Jill Knesek, Global Practice Head – Advise Assure, BT Global Services, is responsible for BT’s professional services security practice globally, ranging from strategy to portfolio to business capacity and demand planning through to investment, growth and enablement. Previously, she served as Chief Security Officer for BT Global Services. Jill has more than 15 years experience directing security programs, including directing security operations for the Cable & Wireless Managed Security Services group. She also served as a Special Agent for the FBI, assigned to the Cyber Crime Squad in the Los Angeles field office, where she was involved in several high-profile cases, including the Kevin Mitnick case. She was also the case agent for the first FBI undercover operation that infiltrated the hacker community. Jill’s credentials include CISSP (Certified Information Systems Security Professional) and CISM (Certified Information Security Manager).
Over the last few years, I’ve written several articles and blogs about how critical collaboration is to the success of a security organization. I’ve also worked very hard in my job to practice what I preach. Security will not work in a silo and unless we, as security practitioners, understand our business and its core assets, it will be pretty difficult for us to successfully ensure their security.
Security is no longer just a hot topic among security professionals. It’s crossed the boundaries into mainstream media and political debates. You can’t watch the news or read a newspaper or magazine without hearing about cyber threats, personal information breaches or risk management. But that doesn’t mean that company executives have opened their wallets to each and every security project their security staff submits – if only it were that easy.
Back in October, I was speaking as part of a panel discussion when someone asked about the role security issues should play when an organization is entering into a joint venture. It’s an interesting question and an area where I’ve had some experience.
