CISOs are grouped together because of their technical and security skills but each of them takes a unique path to their position. Kirsten Davies, the SVP and CISO at the Estee Lauder Companies, might just have one of the most uncommon journeys if not the longest. In her early years she was interested in music,…
George LLano has seen much in computing over recent decades. The Chief Information Security Officer at Deluxe Entertainment Services Group of Burbank, Ca. has intimate knowledge of hardware and software and has closely observed the evolving role of CISOs. “It is important to be able to navigate between the business needs and technology to meet…
Les McCollum is a firm believer in leading by example and he has applied this perspective ever since he taught himself to program on an Apple IIc as a kid. “I have been very intentional about my career and development,” said McCollum. “I learned each vertical within technology to ensure that I understood the technical…
Operating a small or medium sized business is hard enough without the burden of dealing with cyber security. As it turns out, the majority of small and medium sized business (SMB) leaders don’t believe that they have much to fear from cyber threats. A survey by Switchfast Technologies reported that 51% of SMB leaders are…
Lakshmi Hanspal, a seasoned security professional and presently the Global Chief Security Officer at Box, is willing to challenge herself which is why she is training to run a marathon this summer. The difficulty doesn’t just come from the physical requirement but also requires an adjustment to her mindset. “My coach was saying when going…
In the age of fake news, disinformation campaigns are about to get more sophisticated. It’s a pain point that has been plaguing social media platforms the last few years, but with advances in technology, Mike Kelley, CISO of The E.W. Scripps Company, believes it can only get worse. The firm is one of the US’…
A constantly developing story A CISO is, first and foremost, a storyteller, says Dave Ruedger, CISO of Risk Management Solutions Inc., a catastrophe risk modeling company that helps financial institutions and public agencies understand, quantify and manage risk. “Many security professionals may think our job is about data – presenting statistics, graphs and charts and…
For Fred Kwong, hands-on experience and formal education went hand in hand in shaping the kind of CISO he has become. He first discovered he genuinely liked interacting with people and helping them with their concerns when he lost interest in his computer science degree and took a helpdesk support job instead. “I helped our…
Cyber security leader Marcos Marrero is a great believer in mentoring a new generation of cyber professionals. That’s how he started in the business, and that’s how he develops his team at H.I.G. Capital where he heads security as the Global Director of Information Security. “I’ve hired information security analysts straight from the technology department. They know the technology…
For Selim Aissi, it is important to have a mix of industry, real-world security experience, along with the innate ability to deal with most critical security incidents both at the execution-level as well as within the leadership and board of director ranks, to be an effective cybersecurity leader. As a company executive, the CSO should…
