Joshua Copeland

Who I Am
I’m a cybersecurity executive, professor, and board advisor with 25+ years of experience spanning federal, state, and commercial sectors. My mission is to cut through the noise, fear, and dogma of our industry to help organizations build resilient systems and the fearless teams to defend them.

 What I Do
• Lead enterprise cybersecurity programs as CISO & advisor
• Build and scale SOC, GRC, and risk management functions
• Develop secure infrastructure architecture and resilience strategies
• Teach graduate courses at Tulane University on cybersecurity
• Deliver keynotes and serve on boards shaping the future of security
• Challenge groupthink as the voice behind #UnpopularOpinion, sparking honest industry-wide dialogue
 
Why It Matters
Cybersecurity isn’t just about tools or compliance...it’s the oxygen that keeps organizations alive. I help leaders see beyond the checkbox mindset, align security to mission, and empower their people to thrive under pressure instead of breaking under it.

Let’s Connect
Whether you’re building a program, scaling a team, or looking to rethink how security fits into your strategy, I’m here to help you make it real.

Previously held TS/SCI Clearance, Public Trust, and CJIS.

Disclaimer:  Any opinions and posts expressed are solely my own and do not express the views or opinions of my employer, vendor, or sponsor.

Security Director (Cyber)

Selected to lead the cybersecurity processes supporting a large state agency's network transformation.  Responsible to integrate cybersecurity baselines, best practices, GRC, and SSP within the division's various work streams related to the transformation and modernization program.

Sometimes these topics just bubble up in conversations.  Today I have to give a nod to my buddy Chris "Cpat" Patteson 🤠 for today's #unpopularopinion: Most of the #risks that will hurt your business have nothing to do with “cyber risk.” 

Cybersecurity loves to talk in CVEs, exploits, and threat actors. But the risks that actually shut doors, kill deals, and crater valuation usually live outside the SOC.

Here’s the part that cybersecurity folks just overlook:
Risk is environmental before it’s technical.

Weather & infrastructure risk
Power instability, regional disasters, water shortages, fuel shortages, and physical access can take you offline faster than ransomware ever will. If your continuity plan assumes “the cloud fixes this,” you’re already behind.

Legal & regulatory risk
 You can be technically secure and still non-compliant. And non-compliance doesn’t show up as an alert; it shows up as fines, injunctions, and forced disclosures on timelines you don’t control.

Contract & obligation risk
 SLAs, DPAs, indemnification clauses, right-to-audit language. Miss one obligation and suddenly your “secure system” is a contractual liability.

Third-party attestation risk (the unspoken table stakes)
 SOC 2, ISO, FedRAMP, HITRUST pro tip:  these aren’t about security. They’re about market access. 
Have the right letters → the aperture opens.
Don’t have them → the conversation never starts.

Competitive landscape risk
Your controls don’t exist in a vacuum. If competitors can close deals faster, promise less friction, or absorb compliance costs you can’t, your “secure posture” becomes a drag instead of a differentiator.

Employee churn & knowledge risk
Talent loss isn’t just an HR issue...it’s operational risk. When key people walk out the door, they take institutional knowledge, relationships, and recovery muscle memory with them. Burnout is a risk multiplier.

Reputational risk
 You can do everything “right” and still lose. Public perception, media narratives, and social amplification don’t wait for root-cause analysis. They move faster than facts and hit harder than regulators.

Most organizations don’t fail because they were hacked. They fail because they misunderstood what “risk” actually meant.

Cyber risk is real, important, and often underappreciated, but it’s just one variable in a much larger equation. If your risk model doesn’t include environmental, legal, contractual, market, human, and reputational forces, you’re optimizing defenses while ignoring gravity.

BL: Security that can’t survive the real world isn’t security.

#unpopularopinionguy

Corporate One Federal Credit Union

Outsystems Architect

Grovepath Technologies

Principal Consultant

OutSystems

Solutions Architect

Federal Signal Corporation

Sr. Principal Software Engineer - Innovation Lab

Principal Software Engineer

Pre-sales Systems Engineer

Rasmussen College

Senior Application Developer

Healogics - (formerly Diversified Clinical Services)

Chief Information Officer

PowerOnGolf

Director

Aventis Pharmaceuticals

Senior Manager, Global Head Application Architecture

IBM Global Services

Technical Project Manager

Experienced professional developer, and inventor in Information Technology with systems development, deployment, and operational expertise in solving complex business problems.  Well versed at defining business models to work with technological innovation, utilizing such patterns as Platform as a Service (PaaS), Software as a Service (SaaS) and cloud-based solutions.  With years of experience, and business cases as evidence, Jorge has a passion for solving business problems with the understanding that technology is an enabler, and not always the driver.

Specialties: Jorge enjoys applying technology solutions to advance business objectives.  IoT, Voice-enabled systems.

Jorge G.

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