hire talented security staff but we can definitely grow them to meet our needs.

~ We need to expand our focus on detecting and responding to threats from being primarily end point focused to server focused. A good percentage of articles, intelligence sources, and products talk about end point clients with very little mention about servers. How about detecting and responding to compromised web servers? How about database servers? How about CMS servers such as Joomla, WordPress, and Drupal? Our conversations are only talking about a part of our IT infrastructures and not the entire infrastructures.

~ We need to stop complaining that our management just doesn’t get or take security seriously. The issue can be two things. Maybe we aren’t communicating in a way for them to care. Maybe security really is not a high priority. Either way, we need to either: fix it, move on to another organization, or just accept it and stop complaining about it. Continue reading Random Thoughts→

I saw the excitement in my son’s eyes as the biggest smile was stretching from ear to ear. He slowly stretched out his arm to show me what he got at camp that day. He was extremely excited and I could sense his happiness as I heard him say “I won it with only one dollar. I did it on my first try. Can we keep it?” My eyes focused on what was in his hand. It was a plastic bag with a small goldfish swimming around. “I won it at the fair today. Can we keep it?” In that split second I quickly ran through what owning a fish might entail and it was very similar to the picture used in this post. I then said “yes, we can keep it”. My son excitedly ran to his summer camp counselor with so much excitement to tell her the fish was going home with him.

As we were walking to pick up my youngest son I realized the first thing I didn’t think about. My five year old would be upset seeing his brother with a goldfish and knowing he doesn’t have one. I thought problem solved; we’ll just buy him one at the pet store while we are there getting supplies. We reached my five year old in his camp and his eyes grew bigger and bigger as he saw the bag. “Is that a fish” he asked and my seven year old replied “Daddy is getting you one too”.  At that moment both kids had smiles as they kept staring at the little fish swimming in the bag. As we were walking down the hall we walked past another parent. She saw the bag with the fish and nervously said “Oh lucky you”. I laughed and I could see she was a bit nervous walking down the hall to pick up her kid.

On the drive home, I remembered what my wife said at one point. Dam, my wife. Make that item number two that didn’t cross my mind when my son asked me if we could keep the fish. She has been dead set against owning a fish and this time playing like I misunderstood or didn’t hear her won’t work. “Absolutely no fish” is pretty clear. I knew I wasn’t getting out of this one so I thought I might as well get something out of it. I sent her a text message saying the boys had a big surprise for her. Despite her continued texts trying to guess the surprise on my drive home I wouldn’t answer them and I only deflected saying she had to wait.

As my wife opened the door both of my sons went running up to her. They said guess what a few times trying to gather their thoughts from their excitement. Then my seven year old says “at the fair I won a fish on my first try. I did it with only one dollar. Daddy said we could keep it and he is getting Gab one too.” She started to give me that stare until she walked over and started watching the fish swim around in its bag of water. Maybe she ran through what a fish would entail too but maybe not. Whatever it was I wasn’t going to ask when she said it looks like we are making a trip to the pet store.

On the drive to the pet store my wife and I were on the same page. We would get to the store then buy a basic tank, a second fish, and some food. As we walked up and down the aisle there were tanks of all sizes. Not sure what size we needed we asked the store for assistance. The cashier said he would send over the fish lady. I gave him a puzzled look and was like “fish lady?” He said that’s what we call her since she knows everything about fish.

We continued walking up and down the aisle waiting for the fish lady while continuously stopping my boys from wrestling each other. A younger girl was walking towards us and I asked if she was the fish lady. She laughed and then explained all the tanks and fish she owns. I told her we were looking for a tank to hold two goldfish. She said each fish should have least 10 gallons of water and then I glanced at the shelf. At that moment I knew getting the small basic tank we thought that would work was no longer an option. Nope, we had to get a real fish tank. As we continued listening to the fish lady she started going down the list of things we would need. Water conditioner, food, gravel for the bottom of the tank, filter, vegetation (fake or real), a stand for the tank to keep it level, structures for the fish to hide in, and the list went on. My wife and I both reached for our phones to confirm what she was saying without her noticing (we research everything before buying something). We were making sure she wasn’t trying to pull a fast one on us and our quick research confirmed what the fish lady said. I even saw the weekly work that owning a fish entails. I stopped counting all of the things I didn’t think about when I quickly ran through the list of what I thought owning a fish entails.

