The Perfect Cybersecurity Dream Team: From Analytical Brilliance to Entrepreneurial Vision

By Paul Brucciani, Head of Product Marketing, Cyber Security Advisor , WithSecure™

Dealing with frequent cyber-attack threats, has created a situation where cyber security teams are feeling the burden. In any great team, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, and with cyber security teams under increasing scrutiny, building a team with the right mix of soft skills, business acumen and cyber savviness is imperative.  

What if we could travel back in time and gather some of the most brilliant minds in our history to take on these advanced threats in today’s digital domain? Taking it a step further, what if we could break the barriers between fiction and reality to add some of the most well-known, eccentric characters from the Sci-Fi world to this mix? That would be one spectacular cyber security dream team.

But, with so many eligible candidates to choose from, which individuals and characters would be best suited for this hypothetical collaboration? To explore this question, WithSecure™ ran a Twitter poll recently and asked professionals about their pick of the ‘top 5 cyber dream team’ - including both fictional and real-life characters.  

The cyber security dream team

Effective cyber security is always a collaborative approach. Beyond the advanced solutions and next-gen technology, making security effective and resilient requires a team of skilled individuals. From analytical minds, and technical experts to business acumen, your cyber security team needs to be analytical, technical, business-minded, and as resilient and bold as your security strategy.

When exploring the potential options for this dream team, we thought about the significant skills and abilities that are required for today’s advanced threat landscape. Critical thinking and advanced analytical skills are two of the most significant skillsets that every modern security team requires.

We also require a network and software engineer, who knows the ins and outs of a system to identify its vulnerabilities - a solutions architect who is experienced and proficient in the field of automation – and security leaders who are visionaries and futurists to make sustainable decisions and develop robust security strategists.

Our dream team includes pioneering, real and fictional, individuals from different eras. It includes scientists, a developer and programmer, an eccentric billionaire , and a remarkable crime author.

1. Alan Turing - the dynamic solutions architect

One of the first names that came across our poll was Alan Turing - a genius mathematician and the founder of modern computer science. It’s no surprise that the man who pioneered computing and artificial intelligence would be the first name in any security dream team.

Turing had the fundamental knowledge of how system architectures, algorithms, and logical functioning works in a digital and binary environment. The man was a master logician, evident from his monumental achievement of decoding messages during the Second World War. So, it goes without saying Alan Turing would be a master architect in designing a secured network infrastructure.

2. Tony Stark - an icon of automation and a prolific ethical hacker

From real-world to fiction, the second addition to our dream team is Tony Stark - the iconic Iron Man. Automation and AI are the core fundamental components of modern cyber security - and who knows better about automation than the eccentric genius who invented the Iron Man suit?

Stark would make the perfect ‘solutions architect’ for a security team, who can develop new solutions, as well as optimize existing ones, to make a robust security ecosystem. At the same time, he would make a great ethical hacker – with the help of his advanced AI assistant JARVIS. Afterall, he hacked the secret S.H.I.E.L.D. database in a matter of minutes during the first AVENGERS movie.

3. Linus Torvalds - the master of software

Next, we needed a cyber security engineer - someone who knows the fundamentals of software development, to identify its hidden threats and vulnerabilities. When talking about software, the name Linus Torvalds needs no introduction. After all, he is the iconic software engineer who developed Linux Kernel, the foundational software used in most security forensic activities.

Torvalds has extensive knowledge of Open-Source software, operating systems, and programming languages. Unsurprisingly, he would be the perfect team member you can rely on to identify threats and vulnerabilities of your organization's systems and software.

When a security engineer is highly efficient in scoping out vulnerabilities and patching them, your organization will stay ahead of sophisticated threats like ransomware or zero-day attacks.

4. Nikola Tesla - the visionary CISO

The perfect security dream team wouldn’t be complete without a visionary leader, who can identify problems before they appear and craft sustainable strategies for the long run. No one fits the role better than the controversial ‘father of electronics’, Nikola Tesla.

In terms of skills, Tesla had it all. Inventor, electrical engineer, and mechanical engineer, these are just some of the titles that sit on top of his legendary portfolio. However, Tesla was more widely known as the ‘futurist’ for his ideas and theories that would the course of the world. This is someone you would definitely want in charge of developing your security strategy and framework.

5. Agatha Christie - a pioneer in crime investigation

The final building block of your security dream team would need a proficient investigator. Cybercrimes are rife in today's digitally interconnected world. Threats will always creep in, which means that organizations need an expert investigator and researcher to examine any threats or incidents and provide a precise layout of how events unfolded.

Very few candidates would be a better fit for this role than Agatha Christie – the award-winning detective and crime stories writer. Her pioneering portfolio of crime novels reflect her strong research and problem-solving skills. Several analyses of her novels show that Christie used precise forensic details in her stories, which made fictions appear as more credible and authentic. In fact, her mystery and detective novels were only outsold by the Bible and Shakespeare.

Agatha Christie’s exemplary crime analytical skills, forensic research capabilities, and investigative thinking would be the perfect inclusion to any cybersecurity team. She would also make a robust leader for your research unit.

Conclusion

Unfortunately assembling this cyber security dream team would be beyond reality. However, organizations can still use this theoretical lineup to identify the core skills needed to develop a robust security team. Although these results may seem fanciful, they provide an insight into the real-world requirements for a successful cybercrime team.  Each member has a significant role to play, so keeping that in mind, will help you build or maintain your dream team.