Robert Dougherty
Director of Communications, Accellion
Strategic communications professional with expertise in crafting targeted, compelling content that drives awareness and elevates an organization’s brand.
All Posts by Robert Dougherty
Is There Anything a CISO Can’t Do?
For employees lucky enough to work from home during COVID-19, the pandemic’s impact on work and work culture cannot be overstated. At home workers now function in an environment devoid of the perks they took for granted, like social interaction, commercial broadband, conference rooms. Inevitably, CISOs took for granted perks like corporate networks, firewalls, and authorized devices and applications.
Do CISOs Have Hoop Dreams When Talking to Their Teams?
The best CISOs are expert communicators. They articulate their strategy efficiently and effectively, and they tailor it for each stakeholder audience. In this regard a CISO is a lot like a professional basketball coach. A basketball coach communicates differently to players, coaches and owners. With players, the coach communicates the importance of fundamentals and preparation for the next game.
Avoid These WFH Pitfalls
By now, we have all acclimated to a work from home world. Benefits like free dress, more family meals, and no commute far exceed the disadvantages. Hackers bet on the employee who works with his feet up has probably let his guard down. Reliance on home networks, connected personal devices, and VPN connections put PII, PHI, and IP at great risk. Cyber attacks including phishing, business email compromise, and credential stuffing have therefore increased significantly since the quarantine began.
Instead of Asking a CISO ‘What Keeps You Up at Night,’ Ask This
a CISO has never been asked “what keeps you up at night,” either no one knows he’s a CISO or everyone knows he’s a lousy CISO and doesn’t bother asking. Ideally, a CISO has the right programs, processes, and people in place so that he can sleep at night. This is every CISO’s goal. Once the fundamentals have been addressed and everyone in the organization knows what to do, how to do it, and when to do it, the CISO can prepare for tomorrow rather than worry about today. Then the pressing question asked of CISOs becomes not “what keeps you up at night,” but instead “what gets you out of bed every morning.” This new question represents a new mindset.
You May Never Become a CISO Unless You Learn This Vital Skill
There’s much more to the CISO role than technology expertise. For some CISO roles, technology expertise is just the price of admission. For others, technology expertise is viewed as a limitation and therefore relegated to direct reports. There is vast ecosystem of cybersecurity solutions and it’s possible (although not practical) to build a defense so impermeable that nothing bad gets in and nothing sensitive leaks out. While that may seem ideal, the business cannot function under these extremes.
Beware The CISO’s Wrath
CISOs have a lot of patience. Patience however is a virtue that can be tested from time to time. As the old saying goes, if you’re not a part of the solution…