What do you think this is?

I appreciate training and am always eager to learn something new, but I have yet to settle on a preferred form of instruction. However, there is one that I find particularly challenging, and since I've recently been considering the possibility that the effectiveness of the security training and awareness we provide may vary depending on the mode of delivery, I thought I would write down my thoughts. Here are my personal choices.

Once upon a time I spent a total of 4 hours (over three days) in meetings, stating that I will definitely not approve a security exception. At least, not until someone demonstrates that the exception requested, removes the root cause or is a valid workaround.

I often get into discussions about budgets and how much a company should invest in its security program. There is no easy answer because the problem we are trying to solve has many unknowns.

There are many ways one may address this question, the main one being a rule of thumb.

Some major breaches have seen the light of day lately, and everybody agrees that they will keep coming. I don't believe you will find any security professional respecting himself to tell you that this will stop. The reasons are many, but the most important one is the (lack of) security design. Systems, processes and services have been moving to production without security design for years. And unfortunately in many cases they still do.

In our (security) profession it is becoming common to jump on each other's throat; and the result is the public blaming of the CISO involved - like leaving them alone to take some hard steps in the middle of no man's land.

Significant changes are coming to the cyber security and data privacy landscape. I would consider these to be potentially game changers as they may alter the way organizations address their security posture and preparations.

A common problem for information security professionals, is that security is perceived as a business blocker; hindering the operational efficiency and adding controls that make everybody's life more difficult. But is this actually the case?

Even if you're living in a galaxy far, far away, you're probably familiar with the scene: In an imperial star ship, a lower ranked Admiral talks to Darth Vader. Darth Vader disagrees, turns to his higher ranked General and says "General Veers, prepare your men". General turns to his Admiral and says "Admiral"... That's all!

It is not uncommon that I see job advertisements with specifically stated salary ranges. It is actually a good thing, as it allows potential and interested employees to know if they want to get a job with that amount, before they apply. It is also very common that recruiters ask for salary expectations during the introductory phone call; before the actual candidate evaluation. Obviously this is driven by the salary range that the hiring company has set to them and they want to minimize the time wasted in a candidate whose salary expectations are not within this range.