This is a special replay of a session held at the SecureWorld Charlotte conference and the SecureWorld Healthcare virtual event this spring. This is an important topic that needs to have more light shown on it within the field of cybersecurity. Enjoy the presentation.

~~~

Neurodiversity. What is it, what are the traits, and why are people with these traits attracted to the cybersecurity fields?

Rick Doten has managed technical cybersecurity staff for more than 25 years. He's observed how we have special skills and abilities to perform the work we do; things like identifying patterns, spotting anomalies, learning new information quickly, troubleshooting, and being able to hyperfocus on a tasks until they're resolved. Rick highlights how some traits help you naturally be good at some cybersecurity roles.

This has been a special interest of Rick's for the last couple years, and he have taken dozens of hours of clinical training to become a certified clinical specialist in Autism and ADHD. He discusses topics such as executive functions, which are the cognitive skills that regulate emotions, impulse control, attention, time management and others, how to manage focus and distractions, and what motivates people.

He'll talk about accommodating these executive functions, how to better gain motivation and focus, and even how people with neurodiversity can be better in interviews.

Rick provides techniques, tools, and even apps to help people with neurodiversity be more productive and successful. He lists apps and life hacks to help initiate tasks, manage time, working memory, and reduce procrastination.

Rick's goal is to celebrate how it's okay that we are different, because the cybersecurity community is a tribe of neurodivergent people who accept, support, and encourage each other.
Register
Speakers
speaker photo
Rick Doten
VP, Information Security, Centene Corporation

Rick is VP of Information Security at Centene Corporation and CISO of the Medicaid healthplan based in Charlotte, NC.

In his prior role, Rick worked as Virtual CISO supporting international companies. During that time Rick educated corporate boards, developed and matured security programs, and created the curriculum for a Cybersecurity Master’s degree program for an International University.

Rick is a frequent speaker at cybersecurity conferences such as RSA, Secureworld, Bsides, and FutureCon, and guest on numerous cybersecurity podcasts, including The CyberWire Hashtable, CISO Series, Google Cloud, Elevate Your Career, and The Rsnake Show.  Rick talks about topics ranging from cybersecurity and risk, to neurodiversity, leadership, and staffing.

He on the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) CXO Trust Advisory Council, and the Boards of his local Charlotte ISC2 and CSA Chapters.  He works with several Venture Capital and go-to-market firms reviewing security technology, as well as on the Board of Advisors for several startups.

Rick is on the CIS Critical Security Controls editorial panel and was a lead author on Version 8 of the Controls.  He was also on the committee to update Cloud Security Alliance CCSK v5 study guide.  Rick has a Cybersecurity YouTube channel where he has videos on the 18 CIS CSC v8 Controls, and other videos on cybersecurity topics.

Rick has alternated between being a cybersecurity management consultant and CISO throughout his 27+ year cybersecurity career, and has led ethical hacking, incident response and forensics, and risk management teams.