Beautiful Basics: Lesson 1

Lesson 1 - YOU could be “Legacy”

Stop thinking that just because it did or didn’t work X way when you learned it, it still does or doesn’t. That could be 20 years ago. Technology changes faster than you do.

I guess that’s a bit mean for a title but here’s the thing:

One of the greatest yet most challenging things about doing any job in technology is staying current. Everyone struggles to stay up to date with as much of what is going on around you. Many people specialize, which makes it easier to stay up to date with a specific thing. Yet that can lead to tunnel vision as well.

All I’m trying to say here is that sometimes, the person with the least amount of “experience” in a given technology field is going to have the most open mind to what is possible. No matter how long you have been in cyber security or technology in general, you should consider your knowledge on a specific topic a point in time piece of information. At that exact moment in your life, that fact was true. This doesn’t mean that it stays that way.

Take passwords for example. Everyone said “8 character passwords are secure” for decades. I’m still hearing that. Or “never write your passwords down”. This is just one example. “Never use X software, it’s insecure”, is it still?. One of the ways I stay “current” is by always challenging my knowledge of how I think things should work vs how they do.

This is why during my keynote I noted when and where I leaned these lessons, there is every possibility I am complete off base with all of them. This is also why it’s my beautiful basics lesson #1. Something to always keep top of mind.