Episode 19

Chris Russell - CISO, tZERO, Cybersecurity Mentor, Snyk Ambassador, Advisory Council Member at NightDragon

Published on: 17th February, 2022

CHRISTOPHER RUSSELL, CISO, tZERO Group

About Christopher Russell:

Christopher Russell is the Chief Information Security Officer for tZERO. Apart from holding a master’s degree in cybersecurity, he also has several certifications in cloud security, endpoint detection and response, SIEM, NGFWs, and blockchain. He has a background as a human intelligence (HUMINT) collector for the U.S. Army and as a combat Veteran. Christopher graduated from the Defense Language Institute with a specialization in Arabic.

Christopher Russell is the Head of Information Security for tZERO Group Inc. He has a Masters Degree in Cybersecurity and numerous certifications and experience in cloud security, endpoint detection and response, SIEM and blockchain. He is a combat Veteran of the US Army, where he was a human intelligence (HUMINT) collector who graduated from the Defense Language Institute, for Arabic.

Chris is also Advisory Council member at NightDragon, a venture capital firm investing in and advising late-state and growth companies, providing a platform of growth for the next-generation of cybersecurity, safety, security and privacy companies.

Connect with Chris on Twitter or LinkedIn

Episode Highlights:

00:00 - Background and First CISO Role

  • Hard to leave CriticalStart / CyberOne
  • Personal interest in blockchain and FinTech

3:03 - Path into Cybersecurity

  • Cybersecurity is second career
  • First career was in Intelligence - really enjoyed it, did meaningful and exciting work oversees
  • Learned Arabic at Defense Language Institute
  • Was in Middle East as long as they could keep me there
  • Getting into Systems (human operations - debriefings, extracting information from people) was easy for him. He had an 'a-ha' moment that this is where it's at - Information Systems.
  • He hit the books, self-studied, went back to school with GI bill - went through courses, spinning stuff up and tinkering to have enough of a background to function.
  • Had basic networking skills and sensitized to it already.
  • Got his Masters

5:59 - First Job at AT&T

  • Low paying, but learned a lot in networking
  • Could make his own Cat 5 and troubleshoot a network to round out his background

6:18 - First Engineering Role in Cybersecurity

  • Still felt like I knew nothing
  • Stayed late, constant research, networking, put in the effort early on
  • His military background helped him with the detect part and making it make sense to the right people - being able to articulate.
  • Mentoring - he created a mind map with all the different stuff you can do in cybersecurity. Start with Security Engineer, then into Security Architect, then Cloud Architect, then pivot into leadership, for example.
  • If goal is to be a CISO - yes, you can get there from Analyst

14:53 - Using Intuition in Cybersecurity (is he going to host a podcast on this topic soon)?

  • "This is something near and dear to my heart - I feel like I get data from things and situations on a different frequency than most and can quickly address problems."
  • In Intelligence this was invaluable and it helped him get a lot of success there
  • In cybersecurity it's not much different - there's a lot of people like this - we have quirkiness and different personalities in cyber, high on IQ side and they have high intuition - they just know where to go and look for problems and answers. It's not something out of the text book.

33:25 - Parting Thoughts and Fear

  • I am on the low end of the fear scale - try and take my energy and be proactive vs. worry.
  • On a scale of 1-10, I hover at a 3. I have times where I have to remind myself to relax and I creep up to a 6 or 7.
  • In a leadership level, bring a sense of calm - keep everyone focused and calm on the mission.
  • As much as I understand why the fear factor is high right now, I choose to stay focused on a 3 and be proactive.
Next Episode All Episodes Previous Episode

Listen for free

Show artwork for The CISO Diaries

About the Podcast

The CISO Diaries
The path to cybersecurity leadership is not a direct route and it's those divergent routes that create the amazing stories and histories of leaders who are driving security to keep businesses and people safe.

We’re Leah McLean and Syya Yasotornrat and we intend to give CISOs and cybersecurity professionals a place to be their authentic selves. These are the unedited stories told of how they got into cybersecurity, the real struggles they’ve persevered through, personal anecdotes that make them tick, and leadership advice based on experiences.

We aren't the kind of cybersecurity podcasts that focuses on the technologies, or recent incidents. We are the podcast that focuses on the people behind the headlines and the incredible diversity of experiences and backgrounds. (And it's not lost on us that we're two awesome female hosts)!

Let's face it: we are a cybersecurity tribe and we need all hands on deck!

We hope you enjoy our CISO diary entries.

After all, we're only human, right?

Special thanks to our sponsor, Cyber Future Foundation, a non-profit global cybersecurity executive leadership community, where leaders, thinkers, and futurists discuss and develop actionable guidance and frameworks for a trusted and safer world.

About your hosts

Syya Yasotornrat

Profile picture for Syya Yasotornrat
Syya is a tenured tech sales professional with her time at SonicWALL and Hewlett Packard (HPE) with some hospitality at the Walt Disney Company and IT recruitment experience in the mix. She is currently a podcast strategist and consultant, helping others to bring out their voice and legacy through podcasting. She loves to learn and talk about anything, so feel free to reach out!

Leah McLean

Profile picture for Leah McLean
Leah is Vice President, Cybersecurity Specialist at Mastercard. She is focused on implementing strategy and programs to evolve cybersecurity risk management approaches and cybersecurity awareness and training. She actively contributes in community working groups to advance cybersecurity risk management and third-party risk. Leah is also a mentor to candidates breaking into cybersecurity careers, and collaborates with employers to rethink their workforce and hiring strategies.
Leah is a co-founder at Whole Cyber Human Initiative, a non-profit focused on redefining how we identify, train, equip, advance knowledge, and build workforce development within IT and Cybersecurity. She also volunteers for Cyber Future Foundation, a non-profit driving workforce development initiatives and private and public sector collaboration.
Previously Leah held senior level roles as a cybersecurity practitioner at Armor, a cloud security company protecting data for SMB and mid-market customers, Apstra (acquired by Juniper Networks), A10 Networks and Cisco Systems. Leah serves on the Board of Advisors for Cloud Defense, Inc., a breach visibility cloud security startup and is on the board for the Cloud Security Alliance North Texas Chapter.
Leah holds a bachelor’s degree in Political Science, with an emphasis in International Relations from the University of California, Santa Barbara. She is an active outdoor junkie always chasing adventure.