ON THE LIGHTER SIDE OF THINGS , WE

ABOUT LIFE INSIDE AND OUTSIDE THE OFFICE .

What would you describe as your most memorable achievement in the cybersecurity industry ?

The most satisfying thing about working in cybersecurity is helping organisations solve some of their biggest challenges . One memorable challenge was the opportunity to manage cybersecurity for the Super Bowl . While American Football isn ’ t as popular overseas , the Super Bowl is one of the most-watched sporting events in the world . Preparing for something of that scale is like building a startup in and of itself . On game day , you need to defend against thousands of cyberattacks in the span of a few hours . For an event like this , it takes coordination with almost a dozen stakeholder organisations to evaluate and respond to incidents in real-time .

While that was exciting and fulfilling , the achievement I am most proud of is helping to build BlueVoyant ’ s Supply Chain Defence business , which helps organisations reduce their third-party cyber-risks by monitoring for threats and working with third parties to quickly mitigate issues . Thirdparty cyber-risk is a challenge for even the most well-defended enterprises to manage . Building a scalable , effective security solution is tough . I ’ m extremely proud of what the team at BlueVoyant has been able to do in the span of a few years , to help Fortune 50 companies , as well as smaller organisations , reduce significant risks to their operations .

What first made you think of a career in cybersecurity ?

When 9 / 11 happened , I wanted to do something for our country to help . At the time , I had a successful career in banking but decided to apply to the NSA . I was fortunate to be hired and the years I spent in Intelligence morphed into another career iteration in cybersecurity .

What style of management philosophy do you employ in your current position ?

My current team has a wealth of expertise from both the public and private sectors . My role is to encourage , support and empower them to succeed .

What do you think is the current hot cybersecurity talking point ?

I am obviously very close to third-party risk as a cybersecurity issue . Organisations are increasingly interconnected with and dependent upon myriad vendors , partners and customers . All these entities may have access to networks and sensitive data or play a critical part in an organisation ’ s supply chain . Organisations understand this risk , but many still struggle to effectively manage it . Our research shows that 81 % of organisations say they experienced negative impacts from a third-partyrelated cyber breach within the last 12 months . This highlights the significance of the issue for enterprises of all sizes .

81 % of organisations say they experienced negative impacts from a third-partyrelated cyber breach within the last 12 months .

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