CyberWire Daily - Susie Squier: You're never alone. [President] [Career Notes]

Episode Date: October 8, 2023

Susie Squier, President of the Retail and Hospitality ISAC, or Information Sharing and Analysis Center, sits down to share her incredible story starting to get her into the cyber community. She first started getting into PR through an internship she did in college, then moved around a few times gaining experience everywhere she went. Susie shares some wise advice, discussing not only her managing style, but also how she handles situations, along with how she deals with adversity. She says "I also have realized over time that I'm never in this alone, whether that's your personal life or your work life and even here, uh, in addition to a great team, all great team." She hopes people will jump in to the world of cyber with an open mind, and though it may be frightening at first, she says you just need to dive in anyway and not be afraid to try new things. We thank Susie for sharing her story with us. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to the Cyber Wire Network, powered by N2K. and VPNs, yet breaches continue to rise by an 18% year-over-year increase in ransomware attacks and a $75 million record payout in 2024. These traditional security tools expand your attack surface with public-facing IPs that are exploited by bad actors more easily than ever with AI tools. It's time to rethink your security. Thank you. Learn more at zscaler.com slash security. Hello, my name is Susie Squire. I'm the president of the Retail and Hospitality ISAC, or Information Sharing and Analysis Center. All I can remember is that I wanted to live in Montana for a while. I don't know why, but I thought it would look like a great state. And then I have no recollection. I studied English

in college and then someone told me that, well, you're going to be a teacher. And I was like, absolutely not. So I do recognize that I did not want to teach. So that's about all I have as far as what my career path was. I actually started as a biology major, switched to English with a minor in history and a minor in Latin. And I went into public relations work. What led me into PR was an internship. I was probably a senior in college. I'd worked all my life, but not like career oriented, just odd jobs. And I realized I needed to like figure out what I

wanted to do with my life. So there was an internship with a small PR firm. So I joined them, moved on to a marketing position with a credit union, a financial institution, worked my way up to, I think it was a director level at that one. And then I moved to another, ended up as a vice president. And then I think a senior vice president of marketing with them. Took a little bit of a break for some family, you know, caring for my mom and our children. So I did that and then did some freelance writing at the time. And then when I decided to go back to work, I reached out to my buddies and said, hey, need a job. And a friend of mine's husband was looking for an editor for their association magazine,

which was the American Chemistry Council. So I went over there and worked with them for a good number of years. Probably, I think everywhere I worked, I worked about 10 years, maybe not that long at ACC, and then moved over to the Retail Industry Leaders Association. When I was there, we served the largest retailers in the country. And end of 2013, beginning of 2014, there were some significant breaches within the retail industry. And our team was working on that. The government affairs team was working on the legislative side because there's a lot

of commotion on the Hill about it. And I worked with a colleague on the operations side. And we pulled together people who had a new title that I was not that familiar with, Chief Information Security Officers, pulled that group together, and we created what was then called our CISC, Retail Cyber Internal Sharing Center. 2015, created a board of directors, then went back to my other job. I think that that was completed. And then the board pulled me back in 2017. And here I am. I came from a membership background and a marketing background. So I'm still very involved in our membership side. I, you know, really look forward to setting up calls. I had, you know, earlier a call today with the chief security officer at Expedia, one of our member companies. And so I try to have as many membership calls during the week that I can. But of course, you know, as a leadership of the

organization, I'm also obviously very aware of our financials and our, you know, we have, I have three great leaders on our leadership team. One who oversees our HR and our finances and operations. Someone who oversees our membership in marketing and communications, and then our VP of Intel operations. So a lot of it is obviously staying in touch with them and then trying to stay out of our staff's way as much as possible. But I know I can ask questions and jump in and they're a great team to support me. I am definitely hands-off, but I am aware of things that are going on. And if I notice that things are not getting done, or if someone said they're going to get something done and it doesn't get done, I do have a very weird memory for remembering things like that. And then I check in. But most of the time, I just like to do what I can to support our team,

to make their jobs easier. If I am going to create anything that's annoying, I definitely jump in to help, whether it's an installation or anything. If it's a big project, then I want to be a part of it to help ease the load for the team as well. And then just make sure everybody's got what they need to continue to serve our members and to fulfill our mission. I'd love to look at other ways to handle a situation. I think I'm pretty good about thinking outside the box.

And I think when you can kind of just walk and think about things, it allows you to have that time to take things into perspective. I also have realized over time that I'm never in this alone. And whether that's your personal life or your work life. And even here, in addition to a great team, all great team, we have a really think we have a fabulous team. I also have a great board of directors. And these are men and women who have, you know, great careers in not only as information security professionals, but as professionals within the

organization. So, you know, when you step back and you think you do have resources, even if it's not related, if it's related to maybe like a personnel issue or something, but not necessarily on the board duties, I'll reach out and call them, you know, set up a call and get their perspective on things, how they've handled situations or what have you. So I feel like there's always resources out there that you can turn to when you're going through any sort of a challenge or question or things like that. One thing that I continue to say is that you have to jump in. It may be a frightening project you're doing. It may not be something that you're particularly comfortable in, but jump in anyway. And even if things are not going well, that's still a learning curve. And then also what I like to say is just be

curious about things going on wherever you are within your organization and just try to learn. And you don't have to be an expert, but just be curious and absorb because you just never know when an opportunity like mine did. I knew nothing about this, but I knew how to manage projects and I knew how to run budgets for my job. You just never know where those kind of skills or where the opportunity may lead you. So I just think that you just can't be afraid to take that step, even if you may not work out. And that's okay. Thank you. That's why we're thrilled to partner with ThreatLocker, a cybersecurity solution trusted by businesses worldwide. ThreatLocker is a full suite of solutions designed to give you total control, stopping unauthorized applications, securing sensitive data, and ensuring your organization runs

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