7 areas outside of infosec to study

There's a lot of areas that most of us infosec people like to dabble in that is outside of our required skill set. For example, it seems like every third security person has a set of lock picks and loves to do it. Unless you're a red teamer, admit that it's just a puzzle you like to play with and stop trying to impress us. Here are some areas just outside of infosec that I like it to hone:

1. SEO - Becuz hackers use it to sneak malware into your organization. Information warfare is older school than “cyber warfare”, and information warfare is all about managing perception. Where to start? I recommend my neighbor, Moz

2. Effective communication. That means learning to write well in both email, long form, and to educate. It means being to speak effectively one-on-one, in a meeting, and giving a speech. It means being clear, concise and consistent. It means respecting your audience and establishing rapport. Where to start? I recommend Manager Tools

3. Project Management. Everything we do is a project. We can always be better at doing them. I’ve been managing projects for decades and I’m still not satisfied on how well things are run. I recommend Herding Cats.

4. Programming. I started in programming but rarely do it anymore. We work in technology. We give advice to developers. We work with sysadmins on scripting. We should at least have a good fundamental grasp of programming in a few major flavors: basic automation scripting, web apps, and short executables. I’d say you should at least be able create something useful (beyond Hello World) in PERL, Bash, or PowerShell… plus something in Ruby/Python/Java.

5. Databases. Most of everything is built on on a database. You should at least be able to write queries and understand how tables and indices work. It’s helpful to know a little more than how to do a SQL inject “drop tables” or “Select *”. You don’t need to become a DBA but tinker with SQLite or MySQL. As I level-up on item 4, I find myself doing more and more of number 5. They kinda go together.

6. Psychology. Since we can't solve all our security problems with money (cuz we don't have enough) we have to use influence to get things done. And we have to anticipate how controls will live or die in the real world. A good basic understanding of people beyond treating users as passive objects (or even worset, as rational actors) is required. A good starting place is Dan Ariely's Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions.

7. Behavioral economics (More psychology) If you ever wondered why I have a CISSP, do SSAE-16 audits, and have an office shelf of security awards, it’s because I get visited by a lot of nervous customers and auditors entrusting me with their data. And signaling theory.

Note how almost have the things on my list are human-centric areas… because the people are always the hardest part of the job.