resilience – Matt Shannon, Security Pro

The Art of Cyberwar | Part VII | Maneuvering

Chapter VII’s artwork conveys the essence of Sun Tzu’s Maneuvering with clarity and grandeur. A lone commander surveys a vast, unfolding landscape of troops in motion, symbolizing disciplined rhythm rather than frantic pace. The terrain’s natural flow mirrors the movement of cloud-age systems, and the light breaking across the valley evokes strategic awareness dawning before action. It is a rare blend of historical resonance and modern metaphor, a visual philosophy.

Movement After Position

The Principle: “We may take it then that an army without its baggage-train is lost; without provisions it is lost; without bases of supply it is lost.” — Sun Tzu

The Art of Coordinated Movement

A cybersecurity team detects a breach at 2 AM. They have the skills, the tools, and the authority to act. But without coordination, that capability becomes chaos, analysts duplicating work, containment efforts conflicting, and communication breaking down. By dawn, the advantage is gone.

In February 1943, American forces faced German tanks at Kasserine Pass in North Africa. They had the weapons, the numbers, the training. What they lacked was coordination between units and effective air-ground communication. The result? The first major American defeat of WWII was not due to a lack of capability, but to failure to maneuver as a unified force.

Fifteen months later, those same American forces learned the lesson. On June 6, 1944, D-Day coordinated 12 nations, over 7,000 vessels, and 160,000 troops across five beaches in a single operation. Not because they suddenly acquired better weapons, but because they mastered maneuvering. Kasserine Pass taught them that capability without coordination is chaos. Normandy proved that coordination transforms capability into victory.

Eighty years later, the battlefield is digital, but the lesson remains the same.

Sun Tzu called this the difference between movement and maneuvering.

Maneuvering is the discipline of transforming positional advantage into progress without depleting resources. Though movement may appear straightforward (advance, pivot, respond), it demands careful coordination. Without coordination, movement breeds confusion and disorder, undermining any initial advantage.

In Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, there’s a fundamental principle: position before submission. A novice rushes for the choke. A master secures the proper position, seeks control, applies the proper pressure, isolates the arm, and then the finish is there for the taking. The submission becomes inevitable because the position made it so.

Maneuvering works the same way: structured movement from an established position. Not frenetic action. Coordinated, calculated movement in advance.

Whether in military operations, government, or cybersecurity, the true challenge lies in maintaining momentum while preserving balance. Effective teams favor structured, intentional movement, not just speed.

This is the heart of maneuvering: composure, intent, and clarity. Act from principle, not anxiety.

The Maneuvering Decision Matrix

Sun Tzu understood that effective maneuvering requires reading the moment, knowing when to accelerate, when to pause, and when to let the environment dictate pace.

Modern leaders need the same discernment:

When to Accelerate:

The advantage is clear and actionable.
Resources are sufficient.
Team alignment is strong.
Opponent is vulnerable

When to Pause:

Visibility is degraded
Fatigue is setting in across the team.
Purpose has become uncertain.
Information remains incomplete

When to Let Environment Dictate:

The opponent is making mistakes.
Terrain is shifting faster than you can control
Patience offers a strategic advantage.
Reactive movement would expose weakness.

This isn’t indecision. It’s tactical discipline. The fighter who controls tempo controls the outcome.

Tempo and Terrain

In both war and cybersecurity, timing determines outcomes more than sheer speed. When to act matters more than how quickly you act.

Sun Tzu cautioned that armies advancing too rapidly become fatigued, while those moving too slowly forfeit initiative. Balance requires understanding rhythm, discerning when to accelerate, when to pause, and when to let the environment set the pace.

Today, that terrain is digital.

The modern battlefield consists of networks, cloud environments, and global systems. Effective cybersecurity professionals study the digital landscape to move with intent, not to avoid movement altogether.

In the cloud era, terrain isn’t geography, it’s architecture.

Latency, visibility, and complexity shape what’s possible. The most secure organizations extend beyond perimeter defense by developing a comprehensive understanding of their operational landscape. They design systems where quick tactical movements don’t create strategic vulnerabilities.

The Cyber Battlefield: Coordination Over Chaos

In cybersecurity, effective maneuvering means more than quick patching or immediate responses. It requires aligning teams, especially during high-pressure situations.

Incident response represents maneuvering under pressure: containment, communication, and recovery.
Threat intelligence involves maneuvering through uncertainty—transforming fragmented information into actionable insights without prematurely acting on incomplete data.
Automation functions as the logistical backbone, the supply chain supporting frontline operations. When automation fails, even highly skilled analysts face burnout.

Many security operations centers (SOCs) miss this point. Constant urgency and nonstop action may seem productive, but endless motion risks exhaustion and reduced effectiveness.

Authentic maneuvering is characterized by calm, control, deliberation, and focus.

Wing Chun’s centerline theory offers a simple, direct, economical model. SOC analysts don’t need fifty tools—they need the right three, automated properly, with clear escalation paths. Economy of force.
The central point: when your playbook drives decisions, you maneuver. When alerts drive decisions, you react.

Cloud Mobility: The Terrain in Flux

The shift to cloud computing redefined what “maneuvering” means. In the old world, servers stayed put. Now, data, workloads, and identities move across providers, borders, and legal frameworks.

In this environment, organizational strength comes not from rigidly restricting movement, but from orchestrating secure and transparent operations.

Cloud maneuvering looks like:

Workloads shifting across regions without breaking compliance
Data flowing securely through APIs without leaving blind spots
Teams pivoting incident response playbooks across hybrid environments in real time

Cloud environments reward planning for motion. Organizations win by designing for agile, secure movement, not by resisting change.

