Our World | A hearts and minds approach to cybersecurity

From innovation guru to IT lead – via archaeologist and helicopter pilot – Clive T. has taken a winding route into cybersecurity. But it’s that diverse experience that’s driving his approach to protecting our business and people from ever-evolving threats.  

“When the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) role was first conceived, it was seen to be a police officer role. But the threats we face and capacity for error are so broad that I think the operating mode for a CISO is doctor. You feel better when you go home and you’ve been supported, rather than governed.” 

That’s the mantra of Clive, our new CISO at RS Group plc , who’s responsible for protecting our business from threats, compromises, exploitation, data breaches and “good old fashioned mistakes”. It’s why Clive’s approach is focused on hearts and minds, alongside the technical remit. 

“For a CISO to be successful, you have to extend into the life of the employee, considering their safety on social media, banking technology etc,” says Clive.  

“It’s part of our duty of care. And if we help people be safe outside work we’ll see those positive behaviours coming back into the organisation.” 

A winding career path 

Clive joined RS in December after 18 years at Fujitsu, where he worked his way up to CISO from roles in innovation and operations. But his career wasn’t always at the cutting edge. 

“My first degree was in archaeology,” says Clive. “I studied in Dartmoor where I worked for a couple of years before realising it wasn’t as adventurous as I thought. So I joined the Army. I was a helicopter pilot and graduated to squadron commander.” 

His military experience is supporting him now – especially when it comes to the CISO fundamentals.  

“I was in a leadership position in the Army and the important thing I learned was to acknowledge you’re not going to be the expert,” Clive adds. “As squadron commander, I had people who were better pilots than me, better navigators, strategists, logisticians and so on. I was there to hold it all together, and that’s really important in information security (infosec), too.”   

“CISOs fall into this trap of thinking they have to know the answer: that’s not true. There are plenty of people who know more about the tech than me. CISOs have to know the right questions, so they can get to the bottom of a problem.”  

Mobiles and mental health 

There’s plenty on Clive’s to do list, such as making infosec even more accessible through jargon-busting, sharing stories and tailoring communications to different audiences. But right now, his focus is on mobile devices.  

“It’s become very easy to load apps which could inadvertently blend personal use with RS use and so put us at risk of a data leak. So we’re going to enforce something we call mobile device management,” explains Clive. “It’s going to enable much more data hygiene.” 

He’s also looking at the impact these omnipresent devices are having on our mental health – what he thinks will be the next big topic for IT teams. 

He says: “We carry these devices all the time. They’re everywhere and always listening. So with the overlay of AI, which is hitting us all now, I’m asking: how can we make the relationship with our devices healthy? 

“There’s a horrible correlation between how active you are on social media and how susceptible you are,” adds Clive. “The more you post the more you make yourself a target.  

“But we want people to be advocates for RS and, if they’re proud of their work, they should be able to post about it without fear. We’ve got to work out how we tackle that.”  

Nurturing curiosity 

Clive’s remit is so vast – and the dangers he’s guarding against so fluid – that he admits he can’t promise colleagues a risk-free world, it “doesn’t exist”. Instead, his utopia is building a culture of confidence: one in which colleagues can trust the protection they have is as robust as it can be and trust the infosec team to be engaging and kind when it’s alerted to an issue.  

Rehearsing scenarios – so the team knows how to react in an emergency – is helping to create that culture. And we can too with one simple ask.   

“Be curious,” says Clive. “Let us know if things are right for your team because this is a massive learning space.”