Cybersecurity Series E20: 'Bridging Cybersecurity Gaps in Public Transit' with Dublin Bus' Karl Kilmurray

Today's guest is Karl Kilmurray, Chief Information Security Officer at Dublin Bus. Founded in 1987, Dublin Bus is Ireland’s largest public transport provider, delivering bus services across the Greater Dublin Area. Carrying over 140 million passengers annually, Dublin Bus' services include high-frequency city routes, commuter services and night services, supporting the social, economic and environmental needs of Dublin through safe, reliable and increasingly sustainable transport.

Karl leads the cyber security programme and team at Dublin Bus, overseeing governance, risk management and compliance across the enterprise security function, as well as the cyber security budget and key initiatives. Prior to Dublin Bus, Karl worked at IBM as a cyber security engineer and cyber compliance manager. He also worked with Ekco, where he delivered CISO-as-a-Service support to state and semi-state organisations, and conducted NIS-D assessments for essential services and critical infrastructure providers.In the episode, Karl talks about:

0:00 His journey from programming to cybersecurity, ethical hacking, compliance and consulting

4:03 Seeing that public sector has fewer resources vs private sector with more oversight

5:21 How NIS2 expands cybersecurity rules, enforcement and team growth

6:50 Dublin Bus’ advanced cybersecurity with a growing team facing new threats

8:25 An insight into his role from team building, operations, training and future threats

10:54 A look at Dublin Bus upgrading GPS, Wi-Fi, CCTV, electric and connected systems

14:19 How team building enables managing daily tasks and learning simultaneously

15:52 How AI introduces cybersecurity risks, requiring balance of innovation and security

18:11 Seeing the CISO role evolving, demanding, with team growth and specialisation

To find out more about all the great work happening at Dublin Bus, check out the website www.dublinbus.ie