From Curiosity to Cybersecurity: Christina Morillo’s Path to Leadership

Christina Morillo, Head of Information Security at the New York Football Giants, shares her 30-year journey through the cybersecurity world, from her early fascination with computers to becoming an enterprise security leader and published author.

• Growing up in New York City without a home computer, Christina's interest sparked when using a friend's Apple IIGS
• Started in IT help desk roles and systematically built experience before transitioning into security through identity and access management
• Career path included significant time at Microsoft where she developed cloud security expertise
• Describes cybersecurity career paths as "jungle gyms" rather than ladders, requiring lateral moves and strategic pivots
• Published author with O'Reilly Media on information security topics
• Balances demanding career with family life through meticulous prioritization and calendar management 
• Advises women entering cybersecurity to understand their motivations rather than chasing trends
• Views AI as beneficial when used as "an accelerant, not a replacement" in security operations
• Emphasizes making security accessible through storytelling and relatable examples
• Builds trust with stakeholders by showing genuine interest and focusing on relationships

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Transcript

Introduction to Christina Murillo

Speaker 1 0:19

Hello and welcome back to another episode of the Tech Exec Wellness Podcast. I am so excited for this guest. I've been trying to get her on for a while and she is here, so I'm delighted to welcome Christina Murillo. Christina is the head of information security at the New York Football Giants is an enterprise information security and technology leader with a distinguished career spanning over two decades.

Speaker 1 0:41

Christina stands out as a leader and information security officer due to her unique blend of technical, tactical and strategic experience, coupled with her exceptional emotional intelligence and collaborative approach. She doesn't just build and lead enterprise information security programs. She does so in close partnership with business stakeholders, ultimately driving strategic objectives and program maturity. A recognized thought leader in the field, she is also a published author of multiple books with O'Reilly Media Zero, trust Networks, second Edition, and 97 Things Every Information Security Professional Should Know. Whether in the boardroom or out, she hopes to make security accessible, approachable and digestible, while keeping people and organizations secure. So, christina, I'm so glad to have you to the show, but you're in the hot seat and I want to ask you if you can tell us what your favorite music genre is and walk us through a memorable concert experience with our listeners oh, my god, okay, so I'm really into a lot of different genres.

Speaker 2 1:39

So I grew up in the 80s I know I may be telling my age, but I so I like everything honestly but I grew up in new york city, um, on the upper, upper east side and so east harlem, and so of course, I'm a product of byproduct of hip-hop right um 90s, 2000s, like the good hip-hop, but then it's like I'm also an mtv baby right from like the 80s, so I was listening to to everything like Tom Petty, aerosmith, so it's, it's. I'm really like you know, talk about diversity. I have like a diverse music palette, I guess, which is very interesting. And the most memorable concert experience was actually last week.

Speaker 2 2:18

I took my girls to see Beyonce's Cowboy Carter tour and you know I got blessed with tickets from my employer, right, and they put us up in a suite, so it was like really nice, and when I say my girls, I mean my two daughters, and so that was amazing. It was an amazing experience. It was just when I told you that I was in awe, like it was just phenomenal. I don't even have the words in my vocabulary to describe that performance. So that was the most memorable because I was with my children.

Speaker 1 2:47

That's nice. Did she also do like a three-hour show?

Speaker 2 2:50

About yeah. Yeah, I think it was a little bit over three hours, but yeah, that should be yeah, correct, it was amazing.

Speaker 1 2:58

Goodness, yeah, I love Beyonce. I saw the Renaissance tour and I like how Blue Ivy is just coming into her own. I mean she's out there dancing with her mom. Do you mind walking us through? Like what the concert was like. Like, were there any moments that stood out?

Speaker 2 3:14

Oh my God, I mean I feel like I've seen her so many times that I just was like, okay, well, this is just gonna be like a regular Beyonce show, right, and I feel like from the, from the, the beginning, like just the visuals and like the way that they just I don't know the lighting, the visuals, the it was.

