Future of Cyber Risk Team Cymru

In this week’s episode of the Future of Cyber Risk podcast, David speaks with Joshua Brown, VP and Global CISO at H&R Block, who explains the importance of not being alarmist when raising risk concerns and avoiding leading a conversation with ”no.” 

Joshua also discusses why storytelling is such a huge part of his role and shares some advice for cybersecurity professionals, including a reminder that technology is the enforcement mechanism for our solutions, not the solution itself.

Topics discussed:
How Joshua started in philosophy and ended up at a tech desk, then building a security team.
Signs that it’s time to discard the old way of doing things for something better.
How Joshua knows he’s getting his ideas across during his meetings with board members and how that affects their desire to take risks.
How being a good storyteller can help a CISO communicate with their team and the company.
The importance of listening, building relationships, and understanding motivations within your team.
Advice for cybersecurity professionals on communication, planning, and maintaining transparency.

Key Takeaways: 
Craft compelling cybersecurity narratives that resonate with stakeholders, illustrating the risks and solutions in a context that matters to them, not just from a technical perspective.
Engage with your team regularly to understand their needs. Effective leadership in cybersecurity involves continuous learning and adaptation.
Watch for signs that something isn’t working and see if you can try something new.
Listen to the questions you’re being asked: they can tell you about how well you’re being understood.

In this week’s episode of the Future of Cyber Risk podcast, David speaks with David Lingenfelter, Chief Information Security Officer at PENN Entertainment. They discuss the challenge of securing assets that you did not create yourself and how evolving regulations have affected the gaming industry’s risk appetite. 

David also offers his insight on the critical skills a successful security practitioner should have. He also explains his approach to educating employees on security when they might have varying degrees of knowledge on staying secure.

Topics discussed:
The challenges of securing assets, such as slot machines, that you did not create yourself.
What it’s like to balance both physical and cyber security responsibilities: luckily you only have to
worry about one or the other.
Critical skills for security practitioners to succeed in today’s landscape.
What education looks like at an organization where employees might have diverse levels of
knowledge on security.
How ransomware has affected the gaming industry, even as it has transitioned from brick and mortar to digital.
Whether the industry practices direct collaboration to help each other prevent and overcome threats
even when they’re competitors.
How evolving regulations have affected the industry, especially regarding risk appetite.

In this week’s episode of the Future of Cyber Risk podcast, David speaks to Chris Copeland, Associate Professor & Director of the Institute of Homeland Security and Cybercrime at Tarleton State University, about the misconceptions of cybersecurity and how he prepares his students for a full career of learning. 

Chris also predicts the trends of cybercrimes that will likely be around for good, for example how fraud has evolved into the data breaches and cryptocurrency scams of today. He also talks about the work he does as Executive Director of the Juno Initiative, which uses data mining and machine learning to help stop human trafficking.


Topics discussed:
Chris’s journey from working a help desk to directing the Institute of Homeland Security and Cybercrime.
How the Juno Initiative uses technology such as data mining and machine learning to help stop human trafficking.
What Chris puts on the curriculum for his courses at Tarleton State University and how it is constantly changing with the landscape.
The misconceptions of cybersecurity: it’s not just a guy in a ski mask typing on a computer underneath a headlamp.
The trends of cybercrimes and what will likely stick around, namely fraud.
Chris’s top four pieces of advice, including give back and create a portfolio.

In this week’s episode of the Future of Cyber Risk podcast, David speaks to Eric Adams, CEO/CISO at Federal Cyber Defense Solutions. They discuss what FedRAMP and FISMA are, how to use NIST as a roadmap to federal compliance, and what controls you need to implement for those requirements. They also talk about the need for vulnerability context and continuous monitoring, the importance of having leadership support behind your compliance efforts, and how AI will impact the future of security — but only if it’s used for good.

Topics discussed:
How to understand the differences in NIST, FISMA, and FedRAMP and how NIST is the roadmap that can lead you to federal compliance.
How to better understand the controls you need to apply for something like FedRAMP compliance.
Why you need to have leadership commitment and support behind your security compliance efforts.
Why you can be compliant but not secure and what questions and suggestions can guide your efforts to increase security.
Why vulnerability prioritization based on context and continuous monitoring needs to be part of your compliance approach.
How the future of security will include more automation and AI — but only if it’s used properly.

In this week's episode of the Future of Cyber Risk podcast, David speaks to Nat Prakongpan, VP of Product at Cyberbit (formerly of IBM at the time of recording). They discuss the need for business resiliency in security programs, and why you shouldn't just focus on preventing an attack but on recovery after an attack as well. They also talk about why security teams need to practice their incident response so it becomes muscle memory, the importance of making backups quantum-safe, and the growing need for detection and response in storage systems.
 
Topics discussed:
How Nat's career in cybersecurity began after being the target of an attack, and what he learned from 18 years at IBM.
The importance of business resiliency and the blind spots that many organizations have when it comes to attack surface management and knowing their assets.
Why security teams need to be like firefighters and develop their muscle memory for incident response.
How IBM approaches internal training on security, including annual training and role-based education.
Why organizations need to have a plan for both preventing attacks and for recovery after an attack.
The importance of keeping your backups quantum-safe for the future of computing.
The need for detection and response capabilities in storage systems to prevent compromise or attack.

In this week's episode of the Future of Cyber Risk podcast, David speaks to Alexander Seger, Head of Cybercrime Division at the Council of Europe. They discuss how the Council of Europe is building capacity worldwide around cybercrime awareness, legislation, and enforcement, and how they're doing that through increased training. They also talk about new provisions making cybercrime prosecution easier, the nuances of the Budapest Convention, and advice learned from a career in cybercrime.
 
Topics discussed:
How the Council of Europe is building capacity around cybercrime awareness, laws, and training across the globe.
What Alexander's month looks like, including consulting in various countries, organizing conferences, and implementing the Budapest Convention.
The actions the Council of Europe takes to train experts and provide them opportunities to learn from each other.
How new provisions, like video conferencing for expert witnesses, are making cybercrime prosecution easier.
The implications of the Russian Federation's treaty adjustment requests around governmental control of cyber spaces.
The challenges of prosecuting hate speech and fake news online across various global jurisdictions.
Three lessons learned from a career combating cybercrime.