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# Pain of staying the same > Pain of change = Change
- URL: https://cje.io/2016/03/22/pain-of-staying-the-same-pain-of-change/
- Published: 2016-03-22T04:52:41.000Z
- Updated: 2025-07-08T00:41:11.000Z
- Description: Cybersecurity has long been a challenge lead from the top down, but as heat increases in the consumer market and hacking becomes dinner-table conversation at non-geek dinner-tables, I wonder...
- Author: Casey Ellis
- Tags: Security, leadership, Hot Takes, Thinking

**2013: Awareness** — Snowden educates the masses that hacking “is a real thing”.

**2014: Relevance** — 60% of the credit-card carrying population of the United States has their card replaced at least once because of cardholder data theft.

**2015: Pain** — Ashley Madison results in the first widely known cases of suicide directly resulting from cybercrime, and attacker attention turns to digital assets that cannot be insured.

**2016… Change?**

A good friend and mentor of mine had a saying:

> “Once, and only once, the pain of staying the same exceeds the pain of change — that’s when people change”.

Cybersecurity has long been a challenge lead from the top down, but as heat increases in the consumer market and hacking becomes dinner-table conversation at non-geek dinner-tables, I wonder if this will be the year where cybersecurity can finally, and rightfully, become a conversation that’s driven bottom up?