S35 Ep9: SUMMER LISTENING Margaret Heffernan - Cyber, CISO and the Board: Turning awareness into action

Today, Steve sits down with leadership coach Dr. Sam Adeyemi. Sam is an expert in leadership who has coached C-suite executives for over two decades. Together, Steve and Sam explore the essence of who is a leader, and Sam explains why people should always be the first priority of a leader. They also discuss AI and how it will impact people and business in the coming years.  Key Takeaways: Leadership is about your ability to influence, not the position you hold. Technology has changed the nature of leading. AI will change how we work by taking over routine tasks and giving humans more time for creative challenges.  Tune in to hear more about: How leadership differs across cultures (4:28) How technology is changing leadership (8:47) How AI will change how we work (14:27) Standout Quotes: “We still need to leave those spaces where we actually ask, how are you doing, to be sure the parts of their lives that are important are going well. Because those parts actually influence what they do on the job.” - Dr. Sam Adeyemi “It’s like when computers first came. They made things work faster. When I was doing mathematics in high school, we used to use log tables and things like that. It was much slower getting to work through the calculations. But with calculators these days and so on, it’s faster. AI is going to create an even bigger shift than that. The computers did not take all the jobs away. However, they changed the way that we do our work. So we humans, therefore, need to move more towards creativity, and that is tied more to our uniqueness, the unique way our minds work.” - Dr. Sam Adeyemi “A lot of C-suite leaders find it difficult to reinvent, and it’s one of the major reasons why people get stranded, why leaders just stagnate. Change is inevitable. It happens, the world doesn’t remain the same. The conditions that facilitated our achievement of success, those conditions have changed. The context has changed. So for us to sustain our success, for us to remain relevant, for example, we also have just got to change.” Dr. Sam Adeyemi Read the transcript of this episode Subscribe to the ISF Podcast wherever you listen to podcasts Connect with us on LinkedIn and Twitter From the Information Security Forum, the leading authority on cyber, information security, and risk management.

Today, Steve talks with Dr. Kathleen Perley, founder of DemystifAI and faculty and AI advisor to the deans at Rice Business. Dr. Perley explains why leadership matters when implementing AI in your business, and shares how to bridge the gap between tech-savvy CTOs and non-technical folks. Dr. Perley and Steve also discuss the possibilities and boundaries of artificial intelligence.  Key Takeaways: AI has some exciting use cases. Executives should be involved in the implementation of AI. Business will fall behind if they don’t embrace artificial intelligence.  Tune in to hear more about: How Dr. Perley got into the AI field (1:33) The role of the C-suite in AI implementation (8:17) Dr. Perley’s new book about AI (18:57) Standout Quotes: “If you don't have at least a couple sleepless nights where you get a little bit anxious about the unknown in terms of job displacement, falls into the wrong hands—that should be a concern.” - Dr. Kathleen Perley “I think part of the reason why AI implementation is failing today is that leadership issue. They're maybe unsure of this technology, don't have what they feel like is appropriate technical background to navigate it. And so they've completely delegated it, versus leaning in and learning the technology themself.” - Dr. Kathleen Perley “If you have AI skills, and I'm not talking building, but leveraging these AI tools in terms of skills, you're 70% more likely to get hired. Those individuals are garnering about a 56% wage premium right now. All of your A-players, if you're not leaning into AI as an organization, are going to start looking elsewhere because they know that they need those skills and that exposure for their own career development.” - Dr. Kathleen Perley Read the transcript of this episode Subscribe to the ISF Podcast wherever you listen to podcasts Connect with us on LinkedIn and Twitter From the Information Security Forum, the leading authority on cyber, information security, and risk management.

In today’s episode, Steve speaks with Karena Man, whose expertise is connecting organizations with experts in technology as a Senior Client Partner at Korn Ferry. Karena highlights the growing awareness of cyber by boards of directors — an awareness brought on by the increase in cyber intrusions. She also emphasizes the importance of storytelling and collaboration, and she and Steve discuss AI and the preparedness of the board. Key Takeaways: Boards are increasingly knowledgeable of cyber and AI.  CISOs must be good storytellers and cultivate relationships with other departments to be able to succeed in their role.  Involve board members in the processes, not just the results. Tune in to hear more about: Cyber and the board (01:27) AI and the board (19:30) How cyber and AI will impact the board in the coming years (24:53) Standout Quotes: “If we go back to what boards are really charged with, they're charged with oversight and governance. They are there to really provide guardrails in many ways, allow the organization to go fast by asking the right questions.” - Karena Man “When I am also assessing and helping my clients hire their next CISO, one of the things I'm looking for is not just someone who's technically deep, but someone who has the empathy, someone who really understands what is it that the business is trying to do.” - Karena Man “Anyone who's used one of the large language models, don't name any of them, I think there isn't a single person I've talked to who hasn't had a model hallucinate. Or give them a questionable answer to a query or to a task. And so there is this understanding that the technology is promising and that we should experiment with it and innovate with it within our enterprise. But there is this worry that it could be used for not so good purposes.” - Karena Man Read the transcript of this episode Subscribe to the ISF Podcast wherever you listen to podcasts Connect with us on LinkedIn From the Information Security Forum, the leading authority on cyber, information security, and risk management.

