I grew up watching professional football back in the 70s, when defenses were so good they had their own nicknames. The Pittsburgh Steelers had the “Steel Curtain,” the Miami Dolphins had the “No-Name Defense” and the Dallas Cowboys had the “Doomsday Defense.” The Cowboys’ defense was based on a newfangled concept called the flex defense, which their coach, Tom Landry, introduced in 1964 and the team perfected over the next decade.
The flex defense used gap assignments to define player’s roles and relied on reading “keys” to determine what the offense was likely going to do. Players trusted each other to mind their gap, and each learned to read and react to the keys that would predict what was to come and were trained to continually read changes and alter the plan of attack as the play unfolded.
The Role of Security in Business Flexibility
Flexibility in business, like business continuity planning, is a core competency. Much like the Cowboys’ flex defense, information security teams can amplify this competency by creating a trusted foundation that generates goodwill and engenders confidence, and by continually sharpening their risk management skills so the…
