A New Model:Advancing Organizational Security
Through Peacebuilding
Who Are We?Michele Chubirka, aka "Mrs. Y.," is a recovering
UNIX engineer working in security. She is also the host of the Healthy Paranoia podcast, the information security feed of Packetpushers, and official nerd hunter. She likes long walks in hubsites, traveling to security conferences, and spending time in the Bat Cave. Sincerely believes that every problem can be solved with a "for" loop.
Joe Weston is a workshop facilitator, consultant, and author of the book Mastering Respectful Confrontation. He is also the founder of the Heartwalker Peace Project, which creates opportunities for connection, discussion, and creative collaboration.
Who We Aren’t
Special Request
Importance of feeling heard.
Please put laptops and phones away for now.
A Language of ViolenceThe taxonomy of information security is
borrowed from the language of war.
How does this impact the way we interact with our user community?
How does this affect the practitioners?
Peacebuilding LevelsPersonal
Social
Institutional
Personal + social = institutional change
"The human brain hasn't had a hardware upgrade in about 100,000 years."
Daniel Goleman, Author of Emotional Intelligence
Users Aren’t StupidWe spend millions of dollars on security products
and at the end of the day, the weakest link is the user.
Even with training, users make the wrong choices.
What if the problem isn’t about the user at all, but us?
Something isn’t working
We’re swimming in data, but we still can’t make predictions about intrusions.
How can we realistically change user behavior?
User: DefinitionPeople who aren’t us.
Developers
Administrative Staff
Management
Brain RTFM
Neuroscience 101Limbic System: The interior of the cortex, includes the hippocampus and amygdala. Supports emotion and long-term memory.
Prefrontal Cortex: Region responsible for planning, decision making and moderating behavior.
Think of the limbic system to the prefrontal cortex as a horse is to a rider.
Demonstration: A Brain In the Palm of Your Hand
Hold up your hand and make a fist.
This is a good representation of the brain and spinal column.
The brain stem, limbic system and neocortex.
* These two slides are oversimplifications of a very complex system.
The Threat Response: Step 1Cortex receives input (externally or internally) from the thalamus, a component of the limbic system.
The Threat Response: Step 2
Limbic system and prefrontal cortex (the executive or evaluator of the brain) take in data simultaneously.
The Threat Response: Step 3
Amygdala, responsible for emotional response and memory, acts as an alarm activating the fight/flight hormonal response if threat is perceived.
The Threat Response: 4Then the sympathetic nervous system sets up organs and muscles for fight/flight response, inhibiting digestion and the hypothalamus prompts the release of stress hormones.
Emotional Contagion
The limbic system is an “open loop,” influenced by other people’s emotions, aka mirror neurons.
Mirror neurons activate when an animal performs an action or when an animal observes the same action of another animal.
They are thought to be the basis of empathy.
Also called emotional contagion.
Negativity
The brain has a negativity bias because the limbic system is quicker than the prefrontal cortex at perceiving and analyzing potential threats.
Traumatic experiences are “stickier” than positive, happy experiences, i.e. harder to un-map.
No Escape From ThreatMost of us are in a permanent state of cortisol
overload due to the constant stressors of modern life and the fact that stress hormones stay in the body for hours.
This decreases intellectual capacity, memory capacity and lowers impulse control.
Stress makes you stupid.
Amygdala HijackKey indicator: intense and immediate emotional reaction, followed by the understanding that it was inappropriate.
I thought that stick on the ground was a snake!
I don’t like you or I’m bored, so I won’t cooperate or listen to what you have to say.
That guy who cut me off in traffic was trying to kill me!
Why were you so insulting to me in that email yesterday? (studies show there’s a negativity bias in email.)
Other examples?
Thin Slicing: Warren Harding Syndrome
Human beings make quick decisions based on intuition. Think “love at first site” or a “gut reaction.”
This is sometimes called “Thin Slicing.”
One example is “Warren Harding Syndrome.” A mediocre presidential candidate, Americans voted for him , because he was tall, good looking and charming.
Harding has been called one of the worst presidents in history.
