Ahead of the ItaliaSec Cyber Security Summit, we met with Alessio Setaro, CISO at Leroy Merlin Italy, for a quick discussion on the state of cyber security in Italy today. With 15 years of experience in IT Security, Alessio imparts his insights into how to balance security and digitalisation, the main challenges facing the Italian industries, and his views for the future.
Read on below for the full interview!
Please introduce yourself and tell us a little about your background….
After more than 15 years of experience, in which i covered various roles in various transversal areas of the ICT sector, I joined Leroy Merlin Italia with the role of Cyber Security Leader (CISO) for the Italian Business Unit and later as a member of the Adeo CyberSecurity Executive Committee, that is accountable for defining and addressing the cyber security strategy of the Adeo group.
Among my main responsibilities are the definition and implementation of the local cyber security strategy in synergy with the global strategy of the group and the coaching activity towards emerging business units, with the aim of supporting them in defining security strategy and actions. mature and effective.
What are your main security concerns and what are you prioritising at the moment? How has the pandemic shaped them?
The main challenges we are facing are a new borderless security model and proactive defense as a process, using threat intelligence and risk as a driver for the strategy. Finally, the training of non-technical personnel is fundamental to counter the opportunistic threats that today represent the majority of the attacks from which we are targeted. The pandemic period has two different faces because on the one hand it has accentuated the exposure of all our weaknesses and vulnerabilities, on the other hand it has increased attention in the context of cybersecurity both at the board and public opinion level.
What do the next 5 years hold for your industry?
The next 5 years will see strong competitiveness on the digital side and will bring digital transformation to physical stores as well, which will evolve towards a “phygital” model. The challenge of cybersecuirity will be to close the gaps of the past as quickly as possible and change paradigm by becoming part of the business enabling process, accompanying it towards this transition in a safe and robust way and without penalizing time to market. We should do all this by finding a meeting point, on the one hand the business must necessarily consider cyber security as part of its process, on the other hand we must be able to train and explain secuirity mission and processes in an understandable and business oriented way.
Catch Alessio at ItaliaSec Summit on 24th – 25th May for his Presentation: ‘Cyber Resilience for the Digital Age’! Join us for his session and enjoy live Q&As throughout the summit by registering for FREE online with code: CYBER-VIP at italy.cyberseries.io/register/.