In 2023, a Fortune 500 company’s cloud migration stalled not because of technical limitations, but because their security team designed for a static perimeter. When workloads needed to shift regions for compliance, every move required manual review.

Organizations that assume static conditions are at a disadvantage.

This aligns with the martial principle of flow: Rigid fighters’ break. Rigid systems break faster.

Foreign Policy and the Cost of Motion

Nations, too, confuse movement with progress. America’s 20th-century record is full of lessons in tempo and fatigue.

But no example better illustrates the danger of resource-driven maneuvering than what led to the attack on Pearl Harbor.

The Pearl Harbor Lesson: When Resources Force Your Hand

Japan’s attack wasn’t born from ambition, it was forced by logistics. The U.S., Britain, and the Dutch enforced the ABCD embargo, cutting off:

Oil
Rice
Steel
Rubber
Machine parts

Japan imported 90% of its oil. Cut off from fuel, it faced two choices: fight or run out of energy and food entirely.

Sun Tzu wrote: “Throw your men into death ground, and they will fight.”

Japan was placed on death ground by resource denial. Their maneuver, the attack itself, was coordinated brilliantly. Six aircraft carriers, 353 aircraft, precise timing across multiple strike waves.

Tactically, it was masterful.

But strategically? Admiral Yamamoto knew: “I fear all we have done is awaken a sleeping giant.”

A lingering question remains: was America truly sleeping? WWI had concluded only 20 years earlier. Before WWII, WWI was considered the deadliest war in human history, earning the moniker “The Great War” for its immense scale and death toll of approximately 20 million lives. Its unprecedented destruction set it apart from previous conflicts. So, America was hardly asleep. Back to Pearl Harbor.

The lesson isn’t about the attack’s execution. It’s about what happens when maneuvering is dictated by desperation rather than position. When resources force your hand, even perfect coordination can’t save you.

Sun Tzu’s calculus applies: survival-driven movement, no matter how well-executed, is still reactive. And reactive maneuvering rarely wins wars.

The United States later encountered similar challenges in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan, where rapid action outpaced strategic learning. Momentum itself became a compelling but hazardous force.

Diplomacy is maneuvering in another realm.

In contrast, contemporary policy frequently equates reaction with strategy, prompting responses to every crisis even when restraint or delay might prove more advantageous.

Sun Tzu’s wisdom cuts through centuries: “If you know neither the terrain nor the season, you march to fatigue, not to victory.”

The Logistics of Cyber Power

For cybersecurity professionals, logistics consists not of physical supplies, but of bandwidth, personnel, and operational clarity.

Sustained operations aren’t feasible if systems are overburdened, personnel remain on constant alert, and every issue is treated as critical.

Good logistics in cyberspace means disciplined prioritization:

Which assets are mission-critical?
Which alerts deserve escalation?
What response cadence prevents burnout?

Sun Tzu would call this “feeding the army.” In today’s language, it’s resource stewardship.

An effective CISO ensures security professionals maintain resilience and don’t become exhausted before adversaries lose their resolve.

The data shows progress. Organizations took an average of 241 days to identify and contain breaches in 2025, down from 287 days in 2021. Not because threats got easier, but because purple-teamers got better at coordinated response. They learned to maneuver.

Maneuvering the Human Factor

The most challenging aspect of coordination isn’t the technical infrastructure; it’s the human element. While individuals contribute creativity, they also introduce unpredictability.

The numbers confirm what practitioners already know: 88% of cybersecurity breaches are caused by human error. Not zero-days. Not sophisticated malware. Human mistakes. The technology isn’t the weak link—the coordination of people using that technology is.

Sun Tzu understood morale as a weapon system. He coordinated hearts and minds before he coordinated units.

The same applies to martial arts and security culture.

In Muay Thai, they call it ring generalship, the fighter who controls space controls pace. The same applies to security teams. Leaders who set tempo, who decide when to press and when to absorb pressure, create the conditions for team effectiveness.
The most effective cybersecurity teams operate like jazz ensembles, distributed but synchronized. Training, communication, and trust are the modern equivalents of morale.

This is modern maneuvering: achieving precision in movement without relying solely on hierarchical control.

The Risk of Endless Marching

Sun Tzu cautioned that armies remaining in the field for extended periods experience internal decline. This phenomenon appears today as burnout, alert fatigue, and continuous red team exercises that fail to produce lasting improvements.

Organizations that never rest eventually turn on themselves. This applies equally to companies and nations.

Movement should support strategic objectives, not substitute for them. Effective leadership requires recognizing when to pause, regroup, and restore organizational strength.

Without periodic rest, strength deteriorates into strain, and resilience devolves into attrition.

The Bridge to Variation

The final lesson of maneuvering emphasizes humility: movement does not constitute mastery; it serves as its test.

Any army, individual, or system that acquires the ability to move must subsequently develop adaptability: the capacity to alter rhythm, diversify tactics, and confound adversaries who anticipate predictability.

Leading us back to the initial principle: “We may take it then that an army without its baggage-train is lost; without provisions it is lost; without bases of supply it is lost.”

Maneuvering determines survival. Variation determines victory.

But first, you must learn to move without falling apart. Master coordination before you attempt improvisation. Secure your supply lines before you advance.

Because, as Sun Tzu understood, an army that moves with discipline can adapt. An army that moves with chaos can only collapse. The next chapter explores variation, but only those who’ve mastered maneuvering will recognize when to use it.

The Art of Cyberwar | Part VI | Weak Points and Strong

matt shannon art of cyberware chapter VI weak points an strong

The principle:
“So in war, the way is to avoid what is strong and to strike at what is weak.”

