willing to admit uncertainty. Rather than presenting themselves as experts with all the answers, many had succeeded because they were prepared to say:“ I don’ t know, but I’ ll figure it out.”
She believes that openness is precisely what cybersecurity needs more of.
“ The people doing the work are often the ones who have the most valuable lessons to teach,” she said, arguing that politics, branding and organisational concerns too often silence the people with the greatest practical experience.
During filming, Lewan said she was continually struck by the extraordinary diversity of the contributors. Among them is a former US Secret Service Special Agent who reveals for the first time how he was poisoned while working undercover, a security leader who was on duty at the US Treasury Department during the September 11 terrorist attacks, a former PhD student who abandoned an almost-completed doctorate to establish a nonprofit after witnessing the impact online predators have on children and an expert warning about a cybercrime treaty that has quietly been adopted by more than 70 nations.
Others were helping shape international cybercrime treaties through the United Nations, teaching postgraduate Artificial Intelligence students or leading security programmes for some of the world’ s largest organisations without traditional academic qualifications.
The people doing the work are often the ones who have the most valuable lessons to teach.
Building that level of trust, she said, came from genuine curiosity and empathy.
She laughed that when people ask about her hobbies, her answer is always the same:‘ People’.
Nothing interests her more than sitting down with someone and asking them to explain their world, what they had learned, where they had failed and which mistakes ultimately made them better leaders.
She believes cybersecurity professionals are often misunderstood.
“ They’ re protectors. They’ re defenders. They’ re servants at heart.”
That commitment, she said, was demonstrated by the willingness of all 11 participants to appear in the docuseries without payment, travelling during one of the busiest weeks of the year simply because they wanted others to learn from their experiences.
Among those participants is John Sapp Jr., Field CISO at Chainguard, who previously served as CISO for both an insurance company and a global medical advice organisation before moving into his current customer-facing role.
Sapp said his motivation for taking part was simple.
“ The opportunity to tell the real stories was what inspired me.”
“ What makes the series unique,” she said,“ isn’ t perfect qualifications. It’ s judgement, resilience, persistence and the ability to keep learning.”
Despite encouraging unprecedented openness, Lewan stressed that transparency has limits.
Drawing on her background in investigative journalism, she said the project was built around understanding exactly where the line should be drawn between education and unnecessary disclosure.
For her, the objective was never to reveal sensitive information, but to share the judgement and experience that could better prepare the next generation of security leaders.
While cybersecurity incidents are frequently reported, he believes very few people truly understand what security leaders experience behind closed doors.
The docuseries, he said, offers an opportunity to explain the difficult decisions, pressures and responsibilities that rarely become public.
Sapp also sees cybersecurity as an extension of a lifelong commitment to protecting others.
Coming from a family that included military personnel and a Chief of Police, he said that instinct had always been present, even if his role now involved protecting organisations digitally rather than physically.
26 WWW. INTELLIGENTCISO. COM