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How do you deal with stress and unwind outside the office ?
I do a couple of things . The first is setting boundaries for myself . I love my job and my work , it doesn ’ t feel like work , which is why I am diligent about ensuring that I log off and decompress by a certain time .
The Auth0 team has already nicknamed me the ‘ Where ’ s Waldo ’ of the group . I have wanderlust and I travel often . When I ’ m not in the office , I ’ m at the airport heading to my next adventure .
If you could go back and change one career decision , what would it be ?
If you ’ d asked me before I turned 40 , I would have had a long list of things I would have done differently . Now , I wouldn ’ t change a thing . Every decision , both good and challenging , led me to this moment . I recognize the value of each of my career decisions and understand that the role I have today as CISO is the culmination of all those decisions .
What do you currently identify as the major areas of investment in the cybersecurity industry ?
Management ( IAM ) system in place that leverages best practices ( captcha , MFA , adaptive authentication ) as this is a great first step in drastically minimizing the more sophisticated compromises and data breaches .
Change management is as important as hardening and patching systems . System updates and configuration changes often require administrators to reset various configurations upon completion . Forgetting to do this can leave the doors open for attacks .
Permissions and access management are also important . Preventing lateral movement inside your organizational network can be critical in minimizing damage . Ensuring that only authorized users have access is critical , which includes managing credentials of termed employees , using privileged accounts and leveraging technology to manage user access .
Lastly , you really need to have a Business Continuity plan in place . This needs to be a realistic and actionable plan – and must be tested .
When doing so , it ’ s important to create a plan that makes sense for the industry that you ’ re in and understand exactly what your tolerance is for outages and downtime .
Security is still too often seen as an afterthought by businesses . This leads to all sorts of challenges ; companies are not implementing the right technologies in a secure manner to successfully fend against attacks .
We should be investing in ‘ As-a-Service .’ Understanding what your team does well and leveraging software , infrastructure , or identity As-a-Service is not only a good investment , it is a decision that will move business forward at the speed of innovation . We should look at the gaps in our organizations and find collaborative solutions and partnerships that allow our teams to get laser-focused on what we actually do well .
Are there any differences in the way cybersecurity challenges need to be tackled in the different regions ?
Organizations should be taking a global approach to cybersecurity . We are all facing the same threats . They should remember to consider the little things when it comes to cybersecurity as they have a habit of adding up and leading to big costs .
Most attackers will usually start with trying to exploit the most common and easiest point of entry , so businesses must ensure they have an Identity and Access
What changes to your job role have you seen in the last year and how do you see these developing in the next 12 months ?
Two months into my role as CISO , Auth0 was acquired by Okta and together we are creating the future of digital identity . This is one of the most exciting times in my career and moving at the speed of innovation will be pivotal to that future .
What advice would you offer somebody aspiring to obtain a C-level position in the security industry ?
One of my passions for the security industry is to see more women around the boardroom table and at an executive level .
Our industry is still largely dominated by men , but one of the factors that really helped me get to where I am today was having a strong group of mentors and champions that I could turn to throughout critical points in my career .
I would advise any female looking to obtain a C-level position to surround herself with a similar group of mentors and champions that they can lean on , and who will provide opportunities to grow and succeed . p
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