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SecurityWeek’s December 2021 fireside chat features Steve Katz and Abnormal Security CISO Mike Britton. Its published agenda covers employee security risk, protective tools and data-science-based email security. SecurityWeek’s event page does not provide a transcript, so it establishes the discussion’s subject areas—not the speakers’ exact words or detailed arguments.
Who was Steve Katz, and why is he called the first CISO?
SecurityWeek describes Katz as widely known as the world’s first chief information security officer (CISO). That is the publication’s characterization, rather than a claim of universal consensus. Its 2021 interview reports that Morgan Guaranty recruited Katz in 1984 to establish and lead a security department, and that Citicorp recruited him as its security executive in 1995. Read SecurityWeek’s interview with Steve Katz.
Katz’s route into the role was tied to opportunity as well as experience. In Kevin Townsend’s interview, Katz said: “I was in the right place at the right time, saw the opportunity and took it.”
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SecurityWeek published the video page on December 6, 2021, for a chat scheduled online for December 2. The listed participants are Katz and Mike Britton, identified as Abnormal’s CISO. The event agenda describes three connected areas:
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- Human and employee security risk.
- Protective tools intended to reduce employee risk.
- Email security informed by data science.
See SecurityWeek’s fireside-chat page. The page’s agenda is the verified guide to the recording’s scope; it does not supply a transcript. Accordingly, no specific quotation or detailed claim here is presented as something said in the video.
What does a CISO do?
A CISO leads an organization’s information-security effort. Katz’s perspective, as presented in the separate SecurityWeek interview, puts the role in business terms: “The role is all about business risk.” He also described cybersecurity as “a tool for managing business risk – it is not an end in itself.”
That framing connects security decisions to the risks an organization is trying to manage, rather than treating security technology as the goal by itself. It also helps explain why the event agenda’s focus on employee behavior, protective measures and email security belongs in a broader conversation about organizational risk. The interview—not the untranscribed video—is the source for Katz’s quoted principle.
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Townsend’s 2021 SecurityWeek interview recounts a 1994 Citicorp intrusion in which attackers made around $11 million in illegal transfers; the interview says $400,000 was ultimately lost. These are retrospective figures reported by that interview, not independently verified here against an original incident record.
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In the same interview, Katz’s broader lesson is that security is part of managing business risk. The figures provide context for the stakes of security leadership, but they should not be mistaken for details from the fireside chat.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Where to watch the video
SecurityWeek’s video page identifies the event and its participants, but the available page information does not establish whether the recording remains accessible or whether a transcript exists. Use the event page for any current viewing availability.
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