Oddbjørn Skauge

Role and responsibilities

Oddbjørn is Sicra's CISO (Chief Information Security Officer). His overarching responsibility is to ensure a good and secure flow of information within Sicra.

At Sicra, he has three fundamental main tasks.

Internal information security.

– One of my most important tasks is to ensure that the information shared within Sicra is shared and stored in a secure manner.

Ensuring customer data is handled in compliance with established frameworks and legislation.

– The EU has introduced NIS2, which will come into force in Norwegian law during 2025. This directive is to secure critical societal services in Norway and the rest of Europe. –

– Critical societal services, whether public or private, such as food supply to energy deliveries, are included in the directive.

Communicating good information security to the market

– This means conveying good routines and practices for information security to the market and partners. The market must comply with GDPR and other regulations.

– We at Sicra can be a good partner to navigate this jungle of laws and regulations.

Education and courses

Oddbjørn has a bachelor's degree in game programming from NITH (Norwegian School of Information Technology) in 2012 (now part of Kristiania University College).

– It gave me good general IT knowledge, project management, teamwork, programming, development methodologies, and knowledge of artificial intelligence.

In addition to a bachelor's degree in game programming, Oddbjørn has several courses under his belt, including leadership, presentation and speech techniques, PRINCE2 (Foundation & Practitioner).

Experience

Before Sicra, Oddbjørn has experience as Group Information Officer and CISO at StrongPoint (2020 – 2024).

– It was educational to work in an international professional environment. I gained a lot from leading large and complex projects.

– To work in an international environment, you must learn to know different individuals from a wide range of cultures and backgrounds.

He says that not all countries understood the importance of having proper work tools.

– Several employees used equipment from around 2010 when we were running an outsourcing project in 2023. All old equipment was upgraded.

Many used freeware systems to save money, he says.

– Freeware systems often have large security holes unless you pay for additional services. This poses a significant security risk.

Oddbjørn also has 2 years of experience from IT-verket (now OmegaPoint) as project manager and head of PMO (department manager for project managers) from 2019 to 2020.

At Schibsted Media Group (2016 – 2019), he worked as a project manager for large infrastructure projects and cybersecurity.

Hobbies

– I go hunting and fishing a lot. Recently, I was on a wild boar hunt in southern Sweden, but I have been on everything from grouse hunting to moose hunting around Norway.

The interest in hunting and fishing also led to an interest in cooking for Oddbjørn.

– There is something rewarding about obtaining and producing locally sourced and good ingredients for my own cooking. Cooking also led to growing my own vegetables.

Together with his friend Martin, he ran the podcast "Martin and Oddbjørn's Garden Podcast."

– We talked about everything from growing roses, berry bushes, and tomatoes. We had about 1000 listeners per episode.

When he is not hunting, fishing, and gardening, he walks his dog Chiva in the woods and fields.