Imran Husain
Global CISO
MillerKnoll
Imran Husain is a dedicated and trusted senior Cyber professional with over 23 years of expertise in building Cyber Security and GRC programs for Fortune 1000 companies. Imran is a critical, action-oriented leader who brings technical and management experience as well as the proven ability to build and train teams with a passion for Cyber excellence. He is currently the Global Chief Information Security Officer at Millerknoll.
A fun fact about Imran, he has lived or been to 25 countries.
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Give us a brief overview of the path that led to your current role.
Curiosity and good fortune led me down the road to cyber security. It all happened because of a firewall course a boss had requested me to take back in the early 2000s. As a front-end website developer, I didn’t know much about firewalls, much less any security solutions. But I took the bait and found myself in the rabbit hole immersed in this growing field. Two decades after having been in the cyber war trenches then leading teams, eventually managing and spearheading cyber security areas in very complex network environments, I’m still learning even in my current role as CISO at Millerknoll.
What is one of your guiding leadership principles?
There’s a quote from former 4-star General Colin Powell which I aspire to: "Leadership is solving problems. The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them." In other words, you have to be in a position where your team not just depends and relies on your leadership; but that they have the confidence to trust in your ability to resolve the challenges and problems they face.
What is the greatest challenge CISOs face today, and how are you addressing it?
The uptick in new attack surfaces and the dollars to address them. Each year we see more areas where vulnerabilities are exposed and the risk to security increases. Whether its mobile device phishing, Instant Messaging exploits, iOT compromises or social engineering using AI methods, to keep ahead of the curve we must be vigilant in our due diligence to address and resolve. While we can do our best to manage the risk, the need for obtaining solutions is a challenge from a financial perspective. Therefore, it is imperative in implementing a security best practice that can address all the issues by utilizing an existing security stack. Strategic planning and forecasting a roadmap are the most effective and efficient against those issues.
What is the key to success for someone just starting out as a CISO?
Building relationships. You need to know who the key areas and players are in your organization to champion cyber security as a pillar of success. Get to know those outside of technology as your network from Legal, Privacy, Finance, etc. are equally important.
How do you measure success as a leader?
The one which immediately comes to mind is aligning your objectives to the overall business objectives of the company. When all teams and areas are aligned, the ability to fulfill the corporate objectives becomes much more viable.
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