Re: OT: Educating users about Security

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Author: Victor Odhner
Date:  
To: plug-discuss
Subject: Re: OT: Educating users about Security
Siri Amrit Kaur wrote:
> Why do they listen to doctors but fight us every step
> of the way?


Easy! From childhood, except for the occasional shot,
we come to associate the doctor with making PAIN go away.
If you get in the position where (1) your co-workers are
in pain and (2) you can make it go away, you'll begin to
make some headway -- if they didn't blame the pain on you
in the first place, of course.

So as several have commented, most of us require some pain
to learn a lesson. Little kids learn little lessons
because they can't generalize: don't stick things into
*that* wall outlet. A lot of adults fail to learn better,
they make a very narrow decision not to make *that*
mistake again. These are the folks whose lives are rough
because they make one bad decision after another.
They need to learn lots of little lessons, and either
end up with a patchwork of voodoo rules, never seeing the
big picture; or else get the wrong big picture, becoming
paranoid because they get all the bad luck.

Siri, we *need* intelligent "lay people" like you out there
on the business side of the business, and in the small
businesses where the harried owner serves as the IT
department. In more generous days you would have *been*
the IT department by now, but those days are gone -- we
buy the marketing line and stay in denial that all our
pre-packaged solutions will take care of us, so we don't
need to staff the job. But if you keep it up (even with
a "slow learning curve", which many of us have), you may
find yourself turning a buck or two in the future as a
security consultant -- or running the office. Because
you are one of the ones who gets the big picture, but are
willing to get your hands dirty.

Hang in there,

Vic


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