Brian Kruse
ISE® Central Project Award Winner 2019
I first heard about the ISE® Awards through Shelbi Rombout, who is our Senior Vice President and Deputy Chief Information Security Officer at Mastercard. She also nominated our team for the ISE® Central Project of the Year Award, which was incredibly exciting. To have the cybersecurity industry recognize the good work we are doing is so appreciated. I was honored to be part of a team that won the ISE® Project Finalist Award, especially since the other nominees had accomplished such fantastic work. To be recognized as one of the top choices made the ISE® Awards Gala a positive experience, but I also had a great time networking with the other nominees and attendees. As the awards were presented, I found it just as rewarding to cheer on the people in our industry who are making strides and putting in the work.
It is this personal connection and networking between executives and attendees that I value in my relationship with T.E.N. and the ISE® Programs they host. The ISE® Executive Forum is full of candid conversations with your peers in the information industry, allowing you to discuss real problems found in companies across multiple industries. As a result of the networking that happened at ISE® Central, I have had interactions with peers from other industries where I am able to ask them questions and gain perspectives that allow me to do my job better.
Being able to learn from each other about how to approach security problems and new situations is what makes T.E.N.’s events so impactful. For example, I witnessed an eye-opening presentation from the keynote speaker in the ISE® Executive Forum. She discussed how she and her security program were able to benefit from working with the business side of her organization more than from the technical side. As InfoSec professionals, we are always prone to work more with the technical side. We are looking at IT-to-IT communications normally, but she was able to talk to her business about the importance of security. Her business leaders received her message and the personal way she delivered it, and actions involving security started to happen a lot smoother. Seeing a fellow peer being able to facilitate that conversation successfully and reinforce those kinds of paradigm shifts in the business is huge and noteworthy for everybody.
My peers should absolutely take part in the nominations process and attend an ISE® Program. The ISE® Awards are an opportunity for people to showcase solutions and processes that are working well within their environment and within their companies. The best way we are going to learn how to influence this industry for the betterment of all is to see what works and what does not. By engaging with the nomination process, you can bring forth the latest best practices of security and celebrate new industry achievements. Additionally, by attending the event, you open yourself up to candid networking amongst peers throughout the cybersecurity industry. Making these connections with each other is beyond valuable because they allow us all to see more clearly and speak to the hardest problems we are all facing.