“Therefore, the business of waging war lies in carefully studying the designs of the enemy.” -The Art of War, The Nine Kinds of Terrain

Carefully studying the enemy motivations and plans and mindset but also knowing their machinations, technology, techniques, and habits. Every now and then I hear about how evil it is to have “hacking” books that shouldn’t be teaching all the techniques and steps. I don’t buy that and think that we need knowledge and study not only of security, but of insecurity so that we can assess risk and protections properly.

Another aspect of this quote is carefully studying a war in progress so that you can move intelligently. If you have an attacker in your network doing something bad, carefully study them so you know what they want, what defenses they may have already dug in, and be best able to defeat them. Just like a chess game that has developed from the start game into one side moving into an offensive position. Play as many steps ahead as your time and brain allow.