“If it doesn’t measurably reduce risk or give my people time back, it’s noise.”
Signal to Noise: An Interview with Myke Lyons, CISO at Cribl
In this edition of Signal to Noise, I sat down with Myke Lyons, Chief Information Security Officer at Cribl. Myke’s path into security isn’t what you’d expect from a seasoned enterprise leader. Before he was building SOCs, scaling SaaS security programs, and helping companies make sense of data, he was cooking in kitchens and studying culinary arts.
This week’s discussion followed a refreshingly human story that shaped not only how he thinks about technology, but also how he defines signal, noise, and leadership itself.
From Culinary School to Cybersecurity
Myke likes to joke that, like all CISOs, he started in culinary school. He wanted to be a chef, maybe even a food critic. To pursue that, he enrolled in journalism school, where he needed a summer job. That summer job, as it turned out, changed everything.
He started moving printers for a family friend’s business and quickly picked up basic computer skills from a colleague who taught him copy and paste. “My wife would probably argue she taught me that too,” he laughed. From there, curiosity took over. Myke found himself on hacker forums, learning computers by breaking them and fixing them.
Within months, he was running part of the help desk. That led to a year of break-fix work and then a role at GE, where he built and released a software distribution system that eventually became a product.
“I realized machines didn’t just need to be deployed once. They needed to be managed, updated, and improved,” he said. That mindset of continuous iteration has followed him through every role since.
From GE, he went on to build global network operations centers in New York, London, and Hong Kong. He helped establish 24/7 monitoring and even turned a NOC into an early version of a SOC before the acronym was widely used.
Eventually, his journey led him into security software itself. After working with early SIEM products like Network Intelligence and Splunk, Myke joined ServiceNow in 2011 to help build its security program from scratch. “They didn’t have AppSec, they didn’t have IR, they didn’t have much of anything. So we built it all,” he said.
On Signal to Noise: The Allergy to False Positives
When I asked Myke how he defines signal to noise, he didn’t hesitate. “I have an allergy to false positives,” he said.
For him, signal is succinct, actionable, and clear. Noise is everything else: alerts, messages, or reports that lack the right context.
“I can’t stand seeing messages come in that are missing the story,” he explained. “Signal should be something that tells you what happened, what it means, and what to do next.”
He’s a fan of weekly checklists and routines. To Myke, process is what creates the baseline for identifying real signal. “When you establish normalcy, you can actually see the deviations,” he said. “You can’t improve fidelity if you don’t know what normal looks like.”
Over the years, the volume of logs and telemetry has exploded, but his philosophy has stayed the same. “When I got started, I’d take every log anyone could send me. Now, logging is so voluminous it’s impossible. You have to know what’s worth your attention.”
On Prioritization: Time, Talent, and Culture
When it comes to deciding where to focus his time and investments, Myke is guided by a simple principle: people first.
“I’ve been in SaaS companies for over a dozen years,” he said. “You can’t succeed unless the people around you are engaged and paying attention. You have to create a culture where they care about doing the right thing, not because they have to, but because they want to.”
He avoids top-down, governance-heavy environments. Instead, he builds influence through relationships. “Go direct to the people who make decisions,” he said. “Have a one-to-one conversation, coach them, help them see where risk lives. That scales faster than any policy ever could.”
He sees leadership as a multiplier function: enabling the smartest people to do their best work while spreading good habits across the organization. “Good news can travel fast, but so can bad news,” he said. “Leverage both.”
On AI, Marketing, and Finding the Real Use Case
AI has become a buzzword across the security industry, and Myke’s seen more than his share of inflated claims. When I asked him how he separates signal from noise in the AI hype cycle, he came back to one word: use case.
“As a practitioner, I look at what specific problem it solves,” he said. “And I want to know if I’m even the right customer for it.”
He advises peers to ask vendors direct questions: “Who’s your ICP? Is it a 1,000-person SaaS company with a lean security team? If so, I’m your guy. But if it’s a big enterprise with layers of governance, that’s not me.”
Myke believes that practitioners and vendors both benefit when there’s an honest match between need and capability. “It’s something we should be able to ask out loud,” he said. “And if we’re not a fit, that’s fine. Move on.”
On Leadership and the Return on Time
When the conversation shifted to leadership and AI tools, Myke smiled. “You’re not using it as a leader,” he said. “Your team is.”
That simple insight shapes how he evaluates any new product or process. For Myke, an AI tool has to either measurably reduce risk or give his team time back. Anything else is noise.
“If it’s a swivel-chair scenario where you’re bouncing between consoles, it better have a five or ten times return on time investment,” he said. “Because my smart people should be detecting things, not fighting tools.”
He measures technology not by features but by impact on people’s time and focus. “Make their day better, or reduce my risk. That’s the test.”
Finding Signal
Myke’s story is a reminder that clarity doesn’t come from a linear career path. It comes from curiosity, iteration, and a deep respect for the people doing the work. Whether he’s defining signal, building culture, or filtering out hype, his north star is constant: actionable, measurable improvement.
From culinary school to Cribl, Myke has followed a through line of learning by doing, simplifying what’s complex, and empowering others to do the same.
“If it doesn’t reduce risk or give your people time back,” he said, “it’s noise.”
Stay secure, and stay curious, my friends.
Damien