After hearing the fish lady I said that’s a lot more than I was expecting. My kid won a fish at the fair and we thought we would only need a basic tank. She cracked a smile and then said “oh, a fair fish huh”. After she helped us and was walking away I got the feeling this must happen a lot. Parents getting a fish at the fair, going to the fish store, and then getting hit over the head with what it really entails to own a fish. We grabbed a shopping cart, grabbed all of our supplies, the fish my five year old picked out, and selected the stand for our 20 gallon tank. As we left the store I kept thinking about the dollar fish that just cost us hundreds of dollars. That evening I spent hours putting together the stand and tank while my wife was cleaning all the items going into the tank (another thing we weren’t expecting).

What I thought owning a fish entailed was nothing close to what is actually involved with owning a fish. Spending a dollar to win a fish was nothing compared to the hundreds of dollars needed to take care of the fish. The weekly work I envisioned was a lot less than the actual work I have been doing for weeks.

If I could do it again knowing now what I didn’t know when we sent our son to camp that day. I would do things differently. I would had told him to save his dollar and do not bring home any fish. Mommy and I are doing some research and then next weekend we will go get the supplies and fish to set up a nice tank. It will be better than just watching two goldfish swimming around in a 20 gallon tank. This is the approach I would had taken. The approach of not trying to make things work with a dollar fish because in the end I still paid the same amount as I would had going with the better option in the first place.

My guess is this story plays out every year at a lot of organizations. The only exception is organizations are not dealing with goldfish but tools.

Continue reading A Warning about Hidden Costs→

I saw the excitement in my son’s eyes as the biggest smile was stretching from ear to ear. He slowly stretched out his arm to show me what he got at camp that day. He was extremely excited and I could sense his happiness as I heard him say “I won it with only one dollar. I did it on my first try. Can we keep it?” My eyes focused on what was in his hand. It was a plastic bag with a small goldfish swimming around. “I won it at the fair today. Can we keep it?” In that split second I quickly ran through what owning a fish might entail and it was very similar to the picture used in this post. I then said “yes, we can keep it”. My son excitedly ran to his summer camp counselor with so much excitement to tell her the fish was going home with him.

As we were walking to pick up my youngest son I realized the first thing I didn’t think about. My five year old would be upset seeing his brother with a goldfish and knowing he doesn’t have one. I thought problem solved; we’ll just buy him one at the pet store while we are there getting supplies. We reached my five year old in his camp and his eyes grew bigger and bigger as he saw the bag. “Is that a fish” he asked and my seven year old replied “Daddy is getting you one too”.  At that moment both kids had smiles as they kept staring at the little fish swimming in the bag. As we were walking down the hall we walked past another parent. She saw the bag with the fish and nervously said “Oh lucky you”. I laughed and I could see she was a bit nervous walking down the hall to pick up her kid.

On the drive home, I remembered what my wife said at one point. Dam, my wife. Make that item number two that didn’t cross my mind when my son asked me if we could keep the fish. She has been dead set against owning a fish and this time playing like I misunderstood or didn’t hear her won’t work. “Absolutely no fish” is pretty clear. I knew I wasn’t getting out of this one so I thought I might as well get something out of it. I sent her a text message saying the boys had a big surprise for her. Despite her continued texts trying to guess the surprise on my drive home I wouldn’t answer them and I only deflected saying she had to wait.

As my wife opened the door both of my sons went running up to her. They said guess what a few times trying to gather their thoughts from their excitement. Then my seven year old says “at the fair I won a fish on my first try. I did it with only one dollar. Daddy said we could keep it and he is getting Gab one too.” She started to give me that stare until she walked over and started watching the fish swim around in its bag of water. Maybe she ran through what a fish would entail too but maybe not. Whatever it was I wasn’t going to ask when she said it looks like we are making a trip to the pet store.

On the drive to the pet store my wife and I were on the same page. We would get to the store then buy a basic tank, a second fish, and some food. As we walked up and down the aisle there were tanks of all sizes. Not sure what size we needed we asked the store for assistance. The cashier said he would send over the fish lady. I gave him a puzzled look and was like “fish lady?” He said that’s what we call her since she knows everything about fish.

We continued walking up and down the aisle waiting for the fish lady while continuously stopping my boys from wrestling each other. A younger girl was walking towards us and I asked if she was the fish lady. She laughed and then explained all the tanks and fish she owns. I told her we were looking for a tank to hold two goldfish. She said each fish should have least 10 gallons of water and then I glanced at the shelf. At that moment I knew getting the small basic tank we thought that would work was no longer an option. Nope, we had to get a real fish tank. As we continued listening to the fish lady she started going down the list of things we would need. Water conditioner, food, gravel for the bottom of the tank, filter, vegetation (fake or real), a stand for the tank to keep it level, structures for the fish to hide in, and the list went on. My wife and I both reached for our phones to confirm what she was saying without her noticing (we research everything before buying something). We were making sure she wasn’t trying to pull a fast one on us and our quick research confirmed what the fish lady said. I even saw the weekly work that owning a fish entails. I stopped counting all of the things I didn’t think about when I quickly ran through the list of what I thought owning a fish entails.

