As a technology professional, I have borne witness to a technology evolution from sneakernet to ethernet to Internet. Technology continues to speed forward with quantum computing and artificial intelligence (AI). ISACA® has been and will continue to be a part of the acceleration of technology by standing firm in its promise to help business technology professionals and their enterprises around the world realize the positive potential of technology. It is an honor and privilege to be the new Board chair of an organization playing such a pivotal role in advancing digital trust that makes these innovations more secure, more confidence inspiring and more trustworthy.
As technologies evolve and emerge at faster paces than ever, it is important that we focus on building a digital world that is beneficial for all. Machine learning (ML) and AI build their “knowledge repositories” through pattern recognition and algorithms. We have also started to understand the bias that can be programmed into our ML/AI software. As digital trust professionals, we need to be aware of the privacy and security risk scenarios, and ethical and bias risk areas that are impacting and shaping organizations and individuals. Organizations cannot make the best use of these technologies without trustworthy data that are clean, accurate and accessible, and without a people-first focus.
Additionally, and increasingly, the rapid proliferation of technological change has led to a shortage of relevant digital skills. This is becoming a serious issue that will impact performance individually and at the organizational level and, ultimately, impacts consumers. The pace of change will not slow nor wait for any one of us to catch up. All digital trust professionals need to embrace digital skills training. This is a big reason ISACA introduced the Certified in Emerging Technology (CET) credential and focuses trainings and events on emerging technologies.
As we pursue digital trust, we must also pursue ongoing education, learning and skill building that help us successfully navigate our organizations and our teams into an exciting future—a future that helps us all achieve the positive potential of technology.
PAMELA NIGRO | CISA, CGEIT, CRISC, CDPSE, CRMA
Is the 2022–2023 ISACA® Board Chair. She is vice president of security and security officer at Medecision, where she is responsible for all cybersecurity efforts that secure and protect information important to Medecision and its customers, while ensuring the overall cyberresilience of the company. Previously, Nigro was vice president of information technology and security officer at Everly Health Solutions, where she took an acquisition through a digital transformation and modified its security posture. Prior to Everly Health, she was the senior director of information security focusing on the governance, risk and compliance (GRC) practice at Heath Care Service Corporation (HCSC), the fourth-largest health insurance company in the United States. Prior to HCSC, Nigro joined the Digital Assurance and Transparency in the Trust Solutions practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), where she served both audit and nonaudit clients. She is an experienced board member, recognized thought leader and subject matter expert. Nigro is also an adjunct professor at Lewis University (Romeoville, Illinois, USA), where she teaches graduate-level courses on health information security, healthcare data security, privacy and confidentiality, healthcare informatics, ethics, risk, IT governance and compliance, and management of information systems in the MSIS and MBA programs. She has more than 25 years of experience in the healthcare and IT industries. She is an industry and keynote speaker; an author of industry-related articles; and a contributor to industry journals, certification review manuals and training materials.