I have to admit, I was the perfect demographic for the original release of Police Academy in 1984—even though I was too young to go to the cinema to see it by myself. However, I remember thinking it was pretty funny at the time. For some reason, when I was thinking about the problems security often faces this morning, a scene from that movie popped in my head.
A quick, no spoiler recap on the off chance that you haven’t seen the movie: it’s a bit like Stripes, but with a larger cast and about the police instead of the army.
There’s a bunch of misfit people who want to join the police force, but they all have individual issues that would prevent them from actually making the cut. One of the wanna be police officers is Moses Hightower (Bubba Smith) who is shown to be scarily tall in the movie compared to everyone else.
In reality, he was 6’7” (and I’m 6’6”, so maybe that’s why I can relate).
Anyway, his issue was that you need to be able to drive if you want to be a police officer (obviously), but he couldn’t. So another character, Mahoney (Steve Guttenberg), the lead instigator, takes it on himself to teach Hightower how to drive.
The problem? Mahoney owns a ’78 Honda Civic.
When they get in the car, Hightower is hunched over because the roof is so low, and his knees come up to the top of the steering wheel.
It looks like he’s on a go kart.
Mahoney’s trying to be helpful, and suggests moving the seat back. But it’s already all the way back, so then he says:
“On second thought, let’s just rip out the front seats, and sit in the back.”
Which, of course, Hightower does.
Cue the merry, crazy chase scene with lots of crashing cars and police looking silly, but it did help him learn to drive.
Now, in this case, the whole “driving from the back seat” was a bit of a necessity. And it might be that in your organization, there needs to be a little bit of back seat driving from security if you’re a bit short in the “Health & Hygiene” department so you can establish a bit of confidence that a baseline of security actually exists.
However, the time for back-seat driving by security should actually be pretty limited. Because without really understanding how the controls you’re trying too deploy will – or will not – fit with what the business is trying to do…
…is a bit like painting the windshield black to keep the sun out of your eyes on a GT race car.
Sure, there won’t be any sun in your eyes, but it’s a leeeeeeeeeettttttle bit difficult for you to win any races—let alone get the car out onto the track.
And yet, far too often, we’re busily painting windshields when we should be tuning engines, checking the bolts on the racing seats, making sure everything’s safety wired and evaluating the grip vs. life of the rubber compounds on the available tires.
In the first case, we’re focused on a siloed solution to a perceived problem, and in the second case, we’re focused on solving the problems that enable you to win races.
What’s the split of time you spending doing each in your organization?
As you might imagine, I believe that the best way to stay focused on the enabling side of the equation vs. getting lost on the “windshield painting” side is the development and active evolution and expansion of an effective security architecture program. Because I believe that the key to having a truly effective security program is having a truly effective security architecture underneath it.
And it just so happens that TODAY is the LAST DAY for you to join the next cohort of a modern, purpose-built learning experience to help you develop the knowledge and practical skills to do that very thing—build effective security architectures. So much so, in fact, that that’s the name of the course.
If you’ve tried (or are currently) building security architectures, but they’re not quite…
…as fast…
…as easy…
…as useful…
…as agile…
…as business-driven…
…or actually being used to drive the security decisions of your security program and the projects it supports…
…then here’s a solution that might work for you: https://archistry.com/besa.
After hearing about it for nearly two weeks now, I hope you’re not still sitting on the fence, or wondering what you might be able to do with either the $2500 of your own money (if your security skills are self-funded) or the kudos of being able to use that $2500 for either yourself or someone else on your team to get effectively a 2 for 1 deal…
Because the time is ticking away. At 11:59pm US/Eastern, the discount goes away, and it won’t come back. But maybe you’re flush with cash, or you have all the security training budget you need…
…or maybe you think you’ll need to do a bunch more driving from the back seat before you’re “ready” to focus on architecture. I don’t believe that, but if you do, you’re the only one who can make that decision.
Just don’t procrastinate and miss the deadline if you don’t have to. You still have a few more hours.
Stay safe,
ast
—
Andrew S. Townley
Archistry Chief Executive
