Here's how you can prepare for the key responsibilities of a cybersecurity manager.

Building expertise is very necessary not just in the cybersecurity, but also in Technology, computing in general. A basic understanding of almost every aspect of Technology is required. You cannot protect what you don’t know. If you do not know networking basics, how do you protect the perimeter or if you don’t understand coding or programming , how then do you conduct a code review? How do you explain things to the business? The good understanding of concept is your ability to it to a 5yr old and they get it.

Building expertise in understanding technology and more importantly information and cyber security controls along with risk management principles is absolutely important. Certifications like CISSP, CCSP, CISM, CRISC along with understanding of ISO27000 standard series will equip CISO’s handle the role effectively.

"cybersecurity" is a broad term, one that is represents a LOT of different things. As others have mentioned, knowing the technical aspects of the field are important, but depending on the area of one is managing, knowing regulation, frameworks, risk quantification, etc. are also important. Of course, whether a technical or GRC focused manager, the key here is that you will be managing people. It is imperative that as a manager you are prepared to be a mentor, a leader, cheerleader, and a disciplinarian. All of these skills, and more are crucial to your success. All of the technical acumen in the world will do you no good if you fail at the most basic task of managing your people.

Assuming you have the technical and security experience needed for the job and been in the profession for a while, here's my list of top 5 things to do: a) Find a mentor, maybe an experienced CISO who can coach, guide, mentor and take you under his/her wings; b) Know the business, know the stakeholders, know their priorities and understand the security culture (doesnt matter if its weak or strong); c) set a certification goal for yourself that is relevant for the job you are in - 1 or 2 certs a year; d) Subscribe to threat feeds/advisories/newsletters - you need to know what's happening in the cyber world and e) Learn to operate with the RISK mindset (identify, assess, treatment, report) and IMPACT (product, customer, revenue, process).

Experience is highly important in a leadership position in Cyber and in any role where you need to manage people on a specific subject. A leader needs to know how to speak and listen to their team, discuss the topic clearly, and propose a path that everyone agrees on and shares the same understanding. Remember that in addition to knowing how to communicate with your team, you must also know how to communicate with your direct leader. Therefore, the message you receive from your team needs to be shaped so that your leader can understand and agree that it was the best decision. This is why experience is a significant differentiator.

Having been a CISO for the last 10 years in two major Canadian companies, I believe that one the first thing a CISO has to do is influence the culture of the organization towards cybersecurity and make sure that he has strong allies in the C-Suite and the board. One of the first mistake we all make at the beginning is to jump right ahead into performing maturity assessments and pointing out was is wrong technically. That’s very time consuming and frustrating for CISOs and executive management.

The Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) is the cyber security expert within the organisation. He or she is responsible for identifying and implementing all the means and solutions needed to limit and anticipate threats. In close collaboration with the CIO and the DPO, the CISO's mission is to ensure the strict implementation of cybersecurity measures. To this end, the CISO is responsible for Managing the cybersecurity approach; Advising and assisting; Alerting in case of risk or attack; Ensure liaison between the various stakeholders.

Cybersecurity is a long-game and requires strategic thinking. Fighting day-to-day battles without clear vision is action without much progress. Begin by clearly defining the goals! Approved by senior executives and communicated to the teams, goals will unify effort and help smart decisions to be made. The secret is not to define success as being impervious, but rather identifying the optimal level of security that balances acceptable risks, security costs, and the friction that security introduces. The very best goals are tied to the overall business goals. Make sure you are adding value to what is most important to the board and c-suite. Strategy starts at the top.

Effective strategic planning in cybersecurity requires a holistic approach that considers many factors to protect the organization against threats and ensure resilience such as threat landscape, risk assessments, regulatory requirements, organization objectives and technology infrastructure. In this phase always make sure to align with organization strategy while making the strategy adaptable.

Absolutely, your team will determine your success rate as a cybersecurity manager. Leveraging their individual strengths matters a lot. I have led a team where the most technical individual wasn’t the best communicator and the best communicator who learns very fast didn’t have requisite knowledge of cybersecurity but was willing to work extra to learn with their ability to effectively communicate really helped them. In summary, understanding the diverse skill set of your team and leveraging them to deliver the cybersecurity objectives of the team matters a lot to the success of a cybersecurity manager. Don’t get frustrated by your team, use their individual strengths to deliver.

