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4 Takeaways from RSA 2020

When RSA 2020 organizers chose “The Human Element” as this year’s theme, they were thinking of how security technology is only as good as the people who build, deploy and manage it. Here are four takeaways based on my discussions with IANS clients and Faculty, contacts from the larger InfoSec community and from some of the sessions.

Consumer Privacy Regs Will Jump the Pond – CISOs Need to Observe, Understand & Act

My old Navy flight instructor once told me that “not making a decision IS a decision”. That stuck with me. His words come to mind when I consider Washington, DC’s stalled approach to protecting consumer privacy and regulating the downside of new technologies, including facial recognition, machine learning and AI.

The Secret Trait of Fortune 500 CISOs

What's the single biggest factor in a CISO candidate getting hired for a coveted Fortune 500 or government position? IANS CEO Phil Gardner recently posed this question to five of InfoSec's top executive recruiters, and they all came back with the same answer.

Cyber Insurance Will Grow Up: Are You Ready?

The last day of RSA is usually a ghost town. So I was surprised to find hundreds of folks crowding into seats for a Friday morning session, all to hear Robert Jones and Garin Pace of AIG discuss “Debunking Myths for Cyber Insurance.”

CISOs: 3 Ways to Increase Your Clout with the Board and C-Suite

For the past couple of quarters, I’ve been leading regional working group sessions focused on increasing the CISO’s clout with the Board and the C-Suite. InfoSec often lacks the influence and budget it deserves, and these CISO-only sessions have been helpful in revealing ways around these common problems.

The Battle of the Budget

Why do some CISOs consistently command the budget and resources they need while others struggle? What can budget-constrained CISOs do to garner the support they need for their programs? To answer these questions, we gathered insights from 85 information security leaders representing organizations with annual revenues greater than $500 million. The resulting research report, Winning the Battle of the Budget, reveals a number of budget-related best practices for CISOs.

How CISOs Make Decisions

As a tight-knit and justifiably reticent group, CISOs don’t typically share their best practices. So at the end of 2017, my firm, IANS, completed a research study based off the responses of 218 top security professionals. Below, I’ll be highlighting key takeaways from the research, which paints a picture of how CISOs make decisions.

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