And why am I being spammed with Twitter and LinkedIn about him all the time at the moment?

I came up with the concept of The Lost CISO when I was working late in the office one night. I decided to start writing and doing something about it straight away, and even created the banner and took my own picture for it sat at my desk. I also pulled the graphics together there and then, not in Photoshop, but Apple Pages (I was an executive at the time and to my shame do not know how to use PhotoShop. It still came out alright I think, though.

The idea was to create short informational videos, 2-3 minutes long, almost like a high energy presentation, in front of a green screen that I could then superimpose relevant imagery etc. It was a good concept, I thought, and within my technical skills with a camera and Final Cut Pro X. Or so I thought. I could also put all of my other InfoSec videos under the same brand, tying it up into a neat piece of branding. The films would be aimed at people simply are keen to learn, and no more. Not all of it will be groundbreaking stuff, but it will be researched, experienced or just advice that flies in the face of common knowledge. The basics, Plus, I suppose.

I created a test and shared it with some friend who gave me some honest feedback on quality, imagery etc.. I then did a first episode (bearing in mind each one took me about 7 days of intermittent working to edit), shared it again, and excitedly held my breath.

“Do not release this… it will do your personal brand more damage than good…”

Ouch.

Back to the drawing board; except I didn’t, life and work got in the way. Until twelve months went by, and I decided to just get this done properly once and for all. So I invested in some quality lighting, foley and a decent green screen, and even hired someone to do the filming and editing for me, and got to work. Of course, now I run my own business, I wasn’t able to prepare the topics as well as I wanted. To be honest, I pretty much flew through the filming so I could get onto the next job in my increasingly long To-Do list, but the quality, and to be honest, the creative talent I hired shines through far more than before.

As always, my success (such as it is) is tied to the talent of others. A lesson for everyone there, I think…

What’s the infosec lesson here? None really, although perhaps at a stretch I could say that just because my original idea failed didn’t mean it was a bad one, and I just needed the right resources. I don’t know, parallels to infosec education and awareness training maybe.

I hope you enjoy the series, and please do comment on them, let me know what you think and also if you would like a particular topic covered.