97 Things Every Information Security Professional Should Know

Chapter 18. Focus on the What and the Why First, Not the Tool

Christina Morillo

“If All You Have Is a Hammer, Everything Looks like a Nail"

In information security, we tend to focus on tools at the expense of not understanding what these tools are there to accomplish. By doing so, we miss a deeper level of understanding and problem solving because we snap to specific technologies without a clear understanding of the challenges we need to solve.

Years ago, being a technology practitioner meant that you were tool agnostic. While you may have had more experience with one technology or platform over another, the most critical part was understanding what problem implementing a piece of software, a new tool, or technology was there to solve. The industry has become focused more on shiny new tools and implementing these new technologies before identifying problems, business impact, and requirements.

As an information security professional, be intentional about understanding the problem, current processes, and potential impact before purchasing or implementing any new technology/tooling. Deploying the latest and greatest SaaS tool will not solve your organization’s core issues. Look beyond.

Understanding the Problem

InfoSec teams are highly reactive—for a good reason—but this can also be detrimental to a team’s growth. Many InfoSec teams will rush to purchase a best-of-breed tool: ...