In this week’s episode, Steve sits down with Debra Andrews, president and owner of Marketri. Marketri, a strategic marketing firm. Steve and Debra talk about what goes into creating a marketing plan that the C-suite can get on board with, and Deb shares how she and her team work to balance human knowledge with the speed of artificial intelligence. Debra also explains the role of Marketri’s AI council… Key Takeaways: Using key performance measures to show growth toward a goal is integral to getting the C-suite on board with a marketing plan.  To gain trust for AI both inside and outside the organization, transparency is paramount.  AI will shrink marketing teams and marketers will need broader skillsets. Tune in to hear more about: How Marketri went about incorporating AI into its operations (6:23) Deb’s thoughts on the ethics of AI (10:55) How AI will impact the future of marketing (13:43) Standout Quotes: “When we use AI to do the copywriting, we ask it not to supplement with any extra information, only use the information you're given and through that, AI is a wonderful copywriter. It can learn your voice and tone. You can train it on your particular voice and tone, so we can train it on our client's voice and tone. So it can be very customized to that person and how they like to speak, and words they like to use and how they like to sound. But ethically means we're not using trained data in the large language models to produce our content pieces. We're using human brains, their experience, and we're leveraging the tools as copywriters.” - Deb Andrews “We're not trying to hide that we're using AI and shortcutting the process or delivering something like an AI-produced post. What we share is that we're using it to help them gain competitive advantage, to have the best access to human thinking, our thinking, their thinking as far as their area of subject matter expertise, and then the best of what this technology can do, and it's extremely powerful.” - Deb Andrews “I think the smaller organizations, they're just struggling to keep afloat of their workload right now. I feel like AI's had this paralyzing effect on a lot of mid-size organizations where they know AI's out there and they know it's supposed to have an impact and they're reading about companies reducing head count and not hiring.” - Deb Andrews Read the transcript of this episode Subscribe to the ISF Podcast wherever you listen to podcasts Connect with us on LinkedIn and Twitter From the Information Security Forum, the leading authority on cyber, information security, and risk management.

Today, Steve sits down with Baroness Beeban Kidron, a member of the House of Lords in the UK and a global authority on online privacy and tech regulation. They discuss the critical importance of privacy on the internet in the age of surveillance capitalism, why we need to reframe how we talk about AI and new technology, and the problems with the UK government’s current AI policy.  Key Takeaways: The internet has changed, making privacy online essential.  Regulating the internet and technology is still possible. The current path the world is on when it comes to AI is highly problematic and should be taken more seriously.  Tune in to hear more about: Why privacy online matters more than ever (1:22) How technology is impacting early childhood development (12:08) Baroness Kidron’s take on the UK’s AI strategy (28:17) Standout Quotes: “[The internet] is deliberately designed to keep your attention. Deliberately designed to make you come back, deliberately designed to know the most, to reveal the most. And in that context, actually, privacy becomes an incredible tool of protection for the user, particularly for children who may not understand the negotiation that they're in.” - Baroness Beeban Kidron “ We have to think about what kind of world we want, what kind of world is good for us, what kind of world benefits most people, and then we build ourselves a pathway to do the most we can in that direction.” - Baroness Beeban Kidron “ it is hugely important to protect the idea of copyright. It is a moral right because it is an expression of your humanity. What you write, what you draw, what you sing is yours. It is you. It is a manifestation of you. So it comes with, and in fact, in human rights law, it is specifically stated that it is your moral right to determine how that is used.” - Baroness Beeban Kidron Read the transcript of this episode Subscribe to the ISF Podcast wherever you listen to podcasts Connect with us on LinkedIn and Twitter From the Information Security Forum, the leading authority on cyber, information security, and risk management.

