Ep.191 -What To Do When Disaster Strikes!

In this episode, Simon sits down with Liz Wharton, a cybersecurity executive, attorney, and founder of Silver Key Strategies, whose career spans technology, public policy, law, and business leadership. Liz shares how she moved from business, finance, and real estate law into cybersecurity and technology, eventually building a career helping founders and leadership teams navigate complex business challenges. Drawing from her firsthand experience during the 2018 City of Atlanta ransomware attack, Liz takes us behind the scenes of a major cyber crisis and explains what incident response looks like from the executive and legal side. She discusses crisis planning, decision-making authority, backup communications, leadership under pressure, and why organizations need to prepare before disaster strikes. The conversation also explores the cybersecurity “poverty line,” the difference between organizations that lack resources and those that knowingly underinvest in security, and why preparation, communication, and trusted teams are critical during a crisis. Key Moments Introduction to Liz Wharton and her career across cybersecurity, law, technology, and business How Liz unexpectedly transitioned from traditional law into cybersecurity What Liz does at Silver Key Strategies as an advisor and problem solver Managing a startup crisis during the Silicon Valley Bank collapse Liz’s firsthand experience during the 2018 City of Atlanta ransomware attack What a major cyber incident looks like from the executive and legal perspective Why crisis response requires clear priorities, rapid triage, and flexible decision-making The biggest leadership mistakes organizations make during a crisis Why tabletop exercises, clear authority, and backup communication plans matter The cybersecurity “poverty line” and the difference between underfunding and deliberate underinvestment To learn more about Liz Wharton, please visit her LinkedIn profile To learn more about Silver Key Strategies, please visit her website. YOUR HOST - SIMON LADER Simon Lader is the host of The Conference Room, Co-Founder of global executive search firm Salisi Human Capital, and lead generation consultancy Flow and Scale. Since 1997, Simon has helped cybersecurity vendors to build highly effective teams, and since 2022, he has helped people create consistent revenue through consistent lead generation. Get to know more about Simon at: Website: https://simonlader.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/simonlader LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/headhuntersimonlader/ The Conference Room is available on Spotify Apple podcasts Amazon Music IHeartRadio