Speaker 2 3:31

It was a lot about like culture, like she just stands out as like a strong black woman and just powerful, and like she kind of stands in her own light, she's not afraid to take a space, and that was like super powerful as a woman in, you know, a woman of color in technology, in business, like that is the reminder that I needed at the time. It just infused me with like this, like boost of energy and just like the background visuals as well, and just like hearing her voice. She has a very powerful voice, to be honest with you, like I think a lot of people don't think so, but she does live. The mic was hot, so there was no track running in the background it was it was all her um.

Speaker 2 4:06

So, yeah, it was just. It was just that it was just like someone that you know worked very hard, you know has been, uh, working for I don't know over three decades right in in her field and has perfected her craft. And I just it just resonated with me right Like someone you know in my career like same thing, like I've been in this industry about 30 years now and, um, it just like continuously trying to perfect your craft and be better every day. And it just, I don't know it just stuck with me. And, of course, the music, right, just like she's, the album is amazing.

Speaker 1 4:40

So oh, cowboy Carter is really good. I remember I was coming back I live in the South and I remember coming back from an appointment and I heard that song Texas Hold'em, is that it? And I'm just like okay, girl, you're going into another genre and I'm here for it. I mean multi-talented. You said something that resonated with me. You've been in the field for 30 years. One of the things I love about Beyonce and Madonna those two I think about in terms of reinvention. Do you feel like you, a little bit more strategic about it?

Speaker 2 5:13

but absolutely it's what's taken me from one vertical to another, vertical across different domains, right? Or like business industries, right. And I think you have to continuously reinvent yourself If you're ambitious. I'll caveat that by saying if you're ambitious. Some people are okay with just like doing that one thing, and that's perfectly fine, too, right? It's all a matter of like what floats your boat.

Growing Up with Technology

Speaker 1 5:50

It's interesting that you say that because, yeah, I've been a Beyonce fan for a long time and it's interesting she did that collaboration with Lady Gaga Telephone we're waiting for Telephone too, beyonce, if you're listening. She's just so diverse in everything that she does and when I think about cybersecurity, everybody thinks, okay, it's this, but there's so many specialties under cyber and it sounds like you've undertaken like different types of whether it be incident response or proactive. Is that a true statement that you've taken on different tasks?

Speaker 2 6:21

Yeah, 100%. So when I started my career, I started way back in the day of IT right. So I had the classic help desk and system administrator, network administrator. So I came up through those ranks right. And when I joined a security function, it was actually New York City for this reinsurance company that had a banking firm they actually were hiring in their IT security department department and it was really focused on identity and access management. Now, at the time no one really called it cybersecurity. It was more about like hey, do you know Active Directory and are you well-versed in, like, creating user accounts and administering credentials and stuff like that right. And so that was what I was hired for because of my experience as a sysadmin and because of my hands-on with, like, Active Directory and understanding the Microsoft stack and being certified and all of that stuff. So that's what got me in.

Speaker 2 7:10

Once that point forward, I started to look at similar positions like identity, and it wasn't until I moved into or I got an opportunity to work at Microsoft that I got into like the cloud space, and that's when I started learning more about like what is the cloud right and what does an environment look like in the cloud?

Speaker 2 7:43

How is it different than an on-prem environment, right, or enterprise environment, and I started to learn more about, like data protection and classification and response and all these other things, right. And then I moved back into identity at Microsoft, but cloud identity and that was what gave me the in to like explore, you know top fortune customers and understand their environments while at Microsoft and then I was able to kind of like learn more about the different elements or the different areas. And you know, I've had other opportunities after, so I won't say that I'm an expert in all of the domains, but this position has put me my current position has put me in a position where, because I'm responsible for all of the domains, I had to use the experience that I kind of brought to the table and then gain more hands-on like tactical experience in the areas that maybe I was a little bit weaker in right. So yeah, it's been fun, it's been stressful, but it's been very fun.

Speaker 1 8:40

Congratulations on your promotion. I saw that the other day. That's so cool. Thank you. With that being said, you know you talked about growing up in New York. What led you to the IT space?

Speaker 2 8:52

Yeah, so growing up in New York City, you know I come from an immigrant family. My family is originally from the Caribbean and my mom came when she was like, came to New York City when she was like 13 years old old. She was raised here, but she wasn't born here Hardworking. My grandmother was a single parent. I couldn't have a computer. When I was young, Back then in the 80s, not every family had a computer.

