One of my favorite things to do after work is to sit down and play video games. I’ve enjoyed playing video games ever since my father purchased the first family computer in 1986. Now many years later, high powered video game consoles combined with fast internet connections have made playing video games a truly incredible experience and I believe playing video games helps develop and reinforce the skills that are important in a successful security career. Let’s look at some of the skills required by both video games and security professionals.
Problem Solving
One of the most important skills when playing video games is problem solving. Whether you like first person shooters, role playing games, racing games or any other game, all of them require you to determine how to achieve some sort of objective like getting to the next level or unlocking a secret. The thought processes required to solve riddles and level up in video games are also useful in security.
Problem solving in security is important in every discipline. CISOs need to determine how to best manage risk, while supporting the needs of the business. An incident responder needs problem solving skills to determine the nature of an attack and how to best recover from the incident. Security engineers identify problems, establish requirements and then solve the problem by building the solution. All of these roles (and the rest of the Security Org) need well developed problem solving skills to be successful in their role.
Curiosity
Curiosity is also an important skill in video games. What is in this crate? Where does this path go? How do I open this door? What does this new skill do? Exploring the limits of the game are essential to ultimately beating the game and that is also why curiosity is an fundamental skill for working in security. The security industry is inundated daily with new vulnerabilities, new technologies, new attacks and new methods to defend against them. Persistent curiosity is required to continually advance your knowledge, test the limits, learn new skills and ultimately persevere in protecting the business.
As a CSO, curiosity is an important skill to exercise everyday. Asking questions to understand how regulations will impact your industry, how business processes work, how products function or how customers interact with your business is important to inform your decisions on how to best protect the business and manage risk.
Collaboration and Teamwork
Over the past three decades some of the most popular video games have been multiplayer games that rely on collaboration and teamwork to win. When working in a team you increase your odds of capturing a flag, completing a quest, winning the race or beating the game. Team mates can help you, resupply you and even save your life. Just like in video games, security requires team work and collaboration to be successful.
A CSO needs to collaborate with the rest of the business in order to understand how to best manage risk. CSOs need to understand every part of the business to be successful, incident responders need to work as a team to protect the business, compliance professionals need to work with the business owners to gather evidence and governance teams need to work with the rest of the business to establish processes that are minimally invasive. All of this requires teamwork and collaboration in order to be successful.
Attention To Detail
Video games offer unique challenges and the ability to pay attention to small details is often important to complete quests, solve puzzles or beat a level. Racing games require the ability to absorb small details at incredible speed, sports games require players to pay attention to detail to score a point and strategy games require players to pay attention to small details to beat enemies or unlock new skills. Attention to detail is an important skill when playing video games and it is also an important skill in security because all roles in security require attention to detail, which can be the critical difference in resolving a vulnerability or reducing risk.
Often, the small details make the biggest difference in security. GRC professionals need attention to detail to understand specific regulatory requirements or frameworks and how they apply to specific controls or technologies. Incident response professionals need attention to detail to understand how to respond, how to gather evidence and how to recover. Sometimes, it is the small details that someone notices that lead to an investigation and that investigation leads to an incident. Finally, CSOs need attention to detail to understand how to allocate resources, how to budget appropriately and how threats relate to business risk.
Other Important Skills
In addition to the four skills I’ve described above. Video games and security roles also require a number of other common skills. Here is a short list:
Time Management – Using your time wisely and completing tasks within a specific time period.
Discipline – Setting boundaries for yourself and adhering to them.
Competitiveness – Competing with others, rising to the challenge, conducting yourself with honor and being a good sport.
Perseverance – Never giving up, pushing through and completing the job.
Detachment – The ability to look at problems from different perspectives.
Positivity – Don’t dwell on the losses. Focus on the good and believe in a positive outcome.
Cognitive Performance – The ability to focus, perform well under pressure, react quickly and even get into a state of flow.
Wrapping Up
A successful career in security requires not only focusing on domain specific skills (like GRC, Incident Response, etc.), but also more generalized skills that translate to all aspects of life. I personally enjoy playing video games for the reasons above, but also because of the social component that now exists in games. The ability to share the experience with others or discuss games with co-workers and friends is enjoyable. So, next time you are looking to advance your career don’t forget to work on the softer skills along with the security specific skills required for your job and I hope you will consider video games as a viable way to develop those skills!
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