Dr. Eric Cole – The Value of the CISO Role and How to Get it Right

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My guest for this episode of the TechSpective Podcast is Dr. Eric Cole, author and founder and CEO of Secure Anchor. His latest book, ‘Cyber Crisis: Protecting Your Business from Real Threats in the Virtual World‘, comes out June 1.

It has been a long, long time, but this is not the first time I have spoken with Dr. Cole. I actually interviewed him back around 2003 as well for his book ‘Hiding In Plain Sight: Steganography and the Art of Covert Communication‘.

A lot has changed since 2003. For starters, Cole obtained his doctorate and started a company. There have also been major changes in both the technology ecosystem and threat landscape in the last 18 years. At the same time, some things have not changed. Cybersecurity is still a major challenge and organizations still struggle with some of the basics.

The CISO role has emerged as one of the more crucial leadership roles for a company, but only if the expectations and execution are managed properly. The CISO has, unfortunately, been used as a scapegoat or fall guy position–the person who gets fired when a major cybersecurity incident occurs even though he or she had little authority and no budget to prevent it. Dr. Cole stresses that one of the problems is that many CISOs come from a technical background and the role is perceived as technical, but it is not–or at least should not be. According to Dr. Cole, the CISO is more of a business role than a technical one, and it takes an understanding of business to do the job right.

Check out the full episode to learn more about why Dr. Cole believes the role of the CISO is crucial for the future of cybersecurity, and his thoughts on what it takes to be an effective CISO. We also discuss the rising threat of ransomware, and why it’s important for companies to be honest with customers and investors when they suffer an attack.

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