The Future of Security Operations - Quickbase’s Rebecca Harness: Securely engaging with technology partners and third-party vendors and overcoming the inevitability of human error

Quickbase’s Rebecca Harness: Securely engaging with technology partners and third-party vendors and overcoming the inevitability of human error

08/15/23 • 38 min

In this episode of The Future of Security Operations podcast, Thomas chats with Rebecca Harness, VP and Chief Information Security Officer at Quickbase. Quickbase is a no-code database and application development platform that enables anyone to safely build, iterate, and integrate their applications.
Rebecca has 25 years of experience in information technology and over 12 years of experience in security specifically. Over her career, Rebecca has launched two of her own companies; she’s led numerous high-performing cybersecurity teams through the challenges of supporting cloud-first digital transformation strategies; and she’s a board member of ISACA St. Louis. She also has a Master of Science in Information Security Engineering.

Topics include:

Rebecca’s career journey from her start in IT to founding her first company, to becoming VP and CISO at Quickbase.
The steps Rebecca takes to build a strong security culture within her teams.
Balancing empathy and velocity as a CISO.
The measures Rebecca feels best place SecOps teams to securely and safely engage with technology partners and third-party vendors.
The inevitability of human error and how automation can help combat this.
How Rebecca has seen SecOps evolve and the resource and skills gap being experienced across the industry and how this can be combated.
How generative AI can be a key collaborator for SecOps teams.
Where Rebecca sees the SecOps landscape going over the next five years.
Rebecca’s experience in the MSP space and how she feels MSPs will be affected by attacks becoming less commodified and more targeted.
The measures Rebecca takes to ensure her teams don’t burn out and remain passionate about their role.

Resources: LinkedIn

Topics include:

Rebecca’s career journey from her start in IT to founding her first company, to becoming VP and CISO at Quickbase.
The steps Rebecca takes to build a strong security culture within her teams.
Balancing empathy and velocity as a CISO.
The measures Rebecca feels best place SecOps teams to securely and safely engage with technology partners and third-party vendors.
The inevitability of human error and how automation can help combat this.
How Rebecca has seen SecOps evolve and the resource and skills gap being experienced across the industry and how this can be combated.
How generative AI can be a key collaborator for SecOps teams.
Where Rebecca sees the SecOps landscape going over the next five years.
Rebecca’s experience in the MSP space and how she feels MSPs will be affected by attacks becoming less commodified and more targeted.
The measures Rebecca takes to ensure her teams don’t burn out and remain passionate about their role.

Resources: LinkedIn

Previous Episode

Sublime Security’s Josh Kamdjou: The state of today’s email threat landscape and how to defend without reinventing the wheel

In the first episode of this season of The Future of Security Operations podcast, Thomas speaks to Josh Kamdjou, founder and CEO of Sublime Security, the world's first open and adaptable email security platform, preventing email attacks using Detection-as-Code and behavioral AI.

Josh has more than 13 years of experience in the security industry, doing a mix of government work and private consulting before founding Sublime Security in 2019. Josh holds a B.Sc. in Computer Science from the University of Maryland and is a regular speaker at security conferences and workshops.

Topics include:

Josh’s interesting path into security started with his career working with the government.
How the approach to email security has changed over the last 10 years.
The gap and lack of tooling that Josh discovered in email security led to the founding of Sublime Security.
The types of business email compromise fraud that are still working today and how the threat landscape has changed.
Moving from consultancy to creating a product and securing Sublime’s first customers.
Putting yourself in your customers’ shoes to aid discovery and build a better product.
How Josh’s experience working in government and industry shaped his approach to how he builds Sublime’s product.
What companies are doing to successfully defend against email threats.
Where security operations might be in five years and how teams will be doing more with less.
Sublime Security’s plans for the next 12 months.

Resources: LinkedIn

Next Episode

Incode Technologies’ Jeff Moss: Scaling security for startups and defending against the ever-growing attack surface

In this episode of The Future of Security Operations podcast, Thomas speaks to Jeff Moss, Senior Director, Information Security, at Incode Technologies. Incode is the leading provider of world-class identity solutions for the world’s largest financial institutions, governments, retailers, hospitality organizations, and gaming establishments.

Jeff has over 10 years of experience in tech and IT, moving from project and program management in areas such as construction and IT into cybersecurity, where he quickly worked his way up to becoming CISO and Senior Director of Information Security. He has countless licenses and certifications, including Certified Information Systems Auditor with ISACA, and he also has an MBA.

Topics include:

How Jeff decided to make the move from engineering to product security.
His less traditional path into cybersecurity leadership and how he worked his way up to CISO in such a short space of time.
The evolution of product security over the last five years.
The increased attack surface within the industry and how to reduce the risks.
What Jeff has learned from scaling security for numerous startups.
Tips for the prioritization of initiatives that Jeff has learned as part of his MBA and his years as a project and program manager.
Jeff’s approach to combining the technical and the business in his management.
The shift in organizational structure with CISOs needing to report to the board and CEO.
The proposed Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rulemaking in the US and what it means for the industry.
What Jeff expects to see in security operations over the next five years.

Resources: LinkedIn