I came across a post mentioning that Exposure Management, Cyber Defense, AI Security, and Network Operations roles could be eliminated as part of the restructuring and transformation planned for 2027.
Does this indicate that Verizon is planning to lay off its entire Security team, or is this similar to previous restructuring exercises, where lower-level bands are targeted to reduce headcount while protecting upper management positions?
Most recent announcement that the new CISO is already promoting employees to positions that those employees are not technically competent to be in. If Verizon is going all in on AI Security, Verizon needs to hire a few of the pioneers in the field of AI Security at Enterprise scale, skilled in application flow diagrams past the skill level of basic half baked Draw.io or Lucid Charts. Visualizations that can be presented to Verizon stakeholders. There are a few of those pioneers out there that can go 8 levels deep, and can forecast AI Token utilization of the next 3 years within a telecommunications organization.
way to prove to the new CISO whether the teams mentioned above are worth retaining. Produce one 3rd party auditable and usable human produced operations run book including disaster recovery. No MOPs, no Swiss Army graphic on the document, no hyperlinks, no Google page for Exposure Management, Network Engineering, DNS, Etc.
@cd In meetings with leaders from some other cyber teams, we often heard, ‘I’ll check with my team,’ instead of getting clear technical answers. After a while, we started questioning how much they really understood. We wished they’d brought their SMEs along so we could have useful discussions and resolve issues without all the back-and-forth.
@dj Dashboards powered by non validated data. Back-end data sources that data integrity has not been cross-validated in decades. Stale address information, contact information, ownership information.
Verizon needs to eliminate the current organization under the outgoing CISO including whatever re-orgs occurred in early 2026. As even a 3rd party could identify gaps in the re-org. Even a consulting company like WWT could point over 1,000 issues in one organization imagine auditing DR or BRP. How many decade-old FW rules can one company have? Is that a FW rule for NYNEX?
Some of the BISOs, ADs, SDs, and AVPs in cybersecurity were all talk and little substance. They had neither relevant experiences nor cybersecurity certifications—some had PMP credentials, while others came from product development. Yet they presented themselves as cybersecurity experts when they thought C.I.A referred only to the spy agency, and hold the ultimate ego.
@bx Stung like a bee I see! You must be in that org. How many systems did YOU patch, how many environments did YOU "fix". Telling others to do the work is not work! We have dashboards for that. Thank you for your attention to this matter.
Clearly this is an outsourcing exercise. Verizon did managed security services before they destroyed those products too. Accenture or the like will take this over...
@bc the groups you refer do not actually finish projects, a team does a small portion of to show progress by a project manager from the PMO, that reports fake success then complains to Executive Management then the project is handed off to another group that has no technical skills or execution skills but the Associate Directors will say 'we will
make it right. a few months down the road, project gets passed to another team. In the last year different teams same scenario over and over again.
@bx a Director even admitted three years ago they didn't know Unix/Linux commands. A Senior Director who oversaw another platform didn't login to the platform for more than seven years. But was providing metrics to the CISO on that platform. A Vice President more worried about head count at a dinner at a conference than actual work. These are just some examples that the new CEO has no idea what is occurring but discusses on the all hands call 'Transformation' In order to align Verizon one must address who does actual work versus who isn't. MCI/Worldcom scenario
@am thanks for sharing your ignorance. Cybersecurity exists because of people such as yourself. Too lazy to fix environments and ready to point the finger when there is a breach or have zero clue on how to fix things.
@bn I work in this field, 70% could go tomorrow and you would not even notice it. Way too many paper shufflers.
Too many security teams seem more focused on asserting their importance to the business than on demonstrating real value. Some have transitioned from traditional IT roles into cybersecurity without developing the depth of expertise needed to be effective.
@OP eliminate the organization, outsource to BT Group, therefore salaries and infrastructure costs get reduced immediately.
@am In theory you're right, in reality this is not being done as the roles you mentionned focus primarily on availability, security comes second (or third).
Taco Cat spelled backwards is Taco Cat
More truth to that statement then this post
Lots of useless folks there, good riddance.
The Cybersecurity bubble was always destined to pop. Systems, network and software engineers should be responsible for securing their own systems and applications. There’s no need for it to be a separate career path especially when people are “securing” things they’re not subject matter experts in. I was shocked when colleges started offering “cybersecurity” degrees. What a bs major.
@a1 the entire group will be eliminated
Cybersecurity will be impacted for sure. But thats every tech company.