Go Against the Grain
Wednesday, August 12, 2015
“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.
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.
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