On a freezing Saturday evening, my brain was whirring with talk of awareness – I really don’t know why. I guess I wasn’t actually aware hmmm, I blame the cold.

Then it came to me…ping! One of those light bulb moments (energy efficient of course) that next year Security BSides London has a Rookie Track.

Oooh I thought, I could register my interest but at first I was afraid…I was petrified…er hold on back on track..the Rookie Track. The lovely people at Security BSides London have come up with an awesome idea, to get people up and presenting! They’ve made the presenting time a nice fifteen minutes and best of all if you want you can be allocated a Mentor. Essentially, someone who has been there and done it before to guide you.

Personally I think c’est magnifique!

Why, you ask, well because I’m one those people who has always wanted to present and also be part of the infosec community but didn’t quite have the right avenue to do it. This format presents an opportunity, in a friendly (er…you will be nice right?) environment with fellow infosec people to get up and see if I can actually do it.

I’ve always had a bit of a thing about awareness in that it’s basically really badly done…no one actually takes the time to look at their user base and think hmmm how should we sell the infosec message to them. We label them as the weakest links…er that’s because no one actually told them what to look out for in a way that was engaging.

I think that if we as information security professionals begin to engage with our users a lot better then that’s the first step to gaining their trust. Essentially, what we do is all about communication, so it’s ironic that we can’t communicate our message effectively.

So I’ve registered my interest as Security Awareness: Making Your Staff the STRONGEST Link.

Hmmm now I need to…erm…make it so.