(*That LinkedIn post really did spoil it for all of us, didn’t it?)

I’m writing this towards the end of Super Saturday, the final day of the greatest rugby tournament in the world, and with just one match left to play between England and France. Because of vagaries of the way points are earned the final match will decide who is going to win the entire tournament, and it is currently between Ireland and(who just beat Scotland who could have won if they beat Ireland…) and France. If England beat France then Ireland win, and if France beat England then they win. All clear so far?

As you may have gathered from the image above, cybersecurity’s most famous Irishman is therefore supporting England today, and anyone who know Mr Honan will know that he is a regular member of the ABE club. ABE I hear you say? Anyone But England. It’s a small but popular club with members from all of the other nations, so to have a proud Irishman supporting England tonight is both a surprise and a pleasure. (7 – nil to France UGH!)

This may sound like I am complaining about all of the ABE members out there, but also anyone who knows anything about rugby is that actually it is the rugby that is important. Even the most passionate, ardent and patriotic rugby supporter would rather watch a “good” game of rugby between two teams than a game won by their team involving poor play, cheating or just a general bad sportsmanship. Supporting rugby is about just that, it is supporting the game, the play, the ethos, the camaraderie and general improvements of the battle being played on the field. It is one of the reasons why there is no supporter segregation in the rugby grounds or even int he pubs outside. The entire day is a mix of both colour of shirts and lots of drunken hugging, back slapping and general piss-taking. (7 – 5 England score!)

So what does this have to do with Cybersecurity? (14 – 5 to France UGH!) Well, it reminds be of how cybersecurity and organisations deals in secrets all the time, and rightly so. We can’t share IP, we can’t always declare the moment we have an incident, or even declare that we are under attack. (14 – 10 England Score!) However every single cybersecurity professional I know would like nothing more than to share security intelligence with anyone and everyone, even those who may even be in competitive markets to the one that are operating in. (17 – 10 to France. This is painful…)

Why? Because it raises the bar for everyone, makes the dark spaces the criminals operate in harder and more expensive to do so, pushing them away and potentially encouraging them to make better life choices and their Mother’s finally proud of them. (17 – 17 England score and convert!)

(17 – 24 England try and conversion!) This kind of camaraderie, and a desire to see everyone play better, do better, perform better and generally raise the bar for everyone is exactly the spirit that we need across our industry. We will never be able to defend against the massive onslaught from the criminals who are often better funded, motivated and resourced as individuals. We have to group together, aim for the greater good and benefit to everybody and raise the bar for everyone. (17 – 27 England penalty goal!). This is why we “do” security, why we want to get up in the morning, and why we want to collaborate so we can all win against the criminals.

(24 – 27 France penalty try UGH!) It’s halftime, and it has been some of the best rugby I have seen of the entire tournament, and certainly the best that England have played for a long time, and while I know that I am definitely wanting England to win, if nothing else but to save some face from the haters front he last few weeks, the best part is that it has been a great game of rugby between two titans of the game, playing their very best.

And if that means Mr Honan being an honorary Englishman for the evening, I’m here for it.

FULL-TIME UPDATE France 48 – 46 England. Maybe next time Mr Honan.