Strength and Weakness Are Temporary

Sun Tzu emphasized that strength and weakness are dynamic rather than static. Although this principle may seem self-evident, it is often overlooked in practice. Many individuals disregard straightforward strategies, mistakenly believing that complexity is required. This oversight often leads to the violation of previous strategic principles or “lessons learned”, indicating a lack of genuine understanding.

It is essential to recognize that what appears robust today may become fragile in the future, while seemingly vulnerable elements can become decisive with time and increased awareness.

Power, whether military or digital, shifts with context.

The critical factor is not the quantity of resources, but the ability to perceive the entire operational landscape. Vulnerabilities arise not only from an adversary’s strengths, but also from areas where situational awareness is lacking and the speed at which adaptation occurs when new realities emerge.

In contemporary contexts, both nations and security architects often neglect this fundamental principle. There is a tendency to focus on constructing increasingly formidable defenses rather than developing adaptive strategies. Regardless of the scale of these defenses, adversaries require only minor vulnerabilities to compromise their effectiveness. Always remember, your adversaries only need to find a tiny leak in the walls to bring the entire system down.

Predictability: The Modern Weakness

Even the most secure fortresses eventually become familiar terrain for attackers. Cyber adversaries do not rely on brute force; instead, they employ strategic analysis. They examine organizational habits and exploit vulnerabilities such as unpatched servers, unmanaged privileged or service accounts, unchanged passwords, and the susceptibility of executives to social engineering.

Their success depends not on force, but on the predictability of organizational behaviors.

Nations exhibit similar vulnerabilities. Bureaucratic routines solidify into doctrine, which can devolve into dogma. Adversaries exploit these predictable patterns, waiting for repetition before executing successful attacks.

Historical events, such as the Pearl Harbor attack, the September 11 attacks, the Gulf of Tonkin incident, and numerous cyber intrusions, demonstrate that deficiencies in critical thinking, complacency, rigidity, and hubris significantly increase the likelihood of successful surprise attacks.

When Comfort Masquerades as Strength

Many organizations and governments allocate excessive resources to familiar areas, fostering a false sense of security. This environment allows risks to proliferate unnoticed, undermining overall resilience.

Cybersecurity teams often spend millions fortifying infrastructure while leaving users untrained.

Organizations frequently monitor technical metrics while neglecting human behavior. The most significant vulnerabilities often arise from areas presumed to be under adequate management.

System failures are typically attributable not to insufficient funding, but to misaligned priorities.

This pattern is evident at the national level as well. Large militaries and substantial budgets often obscure underlying fragilities, including slow adaptation, reliance on outdated assumptions, unstable alliances, and insufficient strategic foresight regarding emerging forms of conflict.

Historical Lessons of Misguided Strength

The First World War began with nations convinced that industrial might and rigid plans guaranteed victory. Those plans dissolved within months under the weight of modern weapons and static thinking.

During the Vietnam War, a major power misinterpreted its capacity for endurance as a guarantee of superiority. The Viet Cong’s guerrilla tactics transformed conventional advantages into significant liabilities.

Even the rapid success of Operation Desert Storm fostered complacency. Efficiency was mistaken for enduring security, and the perceived triumph was erroneously interpreted as evidence of invincibility.

Each era reaffirms the principle that the most conspicuous assets are not necessarily the most powerful.

Flexibility as True Power

Sun Tzu’s insight was to conceptualize power as dynamic movement. He advocated that a general should emulate water, seeking the path of least resistance and adapting to the terrain.

Within the cyber domain, the operational landscape evolves rapidly, with new threats, actors, and vulnerabilities emerging on a continual basis.

In this context, strength is defined by agility:

Rotate keys and credentials regularly.
Automate but verify.
Decentralize authority so teams can act without waiting for hierarchy.

The most effective defenders are those who demonstrate the greatest adaptability, learning and evolving more rapidly than adversaries can adjust their tactics.

Lao Tzu’s Echo

Lao Tzu put it simply:

“Water overcomes the stone not by strength, but by persistence.”

Endurance surpasses dominance. Properly understood, flexibility is not a sign of weakness but of resilience, characterized by the capacity to absorb disruption and recover to an original state.

In the digital context, resilience is reflected in recovery planning, redundancy, and organizational culture. The true measure of strength is not the infrequency of failure, but the speed of recovery following a compromise.

Turning Weakness Into Insight

All systems possess inherent flaws. Denial of these vulnerabilities allows them to remain concealed until a crisis occurs. Proactive defenders employ audits, red-team exercises, and transparent communication to identify weaknesses at an early stage.

Transparency transforms potential liabilities into opportunities for organizational learning.

Nations could use the same humility.

Public acknowledgment of mistakes enhances credibility, whereas concealment increases risk. The most resilient governments are not those without flaws, but those capable of adapting transparently before their constituents.

From Awareness to Action

Identifying vulnerabilities constitutes only part of the challenge; addressing them effectively demands both discipline and restraint.

In cybersecurity, this approach entails prioritizing remediation over self-congratulation, thorough preparation prior to disclosure, and critical evaluation before taking action.

In policy contexts, this requires deliberate prioritization, engaging only in actions where the anticipated outcomes justify the associated costs.
Misapplied strength can become a source of vulnerability, whereas a thorough understanding of weaknesses can provide strategic foresight.

The Next Step: The Flow of Force

Sun Tzu ends this chapter with motion: the strong shifting to the weak, the weak transforming to the strong.

He implies that awareness must evolve into timing. The wise general aligns his force with the moment, not against it. And that, “All men can see the tactics whereby I conquer, but what none can see is the strategy out of which victory is evolved.”

This concept serves as a transition to the subsequent lesson, which focuses on the dynamics of energy in motion and the strategic management of power with balance and rhythm.

