This is a special replay of a session held at the SecureWorld Charlotte conference and the SecureWorld Healthcare virtual event this spring. This is an important topic that needs to have more light shown on it within the field of cybersecurity. Enjoy the presentation.
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Neurodiversity. What is it, what are the traits, and why are people with these traits attracted to the cybersecurity fields?
Rick Doten has managed technical cybersecurity staff for more than 25 years. He's observed how we have special skills and abilities to perform the work we do; things like identifying patterns, spotting anomalies, learning new information quickly, troubleshooting, and being able to hyperfocus on a tasks until they're resolved. Rick highlights how some traits help you naturally be good at some cybersecurity roles.
This has been a special interest of Rick's for the last couple years, and he have taken dozens of hours of clinical training to become a certified clinical specialist in Autism and ADHD. He discusses topics such as executive functions, which are the cognitive skills that regulate emotions, impulse control, attention, time management and others, how to manage focus and distractions, and what motivates people.
He'll talk about accommodating these executive functions, how to better gain motivation and focus, and even how people with neurodiversity can be better in interviews.
Rick provides techniques, tools, and even apps to help people with neurodiversity be more productive and successful. He lists apps and life hacks to help initiate tasks, manage time, working memory, and reduce procrastination.
Rick's goal is to celebrate how it's okay that we are different, because the cybersecurity community is a tribe of neurodivergent people who accept, support, and encourage each other.