Asking a question about an insider security breach at a former company and not getting the right, or actually any, answer is one of the reasons Christy Wyatt decided to take on the role of CEO at Dtex Systems.
Wyatt tells a story of when she was CEO of another company that was suffering from having insiders passing along information to the firm's former executives, who had been dismissed. She asked her team, “How did this happen” and the information was either unavailable or could not be understood. This incident, and others, has led to her pursuing the insider threat.
“Security has been central to all of the roles I've held at Apple, Motorola, Palm, Citi, and Good,” says Wyatt. “As the industry evolved, it became clear that technologies were being weaponized. As a result, some of the most critical problems that needed solving, like the insider threat, were in dire need of innovation. With legacy solutions failing and stakes rising,
I decided to take on the CEO role at Dtex. As a company focused on the insider threat, I can confidently say that we are doing something that matters,” she said.
Another topic that truly matters to Wyatt is her desire to see more women move into the cybersecurity field and while the overall numbers of women in the field may still be challenging, she believes improvement can be seen.
“I recently gave the commencement speech at a large technical university. More than 50 percent of the graduating class were female. That was huge for me to see,” she says.
However, there is still a great deal of room for improvement including moving more women onto company boards and corporate leaders realizing that being able to build a diverse staff should be a required job skill.
“I am always frustrated by the inherent conflict built into traditional diversity programs. You cannot hire a ‘single flavor' leadership team, give them quotas and expect a culture change. When I interview leaders for my teams, men and women, there are a number of things I look for. I look at who they have worked with in the past, who they hired and promoted in past roles, and I look at their references and networks, Wyatt says.
