Today, Derek Harp is happy to welcome John Cusimano, Vice President of Industrial Security at Deloitte (The industrial cybersecurity division of aeSolutions’ was acquired by Deloitte in Aug. of 2021), as his guest for another episode in the Security Leader series.

John leads their industrial cybersecurity practice team, comprised of about twenty dedicated subject matter experts who mostly came from automation, IT security, or a blend of the two in the earlier parts of their careers. 

John hails from Upstate, New York. While in high school, he played guitar in a band and loved using guitar effects. He wanted to become an audio engineer, so he was motivated to go into the engineering field. After graduating from high school, he went to Clarkson University in Upstate New York and did a combined electrical and computer engineering degree. John picked Clarkson specifically because it was the first school in the entire country to give every new freshman a computer.

In this episode of the (CS)²AI Podcast, John joins Derek to share his superhero origin story, talk about how he became a leader in the cybersecurity industry, and share the valuable lessons he learned along the way. He talks about the benefits of gaining practical experience from doing internships and specializing in your career. He also offers some gold nuggets of advice for people thinking of starting a career in the world of cybersecurity.

If you are entering the workforce or in the mid-level part of your career and want to move up within your corporation or step out and start a business of your own, you will learn a lot from today’s episode, so be sure to stay tuned for more!

Show highlights:

• John talks about how he got to where he is at AE Solutions. (1:15)
• John’s first encounter with technology happened before he was even in high school. (2:18)
• John discusses how his practical experience from summer internships helped him land his first job. (6:09)
• John shares an excellent way to bolster your career. (8:32)
• How John found the niche of safety, and then later in his career, saw the connection between safety and cybersecurity, and started digging into cybersecurity. (11:23)
• John talks about the people who mentored him and influenced his career path. (13:51)
• John shares some nuggets to help engineers dive deeper into the world of cybersecurity. (17:39)
• Overcoming the challenges in his career. (20:29)
• There is value in being obsessive and eventually becoming an expert on a particular topic. (22:36)
• John took a huge risk in starting an industrial cybersecurity practice before the technology got known to be a real thing. (24:33)
• John talks about the areas within the cybersecurity industry that could start exploding with new opportunities over the next few years. (27:23)