In late June I wrote Security Here I Come!  The transition wasn’t quite as fast as I thought it would be.  🙂   But for the past couple months I’ve been able to really start digging in.

My initial response after watching just 2 CiscoLive VoDs?  FEAR!

• Defense Against Emerging Threats – BRKSEC-1010 by Neil Lovering
• Simple Hacking Tools For Your Own Network – BRKSEC-1008 by Jerry Lin

I really enjoyed these sessions a great deal!!  They were the absolute perfect eye-opener to me!

Neil Lovering had the “Verizon Data Breach Report” in his slides (below).

Its funny because I have seen it before.  To be completely honest I have seen it quite a number of times.  But it was just something about how he presented it.  He got past my not wanting to really “hear” about the risk and the danger and the reality of the security landscape in the world around us.  I paused the VoD on this slide…. paused it and just really took the time to take it all in.

My reaction to this slide?  Lol. This is when the fear began.  Two simple facts on the slide just reached right off the page and reached deep inside of me.

• 75% of initial attack to compromise is within minutes
• 54% of initial compromise to discovery is months.

 

“Fear” isn’t where I am now.  That was a couple months ago.  The initial feeling I got when I really let the true reality of the security landscape sink in.  I’m very glad I went through that fear time frame though.  It IS scary and CAN be overwhelming.  Which is why I think so many people just don’t like to think about it.

So where am I now in my journey into my new specialization? Passionate!  I am so incredibly excited about going into Security.  I’m so excited to learn and to be a part of helping us all “fight the good fight”

There is ALWAYS someone out there trying to get in.

– Neil Lovering, BRKSEC-1010

….. and they aren’t coming right through the front door. It isn’t just about Firewalls. It isn’t just about encryption. Security is an ongoing Cat and Mouse game. They are always there… always trying to get in… any way they can…. working as hard (if not harder) to break in as we are working to keep them out.

It is just this pure… simple… and never ending.   Let’s go kick some butt and #SecureTheNetwork.