Speaker 2 9:19

There was a computer at school and all that stuff and, coincidentally enough, and I, just at school, I just would like love to be on the computer Right and print things, and you know, and I was just fascinated. Then I had a friend who her dad was a dentist, so they had, you know, obviously a little bit more money and he bought her an Apple 2GS with a dot matrix printer and she wanted to always go outside and play and I'm like no girl, I want to make a poster, make like a banner or whatever Cause. I was just like so fascinated by this, by this machine. It wasn't until I reached college that I was actually able to. I built my first computer like ever that I ever had, and that was through the school and from that point on like the rest.

Career Evolution in Cybersecurity

Speaker 2 10:01

Was history really Like? I knew at that point that I wanted to do something with computers, but I didn't know what it was. It was just like going through. Like my undergrad is when that really exposed me to like that world and you know, teachers at stores I was like no, I need to get a job like working on a help desk or something, or like something with computers, and that was kind of my strategy. So when I graduated college, I already had like five years experience because I had already been doing it. Yeah, it was a different time back then, though you know I can't say that it would work today, but back then I guess I was lucky or smart or just stumbled across, I don't know, but it just ended up working out for me.

Speaker 1 10:47

Was there a defining moment or anything? It was there science fiction, anything behind it that was like, oh, I want to work on computers.

Speaker 2 10:54

Really. I mean, the only moment that I can think about was that, you know, being at my friend's house and her having an Apple 2GS right when I don't know they were like $20,000 or something. It was a crazy. It was just that it was like me being able to like control this thing that allowed me to print. It was as simple as that. You know, also, like my uncle from my maternal uncle, he's an electrical engineer and so he would always have like little bits and pieces in our house, in our apartment, and I was always curious about like parts and pieces and I didn't know what anything did, but I was always like really curious. I think, just like I had multiple defining moments, right, and I think at some point it all just came together, goodness.

Speaker 1 11:36

Now in the in your bio and we're going to jump around here on the questions, but in your bio you're also a published author no-transcript.

Speaker 2 11:52

Covid, I had an O'Reilly publisher. Not the publisher, she was a managing editor. She reached out to me and said hey, like you know, I'm looking for someone to write a book on information security based on our 97 things series. And she kind of pitched me the idea and she was like what do you think? Do you think you can come up with this, come up with something right and have contributing authors? And I was like, oh, this sounds like fun and something to kind of distract myself with during COVID. Right, we were all stuck in an apartment and it was just crazy. So I decided to write a proposal for it, with her help, of course, and she pitched it internally. It got approved and then I just hit the ground running. So that's really what happened. She reached out to me and then, based on that, once you're already in the system, other managing editors potentially reach out to you for other projects, and that's how I got the second project.

Speaker 1 12:48

This is super fabulous. I'm listening to your story and everything and here you are. You're such a good storyteller. I'm envisioning you as a, as a little girl and you're on this big computer and whatnot. And, by the way, I wonder if she still has that Apple computer. I'm sure that's like the Smithsonian would want it.

Speaker 2 13:05

You know, I have no idea we lost touch, but I would love to know. That would be a amazing artifact.

Speaker 1 13:11

Oh, my goodness, right. And then you know to being a published author. You know what it's a wellness show. I'm going to ask this question, but you have two daughters. You were at the Beyonce concert. You've got this really incredible position. How do you balance taking care of yourself? Because when I lived on the East coast, I know time flies super fast. How are you able to do everything in a day?

Speaker 2 13:31

And actually I have two daughters and a son. I have three kids, but how am I able to do everything in the day? You know, I never. The thing is is that it's really not about balance, it's just about prioritization right. When I'm at work, I'm fully present. When I'm at home, I try to be as fully present as possible. Obviously, as a mom and a wife, I have a lot of things that where I'm like on the couch with my kiddos or you know, chat with them about stuff while I'm driving them to school, things like that, right. So I try to still kind of be a part of my family's like day to day, right. And also I work from home one day a week. So kind of negotiated that to help kind of balance that out as well. But it's really just about prioritization right.

