Tag Archives: security talent

Verified, episode 2 – A Conversation with Emma Smith, Director of Global Cyber Security at Vodafone

Post Syndicated from Stephen Schmidt original https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/security/verified-episode-2-conversation-with-emma-smith-director-of-global-cyber-security-at-vodafone/

Over the past 8 months, it’s become more important for us all to stay in contact with peers around the globe. Today, I’m proud to bring you the second episode of our new video series, Verified: Presented by AWS re:Inforce. Even though we couldn’t be together this year at re:Inforce, our annual security conference, we still wanted to share some of the conversations with security leaders that would have taken place at the conference. The series showcases conversations with security leaders around the globe. In episode two, I’m talking to Emma Smith, Vodafone’s Global Cyber Security Director.

Vodafone is a global technology communications company with an optimistic culture. Their focus is connecting people and building the digital future for society. During our conversation, Emma detailed how the core values of the Global Cyber Security team were inspired by the company. “We’ve got a team of people who are ultimately passionate about protecting customers, protecting society, protecting Vodafone, protecting all of our services and our employees.” Emma shared experiences about the evolution of the security organization during her past 5 years with the company.

We were also able to touch on one of Emma’s passions, diversity and inclusion. Emma has worked to implement diversity and drive a policy of inclusion at Vodafone. In June, she was named Diversity Champion in the SC Awards Europe. In her own words: “It makes me realize that my job is to smooth the way for everybody else and to try and remove some of those obstacles or barriers that were put in their way… it means that I’m really passionate about trying to get a very diverse team in security, but also in Vodafone, so that we reflect our customer base, so that we’ve got diversity of thinking, of backgrounds, of experience, and people who genuinely feel comfortable being themselves at work—which is easy to say but really hard to create that culture of safety and belonging.”

Stay tuned for future episodes of Verified: Presented by AWS re:Inforce here on the AWS Security Blog. You can watch episode one, an interview with Jason Chan, Vice President of Information Security at Netflix on YouTube. If you have an idea or a topic you’d like covered in this series, please drop us a comment below.

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Author

Steve Schmidt

Steve is Vice President and Chief Information Security Officer for AWS. His duties include leading product design, management, and engineering development efforts focused on bringing the competitive, economic, and security benefits of cloud computing to business and government customers. Prior to AWS, he had an extensive career at the Federal Bureau of Investigation, where he served as a senior executive and section chief. He currently holds 11 patents in the field of cloud security architecture. Follow Steve on Twitter.

Introducing the first video in our new series, Verified, featuring Netflix’s Jason Chan

Post Syndicated from Stephen Schmidt original https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/security/introducing-first-video-new-series-verified-featuring-netflix-jason-chan/

The year has been a profoundly different one for us all, and like many of you, I’ve been adjusting, both professionally and personally, to this “new normal.” Here at AWS we’ve seen an increase in customers looking for secure solutions to maintain productivity in an increased work-from-home world. We’ve also seen an uptick in requests for training; it’s clear, a sense of community and learning are critically important as workforces physically distance.

For these reasons, I’m happy to announce the launch of Verified: Presented by AWS re:Inforce. I’m hosting this series, but I’ll be joined by leaders in cloud security across a variety of industries. The goal is to have an open conversation about the common issues we face in securing our systems and tools. Topics will include how the pandemic is impacting cloud security, tips for creating an effective security program from the ground up, how to create a culture of security, emerging security trends, and more. Learn more by following me on Twitter (@StephenSchmidt), and get regular updates from @AWSSecurityInfo. Verified is just one of the many ways we will continue sharing best practices with our customers during this time. You can find more by reading the AWS Security Blog, reviewing our documentation, visiting the AWS Security and Compliance webpages, watching re:Invent and re:Inforce playlists, and/or reviewing the Security Pillar of Well Architected.

Our first conversation, above, is with Jason Chan, Vice President of Information Security at Netflix. Jason spoke to us about the security program at Netflix, his approach to hiring security talent, and how Zero Trust enables a remote workforce. Jason also has solid insights to share about how he started and grew the security program at Netflix.

“In the early days, what we were really trying to figure out is how do we build a large-scale consumer video-streaming service in the public cloud, and how do you do that in a secure way? There wasn’t a ton of expertise in that, so when I was building the security team at Netflix, I thought, ‘how do we bring in folks from a variety of backgrounds, generalists … to tackle this problem?’”

He also gave his view on how a growing security team can measure ROI. “I think it’s difficult to have a pure equation around that. So what we try to spend our time doing is really making sure that we, as a team, are aligned on what is the most important—what are the most important assets to protect, what are the most critical risks that we’re trying to prevent—and then make sure that leadership is aligned with that, because, as we all know, there’s not unlimited resources, right? You can’t hire an unlimited number of folks or spend an unlimited amount of money, so you’re always trying to figure out how do you prioritize, and how do you find where is going to be the biggest impact for your value?”

Check out Jason’s full interview above, and stay tuned for further videos in this series. If you have an idea or a topic you’d like covered in this series, please drop us a comment below. Thanks!

Want more AWS Security how-to content, news, and feature announcements? Follow us on Twitter.

Author

Steve Schmidt

Steve is Vice President and Chief Information Security Officer for AWS. His duties include leading product design, management, and engineering development efforts focused on bringing the competitive, economic, and security benefits of cloud computing to business and government customers. Prior to AWS, he had an extensive career at the Federal Bureau of Investigation, where he served as a senior executive and section chief. He currently holds 11 patents in the field of cloud security architecture. Follow Steve on Twitter.