This book is for cybersecurity leaders across all industries and organizations. It is intended to bridge the gap between the data center and the board room. This book examines the multitude of communication challenges that CISOs are faced with every day and provides practical tools to identify your audience, tailor your message and master the art of communicating. Poor communication is one of the top reasons that CISOs fail in their roles. By taking the step to work on your communication and soft skills (the two go hand-in-hand), you will hopefully never join their ranks. This is not a “communication theory” book. It provides just enough practical skills and techniques for security leaders to get the job done. Learn fundamental communication skills and how to apply them to day-to-day challenges like communicating with your peers, your team, business leaders and the board of directors. Learn how to produce meaningful metrics and communicate before, during and after an incident. Regardless of your role in Tech, you will find something of value somewhere along the way in this book.

This book is for cybersecurity leaders across all industries and organizations. It is intended to bridge the gap between the data center and the board room. This book examines the multitude of communication challenges that CISOs are faced with every day and provides practical tools to identify your audience, tailor your message and master the art of communicating. Poor communication is one of the top reasons that CISOs fail in their roles. By taking the step to work on your communication and soft skills (the two go hand-in-hand), you will hopefully never join their ranks. This is not a "communication theory" book. It provides just enough practical skills and techniques for security leaders to get the job done. Learn fundamental communication skills and how to apply them to day-to-day challenges like communicating with your peers, your team, business leaders and the board of directors. Learn how to produce meaningful metrics and communicate before, during and after an incident. Regardless of your role in Tech, you will find something of value somewhere along the way in this book.

The Security Hippie is Barak Engel’s second book. As the originator of the “Virtual CISO” (fractional security chief) concept, he has served as security leader in dozens of notable organizations, such as Mulesoft, Stubhub, Amplitude Analytics, and many others. The Security Hippie follows his previous book, Why CISOs Fail, which became a sleeper hit, earning a spot in the Cybercannon project as a leading text on the topic of information security management. In this new book, Barak looks at security purely through the lens of story-telling, sharing many and varied experiences from his long and accomplished career as organizational and thought leader, and visionary in the information security field. Instead of instructing, this book teaches by example, sharing many real situations in the field and actual events from real companies, as well as Barak’s related takes and thought processes. An out-of-the-mainstream, counterculture thinker – Hippie – in the world of information security, Barak’s rich background and unusual approach to the field come forth in this book in vivid color and detail, allowing the reader to sit back and enjoy these experiences, and perhaps gain insights when faced with similar issues themselves or within their organizations. The author works hard to avoid technical terms as much as possible, and instead focus on the human and behavioral side of security, finding the humor inherent in every anecdote and using it to demystify the field and connect with the reader. Importantly, these are not the stories that made the news; yet they are the ones that happen all the time. If you’ve ever wondered about the field of information security, but have been intimidated by it, or simply wished for more shared experiences, then The Security Hippie is the perfect way to open that window by accompanying Barak on some of his many travels into the land of security.

Most people dread writing reports; they also dread reading reports. What they don’t realize is that the techniques that make writing more readable make it more powerful. This is especially relevant for professionals in areas such as audit, risk, compliance, and information security. This small volume provides the tools and techniques needed to improve reports. It does so through addressing crucial concepts all too often overlooked in the familiar rush to perform tasks, complete projects, and meet deadlines. These concepts – the role of culture in communication; the link between logic and language; the importance of organizing thoughts before writing; and how to achieve clarity – may seem academic or theoretical. They’re not. Unless writers understand their own thoughts, actions, and objectives, they cannot hope to communicate them at all – let alone clearly.

