CxO: Deter. Detect. Defend. Document.

When you become a new CSO, CISO or COO in your growing Fortune 1000 organization, it all starts to become more clear to you.

In decades past, as we worked with transnational law firms up and down Wilshire Boulevard, you could not possibly know in advance, where and how the next major Board-Level issue was going to raise itself to the top of the clients crisis priority list.

Until the minute, hour, day of the month that it actually happened. Was it a surprise corporate incident that is now in the Yellow zone, Orange zone or Red zone?

The pre-9/11 days of Operational Risk Management in the Defense-Industrial-Base companies around the 495 beltway in Tysons Corner, included slow moving, more visible threats to the enterprise, such as severe weather patterns or a forecasted economic recession. There were just a few digital e-mail viruses that popped up on the Internet and grew exponentially that could become a nuisance.

Two decades later working along side the OPS Risk professionals inside large global enterprises in 2022, requires a more detailed and wide spectrum of analytics capability to truly survive.

In early encounters with struggling CxOs we encountered a People, Processes, Systems and External Events matrix, that was in need of real-time relevant updates.

What if you started your journey of excellence today, with just one relevant threat vector named “Ransomware” to excel:

• Critical infrastructures are those systems and assets-whether Physical or Virtual – that are considered so vital to the United States that their incapacitation or destruction would have a debilitating effect on security, national economic security, national public health or safety, or any combination of those matters.
• As ransomware attacks continue to grow, organizations need to improve their security posture to protect against an attack. Better security requires implementing appropriate security controls and ensuring that effective crisis management and employee education are in place.
• The landscape of how we work has changed since the onset of the global pandemic. We must today assess vulnerabilities in a new way and with increased due diligence.
• The cost of a cyber attack is often significant for organizations large and small, and we must strengthen our responsiveness and continuously reduce behaviors that may open vulnerabilities in the future.

This decade, our CxO focus shall evolve on a myriad of “Pre-Incident” indicators and towards our massive data analytics capabilities, to see over the threat horizons towards your organizations most relevant priorities.

You see, the speed and stealth of the modern day adversary has advanced to a whole new threshold, far beyond human sight. Beyond our range of hearing. Now invisible to the naked eye.

Our Corporate Critical Assets still remain "Under Attack".

4D = Deter. Detect. Defend. Document.

"Attackers use Tools to exploit Vulnerabilities. They create an Action on a target that produces an Unauthorized result."

Attackers do this, to obtain their Objective.

As a 2022 CxO in this day and age, you must accelerate to a 24x7 set of TrustDecisions that Deter, Detect, Defend and Document (4D) your rapidly changing Operational Risk Management (ORM) environments...

OPS Risk: 7 Revolutions on our Horizon…

The holiday season is almost upon us. One only has to look into the mirror of 2022 to see the trajectory of our world.

Our digital globe is preparing itself for the next major breakpoint in its history of commerce and business.

Our organizations are in anarchy and the consumers of our products and services are shifting before our eyes.

You only have to look back on the past years major headlines of the Washington Post to gain some perspective on where we are headed in the next 12 months.

Social consciousness is seeping into the workplace and management is keenly aware of the accelerating change factors on the corporate doorstep for 2023-24.

Several new waves of incremental change are upon us. As providers of products and services to the consumers of the planet, whether businesses or individuals, the writing is on the walls of the corporate boardroom: Survive.

The tides of change are now upon us. Look no further than the Seven Revolutions Initiative. [See 7 Revs] The social, technological and demographic facets are enough to make anyone wonder where we are all headed in the next 20 years.

Our Critical Infrastructure industries are putting the building blocks in place to sustain a dramatic shift in who their customers are today and whom they will be tomorrow.

2023 will be another year of corporate malfeasance, seeded with wondrous accounts of incivility. Spawned by the empowered employee to become a whistle blower and a bold new generation of inside crime fighters.

Our generations of young workers and consumers on this planet will pay for something they can believe in, rather than something that is socially and morally bankrupt.

They will work all day in the global banking software development department and work late into the night, developing the next binary code to impress their peers on the other side of the world developing the latest ransomware on the Internet.

They will design the new marketing campaign for the next gas guzzling 4-wheel drive SUV by day and ride home that same evening in their brand new foreign hybrid using electric power.

2023 will be a year of heightened sensitivity to security and exponential asymmetric warfare.

Our dated processes and systems will be adjusted and tweaked to accommodate the planets morphing threats by a new force of true “Innovation Navigators.”

The Board Room Buzz will be more about how to protect those vital corporate assets and simultaneously how to survive our next crisis.

