You are previewing premium content. Native intelligence: Awareness and humor
The long view of security strategies for your network.
To continue reading, Recently I asked long-time friend and colleague K Rudolph, CISSP, chief inspiration officer at Native Intelligence some questions about her work.
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1) K, how did you end up running the world's most innovative security-awareness company?
Years ago, I was about to choose between an offer to work as a security analyst at a consulting firm and starting my own company. I prepared a spreadsheet listing the pros and cons, and made my decision – to accept the job offer. I shared the decision with a friend who was so surprised that he demanded the spreadsheet. I e-mailed it and he called back a few minutes later. "The data," he told me, "don't support your decision. You're acting out of fear." There's nothing like an honest friend to point out when you're being a coward. So, I followed the data and found that the recipe for effective information security is the same as what it took for Dorothy and her friends to get home from the Land of Oz: a heart, a brain, and a little courage.
2) You have an immense stock of original, creative, and amusing posters. Tell us about the artists you have worked and are working with and how you have communicated the ideas that they so brilliantly represent in their drawings.
Our poster artwork is original and created by outstandingly talented people. Our artists have faced difficult situations in life gracefully. Half are adoptees who have come out of the foster care system. They are keenly perceptive and have a great sense of humor – which I suspect is important to surviving challenges well. Humor is an effective way to get attention, and we have to get someone's attention before we can improve their awareness.
Charles A. Filius is an extraordinary talent; I wrote in our description that "Chaz has been able to do whatever we've asked, except strike a match on a bar of soap…."
Our photographers are willing to go the extra mile – in some cases straight up. An intrepid explorer, adventurer, and chef, Jon Marsh, took the photos of the mountain climbers in poster 127 and 114. What's spectacular about those images is that to get them, he had to climb those ice cliffs as well, and do so carrying a camera.
3) What are some of your favorite posters? What brings them to mind first as you answer that question?
I like posters that have a single concept, bright colors, and that use humor or something unexpected to get attention. See the catalog for pop-ups that show these posters. Of the most recently posted ones, I like 246, "Don't Hoard Friends" because it's a bit unexpected – after all, it's good to have many friends, isn't it?
My favorite watercolor art posters are 211 "Wizard of Oz" because it makes me smile and 237, which asks a vital question. We don't always recognize that data can be worth exponentially more than hardware.
Favorite funny cartoon classics include 136 "There's always free cheese in a mousetrap," 171 "Santa's naughty list," and 164 "Fairy tales" because it reminds us that identity theft is not new – it happened to Red Riding Hood's grandmother.
M. E. Kabay, PhD, CISSP-ISSMP, specializes in security and operations management consulting services and teaching. He is Chief Technical Officer of Adaptive Cyber Security Instruments, Inc. and Associate Professor of Information Assurance in the School of Business and Management at Norwich University. Visit his Web site for white papers and course materials.
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