Kayne McGladrey – Hyperproof | CISO on the Street | Season 3

An ‘acceptable trade-off’ if bankruptcy is the only other option

Kayne McGladrey (@kaynemcgladrey), Cybersecurity Strategist at Ascent Solutions, said delaying or cancelling security projects is “an acceptable trade-off” only if bankruptcy is the alternative.

“Due to the pandemic, this is the choice that some organizations face today,” he continued. “Other organizations should first prioritize their security projects to mitigate those risks with the highest potential impact to the business. Organizations should then have a difficult conversation about residual risks with their cyber insurance providers, and plan to implement monitoring of those risks not transferred to insurance or mitigated through implementation of technical controls.”

All controls and tools should be linked to a reduction in the probability or likelihood of a risk that’s above the organization’s tolerance level, says Kayne McGladrey, CISO at risk management provider Hyperproof and a senior member of IEEE. If there’s no longer a need for a product, it should go.

“Cybersecurity remains a clear path to a middle-class salary for people with a two-year degree, a relevant certification to overcome gatekeeping by HR departments, a desire to help protect one’s friends and community, and a willingness to continuously learn as part of a team,” he tells Fortune.

The regulatory environment for health-care organizations places a high value on personal health information, writes Kayne McGladrey of Integral Partners. However, the dark web market value of PHI has cratered, according to cybersecurity firm Flashpoint. A PHI record that sold for an average of $75 to $100 in 2015 would net $0.50 to $1 in 2017, he writes.

“There’s a perception that it is all hands-on-keyboards — people sitting in a basement somewhere drinking soda,” McGladrey said. “That perception, unfortunately, drives a lot of talented individuals who would have made a lot of meaningful contributions to the field to make other career choices.”

McGladrey wants security pros to talk to their colleagues, friends and families about the field and its diversity of roles. He also urges organizations to widen their candidate pools to include those with more varied backgrounds and life experiences.

“Right now in cybersecurity, we’re doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result — the definition of insanity,” he said.