We need diversity

[rslade]

Way back when I was in university, a psych prof joked (no, not in Latin, you callow youth) that the two most studied organisms were the Norwegian Grey Rat and the psychology undergraduate student.

We are starting to realize that taking samples from only the most convenient target population may be creating problems for research.  Genetic researchers are starting to note that a lack of diversity in genomics may be causing us to miss out on important discoveries.  Women are much more likely to die of heart attack because of misdiagnosis and the fact that treatments are based on studies done on men.  There are beginning to be strong indications that drug trials on men are often not applicable to women (even allowing for the fact that men's diseases get much more study than women's diseases).

We need to pay attention to diversity in infosec, as well.  Too often we get tunnel vision and miss issues and threats.  And I'm not just talking about having more women and minorities employed in our field, although that's important in terms of both perspective and the psychology of issues such as insider attacks.  In security, possibly more than any other field, we need to look to the biggest of bigger pictures, and think outside the, or any other, box.

[Caute_cautim]

@rslade Well stated.   I agree  Diversity, is needed across the board.  

Regards

Caute_cautim

[JoePete]

---

@rslade wrote:

We need to pay attention to diversity in infosec, as well.  Too often we get tunnel vision and miss issues and threats.  And I'm not just talking about having more women and minorities employed in our field, although that's important in terms of both perspective and the psychology of issues such as insider attacks.

---

With diversity, I think there is a bit of a paradox. If an organization believes it must have a range of people in order to see things from differing perspectives, then it essentially acknowledges that its current culture lacks the creativity and/or open-mindedness to do this on its own. Of course, if it lacks those attributes, then likely no matter how many diverse voices it adds, they won't really be heard. Diversity alone does not ensure empathy. It certainly helps, but the organizations that value different voices don't need ethnicity or gender checkboxes. Those that don't value different voices, likely still won't value them even as the appearance of their workforce changes.