CISO's Guide to Effective Communication and Boardroom Wins
Inside the CISO playbook: communication, risk, crisis leadership, and boardroom strategy. In this episode, Prabh Nair and Sunil break down what a modern CISO actually does day to day, how to balance security with business, and how to turn chaos into clear decisions. We cover threat modeling, choosing frameworks, vulnerability prioritization with weighted context, building incident playbooks, RACI for accountability, reporting lines that work, and how to run board meetings that drive funding and trust. If you are aiming for CISO, supporting one, or interviewing for senior security roles, this is a practical masterclass.00:00 – 00:37 – Introduction and Guest Welcome00:37 – 02:50 – Experience of Sunil Varkey and his humanity02:50 - 05:31 - Origin story of Sunil Varkey05:31 – 07:32 - Role of CISO07:32 – 10:23 - How do you decide whether it goes to the board or just an email update when there is any brand new risk pop up10:23 – 14:28 - Handled crises Situation14:28 – 16:24 - Recall tough time - how do you frame the decision to business leaders still trusted you?16:24 – 21:35 - Any Use case21:35 – 30:47 - What does a single metrics help you to turn those boxes into real action30:47 – 34:36 - Three actions to prove truly to own the cyber risk34:36 – 39:10 - Reporting structure39:10 – 42:49 - Playbook for earning trust and Communication Matrix42:49 – 46:10 - Persistent myth about cyber budget46:10 – 56:10 - Good cyber reporting look like with example56:11 – 01:00:40 - Important things learned from this Podcast01:00:40 – 01:01:30 - Vote of ThanksWhat you will learn:CISO role, scope, and reporting models across industriesHow to brief executives with 5 key questions and clear metricsBuilding 15 incident playbooks and who to notify when things breakAsset visibility, configs, and vulnerability context that actually reduce riskRisk acceptance workflow with documented approvalsBudgeting for fundamentals and cutting tool overlapThreat modeling beyond initial architecture and WAF effectivenessHow to earn trust, manage politics, and run concise board reportsWho this is for:CISOs, Deputy CISOs, Heads of Security, aspiring leaders, security architects, and SOC managers who need practical leadership tactics, not theory.CISO talkshttps://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0hT6hgexlYwPTD-wC3oFBe27VGEiizg1NIST Serieshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcC_KabV_Ho&list=PL0hT6hgexlYy0vBwMv0eteiyAxB48RQzy&pp=gAQBiAQBGRC Serieshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mq_vSLHm4r0&list=PL0hT6hgexlYztA41j1bceTfVagP9mtq28&pp=gAQBISO 27001 Videohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQqJH2naU6I&t=1454s&pp=ygUeaXNvIDI3MDAxIGltcGxlbWVudGF0aW9uIHN0ZXBzISO 27001 Implementation Guidehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBfwk10Hh-o&pp=ygUeaXNvIDI3MDAxIGltcGxlbWVudGF0aW9uIHN0ZXBzGRC Practical Serieshttps://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0hT6hgexlYztA41j1bceTfVagP9mtq28GRC Interviewhttps://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0hT6hgexlYz1Usn1Nrnur6OzVoz59zylInternal Audithttps://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0hT6hgexlYyNWBcGYfabwumCr0GKmLWvStudy with MeTelegram Grouphttps://t.me/Prabhstudy
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