Speaker 2 14:14

I've always been super ambitious and for when I was having my children I took those years where I was just becoming a mom, right, and figuring all of that out. My career pretty much took a little bit of a backseat. I was still working, but I wasn't really thinking about conquering the world, I was just thinking about surviving. So I was more so in survival mode. You know, now my kids are a little bit bigger, a little bit older, and so they're pretty like self-sufficient. You know, I was able to. The past few years I've been able to kind of like get my pink back right, as they say, and focus on hey, how do I figure this out? Right, like what works for me. There isn't like a template, right and I don't. Some days are harder than others. I just try to do my best every day right as best as I can, every single day, and some days I'm not great at it and some days I'm fantastic at it. And then you have the weekends.

Speaker 1 15:07

Right, it sounds like you have a lot going on. Do you live by calendar, like how do you?

Balancing Work, Family and Priorities

Speaker 2 15:16

how do you juggle all of that? I'm over here going my goodness she's doing. Yeah, I have multiple calendars and so I have I do. I live in my calendar. And then the thing is is that there's, like this whole like separation of calendars for me in terms of work and home. So I try to figure out ways to combine right so that I'm not looking at, like you know, a million calendars if I'm trying to book something. So I have obviously my work calendar and that's pretty much like my starting point in terms of, like all things work. And then what I do is that I overlay my personal calendar and my personal calendar. It feeds into my family calendar, my family calendar. I recently purchased a skylight calendar and that's an actual device. So I have that on like at home in my kitchen so all my kids can see their schedule and they can add and stuff like that, and so I have all of that linked.

Speaker 2 16:02

I'm trying to find a better system. So if anybody that's listening has a better system, please share, but it works for me. And then I also have, like next to my kitchen, the digital calendar. We have a physical calendar where I let my kids like make sure everything is synced, but I let them write, so they have. You know, they have a little bit of analog and a little bit of digital, and then I just make sure that that's updated right and that I'm getting that on my phone. I have everything syncing appropriately and I do like weekly check-ins and make to make sure that I have everything. All the school calendars are syncing, everything is syncing and that I know what's going on and that's it. That's how I Wow.

Speaker 1 16:43

It's impressive. So everything that you're saying, it truly, it truly talks to the emotional intelligence that you have. How does that fit into work? Because you're taking care of the kiddos and you're doing all of these things? How does this like managing people because you're a parent at home?

Speaker 2 17:02

Yeah, no, it's, you know, I think it's just for me it's all about trust and relationships and I think the first thing I do when I start anywhere is that I just try to like cultivate relationships, right Connections. And I'm super curious, you know, I'm not overwhelmingly annoying, but I try to ask questions right, and have these conversations and like icebreaker moments with people just to learn more about them and understand more about them, right. So just genuine interest and curiosity. And then, you know, I make sure that I like recalibrate right, Like I have to recalibrate, I have to understand, like, first of all, what are my intentions, what is the goal right, and how do we work, how do I work the goal backwards to get there?

Speaker 2 17:45

And then how do I bring other people along right, and part of that is really understanding other people's motivation. And you can understand their motivation by building that trust right and cultivating those relationships. And that could look as simple as sitting with folks at lunchtime, being accessible, you know, being around, walking around the building, chatting with folks, sending helpful security awareness emails, right, that touch on their personal digital security and privacy. So not making everything all about work, but just showing people that hey, like you know, this person is really trying to help and I can trust this person to ask questions that maybe I'm uncomfortable asking others, but it takes time, right. It takes time to establish that.

Speaker 1 18:25

So I love all of that. It's one thing, when you know we kind of see this version of you on a professional social platform and then talking to you, there's so much that we can uncover in these conversations like this. One thing I want to ask you what can women do to get into the field, because we've talked about that and I know a lot of women are interested. What would you tell someone? Let's say, they'll listen to the show and they're like, oh, I wish I could talk to Christina. What advice would you give?

Advice for Women in Cybersecurity

Speaker 2 18:52

them. Well, I like to say that I'm not a believer in generic advice, so I like to tailor. But if I had to be a little bit generic, I'd just say that I just let them know to ensure that they understand what they want and why they want it. What are your reasons for wanting to be in cybersecurity? Is it because of the right? Is it because of the perception? Is it because you think that you know cyber folks make a ton of money, or are you genuinely curious? Are you a problem solver? Do you like engineering solutions? Are you into, like, protecting data and protecting you know people and organizations? Like? What are your motivations? Right? And then I'd also talk. I also ask, like what, exactly? Which area are you interested in?

