Navigating the Evolving Landscape of Cybersecurity: A Holistic Approach to Risk – Tech.Strong.Women. EP 23

The cybersecurity conversation has recently shifted from reactive to proactive, focusing on software supply chains and risk management rather than playing whack-a-mole with ever-evolving threats. Today, it’s important to take a holistic and proactive approach to cybersecurity, emphasizing open communication and collaboration to mitigate risks effectively. In this episode of Tech.Strong.Women., hosts Jodi Ashley and Tracy Ragan are joined by Karen Worstell, senior cybersecurity strategist at VMware, to discuss the evolving landscape of cybersecurity.

Worstell emphasizes the shift in cybersecurity discussions toward supply chain concerns, which she views as a security issue rather than purely a supply chain matter. Karen underscores the importance of addressing technical debt as a significant security problem and quantifying risk in cybersecurity. She introduces the concept of a “technical debt tax” as a means of allocating resources to tackle technical debt before initiating new projects and why it’s important for organizations to translate risk appetite into actionable strategies, engage various business units to comprehensively address risk and prioritize cybersecurity practices such as change control and configuration management.