From Dev to Infosec – Making Friends

Whenever you enter a new community, the hardest part is always finding your way around and making friends. With InfoSec, it’s analogous to being dropped in the middle of Europe without a map, and you only know how to speak Spanish. It’s an incredibly broad subject area that encompasses different focuses and personalities, all of which adds to the need for a nuanced approach when trying to engage with security professionals. It’s a stark contrast from the web developer world, where people are much more open to sharing personal information and embracing newcomers.

In “From Dev to InfoSec Part 1 – The Journey Begins,” it started as a lone adventure but quickly became apparent that it wouldn’t be that way for long. It was very reassuring that many let me know, “You’ve got a friend in me.” But remembering that everyone has their “eye” on you, I learned early on that a little paranoia is a good thing… on both sides. In this article, I’m going to share some of the insights I gained trying to build relationships in the security community, challenges I faced and techniques I used to improve my understanding of the people involved in the security field.

Privacy and Sharing Names While Making Friends

Many security folk are hypersensitive to openly sharing the same type of information even to a point of using an alias or ‘nym’ on conference badges or using apps like Wire instead of giving out their personal cell phone number. Some even take it to the point of creating themselves a completely separate identity. Call them by their real name at a conference, and there’s complete silence. Whether you agree with this or not, you must respect their decision on what they share as well as how they choose (Read more...)