Speaker 2 19:40

I always like to say that, like, cyber is such a broad domain or, as I like to call it, information security. There's so many different domains within information security and cybersecurity that it's difficult to give, like, just a blanket advice. Right, because it depends. Everything depends on what you want to do. And so just a blank, blanket advice, right, because it depends everything is. It depends on what you want to do, and so I'd really try to. When I have these like one-on-one conversations with folks, I try to kind of dive into their background and what they are interested in, their motivations, and then I typically tailor advice depending on those, those pointers, right, I focus, because I, again, I just can't be like, well, you know, just work hard and pray, like, no, that doesn't work right, it's just like, no, what is your experience, what is your background, what do you want to get into? Here's how you can. You know here's, here's what can potentially do this, here's what you can explore, right, and then you know, depending if they're local, I can, you know, maybe invite folks, but I just think that there's, there's, there's, there's some things that you can do, but it's, it's.

Speaker 2 20:40

Times have changed and it's very difficult to just be, like, you know, cliche about it, right, I think there's so many, there's so many ways. The one thing I will say, though, is to follow your gut right, because remember that this is your path. You don't need a mentor, you don't need any of that. You know, it's not that it's not good to have, you can, but I like to focus less on mentorships and more, again, on cultivating relationships and like actual connections, not for what they can do for me, but just, you know, like almost like a friendship, right? I like to get to know people and understand people a little bit more and that builds like organic mentorships and all that stuff, but it's not a requirement. So the one thing I will say is just like march to the beat of your own drum and don't necessarily take in so much noise, because that's another problem. There's so much, there's so many like different perspectives, different advice.

Speaker 2 21:35

It can get super overwhelming. I don't think we were meant to consume so much data in a day and that's why we're all overwhelmed and burnt out. So I think, figure out what you want to do, why you want to do it. Figure out your strategy, what you think is going to work for you. You may have to test, you may fail. Get back up, get back on the horse, keep going. You know, take what works, drop what doesn't work and figure it out.

Speaker 2 21:58

That also could mean that you may need to work laterally right. It may not be, it's more who said it. I forget who said it, but it's not like a stairs, it's more like a jungle gym. You may need to move a little bit to the left, move down, move a little bit to the right. It's never going to look like a direct path. Sometimes you have to just turn LinkedIn off, shut down the app, focus on what you're going to do. You know, I think that would be my best advice and, of course, you know I'm more than happy to chat with people. I can't really scale myself. I try as much as possible but it really, again, depends on the area that they want to focus on. It's going to look a little bit different.

Speaker 1 22:36

I love that you said that, because you're a very good storyteller. I'm thinking of the jungle gym analogy because I know with my own cyber background it's more on the business side and I've done incident response, some of those other things, and I never had like a one clear path. After I left Apple it was just, hey, I'm into MDM and securing devices, and then it just grew from there. So it's interesting the stories I read on LinkedIn or talk to them about their cybersecurity journeys. Everybody has a different one and I'm with you on turning off LinkedIn because I've seen people and I'm just going to say what I want to say but I see people who don't have that. They don't have years of experience and they're giving some false information to people coming in. And I think, like you said, a bit of advice for any of our listeners out there is explore the different domains within cyber, because there's not one set path.

Speaker 2 23:28

And I think what irritates me a bit is people make it seem so easy and it's not God, god yes, it's not easy at all, and that's why I say it's so important to understand your motivations, because if you're just trying to get on the cool kids boat or whatever, if that's what you think it is, that's not what it is. It's very difficult. It's not necessarily glamorous. There is a lot of grunt work. So you have to understand for yourself, like, what keeps you going, right? Because if I didn't like love this career and love the industry, even when I like fight with it some days, I wouldn't still be here, right? I would just be like, oh, whatever I'm doing real estate or something like that, this is too much, right.

