Perhaps due to the nature of the position, the InfoSec leadership roles tend to be solitary ones. CISOs, or their equivalent decision-makers in organizations without the role, have so many constant drains on their attention – keeping their knowledge fresh, building plans to secure their organizations further – that they often find themselves on an island.
It's even more challenging for organizations outside the Fortune 2000 that are resource-constrained.
Security leaders are expected to know everything and often don't have anyone inside their organization with whom to bounce ideas or even go to for advice. When a crisis arises, they must often go with their gut or guess at the best solution based on their own experiences.
Security leaders could often use advice but don't have an outlet for it. Chris Roberts, Chief Security Strategist at Cynet Security, offers a new Slack-based community for InfoSec leaders (register here) as a solution.
The new InfoSec Leaders Community will feature several channels and will offer security leaders and decision-makers a fresh opportunity to both get advice and new knowledge and share it with others.
More importantly, the community is aimed not at the well-off InfoSec leaders but at those generally found outside the Fortune 2000 who may be forgotten by vendors, researchers, and other talented analysts.
A new kind of forum for security leaders
This new InfoSec Leaders community is meant to be a place for a meeting of the minds. More than simply a mailing list or a newsletter, Roberts aims to create a place for real dialogue.
Roberts will have a heavy hand in moderating and participating in the conversations, and security professionals are encouraged to share ideas, problems, thoughts, and interesting solutions to common problems.
Among other topics, Cynet's InfoSec Leaders Community will include channels for:
- Sharing ideas on solutions for common problems. members will be able to share their issues, as well as contribute potential solutions and fixes for others' posts.
- Asking questions about job-related issues. InfoSec leaders have a high-pressure job and little outlet. The goal of this channel is to let them discuss how they handle some of that pressure and how to do better at their own jobs.
- Challenging other members of the community. Sometimes, it can be good to simply spin up the wheels and try to solve "intractable" problems. The community hopes to have a place for members to have fun and let off some competitive steam.
- Creating better networks for security professionals. Most importantly, the InfoSec Leaders community hopes to foster a real network of professionals who can contribute knowledge and build stronger ties to help others in similar positions.
The new InfoSec Leaders Community was launched on April 29th. You can register for the new community here.
