All to often, especially when an organization feels short-handed, cyber security is made part of IT.

This creates an inevitable tension because it is IT’s job to maximize the utility of IT infrastructure but a large part of cyber security’s job is to ensure that only required and safe utility is permitted.

It is possible to be the full-time head of IT and a part time CISO, but help mastering that is a good idea, especially at the beginning of the process.

Senior Associate Brendan Hemingway is our domain expert. In 1984, Brendan was working as a developer of medical information systems. The company needed a liaison to customer’s IT folks in order to deploy and support their products. Brendan added that function to developing because he was good at understanding other people’s choices.

In 1989 he transitioned into IT consulting. He has had one foot in the cube farm and other in manager’s meetings ever since.

Over the past 40 years, Brendan has worked in a wide array of IT environments. Brendan will help your IT people map their infrastructure in a way that makes sense to management. Brendan will help your managers express their policies in ways that make sense to IT.

Even if communication between management and IT is nearly perfect, there will be a learning curve about new roles and new goals. A bilingual guide will help.