Spotlight on Joseph Da Silva

Joseph Da Silva is the CISO for Johnson Matthey, a global leader in sustainable technologies. Joseph has extensive Security, IT and Business experience across multiple sectors and achieved his PhD in cyber security researching the role of the CISO. A fun fact about Joseph, his first job was working in a guitar shop, and he'd like to open his own one day.

Learn more about the UK & Ireland CISO community here.
 

Give us a brief overview of the path that led to your current role.

After leaving the guitar shop and studying Biochemistry at University, I went from working in a call centre into IT support then became a business analyst and then an architect. I worked on a lot of security projects during that time and had always had an interest in security so it was a natural transition when I moved into security full-time.
 

What is one of your guiding leadership principles?

Approachability; it's crucial as any type of leader that you don't appear distant (or worse, arrogant and superior) but it's even more important in security. If people are hesitant to talk you to you then you're not much of a leader – plus people are more likely to ignore security issues if they're afraid of raising them.
 

What is the greatest challenge CISOs face today, and how are you addressing it?

I think the greatest challenge is managing an ever-changing security threat while enabling the organisation to grow and innovate. It's easy to become the person who says 'no' to everything, it's a lot more challenging (and rewarding) to be the person who says 'yes if...'
 

What is the key to success for someone just starting out as a CISO?

You have to be hungry for knowledge, particularly knowledge about your business; you have to be willing to step away from the technical domain and really understand how your business works.
 

How do you measure success as a leader?

Demonstrating tangible progress, both in terms of risk management and in terms of engagement. If people from across the organisation are coming to me to point out risks they've spotted, then I'm probably doing the right thing.
 

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