The role of the modern CISO is more than understanding the technical side of the business. In fact, the role consists of even more than understanding the business side of the business. When I spoke with Ian Thornton-Trump, he was able to shed light on how important effective communication and team-building are to the overall success of a modern CISO. His insights can be valuable to any person currently in a CISO position and also to anyone looking to embark on the path to becoming a successful CISO.

Joe Pettit: Great to have you here, Ian. I would love to hear about your journey into cybersecurity and ultimately how you became a CISO.

Ian Thornton-Trump: My journey began with military service. A big part of my life was around the Canadian forces, and then I did some work with law enforcement. What I saw certainly from the law enforcement perspective was a digital evolution of criminality and cybercrime. There always seemed to be some component of crime that related back to technology, be it a harassment investigation or some of the darker things that occur on the web. In 2015, I was offered the opportunity to join a startup in Edinburgh, Scotland. That is how I ended up as the CISO of Cyjax Limited. I have always been interested in the idea of being a security evangelist and talking about what the issues are. 

My thoughts have moved now more into the leadership, management, and strategic issues that cybersecurity is going to face in the next three to five years. So, when I had the opportunity to either work for a giant financial corporation in the deputy CISO role as the head of architecture and internal security consulting, I took a moment and realized that it maybe was not (Read more...)