CRAIG FORD Cyber Enthusiast, Ethical Hacker, Author of A hacker I am vol1 & vol2, Male Champion of Change, Special Recognition award winner at 2021 Australian Women in Security Awards
C O L U M N
We are all just bricks I have worked in the IT industry for a while, first in general ICT and then in security. I have written more articles than I can remember, a few books—and I have more to come—and I have been part of quite a few panels, webinars and podcasts. You can probably guess I like to share my knowledge and thoughts with my peers. I want to be an active contributor and make a real difference in helping keep people safe from cyber risks. I like to think of our industry as a house in which each
the three little pigs. Like them, we have lost some
of us is one of the bricks that help hold our house
battles, but together we can be strong: a house of
together. Each individual brick is of little significance.
bricks in which each brick supports and is supported
It could be a nice brick, it could be a really smart brick
by the others.
and it might even go out of its way to help people, but that one brick cannot hold up the house or protect
You are probably thinking: what is Craig talking
what is inside the house without support from the
about? He started by calling all security people bricks.
other bricks: some holding others up, some at the
Then he made these bricks into a house before
top of the wall holding up the roof, some holding the
invoking a fairy-tale story about three little pigs.
doors and windows, keeping them strong and secure. Let me put it another way: we security people are not In security, each brick—each individual—has a job to
isolated individuals; we are members of a village. If
do. Together we stand strong, even if a couple of us
we cannot find a way to stand together, to stand as
are slacking and do not want to work well with the
one, the whole village will fall. Things will get very
others. Security would be much easier if we were all
dark and society as we know it will collapse. If we
working towards the same goal, but that may never
all try a little harder to leave our egos at the door,
happen. I know collaboration—everyone coming
to actually listen to people instead of just talking
together with one purpose—is not easy. I have tried it
at them, we will all be better for it. Then, maybe
a few times, but it can be achieved.
that village will succeed. Everybody will be happy. Everybody will be safe. It surely can’t be hard. Right?
Think of our brick house in the context of the nursery rhyme about three little pigs. The third pig’s brick house stood strong against the big bad wolf (in our case a malicious actor) because all the bricks held together and held off the big bad wolf’s attacks. In some versions of the story, the pig in the house of
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straw and the pig in the house of wood get eaten. In others, they escape to the brick house and survive. We as an industry can learn from our mistakes like
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S E P T E M B E R • O C T O B E R 2022
