AI and emerging tech lower the barrier for devastating cyberattacks, while CISOs face an impossible asymmetry: they must be right every time, attackers only once. Security leaders need real power at the executive table, not just a title, to shape strategy before threats materialize.
Chapters
out hardware and all of that. So you don't even have to be a country, you don't have to be a nation state, you can just be one individual. You could spend maybe $5,000 or something and you can build something that is powerful enough where you can do a lot of damage. So we are living in a world now where I think with the advancement of AI, emerging technology and all of that, where it is becoming easier and easier for people to use the tools available to them. To cause great, great harm. And the problem with being a CISO is you have to be right 100% of the time, but the bad guy only has to be right one time. If they can succeed just at one time, they could take the entire service down. So it is very, very challenging. It is not easy. But I think as a security leader, you need to do the very best you can to really influence your peers and senior management, senior leadership of your organization. You really need a true seat at the table. In many organizations I've been in, they say the CISO is an executive, the chief something, but in reality, it's not the C-level anything. It's just a director or a senior director in reality, because they're not even invited at some of the meetings that are critical for the strategic goals of the company, which doesn't make in a sense. So I guess you have to bring in your own chair if you have to, but at least you have to be in the room. Even if you don't say anything, you at least need to know what the company is doing, where they are heading, so that you can come up with a plan to have mitigation controls in place to safeguard the data of your company. So I think it's important if you are a CISO to be a real CISO, and that C really needs to mean something. And I think it starts with influencing your peers and all of the other people across your organization, right? You have to be visible and you have to have a desire to be helpful. And I don't know if I may have mentioned that earlier, but one of the first jobs I had here in Silicon Valley, it was impossible to find the security team. You couldn't find us anywhere because, you know, like in Silicon Valley, in most companies, it's almost like it was architected by the same architect. It's like open space. Everybody has those desks there and working together. Now, senior management, like the CEO may have his own office or something, but even in many startups, the CEO is even out there with everybody else. But in this company, security was nowhere to be found. You had to go
