Security News

In this installment of SecurityWeek's CISO Conversations series, we talk to two veteran security leaders in the technology sector: Brent Conran, CISO at Intel Corp., and Chris Leach, Senior CISO Advisor at Cisco Systems. "When I first started as a CISO, some 20 years ago, I reported to the CIO - and that made sense. But as the CISO role and accountability have evolved, so the reporting structure needs to change as well. Whoever controls the security budget controls the security - and the CIO has different priorities." CIOs want smooth computing; CISOs want secure computing - and the two concepts are not always fully compatible.

To get a sense of the real impact of the pandemic on cyber security, we conducted a wide-ranging survey with UK IT decision makers on their expectations and priorities for the next 12 months. More than half of the CISOs and other IT security decision makers responding to our research indicated that EDR was a purchasing priority.

53% of CISOs and CSOs in the UK&I reported that their organization suffered at least one significant cyberattack in 2020, with 14% experiencing multiple attacks, a Proofpoint survey reveals. Those in larger organizations feel at greater threat, with this figure jumping to 89% amongst CSOs and CISOs from organizations over 2,500 employees and 83% from those with 5,000 employees or more.

Cyral has been recognized by CISOs nationwide as a leader in innovative security, worthy of both recognition and investment. In October 2020, Cyral received a strategic investment from Silicon Valley CISO Investments, an angel syndicate of more than 50 practicing CISOs investing in a small number of innovative cybersecurity startups.

For a CISO that faces the cyber threat landscape with a small security team, the challenge is compounded. Compared to CISOs at large enterprises, CISOs small to medium-sized enterprises have smaller teams with less expertise, smaller budgets for technology and outside services, and are more involved in day-to-day protection activities.

He reports to Executive Vice President, Operations Erich Sanchack and is responsible for overseeing Digital Realty's company-wide information security technology and programs and managing risks related to confidentiality, integrity and availability of systems and data. "We're thrilled to welcome someone of Don's high caliber to the team as we continue to proactively safeguard our customers from today's constantly evolving cyber and data security threats," said Mr. Sanchack.

Think of physical access, badge access, wireless access, you know, all these sorts of building access type things that you can use to say, okay, who was in the building at what time, who has been exposed, these are demands that we're seeing the market asked for that CISOs are having to bear the burden for. So there's all sorts of new demand on the CISO. So there's possible litigation at the feet of employers, if they go back, and they're sort of needed outcome around exposure notification, and this sort of vaccination status, a wallet need and where that goes, I don't know.

RingCentral announced that industry security veteran, Heather Hinton has joined RingCentral as the company's Chief Information Security Officer. Hinton joins RingCentral from IBM, where she spent 13 years in various leadership positions, most recently as vice president and IBM distinguished engineer, and CISO for the company's Cloud and Cognitive Software business unit.

With the budgeting cycles,starting back up again, I think that we're gonna see a lot of investment in cloud security and endpoint security for employee off-site devices and things like that. I'm really curious what the implication there might be for security, because I think that there's going to be a lot of other unprecedented security challenges or issues, as employees go back to work - whether it's companies starting to think about using exposure notification or contact-tracing apps within the workplace - or companies struggling with a hybrid remote/employees working in the office model think.

Industrial cybersecurity firm Dragos has hired Steve Applegate, former VP and Deputy CISO at PepsiCo, as Chief Information Security Officer. "I'm very excited to announce that I've joined the Dragos team! I've been watching this exciting company for many years, as well as benefiting from their cybersecurity expertise and all their contributions to the industry," he wrote.