MentalInCyber preIntro

Hi, all Curious Minds! Don’t worry, I’m not crazy. I’m just writing a book about the relationship between mental health and the cyber world. All this in public. As I think of something related to the topic.

Why would I be authentic to write about this? After all, I am not a psychologist with a doctorate, I am not a social worker. I am neither a lawyer nor an accountant. Just an average IT guy. Who can’t even write properly.

These doubts crossed my mind countless times. In what I write about, I really cannot be a recognized specialist today. But I have some insights that, if I develop them, I might be able to help others. Does it even matter if I’m a professional? Not for me. And you won’t care if your life is even a little bit better.

For now, the title of the book is MentalInCyber, the original idea of which is mental health in cybersecurity. But I found it too long and too restrictive to let my imagination run wild. That’s why I shortened it and it became the #MentalInCyber hashtag. Which is not only shorter, but also gives more room for movement.

History?

Now, I’m thinking about how to introduce why I’m writing about this. During my career, I have worked in countless fields, but what caught my attention was cyber security. I first encountered this area as an entrepreneur when I ran out of space on my demo server. Then, I had the opportunity to create security software that protects millions of websites around the world, but unfortunately, not enough.

What was the problem? It’s hard enough to convince someone not to allow bad code to be installed on a publicly available site. You may be familiar with the saying: “The customer comes first. The customer is always right.” Only a new company policy could help with this. So, I tried to find a place where I could see better solutions.

Thousands of companies spend millions on security. There must be someone among them who has solved a significant part of the problems, right? I must disappoint you, because I couldn’t find one. If we search for security memes, we can see that this only happens when a system has already been breached. And even then, they don’t solve nearly enough problems.

What is the problem with security? First rule, all systems can be broken. Second rule, the base of every system is people. What do they usually conclude from this? All systems can be protected by restricting people because they cannot behave safely.

Is this really so? We humans don’t understand what security is? Can’t we act responsibly because our knowledge is limited? Why is our knowledge limited? Maybe because we struggle with mental problems? Maybe this is preventing us from succeeding in the digital world, is it? Or maybe our digital society itself is causing these problems?

Let’s find out together! And let’s make the internet safer together!