We’ve learned where to stand. Next, we’ll learn how to move. As Master Tzu concludes Chapter VI:

Military tactics are like unto water; for water in its natural course runs away from high places and hastens downwards. Water shapes its course according to the nature of the ground over which it flows; the soldier works out his victory in relation to the foe whom he is facing. Therefore, just as water retains no constant shape, so in warfare there are no constant conditions.

Leading us directly back to this lesson’s seemingly simple principle: “So in war, the way is to avoid what is strong and to strike at what is weak.”

The Art of Cyberwar, Part V | Energy | The Use of Force

the art of cyberwar part V energy and the use of force. matt shannon cloud security.

The principles:
In all fighting, the direct method may be used for joining battle, but indirect methods will be needed in order to secure victory.

Indirect tactics, efficiently applied, are inexhaustible as Heaven and Earth, unending as the flow of rivers and streams; like the sun and moon, they end only to begin anew; like the four seasons, they pass away to return once more.

The Power of Controlled Motion

Sun Tzu’s fifth chapter deals with energy, not as brute strength, but as direct application of force.

He warned that a commander must know when to cultivate and store power and when to release it. Misapplied use of Energy burns itself out. However, when energy is focused, it bends the world to its will.

It’s an idea that translates effortlessly to today’s digital battlefield. Nations, like networks, often fail not because of a lack of capability, but because of a lack of control.

True mastery isn’t in how much force you can deploy. It’s in knowing how little you need to. It’s akin to the idea that, sure, you can kill a fly with a hammer, but is it the most effective tool at your disposal?

The Cost of Unchecked Energy

American Diplomatic and Military History is full of examples of lawmakers mistaking our capacity for clarity.

In Korea, overwhelming U.S. power pushed back North Korean forces, only to overextend toward China’s border and trigger an entirely new front. And thus, we have burdened ourselves with maintaining the “38th parallel” ever since.

In Vietnam, energy became inertia, force applied endlessly without definition, draining political and moral capital alike. If only the “peacemakers” at the Treaty of Versailles had let Ho Chi Minh deliver his speech on the Rights of Man, perhaps there would have been no quagmire in Southeast Asia to begin with. A guerrilla war that would take nearly 60,000 American lives and lead to what became known as the “Vietnam Syndrome.”

In Iraq, “shock and awe” demonstrated that a singular “tactical victory” can be swift, while a strategic victory remains elusive. Notwithstanding the entire list of false pretenses that led to the invasion of Iraq to begin with.

Each conflict began with a belief in momentum and ended with war fatigue. Demonstrating once again, force without direction always collapses under its own weight.

The lesson isn’t that force is wrong; it’s that force, when misapplied and unguided, becomes self-consuming. Power is not infinite. Neither is attention, money, or public trust.

The Cyber Equivalent: Sprawl and Burnout

Organizations repeat these same mistakes in digital form.

A breach occurs, and the reflex is to rush to acquire new tools, policies, and budgets, thereby triggering a cyberwar “surge.”

New dashboards, new alert monitoring, and new vendors lead to a surge in activity, while clarity plummets.

This is cyber energy without strategy, effort disconnected from insight.

As Sun Tzu also said: Amid the turmoil and tumult of battle, there may be seeming disorder and yet no real disorder at all; amid confusion and chaos, your array may be without head or tail, yet it will be proof against defeat.

Teams exhaust themselves chasing incidents instead of patterns. Leaders demand constant escalation, not realizing that perpetual crisis is its own vulnerability.

The result mirrors the national trap: motion is mistaken for genuine progress. The ability to endure is mistaken for endurance.

Energy as Rhythm, Not Frenzy

Sun Tzu described two forms of force:

Normal energy — the steady discipline that sustains the fight.
Extraordinary energy — the precise, unexpected burst that wins it.

In cybersecurity, the equivalent is security posture and precision in the application of policies.

Normal energy is the quiet work of patching, monitoring, and awareness training. Extraordinary energy is the calm, swift, and accurate incident response that turns chaos into closure.

Both are needed. But one cannot exist without the other. A team that never rests has no energy left to strike when it matters most.

It’s the same in martial arts.

In Wing Chun:
Normal energy = quality structure and energy sensitivity.
Extraordinary energy = the skill to deliver a singular, intercepting strike that ends the exchange.

Muay Thai:
Normal energy = footwork, guard, pacing.
Extraordinary energy = the slashing elbow, a stabbing teep, or perfectly placed knee.

BJJ:
Normal training energy = position, pressure, framing.
Extraordinary training energy = the ability to feel a submission triggered by feeling the opponent’s mistake. Or in Mandarin it’s an old idea called Wu Wei, or effortless action. Meaning, I don’t present the opportunity to attack; the enemy presents it to me, like water finding a leak in the dam.

A Security Team that never rests has no energy left for anything extraordinary.

Good CISOs, like good generals, good fighters, and good grapplers, understand rhythm. They know when to conserve strength so that action, when it comes, is clean and effective.

As Master Tzu also knew, “When he utilises combined energy, his fighting men become as it were like unto rolling logs or stones.” Leading to, … “the energy developed by good fighting men is as the momentum of a round stone rolled down a mountain thousands of feet in height. So important is the subject of energy.”

Diplomacy and the Misuse of Force

In diplomacy, the same physics apply. The U.S. has often wielded immense power but uneven patience.

Moments like the Marshall Plan and the Cuban Missile Crisis demonstrated the value of precision, employing limited force, clear objectives, and a proportional response.

But elsewhere, the misapplication of force became diplomatic impotence on full display. Prolonged occupations and open-ended interventions constantly drain strategic reserves of will and trust.

Every drone strike, every unconstitutional data collection program, every new cyber warfare doctrine carries a similar risk: that power’s convenience will overshadow its consequence.

