When Norway decided to go into lockdown for COVID-19, I was actually sitting in Singapore, preparing to travel to the island countries of Palau and Micronesia, where I had lined up a couple of weeks of diving the reefs and chatting up the locals. Being part of the Disaster Recovery Management in my organization, I was instead recalled with immediate effect, and on a plane back in less than 10 hours. This was 12 March, and three months later I'm an expert in all things videoconferencing and my office is still on the kitchen table. I take comfort in the fact that we are all in this together globally, but am so looking forward to when we can go back to seeing each other face-to-face again instead of through a camera lens.
Better yet, I can’t wait until I can travel again. It might have been a coincidence that I was in Singapore when Norway’s lockdown came about, but to those who know me, it was no surprise that I was on a trip somewhere. So far, I've been to more than 120 countries on all seven continents. There’s a saying that “travel is the only thing you buy that makes you richer,” and I believe there is a lot of truth to that. Going somewhere to see things with your own eyes and speaking with the people there beats anything you can ever read from a book or watch in a documentary. Never have I learned more than from my travels, and it’s something I strongly recommend everyone to do. With every trip, you’ll learn something new and be a better version of yourself upon returning to your daily life.
I first heard about ISACA while I was studying for my bachelor’s degree in the late 1990s. I had a few older friends who entered into an information security startup, delivering 24/7 intrusion detection and response services, and I wanted to get into that same line of work. At that time there weren’t specific courses available at the university that delved into information security or risk management – everything was about either software development or systems administration, with none of them having any particular focus on security. Looking back, that’s almost unbelievable, but it’s how it was. We had to look outside our curriculum for the information we were after, and that's how I found ISACA. I decided I would pursue formal certifications as soon as I had sufficient practical work experience to earn them after completing the exams.
I set my eye on the CISO position from early on, and worked my way in that direction for more than a decade before reaching that goal in 2014. Reaching that milestone is one of my career highlights, and I’m glad to be living proof that dedication and hard work pay off in the end. I now have a team of 10 people working on securing the largest private pension fund in the Nordics, reporting directly into the Board of Directors.
While I’m proud of how far I have come, I still have room for more career growth, which is why I recently added ISACA’s CDPSE as my latest certification. I’ve been looking into data privacy as an important part of my line of business for many years, and living and working in Europe with the arrival of the GDPR in 2018, the focus was further enhanced. When addressing information security these days and trying to build digital trust, it’s no longer sufficient to be looking at the old CIA triad of Confidentiality, Integrity and Availability. We now have to add transparency to the mix. I believe trust is one of the most important elements in creating a healthy and effective society – both between businesses and between people. Good intentions alone will never be enough to go all the way, so it is very important that we also have the right data privacy tools, controls and technical capabilities in place to support and implement those intentions, and this is where CDPSE can be part of the solution.
Until I am able to do what I love best (travel!), this year will not feel quite right. One question I am often asked when people hear how many countries I have been to (and maybe you are curious, too?) is if I’ve had a favorite destination. My answer is Australia. With my brother still living there, I’ve had the opportunity to visit Australia several times since my first trip back in 2005, falling more in love with the place each time. I’ve learned that the expression “beauty is only skin-deep” applies to destinations as well as many other things in life, and it’s only when spending a bit of time in a place that you really get to discover its inner qualities. Sailing to Antarctica was another memorable trip, but not one I’m in a hurry to repeat as there is a limit to how interesting ice is after a while. The Philippines, on the other hand, is a place that I’m eager to return to because it has it all: beautiful scenery, hospitable inhabitants and fantastic food. I'll stop myself here as I could probably write a small book on my favorite trips.
I’m fortunate to have had so many memorable experiences. Living in Norway, I enjoy five weeks of holidays each year that I predominantly spend on travel. Aside from that, I'm lucky to have a job with an international footprint that also lets me travel quite a bit. And last but not least, my involvement with ISACA on a global level has led me to many interesting destinations and allowed me to meet interesting people all over the world.