Speaker 2 24:11

But it's because I have, like you know, I'm obsessively curious and I really want to fix things and I want to make things better and I want to leave things better than I found them, and I think that is what motivates and drives me. And if it weren't for that, I wouldn't be here, right? Because it's not even with whatever people think, you make like millions of dollars, which I know is, you know, even if you made a lot of money, like it's not enough to keep you happy, right, if you like, if you're not in it for the right reason, no, I love that and I'll say this real quickly before I ask you the next question.

Speaker 1 24:47

But I know incident response. I did that for a year and a half. I wouldn't say I got burned out, but it was interesting to get phone calls right after five hey, we've got a data breach. You got to work with counsel, you got to get a statement of work you got to bring in the practitioner, and even on a Sunday. So if you're all about chaos, incident response is for you. I liked it, I learned a lot and that helped me from a proactive perspective, but it's a really, really, really tough job Really.

Speaker 2 25:19

It's very tough. It's very tough. I don't wish it upon anyone. Thankfully that's not what I do full time. That's a part of my job, right, and so, yes, I have to respond right and thankfully I have support in that area, like it's not all on me, but thankfully. But everything else right, even with like starting, like understanding what is your incident response process and writing an incident response plan tailored to the organization, right, specific to the organization, getting leadership on board, getting people to understand what the process is right, like getting change right, because there's other things that have to go that go with that right. Like maybe process changes right Internally, and so it's about all of that stuff.

AI in Security: Opportunities and Risks

Speaker 2 25:59

And then, obviously, right, when you get a call like I've gotten calls when my day it's always like the day off, when I'm on like vacation or something right, that's when it happens. I've gotten calls like while at the pool. I'm like are you serious right now? Okay, and then you just handle it right, you just the good thing is if you have your plan of action and you understand like what your response is. Obviously it changes depending on the severity and what's going on, but if you have like a framework automatically going to like you know that kicks on, like the light switch goes on and you're just like an execution mode, right. So you know what you have to do when you go get it done. It's doing that all day, every day, 24 hours a day, and just responding to incidents would burn anybody out, and it does. It burns people out. So, yes, that's why it's important to understand which domain you're interested in, because everything is not for everyone right, exactly Question for you.

Speaker 1 26:52

Ai seems to be the new kid on the block. What are your thoughts on AI and do you see cyber risk increasing due to AI?

Speaker 2 27:01

Absolutely. I think AI is fascinating. I think all of the developments that I'm seeing from you know MCP servers and agents and these, all of these security integrations has been fascinating. It's also been super overwhelming because it feels like it's coming from every direction. It's like multiple fire hoses shooting at you at the same time and it's difficult to tell if it's all hype or not. Right, like you want to think like well, it's kind of like all hype. Then you're like is it right? So I think it's like any other technology.

Speaker 2 27:33

I think it's important to understand, to kind of keep abreast of the development and obviously stay on top of like trying to innovate at your organization and seeing how you can potentially leverage things. But I would caution for folks to not go crazy, right? I think there's some elements of it that has a lot to do with like marketing, right, and I think that it's something that you have to explore on your own. On a personal level, you know some of the existing like AI tools and LLM tools have been great, right, like for brainstorming and trying to like ideate. But I don't necessarily have like a reliance on these tools. They're just like my little buddies, right, like oh hey, let me ask a question. That's a good idea. Then let me, now you know, fire up Google Sheets or Word or whatever Google Docs or Word or whatever and like, start doing my own brainstorming, right? So I think it's important to keep on top of these new developments and explore and learn as much as you can, just like any other technology, but I think it's important to also do it in moderation. Right, and for your organization, you have to understand your use cases first.

Speaker 2 28:47

I think a lot of folks are just rushing to not stay behind and just enabling things without understanding the risks that these tools pose. Right, like you know, data protection, right, and what are you feeding these tools? Are they learning based on? Are they training based on your data? Right? Or are you deploying a local environment? Right?

