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| Figure 1: Drew Wade, Security Consultant (Image Source: Drew Wade's LinkedIn Profile) |
I had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Drew Wade when we were both graduate students at the University of Western Ontario (Figure 1). Drew entered the program a year after I started, and we worked alongside each other on our respective bioarchaeological projects. Because both of our research projects fell under the same graduate supervisor and involved mummies (albeit in different parts of the world) our paths crossed frequently. Drew’s research was quite different from my own in that he pursued the cutting edge avenues of technological research that involved computer programming, advanced medical imaging, and more. As a graduate student Drew founded the Mummipedia Project, an online database that brings together images and information about mummies from around the world, and he continues to work with the IMPACT Radiological Mummy Database Project, a multi-institutional research project dedicated to the study of mummies through medical imaging and non-invasive/non-destructive techniques.
After earning his Doctorate Drew bounced around between short term academic positions. He did not like the instability of this work, so he opted to pursue other options based on his previously gained management experience (from his previous work with the Mummipedia and IMPACT Radiological Mummy Database Projects). Through investigating his options Drew discovered he would need more coursework in computer programming, one of his previously realized passions, and he opted to pursue a certificate program in cybersecurity. He quickly recognized how his anthropological background could be utilized to enhance his cybersecurity education and pursuits. By understanding how culture guides and drives human behavior and how cultural changes can and do affect values, beliefs, and subsequently actions he could better understand what drives people to either follow or disregard the rules, particularly when it comes to cybersecurity. He could also more easily communicate that information to computer programmers and business personnel, giving them a better understanding of all of the aspects of the problems they may face and are currently facing.
Drew currently works as a Security Consultant at the NCC Group North America where he uses his anthropological knowledge regularly. In his biographical profile for Prime Earth Ace Advice, he notes that it is not the strengths or weaknesses of the computer systems that matters most but the ability of the human teams who produce, maintain, and update those systems to work effectively and efficiently that is paramount. He uses his anthropological skills to identify the strengths of the team members who work together in producing the best systems, and he maximizes their potentials and works to ensure the communication among team members is clear and precise. He has furthered his training to focus on phishing scams, and here to his anthropological knowledge has aided him greatly. Through symbol recognition and language choices he better understands the success of phishing schemes, and he then turns around and uses that to better educate others on how to not fall for these tricks.
Taken together, the combination of anthropology and cybersecurity allows for Drew to be efficient at his job, becoming a valuable asset to the company he works for. Drew will be speaking to the public about his anthropological and cybersecurity experiences sometime this year. You can learn more about this event and register for free for it by visiting the Prime Earth website.
References
Wade, D. (2021). ACE Advice: A Virtual Chat with Drew Wade. Retrieved from Prime Earth: https://www.prime-earth.org/ace-office-hr-public-registration
5 comments:
Anthropology and cyber security contributed to Drew success in his field of work. Looking into different cultures and examinatioing the materials they use will help contribute to the value of trust through technology. There are many scammers and fraudulent people that source the internet so you have to be careful with who you share your personal information with. You have to be aware of signs and symbols and this is where different human cultures come into play. People need to seek out anything strange or does not look familiar to them because these can be signs of red flags. Security analysts have looked and secured these traps that individuals set in place to help approach ways to avoid them. The data that is being collected that involves anthropology will help to find solutions in the work of cyber security. These antics and tools will help develop ways to secure and protect people that use the internet. Nowadays systems and websites have virtual live assistance and computer agents that are becoming necessary tools to help individuals. Cyber security has to develop and earn the trust of individuals through hard work and through the use of technology. This can be very difficult but in order to be victorious in this line of work you have to understand the way humans think and respond to certain situations.
Cyber security being a great field of work and his anthropology background increasing his knowledge and skills. It’s a very unique situation. Honestly, I’ve never heard of such a combination. He was always good with technology using it to examine mummies without harming the body or the tomb. He did amazing work as an anthropologist but it being an unstable job and he needed a more secure income is very important. I love how he applies his knowledge of anthropology to cyber security. He finds the patterns in which someone will break the rules and basically puts a flashlight on them . He finds a specific one for every company and exploits it. It sounds like he still enjoys his job. Anthropology helping cybersecurity is like the past to future in my mind. The pattern remains the same. People do not change a lot. You have to start somewhere and base off of something. It’s like a banana smoothie. You can blend it as much as you want. It's still banana.
An anthropologist background helped Mr. Drew succeed in his study of cybersecurity. About cybersecurity, it made him understand why most people don’t like following rules. His application of the knowledge he had in anthropology to writing computer commands is amazing. Understanding the flow of events among people and human reactions will help establish maximum privacy of people’s information on the internet.
This was an interesting blog post to learn about Drew and his story. It is cool that his anthropological background contributed to his cybersecurity skills. It is interesting how he found the correlations of how understanding culture guides and drives for human behavior go with understand why people follow or disregard the rules. He also put forth his anthropological skills to identity his team members strengths and further his trainings on phishing scams' is so interesting to learn overall how anthropology can be applied to much more.
-Keira Robinson
Drew's anthropological background has proven to be a valuable asset in his role as a Security Consultant, allowing him to identify and understand complex interpersonal dynamics within teams and analyze and counteract scams through a unique anthropological perspective. This is an interesting fact about the passage.- Brooklyn Blair
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