The appointment of Khan as new chair comes as ClubCISO, an international community of chief information security officers and security leaders, grows to over 500 members.
Khan is currently head of technology and cyber security risk at HSBC Group, and takes over from Dr Jessica Barker, who served as chair of ClubCISO for two years and will remain on its Advisory Board.
Commenting on his new role, new ClubCISO chair Khan said: “We are already seeing that security culture remains right at the top of CISO priorities for the year ahead, so I’m taking over as chair at a point where Jess has already changed hearts and minds about what the security function really entails.
“As chair of ClubCISO, I hope to bring a security practitioner’s experience to bear on the development of the CISO role. I have lived information and cyber security roles for many years and in many different guises. And, let us be honest, every CISO role has a different set of challenges as not all organisations are the same.
“With today’s changing threat landscape and the digitisation of workplaces, the truth is we must work and learn together. We must understand what success looks like and how we can make an impact without feeling unnecessary and damaging stress. This is why open, supportive and independent CISO communities such as ClubCISO are so important.”
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Dr Barker added: “I have loved my time as chair and am proud that we are leading the way as a community of real CISOs with real opportunities and challenges to deal with. Stephen is going to be a brilliant chair to continue our leadership on these hugely important topics.
“We are already seeing from the preliminary findings from the 2021 ClubCISO Annual Survey that stress is affecting CISO and team performance, and that stress is increasing in intensity year on year.
“Personal resilience is a key skill we all have to harness, and the ClubCISO app, events and discussion forums are proving a very effective way for CISOs to share with their peers. We must continue to lead the debate and help our members to support one another.”
What is ClubCISO?
The ClubCISO group looks to challenge the notion that cyber is a purely technical discipline, by facilitating discussion and encouraging positive changes to culture, leadership and board-level influence on the profession.
Powered by Telstra Purple, the non-commercial security community has grown by 56%, and now represents 520 CISOs and security leaders from across UK, European and international businesses.
60% of CISOs surveyed in ClubCISO’s latest Annual Survey said they have delivered significant improvements in security culture in the past year, but the increased stress that members are experiencing shows that more needs to be done in this area.
Manoj Bhatt, head of cyber security consulting and advisory at Telstra Purple, and an Advisory Board member at ClubCISO, explained: “ClubCISO fixes real problems for real people. It is not an academic community or a training body. Our members are right at the coal face of security leadership.
“ClubCISO has the opportunity to become the one-stop shop for CISOs internationally. We don’t only invest in CISOs as individuals, but we also give them the opportunity to give them better intelligence, better access to thought leadership and a truly international network of best practice to draw on.
“The next step for ClubCISO is in empowering the community by asking what they want to see from the group. After all, it’s all about how the members shape the industry. We have something really special here and want to make sure the CISOs remain at the heart of it.”
