This morning I read yesterdays SANS News Bites (http://www.sans.org/newsletters/newsbites/ retrieved 3/4/2015) and was struck by a comment authored by Stephen Northcutt:  “Every month that goes by I see the similarity of cyber-security and the medical field. Primum non nocere.”  Personally I see more similarities between cyber security and safety, but his point that practicioners of cyber security must primum non nocere is true, and holds up well in the arena of securing industrial control systems too.  As cyber security if often seen as a loss prevention program first, a practicioner’s credibility with decision makers must be strong in order to persuade an organization to tolerate the inconvenience and spend the resources required to achieve the organizations security objectives.  Doing harm is a quick way to destroy credibility.

Moving on, I’d like to record a few latin phrases that I like, and that may prove useful in the day to day life of a controls engineer or a cyber security practicioner.

1.  Primum non nocere – First, do no harm  (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primum_non_nocere retrieved 3/4/2015).  Carried a bit further from the same source:  Another way to state it is that, “given an existing problem, it may be better not to do something, or even to do nothing, than to risk causing more harm than good.”

2.  Este Paratus – Be prepared (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scout_Motto#Motto_in_various_languages retrieved 3/4/2015).  I frequently find this in my work with the Boy Scouts of America.  Robert Baden-Powell explains the meaning more fully as “The Scout Motto is: BE PREPARED which means you are always in a state of readiness in mind and body to do your DUTY.”

And last but certainly not least:

3.  Semper Virilis – Always manly (http://www.artofmanliness.com/2014/06/09/semper-virilis-a-roadmap-to-manhood-in-the-21st-century/ retrieved 3/4/2015).  I have to include this simply because its cool.  I have to read the full article, but at the moment I think that a great deal of this concept can be summed up by this quote from the same source: “Some say that only a sucker would try to be his best when it isn’t required of him, when you can get ahead by simply getting by. That trying to be a man these days will simply get you taken advantage of by a system that no longer appreciates the effort.”

In closing I leave with a quote that isn’t in Latin, yet.  There is a rock that sits on my desk which bears a quote ascribed to George S. Patton.  “If a man does his best what else is there?”  Someday I’ll find the Latin.