Understanding the Adversary Mick Jenkins, Chief Information Security Officer at Brunel University & a former Counter Terrorism officer in the British Armed Forces speaks with Steve Moore about the ideological similarities between defending against terrorists versus cyber criminals, the benefits of mentorship throughout your career in security, and the re-emergence of Soviet era espionage techniques. Building a career in security can be a challenge, even for those of us who start off early. For some however, the job can be a natural progression from her Majesty's armed forces to helping secure the 2012 Olympics and ultimately becoming a CISO. So how do you channel these unique experiences into something that will withstand the diverse threats organizations face today?   Who is Mick Jenkins? My career & professional involvements these days are in cybersecurity and sort of lie in the world I exist in as a non-executive director. At the moment I do all sorts of different things on the computer in terms of dealing with investigations, dealing with IT directors, and current strategies. I signed up & started working in her majesty's armed forces when I was sixteen and a half years old. I certainly never expected to end up as a CISO dealing with strategic cyber security because my life began as a soldier in the British Army.   Working with a Mentor During the Transformation Process I think you and I are both very keen on spotting & identifying the leaders of tomorrow and investing in them. And I think this is particularly important because as we know, over the next 5-10 years, the cyber world is going to need the best of leaders to support boards and deliver strategies that are coherent.  For me having had such wonderful careers, I want to be able to pay some of that back to younger men & ladies. These are people who have the talent to go all the way to the top of the cyber tree as CISOs or strategic leaders both in government and the private sector. Luckily I'm connected with a number of people and different organizations here in the UK, and one of the wonderful ones is a small company taking veterans, who have done something like 22 years or more in service in the military. These are very loyal servants, very disciplined, very capable, and quick learners. The organization takes them out of the forces and retrains them as cyber specialists, cyber analysts, or information security managers, and then places them in industries. It has been very important and key for me that I try to help people who've got the talent. And just like in the military, it's all about thought and actual leadership. It’s about leading by example, having good strategic foresights and acting as a mentor or coach. At the moment I have 2 individuals who are much younger than me who I believe have got the talent. I’m earmarking them for the right career progression over the course of 5-10 years and trying to make sure that they do progress all the way to the top of the cyber tree. I was lucky as my mentor used to take me for lunch quite often every 2-3 months. And he would ask, ‘Are you in the right job here?’, ‘Is there anything I can do?’, ‘Tell me about this company you're working for’, ‘I really think you need to be doing this and this next.’ I had that for the 15 years I had in both the military and in my ultimate career in cyber security. And so I think mentorship and identifying good talent is something we owe ourselves for the future, which is something I particularly enjoy doing.   Mick’s Advice for the Transformation Process As I look back at my career, one thing about me is that I was always striving to achieve excellence and be honest in whatever I was asked to do or serve in her Majesty's service. And I think many of us in the professional armed forces do strive for sheer excellence. And if you've got that kind of psyche to achieve excellence, you'll go above & beyond to learn from people. In my case a lot of it was about learning about the adversary.