What may be most interesting, is how the governments of the world now cooperate to become more of a global partner on this front.

We sense already a growing cooperation among world leaders to deter and defend our citizens from the spread of a tyrants fear and uncertainty.

Finally, 2023 will be another year we find greater appreciation for:

• The evening glimmer of sunlight across a body of clean water. The wave from the neighbor who lives next door or across the street.
• Our faith in what or whomever we believe in. Those who serve, so we can remain free of threats or illness, to our loved ones and our own well-being.
• The signs that our bodies are healthy. The hope that exists in all of us, for finding a greater peace of mind.

In 2023 and beyond, look with fresh eyes on everyday things…

“Ductus Exemplo”: A Veterans Day Memory...

Veterans Day in the United States today is celebrated for many enduring thoughts and a single reason.

Freedom.

Yet today, you might remember a single time or place where it all comes back to you and then you smile.

We had just finished our tour of the U.S. Marine Corps museum near Marine Corps Base Quantico (MCBQ) in Virginia. Richard was the First Lieutenant that taught me many skills and lessons in life and he was so joyful as we pulled out of the parking lot.

Then it hit him, the entrance Gate to the MCBQ base was just visible to our right and he barks his command: Turn Right Here!

“Got to go see old Brown Field and where we went for Officer Candidate School (OCS)”

As we approached the Guard Station, there was building anticipation of what to say and what would happen if we were declined entry.

The driver side window rolled down and now it was our time to explain: “This U.S. Marine would like to take a ride through to see Brown Field once again and where he attended OCS, sir.”

“Let me see your Drivers Licenses.” The guard looked us over, glanced into the back seat and then said: “OK, go ahead.”

Marine officers are the embodiment of the Corps and the school’s motto, “Ductus Exemplo”, which means ‘lead by example…

As the son of a U.S. Marine, there are eight plus decades of learning and understanding why my Dad Richard, was so focused on “Ductus Exemplo” in our family.

The quick tour of Brown Field was a success that day and my appreciation for what he learned to become, was now more vivid in my mind.

Our bed was made every morning. Mowing the front yard lawn was completed after school before sun set on every summer Michigan Friday. Our driveway was cleared of snow by 9am the morning after the “Grand Tetons” storm had passed.

He always exemplified who he had become at Brown Field and then Parris Island, training and caring for his fellow U.S. Marines as a Second Lieutenant.

He went on in his life to become a family man with a daughter and three sons, a dedicated husband and business executive, plus a scratch golfer. His Country Club Championship trophies adorned my clothes dresser as a kid.

Veterans Day is truly about our continued Freedoms.

It is also about those leaders in our country, whose service continues long after they receive their DD Form 214 Discharge Papers and Separation Documents.

This U.S. Marine Richard passed away at the age of 86. We will never forget you!

“Semper Fidelis”…Always faithful!

Teams: "Innovation Navigators"​ Across America...

As our four teams of two, finished their final presentations of the prototypes they had designed and developed over the past month, we could all see the smiles of accomplishment. Of the pride on their faces, as the sun begins to set on the West coast.

This small patriotic group of “Innovation Navigators” were now ready for the next phase of their National Security Cohort methodology. To implement and test their outcomes in our respective geographic metro areas of the United States.

Sector Teams from Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles and San Diego. All major centers of our economic force and with substantial Critical Infrastructure entities to protect and increase their resilience to a spectrum of Operational Risks.

"Building Awareness of the need to change is now their primary mission. Their opportunity to recruit, educate, network and share vital information."

The people in their Areas of Responsibility (AOR) will soon have greater awareness, of the need to change.

Soon thereafter, they will have the desire to participate and support the change. They will gain knowledge on how to change.

They will learn the process to implement desired skills and achieve new behaviors.

Our “Team of Teams” will embark on their mission of reinforcement to sustain the change.

The journey they have just completed over the past 30 days has provided them new insights. It has created new relationships.

The outcomes are just the results of their purpose for joining the team, yet the new dialogue, challenges and new colleagues are what is most rewarding.

Creating something “New” as a small team that helps to solve a “National Security” problem-set is the true outcome.

What endures are the trusted relationships. This becomes the most valuable asset we attain together.

How might you and your team become “Innovation Navigators” to make a difference and serve a vital purpose in our nation?

November in the United States is always a renewed focus on our Veterans, on our National Security and Defense including our domestic Critical Infrastructure Protection.

As you gaze at our U.S. Flag and say the “Pledge of Allegiance” or listen to Taps, wipe that tear from the corner of your eye. 

Now get out there and make a difference…Onward!