The Taoist counterpoint from Lao Tzu still resonates to this day:

“He who knows when to stop never finds himself in trouble.”

Knowing when not to act is the highest use of force. It’s the difference between control and compulsion.

The Lesson for Cyber Strategy

A strong digital defense isn’t constant action, it’s intelligent action.

Practical translation:

Automate the repeatable.
Escalate only with context.
Protect attention as aggressively as data.
Reserve extraordinary effort for extraordinary situations.

Energy mismanaged becomes sprawl. Energy focused becomes resilience.

It’s never the size of the arsenal. It’s the precision of the response.

Momentum and the Myth of Constant Action

Modern life rewards constant motion, refresh, respond, and reply.
In cybersecurity and foreign policy alike, stillness feels dangerous to the untrained mind.

But strategy lives in the pause between movements. Quality fighting skills are always more effective when you can strike on the half-beat, a fundamental separator on the mats, and on digital and physical battlefields.

Force has a short half-life. When it’s used endlessly, it decays quickly and fades into the ether. When it’s reserved for the right moment, it changes everything.

A breach contained quietly is often a bigger victory than a public takedown.
A crisis de-escalated without violence often preserves more stability than any show of strength.

Knowing When to “Flow With the Go”

As one of the greatest living legends in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Rickson Gracie once said, “In Jiu Jitsu we flow with the go.”

Meaning:

don’t fight force with tension
stay aware but not trapped by focus
stay smooth and adaptive
flow with the opponent’s energy
let well-trained instinct and structure guide you

That metaphor fits the digital era perfectly. The best blue or purple teamers, like the best leaders, don’t fight the current; they learn to read it and swim with it, not against it.

Lao Tzu would say that “the soft overcomes the hard,” not through weakness but adaptability. Force channeled through awareness is stronger than force spent in anger.

In warfare and cybersecurity alike, energy is a currency. Spend it recklessly and you’ll be empty when it matters. Spend it wisely and you’ll be leading on the battlefield.

Final Reflection

Knowing how to use force is knowing its limits.
Sun Tzu and Lao Tzu shared the same truth from opposite angles:
Power must be balanced by patience.
Energy must be stored as much as it is spent.

History punishes those who forget this. So does network and security architecture.

The art isn’t in using force; it’s in knowing when the situation calls for little, none, or overwhelming force.

That’s not mysticism. That’s strategic maintenance. And it’s as accurate in security architecture as it is on the battlefield.

All of these lessons point us directly back to our opening principles: “In all fighting, the direct method may be used for joining battle, but indirect methods will be needed to secure victory.” And, “Indirect tactics, efficiently applied, are inexhaustible as Heaven and Earth, unending as the flow of rivers and streams; like the sun and moon, they end only to begin anew; like the four seasons, they pass away to return once more.

The wise strategist learns to move the same way.

The Art of Cyberwar | Part IV | Tactical Dispositions

the art of cyberwar - tactical dispositions. matt shannon cloud security.

The Principles:
“The good fighters of old first put themselves beyond the possibility of defeat, and then waited for an opportunity of defeating the enemy.”

“Thus it is that in war the victorious strategist only seeks battle after the victory has been secured, whereas he who is destined to be defeated, first fights, and afterwards looks for victory.” —Sun Tzu

Every data breach, foreign conflict, and policy error typically originates from an action taken without adequate prior positioning.

There is a common tendency to conflate activity with progress. Sun Tzu recognized that true invincibility is rooted in defense, while the opportunity for victory depends on the adversary.

In contemporary terms, this concept is referred to as defensive posture: the disciplined practice of preparation prior to visibility.

Defensive Positions

Effective cybersecurity teams secure their positions well in advance of any actual test. They maintain comprehensive awareness of data locations, access privileges, and the criticality of various systems. Such teams implement patches discreetly, monitor systems consistently, and design infrastructures to recover from failures rather than assuming failures will not occur.

That’s tactical disposition:

Enforcing least privilege to build resilience.
Applying timely patching to keep critical systems protected.
Building backups as integrated mechanisms for redundancy and recovery.
Running tabletop exercises to rehearse scenarios that organizations hope never occur.

This often-invisible work may appear inconsequential until it proves essential in critical moments.

When Nations Forget the Same Lesson

Historical evidence indicates that both nations and organizations seldom pause sufficiently to engage in strategic reflection.

Nations often amass extensive arsenals, initiate large-scale programs, and extend supply lines to project strength. However, when strength is dispersed excessively, it transforms into fragility, a phenomenon known as overreach. Overreach fundamentally undermines resilience.

The United States has frequently responded to perceived threats with disproportionate measures, conflating activity with effective strategy and reallocating resources without a long-term perspective. Engagements in wars and alliances often occur more rapidly than preparations for their potential consequences.

The consequences include wasted resources, public fatigue, and strategic exhaustion. All of which contribute to diminished geopolitical and geostrategic self-awareness.

According to Sun Tzu, achieving invincibility does not involve amassing weapons, engaging in unnecessary interventions, or imposing ineffective sanctions. Instead, it requires constructing economic, digital, and diplomatic systems capable of absorbing shocks while maintaining integrity. A resilient nation need not swing at every shadow.

Resource Stewardship

Cybersecurity is frequently perceived as a process of continual escalation, characterized by the addition of more tools, dashboards, and alerts.

However, each new platform introduces additional complexity, which in turn creates new potential attack surfaces.

Effective security practices may require declining adoption of the latest technologies and decommissioning unnecessary systems to simplify complex environments.

As Bruce Lee once said “I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.”

Simplifying operations enables organizations to concentrate on mastering essential tools, particularly when resources are limited. The principles of simplicity, directness, and economy of motion are fundamental to effective practice.

