Spotlight on JACOB THYMANN NIELSEN
SENIOR CYBERSECURITY CONSULTANT OT/IT
How long have you been in the OT Cybersecurity industry?
I have worked with software development for O&G and Unix/Linux system administration for over 25 years. This included managing DevSecOps for Cloud and IoT applications, and OT system security specifically.
Describe your role with UTSI and your area of expertise.
A lot of learning is going on right now! Key point is taking the client engagements to success via my ability to get insight into the goals and challenges they have and then applying OT Cybersecurity insight into solutions in a way that enables them to continue to operate, just safer!
What is the future of OT Cybersecurity and how do you see it evolving in 5 years?
Systems are going to be even more connected, posing new challenges, especially for OT systems, as these are typically designed for functionality and not for resilience to cyberattacks and intrusion that will come via the new connections. AI will accelerate this even more with at-scale data gathering and analysis feeding into AI – and OT systems will be connected and sourced to deliver much of that data. Cybersecurity needs to enable that to be done safely.
How will the convergence of IT and OT cybersecurity impact, and hopefully minimize, silos within IT and OT teams?
The convergence will be successful for teams and people who understand the “why” and “what” the differences are between IT and OT and seek the opportunities for “how” convergence can be made safely. Management and understanding of the risks involved are different for IT and OT and if a converged solution is implemented then the IT and OT subsets are likely to have to be different in order to represent a true representation of overall risk.
Favorite project you’ve worked on and why?
In a past OT assignment, getting to work with 50+ manufacturing plants across the world and convince them to update networking equipment for new OT Cybersecurity efforts. This gave a lot of insight into what motivated the plant managers and what they needed to succeed.
Training people after a merger. The opportunity to take a specific technology and project execution approach and instruct, train & coach colleagues and clients across the world to become effective with this technology and process. This had me traveling a lot, but in return saw a significant impact on project output from the people involved.
What is something most people don’t know about you?
I have lived on four continents, and I run marathons for fun.
Favorite quote?
Mission first, team second, ego last.