Auditing at the speed of risk requires internal auditors to rethink the way we work. Agile auditing provides a path forward that blends the best elements from agile project management and internal audit best practices. Leaders in internal audit are ready to incorporate an agile audit mindset in their departments, but most of the available resources provide theoretical ideas. Even when outside consultants lead an agile transition, the consultants primarily focus on adding agile ceremonies without addressing the fundamental mindset change required for an agile audit transformation. This book provides a practical guide for audit leaders to follow as a playbook for implementing agile across their department, impacting every facet of the audit lifecycle, and addressing the mental shift required for making a lasting change. Every chapter includes discussion questions to facilitate discourse or just to help you analyze your own department. Next, we look at a typical internal audit department as they attempt the transition from a traditional audit methodology to agile auditing so we can learn from their missteps and successes. The guidance in Agile Audit Transformation and Beyond includes the basics of agile auditing, practical directions for shifting each phase of the audit life cycle, common hurdles faced during the transition, and forward-looking thought leadership on expanding beyond internal audit into agile assurance.

The 21st century has been host to a number of information systems technologies in the areas of science, automotive, aviation and supply chain, among others. But perhaps one of its most disruptive is blockchain technology whose origin dates to only 2008, when an individual (or perhaps a group of individuals) using the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto published a white paper entitled Bitcoin: A peer-to-peer electronic cash system in an attempt to address the threat of “double- spending” in digital currency. Today, many top-notch global organizations are already using or planning to use blockchain technology as a secure, robust and cutting-edge technology to better serve customers. The list includes such well-known corporate entities as JP Morgan, Royal Bank of Canada, Bank of America, IBM and Walmart. The tamper-proof attributes of blockchain, leading to immutable sets of transaction records, represent a higher quality of evidence for internal and external auditors. Blockchain technology will impact the performance of the audit engagement due to its attributes, as the technology can seamlessly complement traditional auditing techniques. Furthermore, various fraud schemes related to financial reporting, such as the recording of fictitious revenues, could be avoided or at least greatly mitigated. Frauds related to missing, duplicated and identical invoices can also be greatly curtailed. As a result, the advent of blockchain will enable auditors to reduce substantive testing as inherent and control audit risks will be reduced thereby greatly improving an audit’s detection risk. As such, the continuing use and popularity of blockchain will mean that auditors and information systems security professionals will need to deepen their knowledge of this disruptive technology. If you are looking for a comprehensive study and reference source on blockchain technology, look no further than The Auditor’s Guide to Blockchain Technology: Architecture, Use Cases, Security and Assurance. This title is a must read for all security and assurance professionals and students looking to become more proficient at auditing this new and disruptive technology.

"Ulf Mattsson leverages his decades of experience as a CTO and security expert to show how companies can achieve data compliance without sacrificing operability." Jim Ambrosini, CISSP, CRISC, Cybersecurity Consultant and Virtual CISO "Ulf Mattsson lays out not just the rationale for accountable data governance, he provides clear strategies and tactics that every business leader should know and put into practice. As individuals, citizens and employees, we should all take heart that following his sound thinking can provide us all with a better future." Richard Purcell, CEO Corporate Privacy Group and former Microsoft Chief Privacy Officer Many security experts excel at working with traditional technologies but fall apart in utilizing newer data privacy techniques to balance compliance requirements and the business utility of data. This book will help readers grow out of a siloed mentality and into an enterprise risk management approach to regulatory compliance and technical roles, including technical data privacy and security issues. The book uses practical lessons learned in applying real-life concepts and tools to help security leaders and their teams craft and implement strategies. These projects deal with a variety of use cases and data types. A common goal is to find the right balance between compliance, privacy requirements, and the business utility of data. This book reviews how new and old privacy-preserving techniques can provide practical protection for data in transit, use, and rest. It positions techniques like pseudonymization, anonymization, tokenization, homomorphic encryption, dynamic masking, and more. Topics include Trends and Evolution Best Practices, Roadmap, and Vision Zero Trust Architecture Applications, Privacy by Design, and APIs Machine Learning and Analytics Secure Multiparty Computing Blockchain and Data Lineage Hybrid Cloud, CASB, and SASE HSM, TPM, and Trusted Execution Environments Internet of Things Quantum Computing And much more!