Hunter Storm ™

The Good Anomalies | Noticing the Good After You’ve Spent Your Career Seeing the Bad

Keeping your signal accurate after years of seeing the worst

I spent a long time doing what people in high-friction jobs learn to do: log what matters.

When your work lives close to risk—cybersecurity, incident response, investigations, intelligence, law enforcement, emergency medicine, journalism, crisis work, executive protection, compliance, or any role that routinely touches deception, coercion, and harm—you learn to track patterns the way other people track weather. You don’t do it because you’re pessimistic. You do it because it’s your job to be accurate.

Even just working with the public in service industries can have this effect.

Over time, something subtle happens:

You don’t stop noticing good people. You just… see fewer moments where goodness is obvious enough to log.

That doesn’t mean you’ve become cold. It often means you’ve become experienced.

This is a piece about that reality—without dramatizing it, without handing adversaries anything to grab onto, and without turning it into therapy-speak. Just a clean observation, and a useful way to think about it.

 

---

Who This Article is For

If any of the following describes you, this is for you:

• You work (or worked) in a field where you regularly encounter fraud, abuse, exploitation, manipulation, or violence—directly or through reports, evidence, and incident artifacts.
• You’ve spent years training yourself to detect intent, read context fast, and assume the existence of an edge case.
• You’ve noticed your brain will “auto-scan” situations that other people treat as casual.
• You still appreciate good people… but sometimes you realize you have to work to notice them.
• You don’t want to become cynical, but you also refuse to become naïve.

 

If you don’t work in these fields, this is still for you if you love someone who does. It explains something many professionals don’t talk about out loud because it’s easy to misinterpret.

 

---

A Small Example of a “Good Anomaly”

After a long day helping a friend move, I stopped for coffee. I was parking my motorcycle—a perfectly normal task that can look slightly dramatic when you’re 5’2½” and riding a bigger machine.

Across the lot, another rider on a Kawasaki Concours rolled up, gave a quick whistle to get my attention, and then a simple thumbs-up—you good?

I returned the thumbs-up and a thank you—I’m good.

He nodded and rode off. No lecture. No hovering. No ego. No expectation.

Just a stranger doing a clean, respectful check-in because that’s what decent people do.

That’s what I mean by a good anomaly: a moment of competence and care that appears without fanfare and exits without taking anything.

 

---

Why This Matters | The “Dataset Problem”

If you spend enough years in threat-adjacent work, your lived experience becomes skewed by what you’re exposed to. Not because you’re biased, but because your inputs are biased.

Your “daily data” includes the things most people never see:

• harm disguised as normal
• lies with consequences
• organizations hiding what should be fixed
• people gaming systems
• vulnerability being exploited

 

So, your brain adapts to protect you and improve performance:

• It flags ambiguity.
• It keeps a running mental audit.
• It prioritizes risk detection.
• It treats “unusual” as potentially meaningful.

 

This is not paranoia. It’s calibration. The cost of that calibration is that quiet goodness can become harder to spot—not because it disappears, but because it often arrives in forms that don’t look like “goodness” from a distance. It looks like neutrality. It looks like a stranger minding their own business. Until, sometimes, it doesn’t.

And when it doesn’t—when goodness shows up clearly—you feel it as an anomaly because it contrasts so sharply with the dominant pattern you’ve been tracking.

 

---

The Mistake People Make About You

Here’s the outside-world misunderstanding. People assume that:

• If you’re vigilant, you must be cynical.
• If you’re reserved, you must be cold.
• If you don’t trust easily, you must be broken.

 

That’s not it. In most cases, what’s “broken” isn’t you. It’s not your humanity. It’s simply that trust is no longer a default setting.

Trust becomes something you grant based on behavior, repetition, and clean boundaries. That’s not damage; that’s discernment.

 

---

What “Good People” Often Look Like in the Real World

This is the part I wish more professionals heard earlier:

• Good people are not always warm.
• Good people are not always expressive.
• Good people are not always charming.