Speaker 2 29:08

So there's so many questions that I think we don't necessarily have the answers for. There's also not much by way of governance, right, like understanding if you're deploying this in your organization. Like understanding what are people prompting? Right, like understanding if you're deploying this in your organization. Like understanding what are people prompting, right? What's the output? Right? Is it safe? Is it ethical? Like there's so many like open questions, and I think that people are getting a little bit crazy with trying to like deploy, but I do. You know, like I said, I do agree that on a personal level it's important to explore. I explore all these tools. I have subscriptions. Agree that on a personal level, it's important to explore. I explore all these tools. I have subscriptions. I look at them. For me it's more like professional development, so I invest in myself to help me keep abreast of technology and also kind of foresee how this could pose a risk and what I need to do from a security perspective to ensure that if we deploy something like this, we deploy it safely.

Speaker 1 29:59

No, I agree with that. I mean I've started integrating it into some of the clients I have and I think it's good for chatbots for airlines et cetera like that, and I look at AI personally as a co-creator, but I don't think in my opinion, christina, I don't think it can replace how I speak, and I'm okay having grammatical errors or wrong comma placements on LinkedIn because it's coming from me, but I don't want to sound robotic Like I'm energized to post this today. That's not how.

Speaker 2 30:30

I talk Exactly. I mean, I do think it has a role, but it's not, as I've said before, it's not a silver bullet right For us. We're using it as an accelerant, not a replacement right, and I think that's important. I think, from a security perspective, it could be super beneficial, you know, in terms of like even the incident response right, Like helping us attack patterns faster, reducing noise and alerting. You know we all on like higher value, higher value work, but it's going to take time to get there, right.

Speaker 2 31:07

I think there's a lot of testing and things that we have to, we have to focus on before we're there. I think that people that have the luxury of deploying it and testing and doing all that you know maybe obviously have bigger teams and you know more budget so they can focus on that. But you know, I think we'll definitely get there. I just think that, unfortunately, data privacy and security are never, you know, people like to talk about shifting left, but they never really shift left right, or at least it's rare. It always is like move fast, you know, throw this into production, sell it to the masses. We'll. We'll focus on security later, right, and sometimes later it can be too late.

Speaker 1 31:44

No, I I agree with that. One last question for you. One of the things that I've even noticed talking with you is, in your writing and leadership, you've emphasized making security accessible and digestible. How do you communicate technical, your technical expertise to a non-technical stakeholder, and why is it important to be able to give digestible information?

Making Security Accessible and Digestible

Speaker 2 32:07

Yeah, I mean, I think you know to your earlier point, like I, I love stories, I love storytelling. I think the reason why it's important is because if you don't make it digestible, it will not resonate, right, and so you might as well be talking gibberish, right? And like, the entire point of you sharing this information is because you want someone to take some kind of action, right, whether that's making sure they don't click on links, making sure they validate you know who they're sending documents to, who they're opening, whatever the case may be. And so part of that is like you need to, you need to be able to share this information in a way that they can relate to, because then it becomes, it becomes applicable, right, if not it was, it'll just be like, okay, sure, yeah, check the box, okay, bye. And then tomorrow you know they'll get a scam or a calling about giving me your credit card information. It'll I'll be like, okay, sure, here's my credit card information. Right, but you want to build it into the person, you want to build it into the culture of the organization, and the only way to do that is to do it in a way that resonates with folks so that they can keep it with them.

Speaker 2 33:16

It's not disposable, right? You want them to keep it with them and to keep it top of mind while they're at work, while they're at home, while they're at the bank, while they're checking their personal email, and that's the only way I mean, I know, for me personally. I love stories. I'm a visual person. I'm a visual learner as well. So if you're talking gibberish, I don't know what you're saying and I don't know how it's going to be applicable to me. So I always keep those things top of mind, like you need to. You need to showcase and talk about why this is applicable and you know what are the actions and give examples, right, and I think that's what's helped me, and I feel that that's what's helping other folks as well, that I engage with.

Speaker 1 33:55

You've got so much on your plate and I have so much gratitude that you were able to get on the show and we could highlight you, because I think you're fascinating on this domain and I just really think a lot of people considering a cyber career need to listen to you. You've got a lot of good advice, thank you.

Speaker 2 34:13

Well, I try.

Speaker 1 34:14

Thank you for having me, christina thank you so much for stopping by and to our listeners. You can catch us on Apple Spotify. Thank you so much for.