I would request all technology leaders to contribute some of their time towards “technology community services.”
When asked how he planned his career path to be a successful technology leader, Praveen Singh, Co-Founder & Chief Information Security Advisor of CyberPWN Technologies, in an exclusive interview with CIO News, said, “When it comes to choosing cyber security as a career path, a common misconception is that a computer science degree is a must.” While having an information technology background is helpful, a successful career in the security space does not depend on it. Though I did my graduation in “Physics” and my early career in business management, I was armed with a curious mind, an affinity and passion for cyber security and technology, and the ability to easily adapt to new situations. After getting good exposure and experience, I began to look at my career path—where I wanted to pursue my passion in “Cyber security consulting and advisory”.
I always believe that “Continuous learning is the key to success, especially in the cyber security industry.” Lifelong learning can enhance our understanding of the world around us, provide us with a successful career path, and improve our quality of life.
I have always included leadership skills, soft skills, cyber security and technical certification, and cyber security and technology research in my continuous learning plan.
At the same time, I started networking with tech leaders, which gave me insights into what it’s like to be a leader in the technology industry. I have engaged with these professionals via social media, conferences, etc.
I love teaching things to people. I love discovering something new in technology and then sharing that knowledge with as many people as possible.
This has helped me a lot to learn new technologies and has given me a chance to connect with other technology leaders and technology mentors.
One more thing I would like to share here is that throughout my career, my aim has always been to jump at opportunities that came into my path and work hard to thrive. Often, the most intriguing things happen when you leave your comfort zone. Now, I have such an exceptional group of experts around me to learn from and collaborate with. There are definitely more technically oriented gurus than me, but I like to think I bring my own strengths to the crew. Technology is such a broad field that it necessitates a diverse “know-how.”
When asked about challenges he faced in his career path and how he overcame them, he said yes, I faced many challenges, which I overcame with abilities and a positive attitude towards life, but I never found them difficult when I couldn’t overcome them. Challenges are a part of life, and it depends on the person how they deal with them.
Now, coming to the point, for me, the toughest challenge in my career was when I became a Technology Head and Team Lead. From consulting, I eventually moved to the other side of the table to serve as a Technology Head and Team Lead.
It was a challenging role for me. As I was in a consulting role earlier, I knew things theoretically better, but I never had practical experience.
To overcome these challenges, “I did a lot of hard work to learn things. Even so, this gave me a chance to learn something new in my career“.
When you face challenges in life, that challenge glorifies your career and gives you the opportunity to go ahead in your life, because challenges make you better.
When asked about challenges faced by technology leaders today while implementing digital technologies and how they can deal with these challenges, he said that as technology evolves at an ever-increasing pace, it brings major challenges to technology leaders.
I would like to share some challenges faced by technology leaders today while implementing the following digital technologies:
Cloud computing: “Connecting Decentralized Software”:
These days, businesses are rushing to the cloud and SaaS offerings. They are moving away from monolithic software applications and towards a la carte offerings. Rather than purchasing a single solution for everything, they are opting for SaaS offerings serving specific functions. As a result, the technology leaders’ focus is shifting towards integration. They must integrate disparate software applications across the business into one cohesive system.
How can you deal with this challenge?
How can the technical leader tie everything together? The solution depends largely on the company and the software they already have in place. That being said, this really applies more towards future software purchases. Approach any new software from an integration standpoint. How well does it work with other software? Does it have an open API? These days, integration is a critical component of any enterprise software package.
DevSecOps Adoption Challenges:
Integrating security into the DevOps lifecycle isn’t that easy to achieve. The organisational structure, resources, governance, policies, and culture must be adjusted in order to adapt to the DevSecOps approach. Not all enterprises are ready for this kind of transformation, but they should be for long-term sustainability.
How can you deal with this challenge?
As a DevSecOps practitioner, you’re up against a multitude of adoption challenges. From cultural change to technology integration and even infrastructure concerns, you need to do your best to address them. For instance, you should invest in developing awareness around cultural issues by looking at the patterns and trends of how people interact with “security” within the organization. Likewise, you should also conduct a detailed risk assessment to define your readiness level before starting the DevSecOps movement. And in the same vein, while adopting DevSecOps, you need to ensure that the tools and processes being employed cover all bases that could mandate a change in your security posture. All in all, a holistic approach is needed to combat the adoption challenges that are bound to surface.
Managing data privacy and consumer privacy:
By now, we are all familiar with GDPR. Also, in the coming years, we will be familiar with “The Indian Personal Data Protection Bill.”
Technology leaders must treat this as the future. As data privacy becomes a bigger issue, other countries will create their own legislation. In other words, strict data privacy regulations will soon become the norm.
This makes issues like shadow IT and data security even more important. IT departments can’t afford to have data floating around that they can’t monitor. Businesses can’t afford to have sloppy data security habits in the future.
How can you deal with this challenge?
Hopefully, your business is already working around data privacy frameworks. If not, you must set up frameworks that provide complete data visibility throughout its entire lifecycle. You must know what data you’re storing, where it’s stored, how you obtained it, how it’s secured, etc. Going forward, the most important thing you can do is stay informed. We’ll see more and more privacy legislation crop up in the coming years. Technology leaders must understand what it is and how it impacts business.
When asked about best practices, industry trends, or advice he would like to suggest to fellow technology leaders for their successful professional journeys, he said, “First of all, I would like to advice people: don’t do things that you aren’t passionate about, at least not as your main occupation.” Everybody has to do things that bore them often, but your long-game and your main role should be in something you have a passion for. In my opinion, it is pretty important that a part of that passion is for people.
You should be collaborative. Being collaborative is a common quality among leaders in the tech industry because they often work with other leaders. Collaborating with others to meet your technology goals is beneficial because it allows different professional strengths and disciplines to work together.
You should write about your learning, what drives you, your mistakes, your successes, and your “secrets”. Leave nothing back for yourself; open-source everything in your head. There will always be more, trust me! Your potential for new learning, experience, and insight must be almost limitless if you truly want to be a leader in a field as fast-moving as technology.
And finally, people in leadership positions often misunderstand the terms “power and wealth.” This is where they lose their way. In short, leadership should be a serving role; it should be there to lead people and projects for improvement and delivery of value.
He highlighted, I would request all technology leaders to contribute some of their time towards “technology community services.”
Community service or volunteering is a great way to develop the leadership skills a good leader needs. When you start, do not think that time is not on your side when it comes to volunteering – as it is not all about time. And even the most minor acts of volunteering matter a lot.
Therefore, receive this with an open mind and see what you can do. Who can you help, how can you help, and how can this be added to your already busy schedule? Each person who participates in community service is essential to its success as well as to his or her personal development.
One more point to add here is that helping the community doesn’t mean doing it yourself.
You are one person. You cannot be in multiple places at once. You are single-threaded. With that in mind, often the best path is to encourage others to be community-minded, attend meet-ups, speak, write, and innovate. It can be hard, but community engagement by people within your sphere of influence is crucially important.
When we talk about the cyber security community, we are all here to help and educate people about cyber security.
“Cyber security is a social responsibility. We all must have a role to play. ”
Also read: CIO News interviews Shri Wangki Lowang, Minister (IT) of Arunachal Pradesh
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