Published on February 18th, 2023 📆 | 6578 Views ⚑
0A Day in the Life of Optiv Cyber Security Superheroes: Peter H. Gregory
Blazing Trails in the Cyber Security Industry and on the Roads of the Pacific Northwest
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Peter H. Gregory, Executive Director, Office of the CISO
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Peter H. Gregory is very passionate about helping othersâwhether itâs helping clients develop their corporate security strategy or training the cyber security professionals of tomorrow at the University of Washington. Somehow, he manages to do both, and then some. The author of 40 technology publicationsâincluding CISSP for Dummies (all five editions)âPeter has his hands in multiple projects and pursuits. His many roles include mentor, author, university instructor, conference speaker and chief information security strategist. As an executive director in Optivâs Office of the CISO, his main focus lies with helping companies improve their cyber security programs.
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Itâs About Team
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Peterâs vast team deliver the bench strength organizations need at critical points in their security program journey. The team, comprised of a collection of former CISOs from across the country and all vertical markets, allows companies to use CISOs on an interim or longer-term basis. Their services run the gamut, from initial security strategy assessments to interim CISO, CISO mentoring, and virtual CISO arrangements. When a client has a specific industry issue, within minutes Optiv CISOs can provide actionable, high-level ideas that clients can enact right away. Peter explains, âAlthough thereâs just one of us working directly with the client, thereâs a whole team behind that person facing the client. We donât get bogged down in red tape; we act like an agile startup with regards to how we work with our clients and how we assist them.â
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Itâs About Impact
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Optiv ensures that organizations and their security leadership are not only business-aligned but that theyâre successful. Itâs why our CISOs work shoulder-to-shoulder with our clients, making sure that security is an enablement of their business processes. Peter notes, âI learned that to be successful in technology is to be able to work with business people and to talk about technology in business peoplesâ language. We can see the impact. I know that Iâve made a very substantial difference in the business of many of my clientsâon account of making security important, and understandable all the way to the board of directors.âÂ
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Itâs About Growth
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Peter is the epitome of a life-long learner of all things cyber security: risk management, governance, third-party risk, data security and enterprise incident management. In the 1990âs, when cyber security was a little-discussed subject, Peter was authoring a number of books for Solaris administrators and engineers when organizations were just starting to go online. Outside of cyber security, this âeasy riderâ devotes his energies to his other passion: motorcycle riding and instruction. Not only does he enjoy jumping on his Yamaha Roadliner and hitting Highway 20, but he also loves to impart his knowledge of security in this arena. Peter became a motorcyclist instructor and has helped new motorcyclists ride safer around the highways and byways of the Pacific Northwest.Â
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Peter notes, âWho knows, maybe one or two people have survived situations because of what Iâve been able to teach them.â Very early on in life (to quote a famous Bob Seger lyric), Peter âtook a bead on the northern plains and just rolled that power on.â And he continues to apply that attitude to many facets of life.
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