In the SecureWorld Spotlight Series, we learn about the speakers and Advisory Council members that make our events a success. In Q&A format, they share about their professional journeys, unique experiences, and hopes for the future of cybersecurity—along with some personal anecdotes.
Glenn Kapetansky, Chief Security Officer and Technology Capability Lead for Trexin Consulting, has a passion for building systems, organizations, and teams, and has done so across a number of business sectors, technologies, and roles. For more than 20 years, Glenn has advised senior executives and built teams throughout the delivery cycle: strategy, architecture, development, quality assurance, deployment, operational support, financials, and project planning. His credentials were earned in such diverse industries as healthcare, finance, energy, consumer products, and telecommunications.
Glenn has been named numerous times in various Who's Who lists and is a repeat recipient of Bell Labs' Arno Penzias Award for Innovation in the Marketplace. He is active in CIO Roundtables, CISO Chicago, the Chicago Life Sciences Consortium, and the Technology Leaders' Association. Glenn's certifications and memberships include IEEE, (ISC)2 (CISSP), ISACA (CISA), and ITIL (SM).
Get to know Glenn Kapetansky
Question: Why did you decide to pursue cybersecurity as a career path?
Answer: It was a twisty path for me. I thought crypto was so cool in college, but found I didn't have the brains for it. After college, at Bell Labs, I got to work with some of the computer science greats and they taught me about privacy, security, and trust. When I became a CTO at FastWeb.com, I moved deeper into privacy protection, as any exposure of our users' (16-24 years old) information would have killed our company. Later still, I moved into application security—first at ThoughtWorks, where I was tasked with defining Secure Agile software development, and then at Anthem, where my CIO tasked me to ensure "zero defects" with Internal Audit for all our apps. Fun fact: my six years as CSO of Trexin is my first official full-time security role!
Question: What encouraged you to join your current company?
Answer: I worked with the Trexin founders 30 years ago at MCI and had a great time there. When I reconnected with them and joined Trexin, it was a comfortable fit and energizing to work with people I trust (and who trust me)!
Question: What do you wish more people knew about your organization (employer)?
Answer: Trexin was founded by former C-suite level employees to be the kind of consultants to the C-suite we wished we had when we were there.
Question: How would you describe your feelings about cybersecurity in one word?
Answer: Energized.
Question: What has been your most memorable moment thus far working in cybersecurity?
Answer: The day at my dotcom when Korea hacked one of our three web servers. I called the FBI, who asked for my address so they could cart off our server. One-third of our capacity would have been gone, and I embraced the business dimension of security as I hung up instead.
Question: If you had to choose, what's the one cybersecurity practice people can adopt that would have the greatest impact?
Answer: "Trust but verify," and then sometimes skip the "trust" part.
Question: What is an industry-wide change you would like to see happen in 2022?
Answer: Sorry I don't have a good answer, but to quote H.L. Mencken: "For every complex problem, there is an answer that is clear, simple… and wrong." We're in a complex situation!
Question: If you could pass or change one regulation/law in cybersecurity and data protection, what would it be and why?
Answer: If you're handing me a magic wand, I'd like to fast-forward past the years of state-by-state regulation and all their conflicting requirements and confusion to arrive directly at the federal regulation that clarifies and simplifies it all.
Question: What are you most looking forward to this year at SecureWorld?
Answer: Getting into good discussions (arguments?) with my cyber colleagues about the tough challenges we are facing.
Question: What do you hope attendees will take away from your session?
Answer: That technical wizardry is no longer enough to protect us. Cyberpunk never dreamed that the legal and insurance (business) dimensions would change the very definition of "protect" for us cyber leaders!
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