The Cult of the Inventor

Three episodes of the WB40 podcast to listen to if you’re into Cyber Security

• Episode 209 - if you’re part of The Great Resignation, or considering moving out of cyber security, or coming in, it’s worth listening to the hosts and Lee Cox thinking through this kind of career change. Although not directly related to cyber I’d expect you to find the decision process, and the successes and failures, very relevant; as well as the importance of an ability to learn, rather than being a life-long subject matter expert in just one area; as well as the importance of transferable skills… as well the lack of innovation from employers… and and and… convinced yet? Go listen.

• Episode 210 - A great interview with Lauri Allman, former Under Secretary to the Estonian Ministry of Defence, and they’ve also impressive corporate experience after that. The whole episode is worth your time, but the standout parts for me, that you might want to quote in future meetings, were:

  • As part of several groups that fight this every day, it was reassuring to hear someone with the experience of CIO Chris Weston say: “it’s very hard to get people to spend money on a risk that hasn’t yet crystallised”

  • Almann makes quotable points at around 28 minutes in about the importance of the insurance industry in forcing companies to take risks seriously.

  • Then from around 30 minutes in, Almann contemplating whether poor cyber security now counts as medical malpractice.

  • Lastly, from about 34 minutes in, Almann explains the benefits to the board of taking them through exercises, rather than just thinking or talking through plans without any real context.

• Episode 211 - I found the thoughts around 39 minutes in, on why IT focuses so much on development rather than everything else, really insightful. For me this part was especially illuminating to explain why Cyber Security is over-focussed on exploit development:

“it’s the Cult of the Inventor I think … but if you think about the way in which history is told, history is told about people who create new things, not about people who maintain the existing. But the people who maintain the existing are obviously more important, in the way in which history functions, but there’s no interesting narrative about it … I think that’s probably the main thing, it’s because the stories aren’t as good.”