Self-Awareness: One Key to Cybersecurity and Asset Protection
Putting on your own oxygen mask before helping others with theirs.
Self-awareness is the ability to recognize and understand one's own emotions, thoughts, behaviors, strengths, and weaknesses. It is also the ability to reflect on how one's actions and reactions affect oneself and others. Self-awareness is essential for personal and professional growth, as well as for building healthy relationships and effective teams. But self-awareness is also crucial for cybersecurity and asset protection, especially in the digital age. In this article, we will explore how self-awareness can help you and your organization stay safe and secure online, and how you can develop and improve your self-awareness skills.
How self-awareness can improve cybersecurity and asset protection
Cybersecurity is the practice of protecting networks, systems, devices, and data from unauthorized access, use, or damage. Asset protection is the practice of safeguarding valuable resources, such as intellectual property, trade secrets, customer information, and financial assets, from theft, loss, or misuse. Both cybersecurity and asset protection depend on human factors, such as awareness, behavior, and culture, as much as on technical factors, such as software, hardware, and encryption. Therefore, self-awareness is a key component of both cybersecurity and asset protection, as it can help you:
Recognize and avoid phishing, malware, and other common cyber threats that exploit human psychology and emotions, such as curiosity, fear, greed, or urgency.
Follow best practices and policies for using the company's technologies, such as choosing strong passwords, updating software, backing up data, and logging out of accounts.
Report any suspicious or unusual activity, such as unauthorized access, data breach, or identity theft, to the appropriate authorities or departments.
Learn from mistakes and feedback and seek continuous improvement and education on cybersecurity and asset protection topics.
Communicate and collaborate effectively with other employees, managers, and stakeholders on cybersecurity and asset protection issues and initiatives.
How to develop and improve your self-awareness skills
Self-awareness is not a fixed trait that you either have or don't have. It is a skill that you can develop and improve over time, with practice and intention. Here are some tips and strategies to help you enhance your self-awareness skills:
Take personality and behavioral assessments, such as Myers-Briggs, DISC, or StrengthsFinder, to understand your preferences, motivations, and tendencies.
Seek feedback from others, such as peers, mentors, or coaches, on your performance, strengths, and areas for improvement.
Reflect on your experiences, actions, and outcomes, and ask yourself questions, such as: What did I do well? What could I have done better? What did I learn? How did I feel? How did I affect others?
Set goals and track your progress and celebrate your achievements and milestones.
Practice mindfulness and meditation, and pay attention to your thoughts, feelings, and sensations in the present moment.
Seek new challenges and opportunities, and expose yourself to different perspectives, cultures, and experiences.
TLDR
Self-awareness is a vital skill for cybersecurity and asset protection, as it can help you recognize and avoid cyber threats, follow best practices and policies, report and learn from incidents, and communicate and collaborate effectively. Self-awareness is also a skill that you can develop and improve over time, with practice and intention. By enhancing your self-awareness skills, you can not only protect yourself and your organization from cyber risks, but also grow personally and professionally, and help others do the same.