Our government should also learn to exercise the same restraint. Faithful stewardship isn’t constant investment in everything; it’s a deliberate focus on what matters most.

This approach exemplifies strategic minimalism, which emphasizes the optimal utilization of public resources and, ultimately, enriches us all by conserving precious and limited resources.

Similarly, as America’s original Foreign Policy was initially articulated by John Quincy Adams on July 4th, 1821:

[America]…goes not abroad, in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all.

She is the champion and vindicator only of her own.

She will commend the general cause by the countenance of her voice, and the benignant sympathy of her example.

She well knows that by once enlisting under other banners than her own, were they even the banners of foreign independence,

She would involve herself beyond the power of extrication, in all the wars of interest and intrigue, of individual avarice, envy, and ambition, which assume the colors and usurp the standard of freedom.

The fundamental maxims of her policy would insensibly change from liberty to force…
She might become the dictatress of the world. She would be no longer the ruler of her own spirit…

[America’s] glory is not dominion, but liberty. Her march is the march of the mind. She has a spear and a shield: but the motto upon her shield is, Freedom, Independence, Peace. This has been her Declaration: this has been, as far as her necessary intercourse with the rest of mankind would permit, her practice.

This practical wisdom may appear boring. However, organizations and governments alike must identify their assets, maintain them, and protect only what can be effectively defended. Continuous review, revision, and updates are fundamental.

The Cost of Perpetual Readiness

Sun Tzu cautioned that armies maintained in the field for extended periods deplete their own strength. Contemporary parallels include budgets exhausted by perpetual emergencies and professionals experiencing burnout due to continuous false positives.

The solution lies in cultivating a well-developed security posture rather than succumbing to ongoing panic and overreaction.

Organizations should prepare comprehensively, rest intentionally, and engage only when strategically necessary.

This sequence, prioritizing defense before offense and clarity before action, establishes the resilience that many organizations seek.

Learning From Tactical Blindness

Security breaches frequently result from overlooked fundamentals, such as unpatched systems, insufficiently trained users, and unreviewed alerts.

Similarly, the escalation of wars or crises is often attributable to unexamined assumptions.
Both scenarios arise from neglecting the primary principle of tactical disposition: understanding one’s position before determining a course of action.

Modern Application

In cybersecurity: organizations should implement defense-in-depth strategies, automate routine checks, and prioritize cultivating awareness rather than fear. Emphasizing culture over blame.
In governance: it is essential to align objectives with available capacity, critically assess the true cost of each commitment, and recognize that restraint can be the most strategic option.

This parallel represents a recurring pattern rather than a mere metaphor.

Practitioner’s Questions To Ask Yourself:

Am I defending by hope instead of design?
Which tools add noise without adding clarity?
What assumptions have gone unchallenged for too long?
Where has “doing more” replaced “preparing better”?

Final Reflection

While invincibility is not the explicit objective, it is often the understated result of an effective security architecture. Complete protection cannot be guaranteed. However, it can be achieved through patience and persistence. Although this approach may lack glamour, in the ongoing struggle to maintain tactical disposition, it remains essential.

Sun Tzu’s good fighter was never reckless, never idle. He shaped his defenses so well that the enemy’s attacks lost meaning.

Nations and security architects should adopt similar practices. Consistently apply the principles of tactical disposition, exercise prudent stewardship of public resources, and cultivate strength, resilience, and wisdom.

The objective is not to engage in conflict frequently, but to do so only when absolutely necessary. Making it essential to fully understand and apply this story’s principles:

“The good fighters of old first put themselves beyond the possibility of defeat, and then waited for an opportunity of defeating the enemy.”

Multi-Factor Authentication: Boring, Annoying, Essential

In cybersecurity, we get excited about new technologies like AI, zero trust, and quantum encryption. But ask any practitioner what quietly stops the most breaches day to day? It’s still MFA.

Multi-Factor Authentication may not be exciting. It can slow people down and sometimes feels awkward. Even so, it remains one of the best ways to stop credential theft, which is the most common way attackers get into any network.

Why MFA Matters

• Passwords are weak. People reuse them across accounts, attackers buy them on the dark web, and “123456” still shows up in breach data.
• Phishing is effective. Users still click links and enter credentials. MFA blocks stolen passwords from being enough.
• Attacks are automated. Bots hammer login pages at scale. MFA breaks that automation by forcing a second factor.

Despite everything we know, MFA is still the easiest and most effective step in cyber defense. It often makes the difference between stopping an incident and having to respond to one.

The Pushback Problem

When we first rolled out MFA our district, the resistance was loud.

“It’s annoying.”
“It slows us down.”
“We don’t have time for that.”
“Why do I need this if I’m just checking email?”

At first, security changes can feel like a big hassle for everyone, whether you’re a teacher, technician, or leader. But a few seconds of extra effort can save us from days or even weeks of problems.

To make sure everyone accepted MFA, we took our time and built support step by step:

• Continuous staff education. Regular updates explained the “why” behind MFA, not just the “how.”
• Knowledge-base articles gave our help desk a clear playbook, no scrambling when someone was locked out or confused.
• Anticipating questions became part of the rollout strategy. From custodians logging into shared workstations to the superintendent approving district-wide communications, everyone got personalized guidance.

We kept the message clear: MFA is not a burden. It’s part of how we protect our entire staff and precious student PII, and PHI data. We aways have to remain FERPA, COPPA, CIPA, and PPRA compliant.

Over time, the complaints faded. Now, using MFA is second nature. It’s simply part of our routine.

The Fix

• Enforce MFA on all critical systems.
• Use phishing-resistant methods (authenticator apps, hardware keys) and worst-case scenario SMS.
• Train users that a few extra seconds of friction is the cost of resilience.

