ST. LOUIS, MO (KMOX) - A cybersecurity expert says ego is causing us to lose the war against cyber criminals.
"If we're always posturing and pretending we have it all figured out, we're not going to get the help we need and we're going to stay where we are," Christian Espinosa says awareness of his own shortcomings led to the realization that the cybersecurity industry's biggest failing is the people.
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When his Metro-East based firm Alpine Security was floundering, he says it forced him to re-examine the culture within his company, and the image he was projecting himself.
"It's really getting over the hurdle, the fear, which is ego-driven, thinking you'll look stupid if you admit you don't have it figured out," he says.
Espinosa says he realized his staff at the time were focused on technology and weren't listening to clients.
"In the industry, it's generally accepted that if somebody is highly technical ... it's tolerated that they don't have to be good with people, or they don't have to be a good communicator," Espinosa says.
He rebuilt his company, bringing in people who were good communicators with a drive for solving problems - their technical skills were the last thing he looked at.
He's now sharing his personal and business experiences about how vulnerability leads to growth in a new book called "The Smartest Man in the Room: The Root Cause and New Solution for Cybersecurity"
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