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Security Is Your Problem (Like It or Not)!
You Are the Gatekeeper of Company Assets
If you think technology can solve your security problems, then you don’t understand the problems and you don’t understand the technology. Amateurs hack systems, professionals hack people.
—Bruce Schneier, author of Secrets and Lies: Digital Security in a Networked World
Dear Nan:
I overheard my boss’s boss talking too loudly at the gym about a confidential matter, and I noticed that all ears at adjacent workout machines were cocked in his direction. I have virtually no relationship with this man (in fact, he barely knows my name), but I knew I had to do something to stop his babbling. Long story short, all I could think of was to interrupt him, so I faked a pratfall into him. When he leaned over to help me up, I had just enough time to whisper, “Lower your voice—everyone can hear you!” Then I skedaddled. My boss called me in later that afternoon and said his boss appreciated the intervention, “however unorthodox.” Then he put me in charge of our entire department’s security! Nan, this is good because I have wanted more responsibility, but it’s bad because I’m learning on the job again. My common sense may not be enough here. Can you give me a push in the right direction? We have about 50 people in the department.
—MaryBeth in Flagstaff, AZ
Lucky MaryBeth! This is yet another sign of the growing responsibilities that assistant-level professionals receive nowadays when the boss turns to them ...
