Articles Tagged with ''security leadership''

The Fourth Annual Security 500 Conference West will be held at The Four Seasons Hotel in Palo Alto on May 21. Security magazine is once again the exclusive media sponsor.

In 2009, Heartland Payment Systems announced that it had suffered a devastating breach: 134 million credit cards were exposed through SQL Injection attacks used to install spyware on Heartland’s data systems. The company processes payments for debit, prepaid and credit cards, in addition to online payments and checks and payroll services.  

 Baker Hughes provides technology- and service-based solutions that enable oil and gas companies to bring safe, affordable energy to the world. With a market capital of $22.7 billion, the company operates in more than 80 countries and employs approximately 61,000 employees.   

You have been with your current organization for more than 10 years leading the corporate security function, having conceived and built the program, hired staff around the world and integrated the department to being a trusted advisor to senior management. Since this is your second career, you are now reaching a point that you would like to retire and pursue other passions and personal interests. After sitting down and discussing this with your boss, you realize that he or she and the management team are concerned about the lack of a succession plan for your replacement. Their position is: While your second level staff is very good operationally, they are not under serious consideration for your role, and HR will be looking outside the company for your replacement.

 At some point during your working life, you will find yourself looking for a new job. There are a wide range of circumstances that may bring you to that point, ranging from retiring from public or military service; corporate reorganizations and/or leadership changes; you’re terminated; you resign; the location at which you work is destroyed; your company collapses financially; or you just want to advance your career in a new environment. While each of these circumstances may influence how you will position yourself during the job search, there are a number of common factors that place immense stress on an already difficult process.  

 Afew years ago we published an article on security related certifications that were being marketed as a means to advance your career. At that time there were a relatively small number of certifications that we were seeing listed on resumes. Today, we are still routinely asked which certifications are needed for career advancement or which ones are being requested by hiring managers. Frankly, unless the role has a specific requirement that connects to one of the more technical certifications, for the most part, the hiring authorities are not demanding them.  

Somewhere in the planning of the Security 500 Conference, I realized it would not be possible to turn the long list of security’s responsibilities from this year’s benchmark study into a readable slide. Nor was it prudent to punish our attendees with multiple lists of unmemorable threats and vulnerabilities. With more than 50 unique items in play; from managing investigations (97 percent) to overseeing insurance (15 percent); the business executives that manage risk and security for their enterprises all expressed this common theme:

Mike Denning has joined Verizon Enterprise Solutions as the vice president of global security. In this role, he will be responsible for overseeing Verizon’s global security business, where he will manage more than 500 employees around the world, seven global Security Operations Centers (SOCs), the Verizon Cyber Intelligence Center (VCIC), the product management and development organization and security sales operations, a Verizon press release says.