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Erin Kissane

hilarious difference in results obtained from “please wash your hands” vs “how horrible and gross can you make this nice clean washcloth using only the dirt already on your hands”

the actual thing here is that once I re-aligned my ~parenting to actively celebrate our shared goblin nature, everything with my (delightful, super-intense, easily stressed out) kid got so much easier

@kissane Related apocryphal story I love:

People keep touching a piece of antique furniture in historical museum, damaging its delicate upholstery.

Museum ropes it off. People reach over the rope.

Museum adds a sign saying “please do not touch.” No effect.

Museum changes the sign to explain: “Touching this causes damage to valuable historical artifact…finger oils…irreplaceable…etc etc.” No effect.

Museum changes the sign to “Wash hands IMMEDIATELY after touching.” Problem solved.

@kissane if I can find a link in my near-term searching, I'll be sure to share, but I remember hearing a story about a city that wanted to plant more trees. Well, nice trees in freshly broken soil tempted theft. They decided that was a feature not a bug so they kept at it until the whole neighborhood was overwhelmed with stolen trees.

@kissane You just made me realize we have some never-used wash cloths and towels and so on in our cupboard, and whenever it's time to get a clean one they're subconsciously avoided. As if we feel bad about spoiling them or something.

(also, is it just me or do old towels just absorb water better than new ones? Maybe I should put the "new" towels in the washing machine to wear them in or something)

@vanderZwan not just you, new fabrics are generally treated ("finish") in ways that make them look good etc. but make them less absorbent and wash out pretty quickly.

@playinprogress ah, so that's why! Thanks for the info.

Guess I better follow through with that "throw them in the laundry" plan then

@kissane This approach can work for security, but it quickly becomes "the security team that cried wolf" unless used rarely

Instead of "Please implement these security controls", explain "Teams/other companies that didn't implement these controls saw these exploit attempts"

The healthy and sustainable approach is to explain what an attacker would do. "Without these controls, adversaries would get a foothold in our systems through these entry points, and use credential access to move laterally through our systems towards any customer data with broad access control lists"

@kissane I'm open for starting them early on thinking like an attacker!

Try "hey kiddo, if you use the same password on multiple websites, an attacker that breaches one website can more easily get into all of your accounts on other websites"

(Or more simply, "if you reuse a password, a criminal who breaks into one website can use all of your accounts" — but that's much less accurate and IMO too much of a "lie for children" than I'm comfortable with)

@saraislet oh she's a total goblin about the internet, she blew through our blue team basics in like two days and started making fake malware in Logo the week after that

(she's also in on the joke with the washcloth, but it's way more fun so she allows it)

@kissane ... and a wonderful reminder that aligning the same has always been wonderful when we've done it in our house. Thank you :)

@kissane I love it. When my son was around 5, I found that I could get him dressed fastest if I grabbed his clothes and sprinted out of the room while actively fighting him as he tried to get dressed.

@kennypeanuts @kissane I will sure try this tactic. Sounds a lot more fun than just telling them a hundred times they should get dressed...