Over the last decade, I have focused quite heavily on technology and the cybersecurity space. I’ve been motivated to create a world that is more inclusive and safer. In 2019, I began a bit of a different journey. Whilst still motivated in a security point of view, this time, I focused on the physical side by beginning to train in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ).

If you’ve never practiced martial arts, what you may be surprised to learn is the value of listening to your body and knowing your own personal limits. Cybersecurity is much the same. Find your strengths, continuously validate your approach and find others who have a different approach to run tabletop exercises with and increase your skills.OK

In BJJ, you find your preferred approach, and you continuously validate by time spent on the mat training and rolling with a variety of people to test your skills. An added bonus is that the introspection, the increased strength, all play a wonderful role in building your confidence.

One of the best decisions I have made was starting BJJ, and even if it wasn’t the goal from the start, I think there are many lessons we can take from BJJ and apply to our cybersecurity practices:

1. Close the distance: Unskilled, you may believe distancing yourself from an attacker would keep you safe. However, within Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) and self defence, you learn distance is actually the enemy. Closing the gap between you and the attacker is the best way to keep them at bay.

How do we close the distance and keep ourselves right against malicious actors? Layering! That is, by removing gaps within our infrastructure,with layered controls, implementing the (Read more...)