 

Often, good people look like:

• Situational awareness without intrusion. They notice, but they don’t insert themselves into your life.
• An offer without a hook. Help is offered, not traded.
• Respect for your competence. They check in without assuming you’re incapable.
• A clean exit. If you say “I’m good,” they accept it and move on.

 

These traits are common in healthy professional cultures and tight communities (including biker culture). They’re also common in people who’ve seen real risk and decided to be decent anyway.

 

---

How to Keep Noticing the Good Without Getting Naïve

This isn’t about “thinking positive.” It’s about keeping your perception accurate.

Here are practical, non-psychobabble steps that don’t require you to become soft, “perform” feelings, or lower your guard.

 

1) Keep two logs: “threat signals” and “stability signals”

If you only track harm, your view of the world becomes statistically warped. A stability signal is something like:

• someone respects a boundary the first time you set it
• someone offers help and doesn’t linger
• someone admits uncertainty instead of bluffing
• someone does the right thing when nobody’s watching

 

You don’t need many of these to rebalance your mental model. You just need to record that they exist.

 

2) Use behavior-based criteria, not vibes

You don’t have to “feel safe” to acknowledge decency. Try this lens:

• Was the action appropriate to context?
• Was there an attempt to extract something?
• Was your autonomy respected?
• Did the interaction end cleanly?

 

If yes, you can log it as positive without romanticizing it.

 

3) Don’t confuse “good” with “familiar”

Some people feel safe because they’re predictable, not because they’re ethical. Goodness often shows up as:

• boring integrity
• no-pressure support
• quiet consistency
• unglamorous respect

 

That can be easy to miss if your nervous system expects drama.

 

4) Practice the “clean receipt”

When someone does something decent, accept it simply.

No overexplaining. No apologizing for receiving help. No suspicious interrogation.

Just: Thanks. I’m good. (or Yes, thank you.)

That’s not weakness. That’s how you keep the channel open for normal human decency.

 

5) Protect your standards, not your cynicism

Standards keep you safe. Cynicism just makes you tired.

A good internal rule is: Be hard to deceive, not hard to reach.

You can maintain boundaries and still remain able to recognize goodness when it appears. Until then, be sure to notice the good anomalies when they come your way.

 

---

Discover More from Hunter Storm

• Conversations With a Ghost | People in High Stakes Roles
• Crisis Leadership | Lessons from the Shadow CISO During the Wells Fargo Sales Practices Scandal
• Empathy in Action | Enhancing Professional Relationships in Technology
• FCFU Framework, TRUCK-FU Framework, and Hunterstorming Protocol (HSP)
• Hunter Storm Official Site
• Impossible Collaboration | Hunter Storm and AI
• The Storm Project | AI, Cybersecurity, Quantum, and the Future of Intelligence
• The Ultimate Guide to Safeguarding Your Identity After a Data Breach

 

---

 

About the Author | Hunter Storm: Technology Executive, Global Thought Leader, Keynote Speaker

 

CISO | Advisory Board Member | Strategic Policy & Intelligence Advisor | SOC Black Ops Team | QED-C TAC Relationship Leader | Systems Architect | Artificial Intelligence (AI), Cybersecurity, Quantum Innovator | Cyber-Physical-Psychological Hybrid Threat Expert | Ultimate Asymmetric Advantage

 

Background

Hunter Storm is a veteran Fortune 100 Chief Information Security Officer (CISO); Advisory Board Member; Strategic Policy and Intelligence Advisor; SOC Black Ops Team Member; QED-C TAC Relationship Leader; Systems Architect; Risk Assessor; Artificial Intelligence (AI), Cybersecurity, Quantum Innovator; Cyber-Physical-Psychological (Cyber-Phys-Psy) Hybrid Threat Expert; and Keynote Speaker with deep expertise in AI, cybersecurity, quantum technologies, and human behavior. Explore more in her Profile and Career Highlights.

Drawing on decades of experience in global Fortune 100 enterprises, including Wells Fargo, Charles Schwab, and American Express; aerospace and high-tech manufacturing leaders such as Alcoa and Special Devices (SDI) / Daicel Safety Systems (DSS); and leading technology services firms such as CompuCom, she guides organizations through complex technical, strategic, and operational challenges.

