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Why plants? Why disabilities? What is going on here and how does this have anything to do with information security?

Plants with disabilities started as a pet project of mine. I am neurodiverse and self-assessed with Autism. We'll come back to these two terms in a bit. For now, I want to focus on why this is named the way it is.

How to care for plants is super frustrating when you come across common advice and it does not work. The example I like to use is the care for begonias and calatheas, which looks something like, "keep pot consistently moist throughout." Consistently moist is not a measurable term. Learning what consistently moist is without over or underwatering your plants can be challenging.

What is this challenge, exactly? For one, I am a person who can be mistakenly described as gullible. While it may seem that way, the better term to use is literal. I can be very literal when first provided with new information. Since I do not want anyone drowning their plants or killing them from thirst, I want to provide the extra information that can make someone successful in living their best plant parent life. Going back to the moist pot description, everything really clicked for me when I read that this should feel like a damp, wringed-out sponge. Not dripping wet, but damp. OK, I want damp to the touch soil, but not a bog patch for non-bog plants. This makes sense to me!

OK, we keep talking plants here. What do disabilities and infosec have to do with your plant advice?

The infosec part of this question is less complicated, so we'll start there first. March 23 & 24, 2022, I attended the SANS Institute's New2Cyber Summit. I met so many amazing people, from so many backgrounds! I was very impressed with how diverse the cast of speakers was, as well. The presenters looked like me and when they did not, they looked like my peers. Representation is fantastic.

Shortly after logging into the summit, getting the temporary Slack set up and getting streams going, I began begrudgingly networking. I hate it, I want to hiss at it, but sometimes I need to just get it over with. One of the first people I connected with was a fellow neurodiverse person. As we chatted, I realized something. I have 5 years experience in information security! I am a mentor now! How scary.

Originally I was stoked to hit the 5 year milestone, as this is the minimum experience requirement for obtaining a CISSP certification. I did not realize that I could help other folks like me. There is a place in this world and in information security for us. I want to make it easier for others to succeed where I have struggled.

And have I struggled! I do not have an official Autism diagnosis, but I do call myself autistic. I am still working on getting over the feeling of imposter syndrome and will more often refer to myself as neurodiverse. Diagnosis, even for Autism, can be a privilege. They cost money and time, which are not always resources available to others. Regardless of a diagnosis, I recognize that general descriptions do not always work.

Like plants, I want to provide resources for my fellow Autistics and neurodiverse individuals, regardless of your diagnosis and how you prefer to label yourself.

Information Security and Autism are a happy combination.

I am a very literal person, which is why I find infosec to be such a great fit for me. Days are filled with figuring out complex puzzles, which is just fuel for the creative parts of my brain. There is a lot of structure and order to information security, but at times it can be a chaotic dumpster fire. I find that the marriage of order and chaos in infosec is a place where I can thrive.

If I thrive, you thrive too. Let's make the world more secure; let's build great things together.