Congratulations, security executives, soon you will officially be the “corporate rock-star.” That’s according to one industry analyst, Ted Schlein, who is also a general partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. In the article, “The Rise of the Chief Security Officer: What It Means for Corporations and Customers,” published by Forbes, Schlein wrote: “For business leaders today, no task is more important than ensuring confidence and trust in the organizations they lead. The boardroom has woken up to the importance of security – and to the enormity of what it will take to protect company and consumer data from attacks.”
As far too many companies victimized by data breaches can attest, we are in a “blame the victim” environment, where the breach victim is treated like an accessory to the crime. Time and time again, Congress, regulators, the courts and the media treat victim companies as if they are guilty until proven innocent, or rather “negligent until proven reasonable.”
You can let events impact your life and shape your career, or you can take control. If you are either looking to make a career change from your current role, or leaving government for the private sector, consider taking the following preliminary steps before developing and sending out any resumes.
U.S. organizations with less than 500 employees experienced a median loss of $280,000 per year due to employee theft across a wide range of industries, according to a new survey.
In early April, Wall Street’s oversight committee announced that bank’s oversight of cybersecurity measures at outside firms it does business with remains a work in progress, at best. It cited a survey of 40 banks that found that only about a third require their outside vendors to notify them of any breach to their own networks, which could in turn compromise confidential information of the bank and its customers.
All too easily, there can be a vast disconnect between security and finance. Chief financial officers are looking out for every penny, and security departments can be frequently written off as cost centers. However, there has been growing involvement and partnerships in both directions, with CSOs now successfully proving security’s value to the enterprise and CFOs championing security and cybersecurity initiatives to better mitigate enterprise risks.
What does leadership mean to you? We all have our own ideas about what it means to be a good leader. For example, some people think leadership means guiding others to complete a particular task, while others believe it means motivating the members of your team to be their best selves. But while the definitions may vary, the general sentiments remain the same: leaders are people who know how to achieve goals and inspire people along the way.