Page 208 - Cyber Defense eMagazine Special RSA Conference Annual Edition for 2022

The company then takes a big reputation hit with the public, and many employees are dismayed and
unsure about their future of work. Business continuity is disrupted, and crisis remediation strategies are
forced into action.

In this example, the company wasn’t the primary target (the CEO’s wealth was), but the collateral damage
was plenty impactful.

Reducing risk with digital executive protection

The hit Apple TV show “Severance” in which technology prevents one’s work-life and personal-life from
ever intermingling is a great drama, but it is so far removed from today’s work reality that it's best classified
as science fiction.

Even before the pandemic, the lines between personal and professional lines were thinning. Now, with
remote and hybrid work permanent for so many, and with IoT proliferation accelerating at rapid scale, it's
hard for most security teams to be certain about where their perimeter begins and where it actually ends.

That’s why protecting executives in their personal digital lives to protect the company has been a complex
problem to solve. Fortunately, a new wave of digital executive protection solutions make it possible to
take the burden off of the cybersecurity team and put it into the hands of a third-party that can focus
exclusively on mitigating this specific risk factor without the privacy, legal, and bandwidth concerns.

Attacking the personal digital lives of executives may be a threat in its infancy when compared to other
challenges security teams deal with on a daily basis. But it is a threat worth addressing before it gets
completely out of control.

About the Author

Dr. Chris Pierson is the Founder & CEO of BlackCloak, a leader in
digital executive protection for corporate executives, high-profile
and high-net-worth individuals and their families. Chris has been on
the front lines of cybersecurity and privacy in both the public and
private sectors for over 20 years. Previously at the Department of
Homeland Security, Chris served as a special government
employee on their Cybersecurity and Privacy Committees. He’s
also spent time as the Chief Privacy Officer for Royal Bank of
Scotland (RBS), as the Chief Information Security Officer for two
prominent FinTechs, and is also a Distinguished Fellow of the
Ponemon Institute.

Chris can be reached at [email protected], on Twitter
@DrChrisPierson and at our company website www.blackcloak.io.

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