The CISO Evolution: A Guide To Business Acumen | Redefining CISO Storytelling With Rock Lambros And Matthew Sharp

According to our guests, cybersecurity leaders who experience the following symptoms fail to convince business leaders that cybersecurity risk is, in fact, business risk:

Failure to garner trust from executive leadershipMis-aligned expectations around risk appetite and capital allocationMisperception of cybersecurity's role in the businessDemoralization of your team in the face of cyber risk acceptanceIncreased stress and anxiety from managing an underfunded program

Rock Lambros and Matthew Sharp have had many years of experience performing and analyzing the CISO role. With their combined knowledge, they decided to write a book—to craft a new guide, if you will—describing what the next evolution of the CISO must be about. In short, the change must result in the creation of a business-minded executive—even more so than the individual having a strong technical background.

However, as with many things in life, it's not always just about reaching the end to produce a specific result. More often than not, it is about the journey to get there, continuing to learn along the way, and paying all of that forward as the final outcome is pursued.

We chat with Rock and Matthew about their passion, the book purpose, and the writing process. Just as you might recommend to someone in (or entering) a CISO role, they are following some of their own advice along this journey:

Break out of their own silos to capture the depth of knowledge of both the CISO and business communitiesDitch preconceptions and outdated assumptions that may hold back this transformation; not just in terms of timing but also in scopeMove beyond presenting the "how" and "why" as separate elements. With stories, CISOs can both relate to AND implement against

To this end, Rock and Matthew suggest that the internal battlefield for the new CISO is won on the following 3 fronts:

Foundational Business KnowledgeCommunication & EducationLeadership

Join us as we uncover what it takes to truly understand a topic such that it can be written about in a published piece of work. There's more to it than meets the eye, and the learnings from a well-formed book could provide those nuggets this role needs to transform and succeed now, and into the future.

Guests
Kyriakos "Rock" Lambros, CEO and Founder, RockCyber (@rocklambros on Twitter)

Matthew Sharp, CISO, Logicworks (@Matthew_K_Sharp on Twitter)

This Episode’s Sponsors:

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