After hearing the fish lady I said that’s a lot more than I was expecting. My kid won a fish at the fair and we thought we would only need a basic tank. She cracked a smile and then said “oh, a fair fish huh”. After she helped us and was walking away I got the feeling this must happen a lot. Parents getting a fish at the fair, going to the fish store, and then getting hit over the head with what it really entails to own a fish. We grabbed a shopping cart, grabbed all of our supplies, the fish my five year old picked out, and selected the stand for our 20 gallon tank. As we left the store I kept thinking about the dollar fish that just cost us hundreds of dollars. That evening I spent hours putting together the stand and tank while my wife was cleaning all the items going into the tank (another thing we weren’t expecting).

What I thought owning a fish entailed was nothing close to what is actually involved with owning a fish. Spending a dollar to win a fish was nothing compared to the hundreds of dollars needed to take care of the fish. The weekly work I envisioned was a lot less than the actual work I have been doing for weeks.

If I could do it again knowing now what I didn’t know when we sent our son to camp that day. I would do things differently. I would had told him to save his dollar and do not bring home any fish. Mommy and I are doing some research and then next weekend we will go get the supplies and fish to set up a nice tank. It will be better than just watching two goldfish swimming around in a 20 gallon tank. This is the approach I would had taken. The approach of not trying to make things work with a dollar fish because in the end I still paid the same amount as I would had going with the better option in the first place.

My guess is this story plays out every year at a lot of organizations. The only exception is organizations are not dealing with goldfish but tools.

Continue reading A Warning about Hidden Costs→

“You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.” —Richard Buckminster Fuller

It’s very easy to accept the way things are and say in response “it is what it is”. It’s easy to say I tried and give up when others push back against the things you want to change. It’s easy to say this is how we always did it so why change anything now. Now let’s put this into context of information security. It’s easy to accept the thinking “that no one gets security” and then take on the mentality of not doing anything to change it by saying “it is what it is”. It’s easy to say I tried and give up when you make an attempt change how people approach security but then get push back by others. It’s easy to say this is how we always approached securing our organization so why change anything now.

The quote I opened this post with nicely summarizes how you can go against the grain and put an organization on a better path to addressing their security risks. How you can change the existing security strategy focused on prevention to one focused on a balance between prevention, detection, and response. Start building the better approach (model) to enable others to see the value it adds. Continue building out the better approach and showing value to others. Showing the value and benefits results in people buying into the new approach. Eventually the change will take hold putting the organization on the better path. Building the better approach is more effective than fighting against the existing reality and those who are complacent with the way things are. Changing the security strategy won’t occur without some resistance. There will be remnants of those who resist your changes and will fight to make things go back to the way things were. Those remnants won’t be as successful in influencing change because they will be fighting against a new reality and they will lack the motivation and/or determination to go against the grain to build a better model. Continue reading Go Against the Grain→

“You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.” —Richard Buckminster Fuller

It’s very easy to accept the way things are and say in response “it is what it is”. It’s easy to say I tried and give up when others push back against the things you want to change. It’s easy to say this is how we always did it so why change anything now. Now let’s put this into context of information security. It’s easy to accept the thinking “that no one gets security” and then take on the mentality of not doing anything to change it by saying “it is what it is”. It’s easy to say I tried and give up when you make an attempt change how people approach security but then get push back by others. It’s easy to say this is how we always approached securing our organization so why change anything now.

The quote I opened this post with nicely summarizes how you can go against the grain and put an organization on a better path to addressing their security risks. How you can change the existing security strategy focused on prevention to one focused on a balance between prevention, detection, and response. Start building the better approach (model) to enable others to see the value it adds. Continue building out the better approach and showing value to others. Showing the value and benefits results in people buying into the new approach. Eventually the change will take hold putting the organization on the better path. Building the better approach is more effective than fighting against the existing reality and those who are complacent with the way things are. Changing the security strategy won’t occur without some resistance. There will be remnants of those who resist your changes and will fight to make things go back to the way things were. Those remnants won’t be as successful in influencing change because they will be fighting against a new reality and they will lack the motivation and/or determination to go against the grain to build a better model. Continue reading Go Against the Grain→