GO PHISH
WE ‘GO PHISHING’ WITH RINKI SETHI, VP AND
CISO, RUBRIK, WHO TELLS US ABOUT HOW
SHE WANTS TO ENCOURAGE DIVERSITY IN THE
CYBERSECURITY INDUSTRY.
What would you describe as your
most memorable achievement in
the cybersecurity industry?
I am extremely passionate about bringing
more women into technology and even
more specifically, cybersecurity. I am so
proud of driving the partnership between
Palo Alto Networks and the Girl Scouts
of the USA to develop the first set of
national cybersecurity badges for grades
K-12. This made cybersecurity education
available to every zip code in the United
States and now girls can not only learn
about how they use technology securely
but they can teach their neighbours,
grandparents and siblings more about
information security. And as a side
benefit we’ll have some of these girls
pursue careers in the cybersecurity
industry in the future.
I am extremely
passionate about
bringing more
women into
technology and even
more specifically
cybersecurity.
What first made you think of a
career in cybersecurity?
I stepped into cybersecurity rather
by accident. I graduated from college
at a bad time in the economy and
companies were not really looking for
new graduates to enter the workforce.
Fortunately, Pacific Gas and Electric was
recruiting from my campus and although
I wasn’t being actively recruited, I went
to the informational session and ended
up talking to one of the hiring managers.
He asked me what my favourite course
was, when I responded that it was
cryptography, he said he had an
information security role that he wanted
me to interview for. I ended up getting
the job and that was the start of my
career in cybersecurity.
What style of management
philosophy do you employ with
your current position?
I think it is important to hire the right team
and then enable them to do their best
work. It is important to develop a strategy
that shows innovation and direct impact
on the business, in order to motivate your
talented employees and be attractive to
a market that is already very difficult to
recruit from. Also, I think it is critical to
build a team that contains individuals
from very different backgrounds. This
encourages the thought that diversity
is necessary to solve the very complex
problems we face in our industry.
What do you think is the current
hot cybersecurity talking point?
A cybersecurity trend we keep hearing
about is the transition to cloud and
ensuring security in cloud environments
– still a new area for many cybersecurity
teams. Ransomware continues to hit
companies hard and therefore ensuring
organisations have protection from
ransomware and are implementing
solid Disaster Recovery and Business
Continuity plans is a hot topic. Also,
difficulty hiring due to the shortage of
talent continues to be something every
www.intelligentciso.com | Issue 25
71