Episode 1

I'm Mary N. Chaney, ESQ., Information Security & Privacy Expert - MIC drop!

Published on: 19th August, 2021

This week we have the pleasure of having Mary N. Chaney, someone who's had one heck of a journey through our industry. Mary is a former Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Special Agent where she investigated cybercrime and served as their Information Systems Security Officer. Currently, she practices cyber law for her own firm, specializing in helping the CIO, CISO and General Counsel understand each other to protect the enterprise. She also founded and runs Minorities in Cybersecurity, Inc., a non-profit focused on support, leadership and career development for women and minorities in cybersecurity. There’s more to her journey, so have a listen! 

Mary's Social Media:

Highlights:

0:00 – Intros and Mary’s Background         

  • How a bad grade motivated Mary to do better and ultimately go to Law School        
  • Take a weakness and turn it into strength         
  • Tasking herself to graduate #1 in her law school class

4:45 – Mary’s Career With the FBI        

  • Learning how to fight, difficult scenarios        
  • Cybercrime Squad in LA - having fun fighting fraud and going on raids        
  • Collateral duty as acting CISO for LA Field Office        
  • After personal travels, the challenges of entrepreneurship and consulting        
  • “It never ends up the way it ends up!”         
  • Not all FBI jobs are the same or always in the street or “suit and tie”

10:06 – Where does an International Bad@ss come from? Is it genetic?         

  • Krav Magra gives you confidence! Especially for the ladies      
  • Confidence gives mental toughness         
  • The value of sports, authenticity and importance of having a fighting spirit         
  • Mary’s discovery of Ancestry DNA test…and Amazon Warriors?!? ·        
  • Importance of working out and building resiliency         
  • Dynamics of confidence and other issues between women and men
  • Get to know yourself        
  • Self-Doubt and Imperfection – What is perfection?         
  • Focusing on learning opportunities vs. mistakes         
  • Silencing the self-doubt earlier in career

23:00 – Mary’s CISO Journey and Pivoting  

  • Life after the entrepreneurial “learning experience”        
  • 2012 – Mary’s five year goal to be a CISO·        
  • Mary’s experiences with GE Capital·        
  • Great transparency from her manager, mentors and building allies·        
  • Overcoming the setback after learning dynamics of mentorship and trust      
  • Pivoting from the CISO journey        
  • How Dak Prescott and getting away from the NorthEast area brought Mary to Dallas, TX

33:42 - The formation of Minorities in Cybersecurity        

  • Finding satisfaction in giving to and developing other minorities to break down walls from within and other organizations       
  • Corporate reputations in attracting minority talent   
  • Building relationships and soft skills to create opportunities vs submitting resumes online        
  • Taking power back and not allowing setbacks to derail goals and dreams       

Mary Chaney's Final Thoughts – Just get it done!

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.