Explore how CISOs can educate the board, build resilience, and invest effectively in security, with Steve Dubin, ISF CEO, and Margaret Heffernan, a Professor of Practice at the University of Bath School of Management.  Mentioned in this episode: ISF Analyst Insight Podcast Read the transcript of this episode Subscribe to the ISF Podcast wherever you listen to podcasts Connect with us on LinkedIn and Twitter From the Information Security Forum, the leading authority on cyber, information security, and risk management

In this episode, Steve speaks with Dragos Tudorache, one of the members of the European Parliament who is responsible for writing the EU’s AI Act. Dragos explains the thought process that went into developing the new law and tells Steve what organisations can expect and how they can prepare for its implementation. Mentioned in and related to this episode: ISF Podcast: Ellie Pavlick - Balancing the Risk and Reward of AI ISF Podcast: The Ethical Dilemma of AI & Innovation ISF Podcast: Beyond Buzzwords: AI, ML, and the Future of Cyber ISF Podcast: Mo Gawdat: Rethinking the Paradigm of Artificial and Human Intelligence ISF Analyst Insight Podcast Read the transcript of this episode Subscribe to the ISF Podcast wherever you listen to podcasts Connect with us on LinkedIn and Twitter From the Information Security Forum, the leading authority on cyber, information security, and risk management.

Today, ISF CEO Steve Durbin speaks with Seán Doyle, Lead for the Centre for Cybersecurity at the World Economic Forum. They discuss the role of public-private partnerships in the current cyber landscape, the importance of running tabletop exercises to promote resilience, and improving cybersecurity legislation and regulation around the world to promote economic interests. Mentioned in this episode: Cybersecurity Technology Efficacy: Is cybersecurity the new 'market for lemons'? Research Report by Joe Hubback ISF Analyst Insight Podcast Read the transcript of this episode Subscribe to the ISF Podcast wherever you listen to podcasts Connect with us on LinkedIn and Twitter From the Information Security Forum, the leading authority on cyber, information security, and risk management

ISF CEO Steve Durbin sits down with strategic supply chain risk expert Omera Khan. They talk about the current risk landscape vis a vis supply chain, protecting your supply chain by building collaborative systems, and incentivizing your staff appropriately to ensure they vet suppliers with a security-first mindset. Mentioned in this episode: ISF Analyst Insight Podcast Read the transcript of this episode Subscribe to the ISF Podcast wherever you listen to podcasts Connect with us on LinkedIn and Twitter From the Information Security Forum, the leading authority on cyber, information security, and risk management

Today, Steve speaks with Jimmie Lee, a leadership expert with decades of experience as a senior leader at companies like Boeing, Meta, and Microsoft. He explains that one of the most important things a business leader can do in times of crisis, is to keep focus on the big picture and the long term goals. Jimmie and Steve also discuss how to manage a team in a post-covid workplace and building supply chain resilience — and why empathy matters more than ever.  Key Takeaways: Empathy for your team members is more important than ever for a thriving business. Relationship-building must begin before the crisis happens. Geopolitical instability is causing a shift from risk management to resilience. Tune in to hear more about: If empathy can be taught (12:50) How to build trust in a business environment that’s more virtual than ever (15:47) Why many businesses are struggling because of today’s volatile geopolitical landscape (21:33) Standout Quotes: “There's a lot of tools that I would typically lean on or go to, but the number one is honestly just empathetic connection. It is really just connecting with the leaders and help them understand that they're not alone. I think a lot of times as a leader, you get too stuck in the problems that you start trying to solve, that you focus more trying to solve them in the business, and you go deeper instead of staying up at the leadership level and start working on the business itself.” - Jimmie Lee “Now you have trust to work off of. If you didn't have that trust and that mistake happened, it's an uphill climb to get to a point of good with that person now. I don't know that we're equipping our employees, that we're actually giving our teams that visibility, that knowledge, that training. […] Are we as companies, are we as leaders investing in our training budget in that kind of way to target those areas?” - Jimmie Lee “I think the geopolitical landscape is potentially gonna shift the visibility and the approach and the strategy from small, medium- sized businesses and middle market to have more attention on that supply chain because. When it comes to geopolitical instability, when it comes to geo-economic macro and the micro instability, resilience is key. Resilience is the lifeblood. Resilience is your ability to last, to withstand the fluctuations, but if you don't have enough visibility and awareness of all the different components that are impacted, you can't navigate those waters.” - Jimmie Lee Read the transcript of this episode Subscribe to the ISF Podcast wherever you listen to podcasts Connect with us on LinkedIn and Twitter From the Information Security Forum, the leading authority on cyber, information security, and risk management.