Building resilient and effective cybersecurity teams: Lessons from the animal kingdom

I was told by a manager early in my career that the primary role of a manager was to hire the best people and then to support them to the best of one's ability. He said this was the most important job of a manager no matter the team – cyber, HR, finance, et. I recall this advice many years later in considering what makes a high-performing team.

After many hires – some good and some not so good – two lessons emerge above all:

1. You can’t always tell who the best team member will be after one, 30-minute meeting
2. A diverse team of unique personalities will typically outperform a homogenous one

So, how does one go about building a highly-functional, highly-effective team? By embracing natural strengths and tendencies to assemble diverse and complementary teams for defending against complex challenges.

Start by considering your environment

In cybersecurity, our mission in principle is clear: to protect, detect, respond to, and prevent threats in an evolving digital landscape. It's all about conveying risk to our organizations and the steps to take for managing it. How we define, organize, and optimize our teams can be the difference between ultimate success and failure. It’s not just about technology—we must leverage the unique personalities, problem-solving approaches, and instinctual behaviors people bring to the table. After all, the team is only as good as the people who make it up. People are, by far, the best sensors a company has. Human intuition has never been rivaled by technology—not even close. 

To illustrate my point, I'd like to veer from the personality types of Briggs Myer or DiSC model in favor of a safari through the animal kingdom. The natural world presents fascinating parallels for thinking differently about building, defending, and attacking relevant to the realm of cybersecurity.

Animals excel by being exceptional at their roles: whether it’s defending their territory, finding creative ways to hunt or survive, or working collaboratively to achieve something bigger than themselves. As cyber leaders, we can learn a lot from these natural traits about how to build—and balance—our teams for better outcomes in protecting our systems, our data, and our entire organizations.

Let’s explore the roles animals use and what they can teach us about cybersecurity. We may uncover some surprising insights on what it takes to craft highly effective teams capable of thinking, acting, and adapting to outmaneuver today’s threats.

Defenders and protectors: Building the blue team

In cybersecurity, blue teams defend territory and protect organizations’ digital assets. This demands collaboration, fortitude, vigilance, and often the ability to detect and adapt to threats. The animal kingdom provides great examples of defenders in action.

Ants: The Collaborative Builders

Ants are remarkable for their teamwork and ability to collectively achieve enormous goals despite lacking a formal “commander.” Each individual plays their respective role in building the anthill, gathering resources, or guarding the colony. Their strength lies in their coordination and shared mission – perhaps many of us were introduced to these facts not by primary school yet by Marvel’s Ant-Man.  

Cyber lesson: A blue team needs strong collaboration and the willingness to rely on one another to achieve goals. Like ants, they may have different skill sets—such as monitoring, incident management, or threat intelligence—but when those skills are integrated, they become greater than the sum of their parts. Moreover, the lack of hierarchy in many ant colonies can inspire autonomy and empowerment for cyber defenders. 

Bees: Organized and fierce protectors

Bees aren’t simply known for being pollinators and honey producers. No, they are also symbolic of discipline and order. Working in hives led by a queen, bees are highly organized and protective. Worker bees tirelessly maintain the hive and collect resources, while guard bees patrol for intruders. When under attack, bees swarm aggressively in numbers, often overwhelming larger enemies.

Cyber lesson: The blue team should mirror the precise organization of a beehive—establishing roles and responsibilities reacting cohesively during an attack. Defensive measures like coordinated incident response require teamwork and rapid execution. Also, bees serve as a reminder that strength lies in collective action: even the strongest attacker can falter in the face of swift, coordinated defense. And no, we won’t address that a bee dies after a single sting and liken that to cyber defenders getting let go after experiencing a single successful breach of their security program. That’s for a future article…

Wolves: Pack defenders who watch each other’s backs

Wolves are renowned for their pack mentalities, loyalty, and ability to watch over one another. They are highly territorial and work together to guard their range, using communication, strategy, and collective strength to fend off invaders. Additionally, they can collectively fell much larger prey—a testament to the pack mentality

Cyber lesson: Blue teamers can learn from wolves to create a culture of trust, loyalty, and communication. When one of us stumbles, the rest of the pack is there for support. Ensuring teammates support each other fosters a stronger, more unified defense. Like wolves, effective cybersecurity teams should share intelligence and cooperate when under pressure, adopting a “strength in numbers” philosophy. We train together and share thoughts, experiences, and the workload. There may be a hierarchy in the pack, yet we’re all part of the same pack. 

