CyberWire Daily - Jason Clark: Challenge the way things are done. [Strategy] [Career Notes]

Episode Date: September 28, 2024

Enjoy this encore episode where we are joined by the Chief strategy officer and chief security officer for Netskope, Jason Clark, shares his journey as he challenges the status quo and works to expand diversity in cybersecurity. Jason started his career by breaking the mold and heading to the Air Force rather than his family legacy of Army service. Following his military service, he became a CISO for the New York Times at age 26 and kept building from there. Jason advises, "You should always be seeking out jobs you're actually not qualified for. I think that's how you grow. If you know you could do the job, and you've got half the skills, go for it." Jason aspires to a legacy of increasing diversity in the cybersecurity industry and founded a non-profit to do just that. And, we thank Jason for sharing his story with us. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to the Cyber Wire Network, powered by N2K. of you, I was concerned about my data being sold by data brokers. So I decided to try Delete.me. I have to say, Delete.me is a game changer. Within days of signing up, they started removing my personal information from hundreds of data brokers. I finally have peace of mind knowing my data privacy is protected. Delete.me's team does all the work for you with detailed reports so you know exactly what's been done. Take control of your data and keep your private life Thank you. JoinDeleteMe.com slash N2K and use promo code N2K at checkout. The only way to get 20% off is to go to JoinDeleteMe.com slash N2K and enter code N2K at checkout. That's JoinDeleteMe.com slash N2K, code N2K. Hi, I'm Jason Clark, and I am a chief strategy officer and chief security officer. be a pilot in the Air Force. My lineage of four generations is all army officers and generals and

kind of wanted to be different. So I wanted to join the Air Force and I got my pilot's license at 16. Myself personally, I like to challenge the way things are done. I like to challenge why are we doing it this way? It could be done better. We need to innovate this. We need to innovate that. So while the military was one of the best choices I've ever made in my entire life, I learned so much from it. After four years, I just 100% knew it was I needed to be out of government so that I could drive change. And, you know, it was encouraged to challenge your bosses. It was encouraged to challenge thinking. After that, my first CISO job was with the New York Times. They had a compromise and they had lost a bunch of credit cards from one of their business units, which was the Boston Globe.

And so the New York Times brought me in. They had 35 companies under them. And so the job was to build their first security program as their first CISO and to get them PCI compliant. And so that was kind of my first very, very big role. I was 26 years old at the time, believe it or not, as a CISO of a Fortune 500 company. You should always be seeking out jobs you're actually not qualified for. I think that's how you grow. If you know you could do the job and you've got half the skills, go for it. And that was the case with the New York Times. I was energetic.

I had the military background. There wasn't a big pool of CISOs to hire from way back then like there is today. And it was probably cheap compared to other people they might've been looking for because this was in New York City. I made the decision after getting my MBA to jump to the business side

because I felt like I'd maxed out the IT side of what I wanted to do. But I took the IT stuff with me. And so Netscope's a good example of what I've turned this into. So I took being a CISO and a practitioner and being a technical expert to the business by running strategy. I also am the chief marketing officer, so I run marketing. I think I'm the first CISO ever to be the chief marketing officer, which is interesting. And then also, I do run internal security still. So the CISO for Netscope does report to me, and we run everything, believe it or not, like marketing and security go very hand-in-hand for a cybersecurity company. The closer I'm to the problem, the closer I understand my friends out there that are CISOs, and I understand their problems, the closer I see what the

threats are doing and what the risks are in our own program at Netscope and protecting our customers' data. And then I translate that to our strategy. Purpose of every business is to acquire and retain profitable customers, period. That one sentence is the reason why a business exists. And everybody in the company should be thinking about how am I helping acquire or how am I helping retain and how am I helping them be profitable with their customers? And then security should be thinking about that. How are they driving that, right? And so understanding, you know, when

to say no to the business, when to just guide and nudge the business is, I would say, the number We don't have the right amount of diversity or people coming into the industry. I want to be a lot of it focused on getting more diversity into cybersecurity and getting more kids from inner cities and getting more girls into cybersecurity to realize because I think they're what's going to help us make this thing better. We're lacking in that today. So that's actually why I founded the Security Advisor Alliance, which is the I think the largest CISO security nonprofit, all focused on, you know, we've engaged a million kids to get them into cybersecurity across the globe. You inspire and engage one kid, you change somebody's life. Thank you. Secure AI agents connect, prepare, and automate your data workflows, helping you gain insights, receive alerts, and act with ease through guided apps tailored to your role. Data is hard. Domo is easy. Learn more at ai.domo.com.

That's ai.domo.com.