Thin Slicing: Bedside Manner
The likelihood of a doctor being sued has little to do with the number of errors made.
In an analysis of malpractice lawsuits, there was no correlation between the number of mistakes by doctors and how many lawsuits were filed against them.
Malpractice?
In studies, psychologists were able to predict which doctors would be sued more by analyzing the amount of time spent with patients and if the tone of their voices sounded “concerned.”
Patients file lawsuits because of how they are treated.
The Power of Mirror Neurons
Marie Dasborough observed two groups:
One group was given negative feedback accompanied by positive emotional signs, nods and smiles.
Another was provided positive feedback that was delivered using negative emotional cues, frowns and narrowed eyes.
Entrainment
Those who received the positive feedback accompanied by negative emotional signs reported that they felt worse than participants who received negative feedback given with positive emotional cues.
The delivery was more important than the message.
Your emotions and actions will be mirrored by those around you.
This is similar to a phenomenon known in physics as entrainment.
There’s No Mr. Spock
Neurologist, Dr. Antonio Damasio, had a patient who had been a successful corporate lawyer.
A tumor was discovered in his prefrontal lobes and the surgeon who removed it inadvertently severed the circuit between this area and his amygdala.
Somatic MarkerThere was no obvious damage to his cognitive
abilities, but his life fell apart.
It was discovered that he couldn’t make decisions when presented with the simplest choices.
He no longer had any feelings regarding these options, no preferences.
This is the basis for Damasio’s Somatic Marker Hypothesis, in which it is proposed that emotions assist with complex decision-making.
It is a gross misconception that reason can be completely separated from emotion.
You’re the ThreatThe WAY we present information is just as
important as WHAT we present.
In the first few minutes we interact with someone, we’re being assessed for our potential to provide reward or punishment.
Could I have some carrot with that stick?
It’s Tribal
As humans, we’re constantly trying to maximize pleasure or minimize pain.
That black, unwashed t-shirt and body art may feel like a personal statement, but it can impact and even alienate those we’re trying to convince.
Are you a member of their tribe?
That was the bad news.
Now for the good.
Training That WorksThe Dynamic Feedback Loop
In the 1960s, Stanford University psychologist Albert Bandura determined that giving individuals a clear goal and a method of evaluating progress increased the likelihood that they would achieve it.
Feedback LoopsWhere are they used?
Personal training, leadership coaching, digital speeding signs.
In Garden Grove, California, the use of digital speeding signs reduced speeds on an average of 10%.
This was more effective than police ticketing.
Let’s Have Some Fun
Draw the letter “e” in the air in front of you.
*This is a decade-old method social scientists use to measure perspective-taking – the ability to put yourself in someone else’s shoes.
Communication That Works
• Interaction based on the core competencies of Emotional Intelligence, such as self-awareness, self-regulation, empathy, and motivation.
• Social engineers already use some of these skills to create emotional and social affinity with a target. It’s called pseudo-empathy.
• Conflict resolution methods such as those based on Non Violent Communication (NVC) and Restorative Practices.
Self Awareness ExerciseIt’s called “labeling”
Think of it like putting yourself in debug mode.
Process emotions or sensations you experience in real time.
Let’s try it.
Say to yourself, “Right now, I’m experiencing….”
Communication Models
XYZ model
Respectful Confrontation
BEER Method
NVC
XYZ
In situation X...
when you do Y...
I experience Z.
Joe Weston’s Respectful Confrontation
Behavior
Impact
Need
Make a request
Suzanne Kryder’s BEER Name the behavior
Its effect
The emotion experienced
The requested behavior
BEER = Behavior Effect Emotion Request
Marshall Rosenberg’s Non-Violent Communication
Facts or observations
Feelings
Needs or what’s “alive”
Request
RespectIf you want respect, you have to give it.
How do we disrespect our users?
Sophos study said only 4% of IT staff trust their users.
What percentage of users trust US?
“How To Break a Terrorist”Two tragedies to Abu Ghraib.
The human cruelty
The obvious failure of humiliation and violence in gathering intelligence.