The Parallel

Using MFA is similar to wrapping your hands before boxing. It might seem tedious when you’re just getting started, but it protects you. If you skip it once, you might be fine, but skip it again, and you risk real trouble.

Security, like weightlifting, CrossFit, martial arts or meal prep it works best when the basics become instinct.

Again, MFA is boring. But, it’s also one of the most powerful shields you have.

The Art of Cyberwar | Part I | The Illusion of Truth

The principle:
All warfare is based on deception. —Sun Tzu

In warfare, there’s a certain irony in how often truth becomes a casualty before the first shot is ever fired. As an American, that line from The Art of War has always carried extra weight. Our history is full of moments when deception wasn’t just a tactic on the battlefield; it was the spark that lit the fuse.

From the smoke and mirrors of the Spanish-American War to the Gulf of Tonkin and the blurred motives of the Gulf Wars and the Global War on Terrorism, we’ve seen how perception shapes permission. Wars don’t always start because one side is stronger; they start because one story feels true enough to believe.

And since “All warfare is based on deception,” Sun Tzu went on to say:

When you’re able to attack, you must appear unable. When using our forces, we must seem inactive. When we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away. When we’re far away, we must make him believe we are nearby.

We must hold out bait to entice the enemy and then crush him. If he is superior in strength, evade him. If your opponent is overconfident in nature, seek to provoke him. Pretend to be weak, so that he may grow arrogant and attack when he otherwise wouldn’t. Attack him where he is unprepared, appear where you are not expected. If he is trying to take rest and recover, give him no rest. If his forces are united, divide them.

The general who loses a battle has made only a few calculations beforehand. Thus, many calculations lead to victory, and making only a few calculations ensures defeat. By paying attention to these points, I can foresee who is likely to win or lose.

Deception as Strategy

The principles articulated by Sun Tzu extend beyond the battlefield to broader strategic contexts. His observations highlight the value of misdirection for leaders and strategists. The objective is not to create disorder, but to control perception and attention. In both conventional warfare and digital security, success frequently depends on understanding the adversary’s perception of reality. This principle underpins the effectiveness and prevalence of social engineering tactics.

Contemporary deception strategies have shifted focus from traditional military maneuvers to achieving information dominance. Modern tools include manipulated narratives, deepfakes, phishing campaigns, propaganda, and misinformation. These methods target cognitive processes rather than physical harm. Once individuals accept misinformation as truth, further manipulation becomes significantly easier. The Committee on Public Information, the United States’ World War I propaganda agency, exemplifies institutionalized information control.

Cybersecurity’s Ethical Deception

In cybersecurity, deception is employed with the intent to enhance defense mechanisms. Techniques such as honeypots attract attackers, sandbox environments facilitate malware analysis, and red team exercises simulate adversarial tactics to maintain robust security postures.

In this context, deception functions as a defensive measure rather than an offensive tool. It is utilized to identify vulnerabilities rather than to exploit them. The underlying principle that can mislead a nation may, when applied ethically, serve to protect it. The distinction lies in the intent: defense and awareness as opposed to manipulation and illusion.

Both approaches depend on psychological insight and require strategic foresight. However, only defensive deception is fundamentally grounded in ethical integrity.

The Martial Mirror

Martial artists understand deception in its purest, most physical form. A feint isn’t a lie, it’s a question. In Wing Chun, they’re called “asking hands.” You draw your opponent’s attention, focus and/or movement one way to reveal where they’re vulnerable. The best fighters aren’t those who hide, but those who read intent faster than it’s shown. It’s why attacks on the halfbeat are so effective. But, that’s a lesson for another time.

Cybersecurity employs similar principles. Confrontation is not always optimal; instead, threats are redirected, absorbed, or neutralized preemptively. The discipline emphasizes anticipating patterns before they fully emerge, rather than merely reacting. This approach is often described as the art of fighting without fighting.

The Modern Maxim

“Deception reveals more than it hides, it shows what we most want others to believe.”

In this context, each act of deception simultaneously reveals underlying motives, strategies, and tactics.

For those responsible for safeguarding systems, individuals, or factual accuracy, the task often begins where clarity diminishes. The primary challenge is not to eliminate deception entirely, but to recognize and understand it without compromising ethical standards.

The initial action in any conflict, whether digital, physical, or psychological, is seldom a direct attack; it is often the creation of a narrative to tell. The essential responsibility is to accurately identify threats based on objective analysis, rather than relying solely on presented information. Illustrating the everlasting importance of learning the principle of this story: All warfare is based on deception.

Forty Point Two

3, 2, 1 get some!

Five weeks ago, I pulled a 41.3-second 250 meter row. Today, I hit 40.2. Just over a second faster.

Most wouldn’t notice the difference, but if you’ve ever chased improvement in anything, lifting, rowing, writing, or career-related, you know what that second really means.

It’s not one test. It’s everything between the test and the retest.

Early mornings. Late nights. Lifting after focusing on a screen all day, securing cloud configs, writing incident reports, and drafting security policies. Endless meetings, collaborating with stakeholders, or staying disciplined enough to meal prep when convenience is whispering your name.

The first test showed where I was. The weeks that followed demonstrated what I was willing to do to get a little bit better every day.

That one second didn’t come from luck. It came from honesty. From taking stock of where my form slipped when fatigue hit, where breathing got shallow, where my leg drive gave too early, and where comfort started whispering, “Hey man, you’ve done enough.”

It came from the same place real growth always hides: the re-tests, not the first runs. Every domain follows the same law: test, learn, refine, retest. That’s how systems harden. That’s how people do, too.

The next time you test something, whether it’s a lift, a sprint, IAM permissions, or a personal limit, remember this: progress rarely looks dramatic as it happens. It might seem minor, but the one second I cut over five weeks shows the value of steady effort. Others might have said, “Hey man, that 41.3 is pretty damn good for a man your age.” For me, that will never be enough.

