It was embarrassing.

And the kind of situation where you know in the pit of your stomach, it’s going to cost you something.

It all started when I stopped framing my life that my system is secure and I would be immune to security breaches and incidents. Truthfully, that is the trap itself.

When security becomes routine, sometimes I stop rehearsing scenarios that could happen. And the wake up call itself was actually pretty innocent. I have no ill intention when using a translator and I thought I was seen as equal and I thought I had the right to to make sense of what was happening around me. In my mind, I was simply curious and I genuinely wanted to know what it all meant. But apparently, it was quite a violation.

Typically, I am not a person who acts out of line like that. When in an environment I am not familiar with, I am very guarded and paranoid. I am deliberate about what I expose, carry and document. Again, I am very security minded but my mistake came when I started to feel a little comfortable as they seemed familiar and I stopped applying the same standards, thinking the rules don’t apply.

This is another layer of security that we tend to forget. Just because we assume that we’re close does not mean that rules that we set in stone can be relaxed. Even more so in business. I forgot the rule that they are still a business partner with their own needs and wants.

For someone like me, naturally security conscious, I feel stupid. Writing this out, I wanted to let it out and forget about it then move on. I went through that discomfort and learned my lesson.

So, I hope you can also learn something from my story too. Sometimes when you feel a little too comfortable, it’s time to act carefully and assess the situation once more.