Organisation

UPL Ltd.

Designation

Lead – Information Security

Define yourself as what you are known for?

Technology Enthusiast, Straightforward, Task-Oriented, and a go-getter.

How does your average day look like?

Read about latest exploits and Zero-day vulnerabilities identified and its impact if any.

Tracking Current projects and Initiatives.

Be a part of new initiatives and streamline processes and suggest controls.

Reviewing exceptions.

Evaluate and discuss strategies to strengthen the environment.

Easing out processes and ensuring a business-centric approach.

Ensuring organization is secured from emerging cyber risk. Reviewing and staying up breast with latest technology evaluation and trends.

What does your current role mean to you?

Current role is not confined to taking technology decisions but also governing new IT initiatives to ensure smooth delivery. There are multiple digital initiatives which require an oversight in terms of aligning the 3 pillars of people process technology.

Since I am responsible for Information security for a Chemical/Agriculture sector, which is not tech savvy. It is my responsibility to make the business management aware of the cybersecurity disruption and importance for a secure environment for day to day functioning of the business.

What helped you to achieve your current Position/Role?

Ability to continuously learn and transform.

Strongly believe in the concept of “Trust but Verify”

Orientation to changing business needs.

Grown the ladder by previous expertise and on ground execution and strategic initiative in my previous role.

As a Risk Leader what keeps you awake at night?

Un-patched systems.

Zero-day vulnerabilities.

Bypassed process controls.

Feeds from Threat Intelligence.

Ransomware threats.

Your vision for Risk Strategies in future? How are you going to beat Challenges?

Risk Strategies must be business-centric. We are building a cybersecurity road-map for the organization keeping in mind the digital initiatives. I believe that the IT teams should be aligned and trained to understand the Cyber Security Risk. Also, constant engagement with End Users in terms of Security Awareness helps manage the weakest link in this hyper-connected world.

How do you keep up with the latest Risk/security issues and methods?

Understand Risk and Business challenge.

Use techniques/ compensating controls to minimize the risk.

Keep oneself updated with latest news and security strategies.

Think out of the box to identify solutions to open risk.

Constant monitoring integrated with threat intelligence feeds is a key to identify events leading to larger security incidents.

Security Incidents are here to stay, but the ability to quickly identify, contain, eradicate and recover is extremely important.

How do you convince or sell Risk Management to other executives? 

Speak the language the C-Suite understands.

Focus on the solution rather than beating around the problem.

Clearly, articulate the benefits of the exercise and suggest the business benefits around the same.

Work towards providing a clutter free and simplistic approach.

Make security as business problem and not IT

Advice for the teams that are doing digital innovation

Engage with the information security team during the initiation phase. No phase should go live without security clearance.

Which two organizations outside of your own do you know the most people at and why?

I work very closely with Big-4 (EY, KPMG) and apart from that Aditya Birla Group and Tata Motors which have been my previous organization.

What inspires you? What are your aspirations?

I have got a chance to work with some of the senior and leading risk managers in my early days. They have been the prime source of inspiration and have greatly contributed to my career path. They constantly inspire me as they move to greater heights.

My aspiration is to work towards and become a Chief Risk Officer who would be responsible to manage the business as well as IT Risk. I am working towards the same.

How do you keep yourself stress-free from challenges in your current role?

Play squash

Hang out with friends and Network.

Hear music.

If not in Risk Profession, where would you have been?

Musician

Something that People Don’t know about you?

I am passionate about reading books.

You are a new addition to the crayon box, What color would you be and why?

Orange, which is a mixture of Red and Yellow.

Red signifies strength, power, determination whereas Yellow signifies freshness, happiness, positivity, clarity, energy, optimism, enlightenment, remembrance, intellect, honor, loyalty, and joy. It’s important to have a balanced approach.

Advice to students and young aspirants who want to build their career in Risk Management.

Spend time to understand the business nuances before recommending any controls.

The world is changing faster than ever. Keep up to date with ever-changing trends.

get the basics and fundamentals cleared before jumping on buzz words.

 Linked In: https://in.linkedin.com/in/prianshuk