When it comes to managing teams, the leader/manager should look at themselves as part of the team. Also, set the vision or communicate the vision. Ensure ideas are heard, embrace personal development, have an onboarding training plan, invest in team members and continue to improve. Managing teams is leading others to grow, develop and become leaders while accomplishing a set of objectives.

Effective internal leadership of the CISO requires clear communication and team leadership to ensure that all members of the team have access to the necessary information. This approach is not intended to solicit challenges or opinions, but to standardise practices in order to facilitate collaboration and ensure alignment across the team.

Two key ways to learn and prepare: 1) Take up an Incident Responder course, learn from the NIST IR guideline, refer to Crisis Plan and Policies of other organizations, learn THE MITRE ATT&CK framework well and start using it for every event that you come across & join a professional networking group that focuses/dedicated to Incident Response. 2) Review incident response plan, create one if you dont have it. List down the most likely threat scenarios (ransomware, phishing, credential surfing, brute force, malware etc) - create the playbooks, sit with the IT teams and run through every step, ensure right folks has the right access. Conduct an IR Preparedness Assessment with a qualified partner.

It is vital for organisations to have a clearly defined incident response plan in place to minimise the impact of a security breach. The following are recommended best practices for incident response and recovery: It is essential to develop and test an incident response plan. It is crucial to have a clearly defined incident response plan that outlines the steps to be taken in the event of a security breach. The plan should include the roles and responsibilities of all relevant parties, communication protocols and procedures to contain and mitigate the incident. It is also essential to test the plan regularly to ensure its effectiveness. The plan helps teams improve response and recovery times to restore business operations efficiently.

It is important when developing incident response plan to consider accessibility and clarity and training all teams according to their role. Robust monitoring systems to detect potential security incidents. Incidents report detailed documents Containment strategies and Recovery efforts must ensure that no remaining threats are present. Post-incident review can be one of the inputs for updating the incident response plan. Regular testing of the incident response plan and coordination with internal and external stakeholders are also crucial for maintaining an effective incident response capability. Strong Leadership for decisive decision making, providing guidance & support, maintaining effective internal & external communications.

Start small - list down all the potential risk events that are likely to occur (Every org has its unique risk surface and tolerance), prioritize the 'material' risk that can cause a 'doomsday scenario' for the company, consult business to validate. Quantify the $$ impact to the business should a risk materializes (use ARR, SLE and ALE to begin with). Use the Pareto Analysis (80:20) - 80% of consequences come from 20% of the causes; hence the unsung 20% of our tooling/investment can bring over 80% of the value (read remediate 80% of the risk). Lastly - focus on the basics, fix the foundation as 95% of the breaches are due to a unpatched machine, EOS/EOL system, unaware employees, open risky sites, open USB ports and rampant admin access.

Parabéns, conseguiu a posi??o de gestor de cyber? Uma dica para seus primeiros 100 dias. - Conhe?a seus liderados (Soft, Hard skills, pessoa e objetivos de vida); - Conhe?a seus pares (Entenda o desafio deles, pergunte como você pode ajudar e como ele pode ajudar cyber a apoia-los mais); - Busque entender as estratégias da empresa, os projetos em andamento e os que est?o para entrar (Visibilidade de presente e futuro); - Defina um framework a ser seguido e já fa?a uma primeira análise (Ou use o que a empresa definir); - Crie uma governan?a entre seu time, seus pares e seu líder (esse alinhamento é importante); - Entenda seus contratos e budget (Importante ter esse conhecimento após seu assessment). Agora a sequencia é com você :)

Moving from contributor to manager is a big change. It's important to understand it's no longer your job to be the best "button pusher." As a leader it's your job to ensure your team has everything they need to be successful. This means understanding the work they are doing and what roadblocks may be around the corner and help deal with challenges. You'll spend more time in meetings and conversations about getting your team what is needed, and less time "being the hero."

Think Resilience. Going forward it will be essential to ensure that the organization is resilient against variois cyber threats including supply chain attacks. Multi prong strategies will have to be chalked out, as bei g resilie t is the key.

One of the most key elements of a successful cybersecurity manager is the ability to understand and speak business language. The cybersecurity strategy and initiatives must be aligned with the business objectives.