Digital Content Editor, Eve Goode speaks exclusively with Tom Exelby, Head of Cyber Security at Red Helix about cybersecurity, AI and crisis management. The longer I spend out of the Army the more I realise how closely military experiences maps to cybersecurity. Three elements really stick out and are currently shaping my career in cybersecurity. The first is risk management under uncertainty. Military operators are taught to think and act decisively under pressure without having complete information upon which to base their decisions. This is exactly the situation an organisation is in when it is dealing with an incident, so being able to advise on how to thrive in this kind of situation has been really useful. The second is complex programme management. Military strategic planning is about coordinating multiple moving parts and competing priorities toward one objective. Cybersecurity within a modern organisation is just as complex, a web of people, process and technology, and third parties, all changing at once. Being comfortable structuring that complexity has been invaluable. The third, and the one people often underestimate, is the interpersonal side. The Army puts you in front of very diverse range of situations, teams and stakeholders, often under pressure. This forces you to learn how to lead and communicate across a wide spectrum. That’s remarkably like cybersecurity, where you move between technical teams, boards who need risk explained in business terms and customers in the middle of a crisis. The ability to read the room and build trust quickly has been as valuable as any technical skill. Innovation and security must not be seen as competing priorities, they are the same priority looked at from two angles. You cannot grow sustainably on weak foundations, and trying to do so usually costs more time and money later than building it in