Bithal Bhardwaj is General Electric’s CISO responsible for all regions outside of North America. This is a full plate. GE is a huge multinational conglomerate –ranked #16 on Forbes’ World’s Most Valuable Brands List of 2019-, and Bithal oversees its regional cyber security, regulatory governance, risk management strategies, regional stakeholder relationships, and delivery of cyber services across Latin America, Russia CIS, Europe, MENAT, Sub Sahara Africa, South Asia, Greater China, Japan, Korea and ASEAN.
In the midst of fending off cyber threats and navigating cyber legislation around the world, Bithal found time to help craft the launch of CS4CA APAC – a platform for cyber security practitioners to collaborate in safeguarding Asia-Pacific’s ICS from cyber threats. We catch up with him in anticipation of the summit (taking place this September in Singapore) to learn what his predictions are and to get some good – and one bad- cyber security advice:
Q: What gets you up in the morning?
A: I am a ‘mission person’: exploring new ideas & perspectives, connecting them with my experiences, and finally stretching myself to achieve is what motivates me every day. Being a cyber security professional and an artist means I am usually busy orchestrating and creating some interesting things.
Q: How do you explain your job title to someone outside the cyber security industry?
A: I like to keep it simple: My job is to defend and protect Intellectual property, reputation, and the continuity of business operations against cyber risks.
Q: Is cybercrime evolving quicker than security?
A: By its very nature, cybercrime happens by exploiting loopholes in prevalent technologies, creating and improvising attack vectors to avoid detection. That leads to new threats that drive security organisations to adopt smarter technologies and methodologies. So I would say it is an endless loop where adaptability and agility pays off.
Q: What do the next 5 years hold for your industry?
A: Here are my top 5 picks:
1. The evolving global cyber and privacy regulatory landscape will place PII & CII data on the centre stage of security programs & efforts.
2. Artificial Intelligence will help make smarter security decisions, especially in the areas of monitoring and threat management.
3. Hopefully blockchain will make inroads, making some key business processes inherently secure in the organisations.
4. More security products will move to cloud delivery model, providing more agile solutions to the enterprises.
5. Increased penetration of IoT and digitisation in supply chain and critical infrastructure will pose a steep learning curve for security organisations.
Q: What is the best or worst security advice you’ve ever heard?
A: Best one would be “It all starts with knowing your assets, people and the industry you operate in.” And the worst one would be “Let’s connect the system and collect the data now… we’ll figure out how to use it later.”
Q: What’s your favourite way to stay informed about cyber security?
A: Meeting people at Cyber security events and conferences.
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CS4CA APAC (Singapore, 25th-26th of September 2019) bridges the gap between IT & OT security professionals from Asia-Pacific’s public and private sectors to tackle their top challenges, assess latest technologies, and discuss the future of keeping Industrial Control Systems undisrupted and safe from cyber threats.
Secure your place before July 25th to participate in APAC’s first-of-its-kind summit saving $200 on your all-inclusive pass. Book your 2-day delegate pass at: www.cs4ca.com/apac/
