16 ways in which security folks are(n’t) like puppies

Following the phenomenal[1] success of my ground-breaking[2] article 16 ways in which users are(n’t) like kittens, I’ve decided to follow up with a yet more inciteful[3] article on security folks. I’m using the word “folks” to encompass all of the different types of security people who “normal”[4] people think of “those annoying people who are always going on about that security stuff, and always say ‘no’ when we want to do anything interesting, important, urgent or business-critical”. I think you’ll agree that “folks” is a more accessible shorthand term, and now that I’ve made it clear who we’re talking about, we can move away from that awkwardness to the important[5] issue at hand.

As with my previous article on cats, I’d like my readers to pretend that this is a carefully researched article, and not one that I hastily threw together at short notice because I got up a bit late today.

Note 1: in an attempt to make security folks seem a little bit useful and positive, I’ve sorted the answers so that the ones where security folks turn out actually to share some properties with puppies appear at the end. But I know that I’m not really fooling anyone.

Note 2: the picture (credit: Miriam Bursell) at the top of this article is of my lovely basset hound Sherlock, who’s well past being a puppy. But any excuse to post a picture of him is fair game in my book. Or on my blog.

Research findings

Hastily compiled table

Property Security folks Puppies
Completely understand and share your priorities
No No
Everybody likes them
No Yes
Generally fun to be around No Yes
Generally lovable No Yes
Feel just like a member of the family No Yes
Always seem very happy to see you No Yes
Are exactly who you want to see at the end of a long day No Yes
Get in the way a lot when you’re in a hurry
Yes Yes
Make a lot of noise about things you don’t care about Yes Yes
Don’t seem to do much most of the time
Yes Yes
Constantly need cleaning up after
Yes Yes
Forget what you told them just 10 minutes ago Yes Yes
Seem to spend much of their waking hours eating or drinking Yes Yes
Wake you up at night to deal with imaginary attackers Yes Yes
Can turn bitey and aggressive for no obvious reason
Yes Yes
Have tickly tummies Yes[6] Yes

1 – relatively.

2 – no, you’re right: this is just hype.

3 – this is almost impossible to prove, given quite how uninciteful the previous one was.

4 – i.e., non-security.

5 – well, let’s pretend.

6 – well, I know I do.

Author: Mike Bursell

Long-time Open Source and Linux bod, distributed systems security, etc.. CEO of Profian. マイク・バーゼル: オープンソースとLinuxに長く従事。他にも分散セキュリティシステムなども手がける。現在Profianのチーフセキュリティアーキテクト

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