Human Being Quadrants as Collaborative Social Engineers
THE BEING STATES
As part of a deeper InfoSec inquiry, this is a brief article for those who care and have a need to know about a selection of fundamental states in which human beings commonly exist. This is in order to be able to exchange valuable information more effectively and efficiently in the Cyber Security workplace.
- Cognitive deliberate
- Cognitive spontaneous
- Emotional deliberate
- Emotional spontaneous
Some people tend to remain in one state. Some people move between states in confusion and at random. A more developed person transitions between states with respect to themselves and life around them. They correspond and reciprocate with their environment. Hence they might be called stateless.
We are reviewing these states from the point of view of a Cyber Security professional, in my case, as a Web Application Security Tester. Most often, such states are observed as basic experiencial frameworks of common bodily postures at rest: sitting, standing, lying down and walking. Any of these postures may be taken during work hours. The lying down might take place during lunch break, after the meal. In all, the three main centers of human functioning are accounted for: bodily, emotional and intellectual.
During an exchange, such as a conversation in a physical or virtual environment, at any given moment it is significant to observe which of these states one is predominantly in. Next, observe which state the other human is in. Approximately, carefully.
For more clarity in communications, it may be necessary to constantly adjust and fine-tune to the state of the other. If this consciousness communications protocol is in place and both parties are capable of fine-tuning, then it is simply a matter of agreement to remain in a particular state for the function at hand.
Mutual agreement of state is important for the maintenance of energetics during collaboration. Such considerations greatly enhance the bandwidth of an exchange of information which can lead to received knowledge.
The states presented here can be placed into a quadrants diagram:
On a quadrant chart I mostly maintain a near center middle before engagement. However my main work resonates around deliberate cognitive. My best work would sprout from the emotional spontaneous after completing a deliberate cognitive mapping. It’s like creating a resonance field for oneself and then enjoying some play within it, with a selected time frame to journey, and to remain there on a temporary sojourn before reinstating communications at the corresponding quadrant within the organization.
This can be a method of attuning to a natural respect for the current professional state of another person within one’s organization, recognizing that they need to be in that state to fulfill their aims for the day. Such an approach could be taken aftern a consensus on the movement of attention and energy that is acceptable for the mission, team and leadership.
PERSONAL PREFERENCE OF BEING STATES
I work from a balance of the mentioned states based on the function at hand, literally. So I am able to transition and blend. I also interact accordingly with the atmosphere in the most basic ways possible in order to tune into the functions.
For example in order to work at my best within my specialization, I may choose to receive the right corresponding impressions, air and nutrients based on the energy that is necessary for the functions.
Cognitive Deliberate:
This, my published writing. It is my own copy editing and technical wizardry within my Specialization layer. As I say it, “Pressing Enter”.
Cognitive Spontaneous:
This is how I write drafts and is what I value for problem solving and reason for making mental models. It is the process of crystallization, the allowance of formulation. It is attuned learning.
Emotional Deliberate:
Makes life easy, requires time alone.
Emotional Spontaneous:
Most vulnerable, it is an open creative state. Unfortunately in the majority of low-level IT subcultures it is often discarded as “too artistic” and without particular value to the field. Meanwhile this state feels best and healthiest, as it is in a relaxed position of freedom, and ease. It can empower cognitive deliberations for the next round.
FINDING ONE’S CULTURE OF ATTUNEMENT
Within one’s own culture and subcultures, find a way to maintain the flexibility to be able to tune into each of the quadrants. This can greatly assist in understanding other people from other subcultures which may be of value to you and your organization.
As a simple tuning example, if one has the experience to enter certain flavours of the hip hop dimension, then tune into a selection of heavy slow-paced rhythms of “gangsta’ rap” instrumentals for a glimpse of that adult version of the emotional spontaneous state and imagine doing only positive things within that field of energy, a dimension, placed over the security operations dimension. Advance your skills by going to an environment where this music is played and the people are deeply attuned. Music works great for this. Apply this to any any kind of music based on your sense of the local culture. The sound of an atmosphere often resonates within, so you can then return to work ready to communicate accordingly and deliver.
In the next article there will be more about the varying cultures that create mental models connecting human states to multidimensionality in order to better understand security layers.
I believe that maps of such mental models are a significant part of my strengths in the entire field of engagement of an offensive Web Application Security Tester from threat modelling to red teaming. Such mappings allow for a sequence to emerge between states, thus becoming stateless. The cognitive deliberate may bring about a cognitive spontaneous so that the emotional deliberate (choosing to feel at best alignment) can induce the emotional spontaneous, a most sensitive human system functioning. This in turn can refuel the cognitive deliberate.
This is important because in my 25 years of experience as an adult, I can see that the field of Cyber Security is dominated by the cognitive deliberate quadrant trying to secure its own dimension while most of the solutions and frontier data can be found through the other quadrants.
