Cybersecurity

Neglect the Basics at Your Peril, Cybersecurity Strategist Says

Hackers have gotten smarter and bolder in their recent attempts to steal coveted oil company data. Mario Chiock has worked for years to keep them at bay.

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Hackers have gotten smarter and bolder in their recent attempts to steal coveted oil company data. Mario Chiock has worked for years to keep them at bay. Chiock joined Schlumberger in 1980 as a field engineer, but his traditional oil industry career took a turn in the mid-1990s when he began researching a new threat to corporate security, one that emerged alongside advanced computers and the internet. At the time, most in the oil industry had never heard of cybersecurity, much less practiced it.

Schlumberger Chief Security Officer Mario Chiock stands for a portrait on 20 December 2016 in Houston. Credit: Michael Ciaglo/Houston Chronicle.
Schlumberger Chief Security Officer Mario Chiock. Credit: Michael Ciaglo/Houston Chronicle.

Over the years, Schlumberger’s top cybersecurity adviser founded industry groups dedicated to educating oil companies on securing computer systems and sharing information between firms about cyber-incidents, as a way to learn how to guard against attacks.

The initiatives he began at Schlumberger aim to teach employees that they’re key to its cybersecurity. For example, Schlumberger sends its employees test phishing emails to see how many click on a link or email attachment.

“We need to make sure we’re always a few steps ahead of them,” Chiock said. He spoke about his experience and Schlumberger’s cybersecurity efforts.

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