A place to talk about information security, Internet safety and, of course... coffee! Thoughtful, sometimes controversial, but not following the crowd unless I'm in line at the coffee shop.
As we close out this year and think about the new year, it's a great time to think about your own development and learning.
I really enjoy audiobooks. While SciFi is typical favorite, I also mix in business and self-development titles. I've been keeping a list of my top self-development books and had been meaning
to share them here... and now here they are!
This list is not exactly in priority order, however my favorites are definitely at the top. So, more or less, the first third of the list is 5-star books, middle third 4.5-stars, and the final third are 4-star. These are all great books, regardless of where they are on this list.
Here we go...
Start With
Why – Simon Sinek
The 5 Levels
of Leadership – John C. Maxwell
The Chrisma
Myth – Olivia Fox Cabane
Pitch
Anything – Oren Klaff
What Makes
an Effective Executive – Peter F Drucker
A Whole New
Mind – Daniel H. Pink
Eat That
Frog! – Brian Tracy
Getting
Things Done – David Allen
The New One
Minute Manager – Ken Blanchard , Spencer Johnson
The
Introvert Advantage: How to Thrive in an Extrovert World – Marti Olsen Laney,
PsyD
I've been posting comments in line with the weekly themes put together by DHS. This week the theme is Building the Next Generation of Cyber Professionals.
Whenever information security managers get together, one of the topics is often the talentcrunch. In almost any metro area in the US there is close to zero unemployment in security. Add to that the coming brain drain as the baby boomers retire, and we have a looming problem.
On the positive side, we're seeing more university and community college infosec programs.
But there is more work than people. The federal government estimates that they need 10,000 new infosec professionals in the coming years. How is that going to work?
As seems to often be the case in the fall, I'm doing a number of Internet Safety talks lately. Maybe it's the tie-in with October US Cybersecurity month, and I did somepostscelebratingthat. Maybe it's that fall makes us think about back to school (though maybe safety should be a "hotter" topic in the summer when kids have more free time!).
I've been presenting to groups about Internet Safety and related topics for over 12 years. I've got a few events coming up at work, so I'm updating my material. I've got a number of talks on these "consumer" issues. You can see my slides on my slideshare page. I regularly update my material. But what's really amazing to me is that the core, key messages have substantially remained the same.
For example, I recently did a presentation and blog post on bullying. The biggest change in online bullying in the past few years has been the news media attention. But what happens, how it happens and options for victims, unfortunately, hasn't changed much.
As I talk with people about these issues, and research and update my presentation material, I think there are 3 main areas in which things have substantially changed.
The rise and expansion of social media. In the early 2000's, we were talking about things like email, Chat like AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) and web surfing. Xanga.com was around, but MySpace and Facebook weren't even invented until around 2003! And, needless to say, there's been an explosion of social media sites with the latest trends favoring pictures and video. While kids had the ability to share too much information since the beginning, social media sites really drove the norms.
Technology. In particular... mobile technology. I used to recommend that families keep their computer (singular) in a common place like the family room or kitchen so kids' use could be seen. While that is still good advice, most families have more than one computer. And most teens, and many younger kids, carry a powerful computer with them wherever they go... their smartphone. While we still have options available for monitoring, and good communication is key, portable devices are really a game-changer.
Kids get it. During my Internet Safety talks of the mid-2000's, we used to play a little game. It was a live demo in which I would bring up a social media site, typically MySpace. The game was to see how few clicks it would take us to get to some inappropriate content (like kids/teens sharing too much personal information or posting pictures parents would wish they didn't). When I first started doing this demo it would only take a few clicks. Then, by around 2008, it took more. Then I would just save a few URLs of TMI pages. Then I gave up the game altogether! It's not that we can't still find inappropriate content, or examples of kids sharing far more than parents might want. But kids are doing a much better job of protecting their information online. Of course, kids, teens and young adults - actually digital natives in general - do have different ideas, definition and expectations of privacy compared to their parents!
One final thought... another thing that has changed is that the oldest digital natives - people who do not know of a time without pervasive digital media and technology - are now having their own kids and showing up at Internet Safety talks! But some things don't change and their kids still know more about technology!
What surprises you about changes in our online world over the past decade? What do you think has changed, or has not changed?
As I mentioned in my post last week, I recently did an Internet Safety and Tech talk for parents of preschoolers. When I talk about this and related topics, I always talk about bullying and cyberbullying.
Unfortunately, the concept of bullying has been around through the history of humans. Interestingly, the term and specific study did not begin until the 1800s. Of course, bullying is not just something that happens to children in schools. My friend Denise Moreland discusses workplace bullying and bad management in her book (buy it here) and blog.
There have been traditional ways parents and schools have tried to deal with bullying. I'll discuss those below. I say "tried" because these methods haven't really worked. There's also been an anti-bullying movement over the past 10-20 years. Even with all the media attention this gets, that method doesn't work either.
I've recently learned of a new approach that I think can work! It's called Pro-Hero. Check out this great TEDtalk covering the basics.
I really enjoy audiobooks. While SciFi is typical favorite, I also mix in business and self-development titles. I've been keeping a list of my top self-development books and had been meaning 