Squirrels: Watchful guardians who prepare for the future  

I’m sure this isn’t a top-of-mind example. Yet for those of us who are neurodivergent, far too often we think “squirrel” and our minds fly away... In this case, that may not be a bad thing. Despite being small and comparatively subtle, squirrels are relentless preparers. They store nuts ahead of winter, unwittingly planting trees that grow into vital parts of the ecosystem. Their anticipation of future needs ensures survival. 

Cyber lesson: Blue teams can draw inspiration from squirrels’ proactivity by building robust protective measures like backup systems, anticipatory threat models, and long-term planning for organizational resilience. Or by creating administrative controls such as policies, procedures, and step-by-step guidelines. Being prepared for inevitable cyber winters—from ransomware, DDoS attacks, or sophisticated breaches—is essential for survival. Squirrels teach us to prep for an incident before one happens. 

Crows: Observant and intelligent scouts  

Crows possess sharp intelligence, observational skills, and a knack for problem-solving. They watch predators carefully and respond by alerting their group to danger. They can work together or they can work solo. And, like many technology folks, they can be enamored by all things that glitter or shiny new toys. 

Cyber lesson: Having a team member with heightened situational awareness is invaluable. Whether it's a SOC analyst or a threat intelligence expert watching for indicators of compromise (IoCs)/indicators of attack (IoA), the ability to spot potential issues early can reduce their impact. (I won’t mention how crows have a good memory and can recall who did them wrong and retaliate). 

Attackers and intruders: Profiling the red team

The red team simulates attackers to help organizations identify weaknesses and enhance defenses. In doing so, they embody cunning, persistence, creativity, and sheer audacity—much like predator and scavenger species in the animal kingdom.

Wasps: Precision attackers

Wasps are aggressive predators that excel at targeting bees and other insects. Equipped with sharp stingers and relentless focus (we hire for attitude/mindsets), wasps infiltrate hives to raid resources and destabilize colonies.

Cyber lesson: A red team must have the precision, focus, and audacity of a wasp. Penetration testers or ethical hackers are tasked with breaking into fortified systems and searching for more vulnerabilities, weak spots, or opportunities to access crown jewels and sensitive data. Their intent is to emulate the behavior of malicious attackers to help improve defenses, making the organization stronger and more resilient.

Raccoons: Problem-solving scavengers

Known for their dexterous paws and clever problem-solving, raccoons are excellent infiltrators. They can unlock boxes, open trash cans, and creatively navigate barriers to reach their goals—be it food or shelter. Raccoons are ingenious and persistent, both useful traits for teams. 

Cyber lesson: The resourcefulness of a red teamer matches that of a raccoon. Often working with limited time or opportunities, red teams must think outside the box, bypassing defenses and navigating obstacles to uncover the weakest links in a network. This creativity is critical for identifying exploitable vulnerabilities. Red teams require dogged determination to compromise well-defender networks.

Badgers: Fearless and determined hunters

Honey badgers, in particular, are known for their fearlessness and extraordinary determination. They are unafraid to face larger predators, use brute force when needed, and dig tirelessly to reach their quarry. This has led to plenty of memes out there about how honey badgers just don’t care—they just do. 

Cyber lesson: Ethical hackers with a honey badger-like mentality refuse to give up until they find exploitable weaknesses. Persistence and fearlessness are vital traits for cybersecurity professionals tasked with mimicking adversaries. Red teamers with this instinct can uncover deeper, hidden flaws within a system. This could allow an organization to discover vulnerable aspects of their organization and to mitigate hidden weak spots before an external would-be attacker does. 

Lions and tigers (nope, not bears): Apex predators

Lions and tigers rely on stealth, power, and planning when hunting large prey. Lions often hunt collaboratively, using coordinated tactics, while tigers are solitary and leverage their camouflage and patience to ambush prey at the perfect moment.

