The Engagement Problem of Cyber Security Ownership

This post is part 2. Part 1 is “The Conceptual Problem ofCyber Security Ownership.”

So, you decided to distribute ownership of securing business processes outside of the cyber security team within the standads set by the security team. You have a conceptual model. Now, we need to examine the mechanics of implementing that model.

Communications isn’t enough to transfer ownership to business process owners. If communications alone was sufficient, almost every cyber security team would have distributed ownership of cyber security by now. 

Communications infers one way directives. 

Easy to ignore proclamations. 

Success: The Bigfoot of Cyber Security

Success can be elusive in cyber security. Elusive, in that there is often a chasm between the cyber leader’s definition of success and the expectations of the Board and/or executives. That chasm is too often explained away as “the executives don’t understand cyber security,” or, worse yet, “a cyber team can’t be successful.”

So, for some organizations, finding success is like finding Bigfoot from the light of a UFO. 

The Conceptual Problem of Cyber Security Ownership

Effectively securing the IT and information assets of an organization is as much a problem in modeling the right approach as it is in having the right controls and technical solutions in place. 

For instance, wanting to distribute ownership of cyber security across the organization isn’t a technical problem to solve.  It’s a business model problem that begins with a conceptual change that then leads to process change. 

If we want to distribute cyber security ownership, we can conceptually view the relationship of a cyber security team and a cyber program in two ways.

Play To Win In Cyber Security

Close your eyes and think of the goals for your cyber program.  Think of what a win looks like.

In American football, a prevent defense almost always means the other team has a chance to win. 

Are your cyber goals preparing your organization to win? Or, is your program playing the cyber equivalent of a prevent defense?

Cyber Leaders, Critical Thinking, and Team Colors

Purple teams confuse me.

To be more precise, small cyber teams thinking that they need some separate purple capability is what actually confuses me.

Mentoring Cyber Leaders To Say No (And Yes)

Being able to prioritize and being able to say no are two closely linked critical skills for cyber security leaders. The linkage is strong. Without being successful at one, it can be very difficult to be successful at the other.

Don’t get me wrong. The learned and practiced skill of being able to say no is really about the ability to say, “yes”.  

No to the wrong things, and yes to the right things. 

Servant Leadership In Cyber Security

Servant leadership seems to be a growing buzzword in cyber security.

Robert K. Greenleaf coined the words "servant-leader" and "servant leadership" in 1970 with the publication of his classic essay, The Servant as Leader.