Intelligent CISO Issue 01 | Page 82

GO PHISH challenge of the future will be to manage this situation successfully .
One of the most important things to think of is to develop people skills and ensure sufficient communication in your team .

GO PHISH challenge of the future will be to manage this situation successfully .

How do you deal with stress and unwind outside the office ?
Dealing with stress obviously requires one to find a way to unwind . There might be many ways of how people do this , for me the best method is horse riding . I am a passionate horse lover since early childhood , and only learned later that this is not just something I love to do , but it is also of the utmost help in dealing with stress ! When riding a horse , it is essential to entirely concentrate on the horse ; if you are not doing so , in the best case , the exercise will not work ; in the worst case , you might find yourself on the ground without having dismounted . Therefore , time with the horse takes all of my mind entirely off work and that is achieving more than a day of holiday !
What do you currently identify as the major areas of investment in the cybersecurity industry ?
There are so many different and very interesting developments ; the Internet of Things and cloud computing will , from my point of view , play a very influential role in the next years . The impact on the market is far bigger in the longer term ; we are currently only seeing the start of it . Another interesting trend is the analytics that will become necessary to make use of big data ; this challenge needs big answers .
Are there any differences in the way cybersecurity challenges need to be tackled in the different regions ( Middle East , Africa , Europe , Americas )?
The global nature of business means that today , the cyber threats that companies across the world face are essentially the same . That said , the Middle East is nuanced in that many countries have large numbers of expat residents , which introduces diverse cultural elements in the workforce . This in turn adds a large degree of variability to one of the fundamental pillars of cybersecurity : the human factor . This is why I believe organisations in the region need to pay special attention to this when developing their processes and cybersecurity frameworks .

One of the most important things to think of is to develop people skills and ensure sufficient communication in your team .

What changes to your job role have you seen in the last year and how do you see these developing in the next 12 months ?
Technology is changing more and more rapidly , and there are constant challenges which require changing and adapting my job role and responsibility to stay topical with relevant changes . At the same time , I take care not to forget lessons learnt in the past to apply the latest developments in the most beneficial way .
What advice would you offer somebody aspiring to obtain C-level position in the security industry ?
Given the technology focus that a lot of people have who work in security , one of the most important things to think of is to develop people skills and ensure sufficient communication in your team . It is good to be an expert in a particular area , but it is also important to trust your people and develop and empower them in a suitable way . Another important aspect is to remain up to date with all the research and emerging topics in cybersecurity to react to changes in the most beneficial way . u
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