— And why your SOC might actually need a Bard 🐉⚔️

Cybersecurity teams are often compared to armies, fire brigades, or special forces. Personally? I think they're much closer to a party of heroes in a classic fantasy role-playing game.

No matter how many frameworks, SIEMs, or AI tools we summon, defending a digital kingdom still feels like a campaign full of quests, traps, and boss fights. Each role in cybersecurity resembles an archetype you might find around a gaming table — from the stealthy rogue to the wise cleric or the inspiring bard.

So let’s explore what happens when we look at cybersecurity through that lens — with a little humour, because every good campaign needs laughter between the battles.

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🗡️ Red Team → Rogue

If someone in your security team moves with suspicious quietness, carries too many lockpicks, and smiles every time the badge reader beeps: that’s your Rogue.

They slip through virtual corridors, dodge traps, and pick locks you didn’t even know existed.

Strength: Unmatched agility, creativity, and stealth.

Weakness (in both a classic fantasy role-playing game and cybersecurity): They will never admit that a simple MFA prompt completely ruined their plan.

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🧭 Blue Team / SOC → Ranger

SOC analysts are the rangers standing at the edge of the forest, reading footprints in the mud:

“Someone — or something — was here.”

They see patterns nobody else notices and raise the alarm before the monster hits the village.

Strength: Deep situational awareness, pattern recognition, survival instincts.

Weakness: Like every D&D ranger, they warn the group early… …and nobody listens until the dragon is already eating the cattle.

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🛡️ Incident Response → Paladin

When everything is on fire, and panic spreads across the land, who charges into danger with a glowing sword and a questionable sense of optimism?

Your Paladin — the Incident Responder.

They restore order, contain damage, and bring structure to chaos.

Strength: Discipline, courage, and unshakeable calm.

Weakness: They usually enter the battle 20 minutes late — not because they’re slow, but because the alarm triggered 20 minutes late.

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📜 Security Architect → Wizard

Security Architects are the wizards of the realm: they create magical diagrams, design enchanted barriers, and write ancient scrolls full of runes (also known as “policies”).

Strength: Immense strategic power — if given preparation time.

Weakness: Like a level-20 wizard with one spell slot left, they become almost useless when someone says: “Hey, can you redesign the whole identity architecture by tomorrow?”

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✝️ GRC / Compliance → Cleric

Clerics keep the kingdom safe through rituals, rules, and divine blessings. In cybersecurity, that’s your GRC team.

They interpret the holy scriptures: ISO 27001, NIST, BSI Grundschutz — the scrolls that keep chaos at bay.

Strength: Order, structure, alignment, healing the team after tough raids.

Weakness: Much like classic fantasy role-playing game clerics, they’re rarely useful in actual combat. Policies don’t stop a ransomware gang — but they tell everyone how they should have stopped it.

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🎶 Security Awareness → Bard

Never underestimate the Bard. They don’t swing swords, they don’t cast fireballs. But they change behaviour — and that wins campaigns.

Awareness managers craft stories, metaphors, emotional hooks. They make people stop, think, and avoid clicking the shiny red button.

Strength: Persuasion, culture, narrative, charm.

Weakness: Everyone keeps asking them: “So… do you do real security?”

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⚔️ CISO → Fighter

The Fighter is the most flexible class in D&D — able to lead, defend, strategise, and survive with almost no resources.

That’s precisely why the CISO fits here.

CISOs juggle business alignment, risks, budgets, audits, incidents, board expectations, and new AI challenges… sometimes in the same hour.

Strength: Adaptability. Resilience. Strong leadership.

Weakness: Constantly being asked to defeat a dragon using a “budget sword” found in the basement.

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Your Perfect Cybersecurity Party

Cybersecurity isn’t a solo adventure. It’s a campaign full of monsters, plot twists, questionable loot drops, and the occasional natural 1 on the risk register.

The magic happens when all classes work together:

• The Rogue finds weaknesses.
• The Ranger spots threats.
• The Paladin charges into chaos.
• The Wizard builds protections.
• The Cleric keeps the order.
• The Bard educates the villagers.
• The Fighter leads the kingdom.

It’s messy. It’s unpredictable. But with the right party composition, you stand a fighting chance against the dragons of ransomware, chaos, and shadow IT.

And if nothing else — at least now you know why your SOC absolutely needs a Bard.