Taught by Dad

Confidentiality

June 16, 2013

Growing up I lived in small towns all my life, and my father was one of the respected ministers in the community. These places were so small that everyone knew everyone else’s business and even my elementary school teachers were eager to discuss town gossip in front of the class.

One day Mrs. C walked into class after our recess and had a solemn expression on her face. We had all taken our places at our desks, and I was ready to engage her in our nap time game of chess as we usually dueled while the rest of the class slept.

Instead she came to my desk, and took me outside. She explained that another student in the class, I’ll just call him N, his parents were getting a divorce and she wanted me to talk with him about how things weren’t that bad. At this time I had no idea what a divorce even was, but she picked me because of my father’s position. So a few minutes later N came out, and we talked.

Late that night, when my father came home I talked with him about what happened, and he told me that I had been entrusted with a very important piece of someone’s life, and I shouldn’t relate that information to anyone, and so I never discussed what was said even to my teacher.

Later in High School, our house was egged, eggs thrown at the doors, windows and cars. The clean up was messy. I was furious, wanting to know who did this, and of course to find justice. My father sensing my anger took me aside and told me not to mention this incident, but always remember and one day someone would lapse and mention something that they shouldn’t know, and then I could find out who. But if I let them know that they had any effect, then they wouldn’t need to pry to see my reaction, and i would probably not discover who was behind the prank.

My father never speaks bad of anybody, but is opinionated about policies. He never rakes mud over someone discussing their infidelities or faults. He has never broken confidence about anything discussed with him. He is a role model for information security.

These incidents helped to teach me how to control and take care of confidential information. How to keep private incidents private and how bringing someone else down does not make you a better person, and to be wary of people who do.

Each of these life lessons can be applied to information security, determine which pieces of the company to keep private, even from other employees. Keeping failed attacks undisclosed can bring out who actually caused the attack, because they may not be able to determine if their attack succeeded. And pointing fingers without evidence only burns bridges.

Happy Father’s Day

wdnii

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