 

Global Expert and Subject Matter Expert (SME) | AI, Cybersecurity, Quantum, and Strategic Intelligence

Hunter Storm is a globally recognized Subject Matter Expert (SME) in artificial intelligence (AI), cybersecurity, quantum technology, intelligence, strategy, and emerging and disruptive technologies (EDTs) as defined by NATO and other international frameworks.

A recognized SME with top-tier expert networks including GLG (Top 1%), AlphaSights, and Third Bridge, Hunter Storm advises Board Members, CEOs, CTOs, CISOs, Founders, and Senior Executives across technology, finance, and consulting sectors. Her insights have shaped policy, strategy, and high-risk decision-making at the intersection of AI, cybersecurity, quantum technology, and human-technical threat surfaces.

 

Bridging Technical Mastery and Operational Agility

Hunter Storm combines technical mastery with real-world operational resilience in high-stakes environments. She builds and protects systems that often align with defense priorities, but serve critical industries and public infrastructure. She combines first-hand; hands-on; real-world cross-domain expertise in risk assessment, security, and ethical governance; and field-tested theoretical research with a proven track record in high-stakes environments that demand both technical acumen and strategic foresight.

 

Foundational Framework Originator | Hacking Humans: The Ports and Services Model of Social Engineering

Hunter Storm pioneered Hacking Humans | The Ports and Services Model of Social Engineering, introduced and established foundational concepts that have profoundly shaped modern human-centric security disciplines across cybersecurity, intelligence analysis, platform governance, and socio‑technical risk. behavioral security, cognitive defense, human risk modeling, red teaming, social engineering, psychological operations (PsyOps), and biohacking. Hunter Storm introduced system‑level metaphors for human behavior—ports and services, human OSI layers, motivator/state analysis, protocol compatibility, and emotional ports—that now underpin modern approaches to social engineering, human attack surface management, behavioral security, cognitive threat intelligence, and socio‑technical risk. Her original framework continues to inform the practice and theory of cybersecurity today, adopted by governments, enterprises, and global security communities.

 

Projects | Research and Development (R&D) | Frameworks

Hunter Storm is the creator of The Storm Project | AI, Cybersecurity, Quantum, and the Future of Intelligence, the largest AI research initiative in history.

Hunter Storm also pioneered the first global forensic mapping of digital repression architecture, suppression, and censorship through her project Viewpoint Discrimination by Design | The First Global Forensic Mapping of Digital Repression Architecture, monitoring platform accountability and digital suppression worldwide.

 

Achievements and Awards

Hunter Storm is a Mensa member and recipient of the Marquis Who’s Who Lifetime Achievement Award, reflecting her enduring influence on AI, cybersecurity, quantum, technology, strategy, and global security.

She is a distinguished member of the Industry Advisory Board at Texas A&M School of Computer Science, where she advises on curricula and strategic initiatives in AI, cybersecurity, and quantum technology.

Hunter Storm is a trusted contributor to ANSI X9, FS-ISAC, NIST, and QED-C, shaping policy, standards, and strategy at the highest levels.

 

Hunter Storm | The Ultimate Asymmetric Advantage

Hunter Storm is known for solving problems most won’t touch. She combines technical mastery, operational agility, and strategic foresight to protect critical assets and shape the future at the intersection of technology, strategy, and high-risk decision-making.

Hunter Storm reframes human-technical threat surfaces to expose vulnerabilities others miss, delivering the ultimate asymmetric advantage.

Discover Hunter Storm’s full Professional Profile and Career Highlights.

 

Confidential Contact

Contact Hunter Storm for: consultations, engagements, board memberships, leadership roles, policy advisory, legal strategy, expert witness, or unconventional problems that require highly unconventional solutions.

 

 

Securing the Future | AI, Cybersecurity, Quantum computing, innovation, risk management, hybrid threats, security. Hunter Storm (“The Fourth Option”) is here. Let’s get to work.