Top 100 Interview: Lauren Heyndrickx

CISO, Ralph Lauren

Lauren Heyndrickx began her technology career in software development for security company Ubizen in 2000. In 2007, she joined Verizon Enterprise Solutions where she ultimately became Director of Global Advanced Security Services. She joined JCPenney as CISO and VP of IT Infrastructure and Security in August 2016 and took on the CISO role for American fashion brand Ralph Lauren in January 2021.

How will you drive your organization’s cybersecurity strategy forward in 2021?

Digital adoption and transformation as well as workplace flexibility will continue to increase post COVID. From a cybersecurity perspective, we will need to ensure we adapt to these
rapid changes and build flexible and reliable cybersecurity controls that are able to protect our organizations in this fast pace digital world.

What should information security executives focus on in 2021 to generate business value?

Raising cyber awareness within our organization remains critical. Cyber attacks are on the rise and have rapidly increased in sophistication. While we continue to improve our technical
solutions to protect our environments, most breaches are still caused by human error. A strong security culture is key to increase the cyber resilience. Training must be more contextual and personalized to the targeted teams to be most effective.

Lauren Heyndrickx is featured in our Top 100 Global Leaders in Information Security Report. Click here to read the full list.