RE: Ok, so now we have a firewall, we're safe, right?

["Tina Bird" <tbird () precision-guesswork com>]

> While I appreciate the sentiment, I don't think that approach 
> will work 
> for everyone.  Not everyone is curmudgeonly enough or has the 
> cojones to 
> enter into an adversarial relationship with their superiors.  
> I don't want 
> that kind of stress and tension in my life, at my work, 
> putting out fires 
> is less stressful for me.

it even happens sometimes that there are *reasonable* business and political
reasons for not doing the technically-most-correct thing, at least sometimes
;-) i *loved* working with my director at stanford, because although he
didn't know everything inside and out about network security, he'd been at
stanford for 25 years. he was a walking bundle of useful information about
*non-technical* issues, and i really trusted him to balance "the best
security" with everything else.

but that re-iterates another point, which has been implied in bits of this
thread: in order to succeed at a security job, you've got to not only have
technical clue, you've got to be willing to compromise. we've brought some
of our problems on ourselves, by letting a sense of technical superiority
add to the traditional human desire to win arguments. proving that i'm
"right" and my boss is "wrong" rarely ends in hugs and puppies...whereas
selling my boss on my idea, even if that means convincing her that it was
*her* idea, is generally a much better strategy.

and accepting that there are sometimes perfectly valid business reasons for
doing technically-boneheaded things is also often a useful job strategy.
although it can lead to higher tequila consumption than originalliy
expected.

cheers - tbird 


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