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Former CIA CISO on Securing Culture, Trust, and Resilience in an AI-Driven World
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Security Community Interviews

Former CIA CISO on Securing Culture, Trust, and Resilience in an AI-Driven World

Aug 5, 2025 | 12:29

William MacMillan, former CISO at the CIA and former SVP for InfoSec at Salesforce, outlines the foundational work CISOs must lead to align AI adoption, zero trust, and insider risk with culture and long-term strategy.

At Security Edge, William will join 150 of Australia’s top CISOs and CSOs to share lessons from both national security and global tech as he unpacks the organisational and cultural structures that drive modern cyber resilience.

 

AI adoption must follow purpose, not pressure

William emphasised that AI should not be adopted to satisfy a vague mandate or trend. Organisations must start with clarity on what they want to achieve and use proofs of concept to test these goals.

He warned against treating AI as a standalone objective without first understanding the current maturity of security processes.

He advised CISOs to map out where their existing practices work and where they fail,…

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