What “the science” says:

Power output was 673 Watts
VO2 Max is 68.5 ml/kg/min
Faster than 95% of male rowers your age
89% faster than all male rowers

No matter what, 41.3 → 40.2 is proof that attention to detail and small improvements over time are earned, never issued, and that’s the real story.

Strength & Resilience: Why Chaos Is the Real Teacher

henry rollins matt shannon cloud security — The Iron Never Lies — Henry Rollins

High-intensity training is humbling. Fatigue strips away polish and shows where your skills really break down. As the old saying goes, “the iron never lies,” and neither does the clock. Chaos reveals the gaps.

We like to think we’re smooth and calm under pressure, until that pressure arrives. The same principle applies whether you’re under a heavy barbell, in the final round of a sparring session, or defending a network: stress exposes your true level of expertise.

In a breach, system failure, or when your team runs on caffeine and instinct, you see what you practiced well and where things collapse.

Here’s why training under ideal conditions often lets us down, and why we must look beyond comfort:

How to Train for Chaos
* Red-team drills. Simulate unexpected, worst-case attacks, not the ones you anticipate.
* Tabletop exercises. Practice response under a running clock; short timeframes sharpen decisions.
* Fatigue training. Follow the playbook while tired, short-staffed, or distracted because reality won’t wait or be kind.

Training in perfect conditions makes you comfortable, but it doesn’t make you stronger. You build real resilience when things get tough and you keep going anyway. Always strive to step out of your comfort zone.

The goal isn’t perfection but adapting to exposure, building composure, and staying focused when plans collapse.

The Martial Parallel

Sparring isn’t about perfect technique; it’s about applying skills under unpredictable pressure. You rarely win every round, but you improve because chaos clarifies. If you win every round, find new partners! Progress demands resistance.

In cybersecurity, the same holds true. Incidents are sparring. They test you, which can be painful, but they can also be educational. You learn to breathe, recognize patterns more quickly, react decisively, and stay calm when alarms go off.

Real strength isn’t proven in stillness; it’s proven in motion.
Resilience is forged where control slips away.

Training the Body, Training the Mind: Why Security Pros Need Both

When most people think about cybersecurity, they picture glowing screens, rapid typing, “hacking” and maybe a hoodie or two. What they don’t picture is chalk & barbells, sprint intervals, sparring mats or even walking.

But here’s the truth: the body and the mind aren’t separate operating systems. They have a symbiotic relationship. The stronger one becomes, the more resilient the other gets. And in a field like cybersecurity, where pressure is high, hours are unpredictable, and the stakes have real-life impact, that resilience makes all the difference.

Stress Management

No breach ever times itself for your convenience. Alerts fire off at 2 a.m whether youre trying to sleep or not. It doesn’t matter if your judgment is foggy and your nerves are already frayed. Mistakes made in those moments don’t just cost hours, they can cost you and your clients millions.

Physical training is rehearsal for that kind of pressure. Every time you push your heart rate into the red zone, whether it’s during a sprint, a lift, or a round of sparring, you’re training your nervous system to stay sharp and composed. You’ve practiced breathing through discomfort. You’ve felt the panic rising and learned not to flinch.

That calm under physical stress translates directly into composure under digital fire.

Discipline & Consistency

You don’t get strong by lifting once a month. You don’t become a skilled defender by reading one book or passing one certification.

Strength and security are both built on repetition. Small daily habits, squats and deadlifts, daily log reviews, routine key rotations and hardwired discipline.

Discipline isn’t glamorous. Nobody applauds your Tuesday-night study session or your Sunday meal prep. But that quiet consistency is what separates those who dabble from those who attain mastery.

Recovery Matters

Burnout wrecks the mind. Overtraining wrecks the body. And yet in both the gym and SOC, too many people wear exhaustion like a badge of honor.

The best of the best know better. They respect recovery. They take deload weeks. They do their best to sleep 8 hours a night. They understand that stress plus rest equals growth. Without rest, stress is just destruction.

Security pros need the same rhythm. Downtime, sleep, and boundaries. They’re not luxuries, they’re daily essentials. A fried analyst is a liability, not a hero.

Confidence Under Pressure

Just like any APT or other malicious actor, the iron doesn’t care how you feel today. The sparring partner doesn’t care if you’re tired. They test you anyway. No matter how tired you are that day, the weight still weighs the same.

That pressure teaches confidence. You must feel what it’s like to fail a lift, get winded mid-round, or be pushed beyond what you thought you could handle to know that you can. Only then you’ll learn you can stay composed, reset, and respond decisively.

That kind of grounded confidence is exactly what’s needed in the middle of a high-stakes incident response, defending your infrastructure under scrutiny, or having to brief leadership with incomplete information. It’s not bravado, it’s composure forged under fire.

The Long Game

Neither training nor cybersecurity has a finish line. You’re never “done.”

Martial arts teach that a black belt isn’t an end state, it’s proof that you’ve mastered the basics and are ready to start again at a higher level. Security works the same way. Every new CVE, every new framework, every new technology is another layer, not the final one.

The goal isn’t perfection, it’s persistence. The discipline to keep showing up, stacking reps, and sharpening your resilience over time is what it takes.

Closing Thoughts

A strong body fuels a sharp mind. A sharp mind makes a stronger defender. Separate them, and you limit yourself. Train both, and you’ll be prepared for whatever comes your way — whether it’s on the mat, under the bar, or in the middle of a 2 a.m. incident call.

Next up, I’ll dive into practical ways to sharpen your eating habits — how to drop body fat, boost metabolic health, and fuel both physical and mental performance.