Oct 183 minWhy Cybersecurity Budget Benchmarks are a Waste of TimeI have built up a disdain for cybersecurity budgeting benchmarks. To be fair, there are some good attempts amid a sea of haphazard approa...
Oct 104 minBuilding Balanced Security Teams: The Rule of ThirdsAs an industry we spend a lot of time talking about workforce development and skills shortages. We tend not to talk about how to organize...
Oct 44 minSecurity for More than Security’s Sake - The Need for Adjacent BenefitsTruly excellent security programs deliver more than security risk mitigation. I know it is kind of ridiculous to say that when doing the ...
Sep 275 minThe Most Important Mental Models for CISOs - Simple Steps for Outsize EffectsThere are lots of problem solving techniques across many fields. These are often represented as mental models or behavioral short-cuts. H...
Sep 134 minRaise the Baseline by Reducing the Cost of ControlOne of the most successful techniques for enterprise security in many organizations is to create a universal baseline of controls that ap...
Sep 63 minTaking Inventories to the Next Level - Reconciliation and TriangulationWe know it is important to have good inventories across all of the assets we care about in an enterprise. For security purposes this is, ...
Aug 295 minSecurity Budgets - Supply and Demand ThinkingHow you obtain and manage a budget to drive an adequate level of security is immensely important. Yet, it is one of the least discussed a...
Aug 166 minTips for Running a Risk CommitteeIn any sizable organization it is important to have some form of management steering group or committee to oversee your risk program. The...
Jul 254 minCompliance vs. SecurityIt is sad that many security discussions are so binary: that is, if you’re not wildly for something then you must be wildly against it. O...
Jul 183 minThreat Intelligence - UpdatedThis is an update from a thread that became a post last year. Threat intelligence seems, at least to me, to get maligned too much. For ma...
Jun 216 minA Security Professionals Guide to Dealing with DisagreementDisagreement arises in many situations. It is an inevitable part of any work in any organization, or life in general. It is especially ap...
Jun 74 minAre Security Incidents Really Increasing?I see regular waves of articles and commentary that assert : “We are spending more and more on security but security incidents / breaches...
May 246 minResilience is about Capabilities not PlansResilience can be thought of as the ability to absorb shocks, adjust as needed and continue operation in the face of adversity. In other w...
May 92 minThink Twice Before Switching Off Controls : Chesterton's FenceChesterton's Fence is a cautionary tale to make sure that before you change things you actually understand their purpose. This is particu...
May 35 minCyber Risk QuantificationRisk quantification, in any field, is not an end in itself. It exists to compel some action. That action might be to drive decisions or s...
Apr 265 minAre You Managing Your Risk Register Effectively?Not all risks are possible to fully mitigate in every context, so you need to record and manage those residual risks. These are often put...
Apr 53 minPrioritizing Security Improvements - A Deceptively Simple WayIn most organizations you are constantly upgrading your security controls. This is for many reasons, including: New threats induce higher...
Mar 13 minCybersecurity Macro Themes for the 2020'sIn this coming decade there will be 5 major themes that differentiate great security programs, products, features and processes. These ar...
Feb 93 minRisk : Mega TrendsI've been thinking more about mega trends applied to risk, specifically operational risk (people, process, technology & external events)....
Jan 242 minThe Leading Indicators of a Great Info/Cybersecurity ProgramIt can be hard to effectively assess, with a suitable degree of rigor, the security of your suppliers, counter-parties or companies you a...