Cyber lesson: Red teams function similarly to stealthy apex predators: stalking systems, evaluating weaknesses, and perfectly timing their moves. Pen testers operating in collaborative teams resemble lion prides, while lone hackers leverage a tiger’s solitary focus and precision to exploit vulnerabilities. I liken these two feline predators to external penetration testers who are specialized attackers and excel at the hunt. They are brought in for a specific project and released after a successful hunt. 

Chameleons: Masters of deception and obfuscation

Chameleons are natural masters of disguise, able to change their appearance to blend in. They use their ability to camouflage to deceive predators, blending in seamlessly with their environment to distract or go unnoticed. They don’t go on the offense, on the contrary, they avoid detection and conflict through subversion. 

Cyber lesson: Chameleons teach us about deception, which both blue and red teamers can use through tactics like decoy systems (blue teamers), steganography (red teamers), and social engineering (both). By crafting believable scenarios or manipulating perception, ethical hackers can test the blue team’s ability to detect subtle threats. There is also the reality of security-through-obscurity, where an organization or asset simply isn’t well-known enough to attract predators.

Angler Fish: Luring prey with a trap

The elusive angler fish uses bioluminescent lures to trick smaller fish into coming close, only to devour them in a heartbeat. If you’ve never seen one, just watch Pixar’s Finding Nemo. 

Cyber lesson: Attackers and red teams can use angler fish tactics to emulate phishing attempts or bait traps to test the blue team’s response to suspicious activity. Crafting irresistible “lures” like fake malicious links or deceptive websites is central to testing organizational awareness and resilience. This can be an effective method of security awareness training, so long as it’s done well.

Owls: Silent, all-seeing guardians

Owls are nocturnal hunters that silently observe their surroundings while on the hunt. They attack only after methodically evaluating their environment and use their superior night vision to swoop at unsuspecting prey. 

Cyber lesson: External IR and forensic consultants with owl-like traits thrive in cybersecurity. Staying patient, methodical, and vigilant until striking with precision fits well in roles where there’s a balance of observation and action.

Rivals, collaboration, and the importance of diversity

Nature teaches us that rivalries and competition often drive animals—and humans—to adapt their tactics to achieve success. Predators sharpen their skills by continuously challenging prey, while prey evolve defenses to avoid predation. Similarly in cybersecurity, having red and blue teams function as rival partners enhances the strength of both. Red teams simulate attackers, pushing blue teams to adapt; blue teams enhance defenses, forcing red teams to become more creative and to think further "outside the box."

Continuous evolution of people and programs can also foster collaboration. Wolves working in packs, ants building colonies, and bees maintaining hives all show how distinct skillsets contribute to the success of the collective. Teams with complementary skills and perspectives—including offensive, defensive, and observational mindsets—are stronger together.

Building teams: A new perspective

Diversity is critical for cybersecurity teams. As cyber leaders, our role is to ensure we have individuals with different strengths, instincts, and mindsets. (We should hire for mindsets over skills, since skills can be learned but mindsets are difficult to change.) Some defenders are fiercely protective like bees, while others are collaborators like ants; some are thinkers like squirrels, while others are watchers like crows. Similarly, attackers bring unique qualities like audacity or cunning to achieve their aims

In building the best cybersecurity teams, consider the lessons the animal kingdom provides:  

• Collaborate like ants, wolves, or bees: Build strong, resilient systems through teamwork.  
• Watch and prepare like owls or squirrels: Stay vigilant and anticipate future threats.  
• Attack with precision like wasps, badgers, or raccoons: Be relentless in testing and improving defenses.  
• Distract or deceive like chameleons and angler fish: Stay innovative and creative.  
• Evolve through rivalries: Use internal competition between red and blue teams to sharpen skills.  

By embracing these natural instincts, cyber leaders can craft teams that act and react with the same balance of adaptability, creativity, vigilance, and courage found in the animal kingdom.

So, as you lead your teams, remember: Strength comes from diversity—not only in skills but also in personality and approach. I hope you’ve enjoyed the safari.