Resilient Cyber w/ Ross Young - How to Become a CISO

In this episode of Resilient Cyber, host Chris Hughes sits down with industry leader Ross Young to discuss the keys to becoming a CISO. Ross is the current CISO at Team8, former CISO at Caterpillar Financial Services, Divisional CISO at Capital One, and has an extensive background with the CIA.
Key Highlights:
Ross’s background: From starting his career with a computer science degree and MBA focused on cybersecurity, Ross built his expertise across the public sector, financial institutions, and startups. His journey includes 10+ years at the CIA, followed by CISO roles at Capital One and Caterpillar Financial Services.
The four phases of CISO development: Ross shares how his career has evolved through four phases-technical, managerial, leadership, and political skills. These phases are critical for anyone aspiring to become a successful CISO.
Understanding your “why”: Ross emphasizes the importance of understanding why you want to become a CISO, not just how. He shares his own motivation, including the desire for autonomy, driving strategic security programs, and avoiding frustrating experiences like feeling stuck in a Dilbert world.
The importance of technical skills: A solid technical foundation is crucial, even for CISO roles. Ross explains that understanding key areas like offensive security, cloud security, and DevSecOps can shape your ability to lead in specific organizations.
Management and leadership: Ross highlights the importance of skills like procurement, project management, and effective communication, particularly when managing a team of managers. He also shares a simple sticky note exercise for gathering feedback and engaging your team in strategic initiatives.
Political skills and influence: Building relationships across the C-suite and leveraging tools like gamification to influence security culture are vital. Ross shares an example of how he used fishing competitions and incentives like brisket to drive security awareness and foster a positive culture at Caterpillar.
The future of the CISO role: Ross predicts an increased focus on compliance and identity access management, especially with the rise of SaaS applications and serverless architectures. He also touches on the growing liability and accountability for CISOs as the landscape of cybersecurity continues to evolve.
🎧 Tune in to gain insights from Ross Young on how to build the skills necessary to become a successful CISO and navigate the challenges of modern cybersecurity leadership.
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