Interrogator, Matthew Alexander, discovered that building rapport with prisoners was the most efficient way to get information and stop terrorism in Iraq.
“The quickest way to get most (but not all) captives talking is to be nice to them.”
Mark Bowden, author of Black Hawk Down
MotivationStudy sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank found three main factors motivate people in their work.
AutonomyMasteryPurpose
If we want security “wins” we have to include everyone as partners in a cooperative process.
Neuroplasticity: You Can Change Your Brain
It is no longer believed that the brain becomes static after childhood.
The brain is always changing. This is caused by physiological, environmental and behavioral factors.
A study found increased cortical gyrification with more years of mindfulness practice.
Higher gyrification usually correlates to intelligence.
Practicing Respectful Confrontation
My Truth != The Truth
Synonymous?
True Power
Brute Force
Confrontation
Conflict
Assertiveness
Aggression
Concepts to Explore
True Power != Brute Force
Confrontation != Conflict
Assertiveness != Aggression
Four Pillars of True PowerGrounding
Focus
Strength
Flexibility
Vulnerability != Weakness
It is only in your vulnerability
that your true power
is revealed.
“Water is fluid, soft, and yielding. But water will wear away rock, which is rigid and cannot yield. As a rule, whatever is fluid, soft, and yielding will overcome whatever is rigid and hard. This is another paradox: what is soft is strong.”
Lao Tzu
Personal Space
5 Steps of Clear Communication
1. Contact with yourself
2. Contact with other
3. Desire/Impulse
4. Act of communication
5. Received message
Key TakeawaysBad trumps good in the human brain.
You can’t turn your emotions off or leave them at home. It’s like wearing a bad toupee. You aren’t fooling anyone.
If the limbic system is an open loop, we’re all responsible for the quality of the emotional landscape.
Stress makes you stupid, by shutting down blood flow to the critical pre-frontal lobes. If you set off a stress response in someone, you minimize the chance of having a rational dialogue with them.
Confrontation isn’t always negative. Resistance to change can be a valuable source of feedback.
Cyber PeacePeaceful doesn’t mean passive.
Peace isn’t the absence of war or conflict.
Violence isn’t always physical. There are subtle ways to commit harm against another.
Let’s stop blaming the victims and work in partnership with our users to empower each other in our mutual goal of enterprise security.
“If you use government to show them the Way and punishment to keep them true, the people will grow evasive and lose all remorse. But if you use integrity to show them the Way and Ritual to keep them true, they’ll cultivate remorse and always see deeply into
things.”
From “The Analects” of Confucius 5th century B.C.E.
Where Can You Find Us?
Michele Chubirka, spending quality time in kernel mode.
http://www.healthyparanoia.net
Twitter @MrsYisWhy
Google+ MrsYisWhy
Joe Weston, writing and teaching workshops.
http://www.respectfulconfrontation.com/
References Zehr, Howard The Little Book of Restorative Justice, 2002
Chubirka, Michele “Is Cyber Security a Form of Violence?” http://packetpushers.net/is-cyber-security-a-form-of-violence/, 1/31/2012
Goleman, Daniel Working with Emotional Intelligence, 1998
Goleman, Daniel and Boyatzis, Richard “Social Intelligence and Biology of Leadership” Harvard Business Review, 9/08
Kryder, Suzanne The Mind To Lead, 2011
Weston, Joe Mastering Respectful Confrontation, 2011
Pink, Daniel Drive, 2009
Pink, Daniel “Why bosses need to show their soft side” The TeleGraph 7/17/11
Gladwell, Malcolm Blink, 2005
Alexander, Matthew How to Break a Terrorist: The U.S. Interrogators Who Used Brains, Not Brutality, to Take Down the Deadliest Man in Iraq, 2008
Siegel, Daniel The Mindful Brain, 2007
Hanson, Rick Buddha’s Brain, 2009
Rosenberg, Marshall B. Nonviolent Communication, 2005
Luders, Kurth, Mayer, Toga, Narr and Gaser, The unique brain anatomy of meditation practitioners: alterations in cortical gyrification, 2012
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