Candy Alexander on Advancing Cybersecurity, Business Resilience, and Cloud Navigation

The role of international president for the Information Systems Security Association, which NeuEon CISO and Cyber Risk Practice Lead Candy Alexander has held twice, can be both rewarding and demanding. Education initiatives at ISSA have promoted the advancement of the cybersecurity industry, while also raising awareness and visibility that have paired to impact the industry in profound ways.

As the No. 1Global Influencer of Security Executives for 2020 by IFSEC Global, Alexander's voice was vital in establishing and co-leading the annual ISSA/ESG research project that aims to uncover problems many cybersecurity professionals face globally. From a wholistic view, ISSA is a huge mission that will celebrate its 40^th anniversary next year.

"So, you might ask yourself, what is ISSA? It is an agnostic professional association that has been dedicated to the cybersecurity professional," Alexander said. "What that really means is that it's a group of like-minded people trying to help each other in building their personal networks, as well as developing the skills necessary to be successful in their organizations, in the roles that they fulfill."

Next on the list: Alexander will be one of the featured keynote speakers for our Cyber Resilience 2023 live virtual event. The event will take place on Thursday, Aug. 24, at 11 a.m. EDT, co-presented by InformationWeek and ITPro Today.

Related:How To Reassure the C-Suite During a Cybersecurity Crisis

She will be opening our live presentation with her session titled Enterprises' Biggest Obstacles to Maintaining Cyber Resiliency in 2023. She provided us with some clarity in a video interview:

We know hurdles exist when considering innovation, since new and improved functionality won't always equal the removal of present and future challenges. The flipside is reliant on ensuring that any deployment of updated technology sustains business operations securely instead of attacks and hackers grinding traffic to a halt.

When considering Alexander's upcoming keynote detailing enterprises' biggest obstacles to maintaining cyber resiliency, we wanted to know more about what stands in the way of continuity and security.

"Several metrics are collected on uptime and availability, but really, the part that we should take to heart and really forget often — we're supporting a business," she said. "The biggest hurdle in my opinion is to align back with that business. So, we need to understand the resources that build a good cyber program that offers business resiliency rather than cyber resiliency.

"So now, instead of worrying about your servers and mainframes and all of that, now you need to worry about connectivity. Whether it's through a cyber-attack or daily life everyday post-COVID — moving to rural environments, for example, connectivity is our weak point."

Related:Who Should Own Cyber Resilience in an Organization?

Globally, every digital business is tasked with adjusting to an ever-evolving cybersecurity landscape within the cloud era. While businesses move to implement new ideas, so must the modern CISO maintain a competitive advantage or three.  

Register for the 'Cyber Resilience 2023: How to Keep IT Operations Running, No Matter What' live virtual event today.