You live in a bad neighborhood. No doubt about it, your neighborhood is rough and dangerous. What do I mean by a bad neighborhood? Well, a bad neighborhood is something you know right when you see it. You see rundown buildings, shady characters, and junk in the streets, lots of damage and vandalism to the structures in the neighborhood. You can drive from one neighborhood to the next and there is nothing between them except maybe a street. And you know it. You can see it. You can feel it. It covers you with a sense of fear and trepidation like the blanket of a fog with the chill and the discomfort that comes with it. It’s not a good feeling and we have a natural instinct to spot it and avoid it. It is part of our natural fight or flight instinct when there is the implication of danger. It is built into our psyche and it is so natural we do not even think about it. We just function within this paradigm on a daily basis.
You can see it. You can feel it. It covers you with a sense of fear and trepidation like the blanket of a fog with the chill and the discomfort that comes with it. It’s not a good feeling and we have a natural instinct to spot it and avoid it. It is part of our natural fight or flight instinct when there is the implication of danger. It is built into our psyche and it is so natural we do not even think about it. We just function within this paradigm on a daily basis.
What’s The Difference
Well, there is another neighborhood that we live in and it is not so well defined. It is just as dangerous to your wealth. And risky for your career, and can eventually affect your family or friends personal safety. And this neighborhood is big really big and getting bigger. It is ubiquitous and diverse and very unforgiving. Of course, this neighborhood is the internet. The internet is worldwide and reaches every corner of the earth. So remember what you did to keep safe? You avoided the bad neighborhoods, you stay alerted. And you make sure that friends and family know about the risk of a bad neighborhood.
I remember when my 16-year-old son first got his license and was quite naïve about the risks in the real world. His friend came to town from another city to go to a professional soccer game in our city, and the stadium was located in the worst neighborhood in the city. So my son just drove across the city by himself, to the stadium without checking with us first. He did not know what risk he was taking.
Your Neighborhood
He did not recognize the difference between his safe neighborhood and a bad neighborhood. So he was at risk. We, of course, told him to come home. Well, the internet reaches all of our homes and our businesses. It is everywhere and it is not a safe neighborhood at all. And while you can instinctively recognize a good or a bad neighborhood. But like my son few people or institutions can recognize a safe or unsafe sector of the internet. You need experience in data security and knowledge of what is a threat and what is not. You need the tools to make this recognizable at a moment’s notice.
Make no mistake about it. You live in a bad neighborhood and it’s getting worse every day. All you have to do is look at the newspaper or whatever newsfeed you use to realize it is becoming less safe. The bad guys can reach you from their bad neighborhood to yours any time they want. Unless you are taking the steps to prevent such an attack they will. That requires a security posture that recognizes this threat and prepares you before the attack so you can mitigate it. This type of security posture is not an accident it is a deliberate effort on your part as a leader to ensure it.