Lakshmi Hanspal Talks about the Challenges of Being a CISO

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Inner Circle Podcast Episode 040

My guest for this episode of the Inner Circle podcast is Lakshmi Hanspal–Global CISO for Box. Lakshmi joined Box in January of this year, bringing 20 years of insight and experience from former roles at SAP, Bank of America, and PayPal.

Organizations of all sizes and across all industries around the world are under virtually constant siege from an expanding threat landscape. There is a reason for the alternative CISO acronym of “Career Is So Over”. The role of CISO may have the word Chief in the title, but is often not perceived to be a part of the real C-suite, and in some cases is seen as a scapegoat role designed to take the fall when a major cybersecurity incident or data breach occurs. In recent years, however, the role has matured and gained some credibility.

Being a CISO is challenging at any company, but being the Global CISO for Box comes with a number of significant and unique concerns. Box is in the business of storing data and facilitating productivity in the cloud for customers around the world. Storing and protecting data is challenging in and of itself, but it gets much more complex when you delve into regional and local laws and privacy concerns, and try to balance streamlined productivity with the various compliance mandates that apply to different geographic regions of industries around the world.

Lakshmi stresses that Box is “customer zero” for its own products, so they gain firsthand experience with the challenges and issues customers face. She shares her insight on the threat landscape as well as the shared responsibility model and the obligations of the customer to secure and protect their own data. Lakshmi also discusses the evolving role of the CISO and the importance of empathy and communication to establish trust and ensure everyone is working toward the same goal.

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