Christian Wickham

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Christian Wickham 's Posts

This post was written and published in March 2022. There have been two very different leadership styles in the invasion of Ukraine by Russia in February 2022. We have seen the impact of poor leadership and the benefit of strong leadership in the conflict, and there are many parallels that… Continue Reading Leadership in the Ukraine War

We are frequently given advice on creating complex passwords, never re-using passwords, and setting up two factor authentication, but we need to consider the 2 factor authentication risks – which come about through both technology limitations and with the ever-present security weakpoint of human factors. What is 2FA? Firstly, it… Continue Reading 2 Factor Authentication risks

Issues arose with using VPN servers when workforces expanded and scaled up. VPNs were built around a model where IT administrators distributed the devices employees used so they knew the network, device, and person. But remote work changed everything.    As the workforce expanded globally and added contractors along with… Continue Reading VPNs and Zero Trust

It is human nature to try and avoid mistakes and the embarrassment of failure, after all, it is educated in to use to avoid mistakes through “operant conditioning“, but it is important to take a policy of embracing mistakes in cybersecurity, to avoid people trying to hide times when they… Continue Reading Embracing mistakes in cybersecurity

If you have ever been in a tricky situation, you will know that half the battle is knowing what is going on – you can’t fix a problem if you don’t know what has happened. However, root cause analysis needs to wait until after the issue is resolved. Too often,… Continue Reading Half the battle is knowing what is going on

Organisations often run head-long into digital transformation, with a focus on technology and toolsets, and not fully understanding the impact on staff. Digital transformation is more than just moving all paper processes into electronic versions of themselves, more than just running out some new collaborative tools or enabling legacy applications… Continue Reading Digital Transformation and People

During my MBA, I was taught that the purpose of a business is to make money, and that customers should always be the focus of everything a company does. However, I think that this view is no longer valid and that my role in leading business by caring for staff… Continue Reading Leading business by caring for staff

With the use of Software as a Service offerings increasing, with 99% of businesses projected to use one or more SaaS solutions in an industry that is worth $165Bn a year. There are 15,529 companies providing SaaS solutions , and so it seems like a logical choice to start using… Continue Reading Risks of SaaS

We have all been there, either by working with someone straight out of University or when you were entering the workforce straight out of education – full of passion and enthusiasm, and keen to make a change. The teenager (or person in their twenties) may challenge and ask questions about… Continue Reading Teenagers might have answers

Why is it that business transformation so difficult to successfully achieve? I believe that the fears and insecurities that keep people locked into behaviours, even invisible fears, even when we know rationally that we should change. Whilst it is possible to change policies, processes, office layout and other external factors,… Continue Reading Change is about people, not policies

With the increased prevalence of working from home initiated by the Covid-19 pandemic, we all need to be more aware of the concern with remote working, which is to include your colleagues. Back in pre-coronavirus days, the concept of “working from home” was often reserved for senior employees, and used… Continue Reading Remote working – include your colleagues

Does your organisation have a culture of cybersecurity? Or, is your company taking a ‘traditional’ approach with cybersecurity and considering it to be a layer that is applied by the IT department? The way that most modern organisations are evolving is that cybersecurity is a culture, not an action to… Continue Reading Cybersecurity is a culture, not an action

I started my career on Exchange 5.0 in late 1997, and the product became my main skill area for nearly 22 years. In that time, I experienced hacking attacks and website defacement of OWA, stability battles and architecture changes when Microsoft evolved the system towards cloud capability. When my career… Continue Reading Exchange on-premises hack: who still has servers?

The Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) developed prioritised mitigation strategies and published them in February 2017, to help organisations mitigate cybersecurity incidents caused by various cyber threats. The Essential 8 are to be considered a baseline of the minimum standards that any business should follow to protect themselves and their… Continue Reading What is the Essential 8

Today I was promoted to CIO within the Naval Shipbuilding College, to build on the vision of a data-driven enterprise to evolve the sovereign capability of naval shipbuilding in Australia. I am honoured to be recognised after my first eight months to be credited with having the abilities and approach… Continue Reading My journey to CIO

If you work in IT, then you will know that there is the ever-present spectre of zombie systems, which remain active and running, but not actually doing anything. These can be servers that were implemented for a project that got cancelled, file shares that are no longer accessed, databases that… Continue Reading What is a Scream Test