It was great to be invited to the SASIG workshop on ‘The role and career of the CISO’, an impressive and highly attended event held at the Colt Technology Services building in Shoreditch yesterday! (11th June) Many thanks to the fantastic line-up of speakers, the Chair John Madelin for being an informative Chairperson, and SASIG for organising this event.
The day started with a brilliant address from TS Narayanan, Chief Information Officer at Colt Technology Services, talking about the subject of ‘CIO challenges for 2019 and later; beyond digital’. Nick Warner, COO of SentinelOne, followed with an informative talk on ‘How to define the CISO’s role in order to drive success’ outlining the key strategies to drive achievement such as learning, communication and leadership.
The interactive panel of esteemed speakers discussing 'Benchmarking the CISO' with speakers: Alain Bouille, Robert Coles, Helen Vowls and Martin Smith where together, SASIG and LE Cesin are proposing a joint study of our two communities, considering and comparing the role of the CISO. This was later followed by a talk by Carol Brooks on ‘Future Proofing the Workforce’ exploring the idea of using workforce planning to future proof the CISO workforce and identify key skill gaps that will be needed going forward.
5 key things I took away from today were:
· Cybersecurity is top of the investment stack and becoming almost mandatory for CEO’s and boards of companies
· The internal approval time needed to launch new innovative technologies is the reason for the lengthy roll-out times, rather than the actual integrations of the technology.
· The CIO, CSO and HR’s leaders play a crucial role fostering cross-functional capabilities in companies given their unique view of the organisation.
· Building skills and talent within the organisation is absolutely critical to not only address the vulnerabilities that are ever increasing, but help with recruitment pressures.
· Business agility needs are increasing the pressure to move the CISO and the security team from ‘Dr. No’ to Dr. Know’. CISOs cannot inhibit business growth and innovation.
Regrettably I did not have time to see the later speakers of the day such as the Head of Enterprise at Tessian, Ben Miller talking on ‘Taking your colleagues with you’, the panel session on ‘Maintaining a healthy work/life balance for CISOs and their teams’ and a talk on the ‘First aid guide to establishing a healthier work/life balance’ by Pippa Seed, MHFA National Instructor. Eagerly anticipating the next SASIG event...