profiling the defenders
Psychological research in the security arena has focused on understanding the attacker, with little work done on understanding the defender. This paper presents a pilot study undertaken to determine if there are trends within the defender community, or if we represent a more diverse group with varying approaches to the problem. We surveyed 76 security professionals, using the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator as a tool to indicate similarities and differences in problem approaches. We find that the security community consists disproportionately of INTJs, and is especially disproportionate in the intuitive end of the intuitive-sensing dichotomy. This is not only in contrast to the general population of the United States, but also to engineers, software engineers and computer scientists (who are predominately ISTJ). We conclude that homogeneity amongst the defenders may not be a good strategy, and that further study be undertaken to determine the extent and effect of this homogeneity.
security mbti psychological assessment