The Code of Honor

CHAPTER 2This Is a Human Business

“I will treat all people with dignity and respect.”

– The Cybersecurity Code of Honor

“It isn't what we say or think that defines us, but what we do.”

– Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility, 1811

“Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business…. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!”

– Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol, 1843

Brady grabbed his backpack and hustled through the parking garage toward the elevators. He was running late to get to the office early that Tuesday morning. The line at the coffee shop had been a little slow, and this was going to be a triple espresso kind of morning. He briskly moved through the aisle of cubicles from the elevator toward his chair in the cybersecurity department at the regional financial institution's headquarters to find his co-worker Elizabeth in full-blown panic mode. “I saw your text,” Brady told his co-worker as they immediately went to work. “Well. It's much worse than we thought yesterday,” Elizabeth responded coolly, “I've been fielding nonstop calls since sunrise.”

The two security analysts spotted a possible breach the day before and carefully followed their company's incident response procedures. They were certain the problem was contained until the last few hours when it spiraled into a full-blown corporate crisis. Down the hall in the corner office, Kit, the company chief information security officer (CISO), had broken ...