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Are IT Security Professionals Less Happy?
zentanu writes "It's said that if you want to be happy, be a gardener. What about IT security professionals?
Having worked as an IT security consultant for several years, I now wonder if my job has a negative influence on my happiness, because it constantly teaches me to focus on the negative side of life: I always have to think about risks and identify all sorts of things that could go wrong.
As an auditor I search for errors that others have made and haughtily tell them. As a penetration tester I break systems that system engineers and administrators have laboriously built. I assume inside threats and have to be professionally suspicious. The security mindset surely helps me in my job, but is it good for me on the long run? What kind of influence has being an IT security professional had on your general attitude towards life? What helps you stay out of pessimism and cynicism? Is protecting existing things really as good as building new ones?"
This is Slashdot, so my comments won't be popular here: Get a wife or a girlfriend and be *her* penetration tester. You might find a new joy in bringing your work home!
Since when is "find a fuck buddy to be happy" insightful. Not just on Slashdot, but, well, anywhere? If you're happy with so little in life, good for you; my cats are satisfied with the plastic caps from gallons of 2%.
Now, if you can make a fulfilling career out of either of those, come back and let us know.
DATABASE WOW WOW
The funny thing about the "security mindset" common among IT people is that it doesn't even work. IT security managers are like fundamentalist Christians, dividing the world into "bad" and "good" and trying to stamp out all the "bad" stuff. What they should be doing instead is think about harm reduction and communications.
And to the person who is taking the time to moderate this down, you are fucking loser too. Just look at yourself. You're moderating this comment on slashdot. You fucking loser. Fuck you. Nobody goes on slashdot anymore anyway.
Security is a compromise between doing what you want to do and what you need to do. Security is an active decision based on the risks required to complete an action. Security is about locking things down and only allowing minimal access to provide the means to complete the assigned task.
That's utter and complete bullshit. Not only do you fail to make systems secure with that approach, you also keep the business from accomplishing its mission.