Categories
Security

Covid fatigue causes careless behavior, endangers online safety

Because it’s not bad enough that we’ve had to shelter in place, shut down businesses, and stay away from friends and families for months. Now we learn that our natural response to this stress — a type of emotional exhaustion medical professionals call Covid fatigue — puts us in danger, too. Great. Might as well give up now.

The above paragraph is a meta example of Covid fatigue… or at least the beginnings of it. The defeatist attitude is a telltale symptom of this type of fatigue, which should not be mistaken for the fatigue that can sometimes be a symptom of Covid-19 infection. Covid fatigue is instead defined as feeling overwhelmed and exhausted by the conditions brought on by the pandemic and the ever-changing list of rules to follow in order to stay safe.

Those with Covid fatigue are less likely to follow basic social protocols for protecting against the virus. And that, unfortunately, spills over into their online habits as well.

For many of you in IT and security, a lightbulb may have already flickered on. Covid fatigue sounds awfully similar to security fatigue or alert fatigue. Indeed, it’s the exact same principle. And if you’re catching on to how emotional fatigue can lead to self-destructive behavior online (like reusing passwords or exercising less caution opening emails, for example), then guess who else knows?

The most successful threat actors study user psychology so their social engineering tactics can be believable. And those threat actors have been clued into Covid fatigue for a while now.

It’s most important, then, that IT and security leaders guide their employees in fighting back against possible online attacks, remembering basic security hygiene, and combatting emotional fatigue. The last item may require help from your people operations teams, but will ultimately lead to a happier, healthier workforce with energy in reserves.

There’s so much uncertainty with this virus, and that contributes to Covid fatigue, too. But if there’s one thing we can be sure about, it’s that battling this pandemic — and the one we’re facing online — is a marathon, not a sprint.

Read on to learn how to cope with Covid fatigue and stay safe online: https://blog.malwarebytes.com/malwarebytes-news/2020/10/how-covid-fatigue-puts-your-physical-and-digital-health-in-jeopardy/

For background on security fatigue: https://blog.malwarebytes.com/101/2017/04/how-to-fight-security-fatigue/

To see what Johns Hopkins recommends for fighting Covid fatigue: https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/coronavirus/how-to-deal-with-coronavirus-burnout-and-pandemic-fatigue

On alert/notification fatigue: https://betanews.com/2020/07/09/security-report-alert-fatigue/

Categories
Entrepreneurship

Why your chief executive should wear a hoodie

In the early days of a startup, once your company achieved scale, the technical founder would step back to be replaced with a “professional chief executive”.

This used to be commonplace; everyone from Cisco to eBay went through the management team merry-go-round.

But the tide is turning and there is a growing acceptance that the guy in the hoodie who wrote the code has a unique set of skills that can translate into business success.

RUTHLESS OBSESSION

First, such people are relentlessly fussy about the quality of their products and services. Show me an engineer who is happy to cut corners and I will show you a liar.

Years spent ruthlessly obsessing about the position of a button instils a strong sense of perfectionism.

In a transient world where customer loyalty is everything, meticulous product development is all. All the marketing money in the world cannot replace a poorly built product or service.

RELENTLESS TINKERING

This leads into the second reason why technical co-founders are valuable: we are never happy to sit still.

In a world where business cycles are shortening all the time, if the guy at the top isn’t a relentless tinkerer, then you will be left behind.

This is something that is increasingly true across the board, not just in the tech industry.

The abundance of “labs” and “innovation centres” in everything from the car to the pharma industry is a sign of this.

A willingness to play around with business models and improve legacy processes, often using technical skills as an instigating factor, is tearing down the walls at companies that have dominated for years.

It’s certainly not an overstatement to say that an engineer with a curious mind can build something that in a few years will be eating everyone’s lunch.

Look at Travis Kalanick at Uber, a software engineer sitting atop a six-year-old company that is rewriting all kinds of markets.

This willingness to experiment is a personality trait hard-wired into technical professionals.

CALCULATED RISK

A calculated approach to evaluating risk – and the associated decision-making – is the third area where a technical background can really help a chief executive.

Years of basing decisions on data and gradually iterating products through analytics removes the emotional response.

With more information available to management teams nowadays, this ingrained problem-solving instinct can make the difference between a successful venture and a costly one.

Of course, it’s not all about perfectly calculated business decisions. I will happily hold my hand up to the fact that there are many areas where those with a non-technical background are absolutely crucial.

Until I figure out how to automate the creative and interpersonal skills required by sales and marketing, for example, I am happy to leave this to a specialist team!

This raises an important point, however. I am a strong believer in the benefits of having a technical co-founder in the top spot, as their innate abilities really make a difference.

But in order to realise this value, it is vital to collaborate closely with those who have complementary skills. Every hoodie needs a suit, each Steve Jobs needs a Steve Wozniak.

Note: This is a byline I wrote for City A.M.

Categories
Security

Why Malwarebytes for Mac

As some of you may have already seen, we released Malwarebytes Anti-Malware for Mac last week. Prior to the release of the new product, I was of the mindset that Macs were not vulnerable to malware. So what changed my mind?

Doug Swanson, my former CTO at Malwarebytes (and current board member!) e-mailed me about a cool product called AdwareMedic he had found over the weekend. Doug’s grandmother’s computer, a Macbook Pro, had fallen victim to a search hijacker that was redirecting any links she clicked to advertising content. He ran AdwareMedic and all was well in the world. Doug insisted I take a look at the software, and his story certainly left me intrigued.

Continue reading “Why Malwarebytes for Mac”
Categories
Security

Poor communication can cost you $52,140.60

Over the weekend, I received several cryptic e-mails from my CFO, Mark Harris, asking if I had approved the wire template for “the wire I had requested.” We were in the process of making a few wire transfers on Monday but I had already approved those and communicated that to him. He repeated the question a few times, but I still didn’t think anything of it. He asked me again in person this morning. That’s when I started to dig in.

Continue reading “Poor communication can cost you ,140.60”
Categories
Entrepreneurship

Best advice I’ve ever been given

“Marry the believers, divorce the naysayers.”

My CFO said that when I first met him; it’s what his previous CEO used to tell him. Get the wrong people off of the bus and keep the right people on. Unfortunately, this advice is hard to follow most of the time.