When it comes to cybersecurity, the finish line keeps moving. Threats get faster, rules become more complex, and the expectations are higher than ever. At Ciena, we’re not chasing the finish line, we’re redefining it. Senior Director of Security Operations Chad Hunt explains.

Security resilience isn’t just about staying online during a crisis. It’s about earning and maintaining the trust of our customers, partners, and one another.  That’s why our cybersecurity focus is simple but powerful - to build confidence through resilience.

At Ciena, we have a global team of defenders, innovators, and communicators who are committed to maintaining well-defended security measures, regulatory compliance, and risk management practices across processes, and partnerships.  We’re more than a security team– we’re a family that protects what connects the world.

Evolving threats

Cyber threats today are unlike anything we’ve seen before.  The threat landscape continues to shift in other big ways also, for example:

  • Speed and scale have exploded. With AI tools increasingly in the hands of both defenders and attackers, things are moving faster than ever. Phishing campaigns are personalized, attack scripts can adapt on-the-fly, and nation-state-level tactics are showing up in criminal hands (and vice-versa).
  • Supply chain risk is the new frontier. Our industry relies on a complex ecosystem of suppliers, integrators, and software partners. Threat actors know this, and they exploit trust between organizations. A single compromised vendor can ripple across thousands of networks.
  • Disruption is real. Attackers extort companies, threatening to leak stolen data and intellectual property. They target availability through ransomware encryption. Their actions disrupt operations, sow uncertainty, and undermine confidence. That’s why resilience, our ability to continue operating even under stress, has become an imperative.
  • Ciena builds the systems that help the world connect. Our customers include global carriers, cloud providers, enterprises, and governments, which are organizations that simply cannot afford downtime or compromise.

For companies like Ciena, which operate at the intersection of networking, software, and innovation, this isn’t background noise.

Resilience as a living discipline

Here’s the good news: resilience isn’t reactionary. It’s engineered, rehearsed, and lived. If there’s one lesson our team has learned over the years, it’s that cybersecurity doesn’t live in a silo. It’s not a product, a department, or a checklist, but instead a living, breathing ecosystem that must evolve as quickly as the threats do.

That’s why our foundational approach is Detection-in-Depth,   which is a principle that brings together technology, process, and people to anticipate, absorb, and adapt to disruption. We aren’t simply deploying tools, we’re focused on engineering adaptability into our operations and the way we defend our enterprise.

This mindset shapes everything we do across four core objectives that define Ciena’s Security Program, each one a pillar of resilience: confidently compliant, well-defended and resilient operations, secure product portfolio, and a security and risk-conscious culture.

Prepared operations, practiced response

Regarding our well-defended and resilient operations, we run on the principle that preparation beats panic. We anticipate, protect, respond, and recover through continuous improvement. Our global Security Operations Center (SOC) operates 24x7, fusing advanced analytics, threat intelligence, and automation to detect anomalies in seconds. Red-team and purple-team exercises keep us sharp, and our playbooks are stress-tested regularly.

We also build redundancy and recovery directly into our critical systems. Immutable backups, segmentation, and tested response plans work to ensure that even if something goes wrong, our operations stay strong.  The ability to take a hit, keep moving, and learn from every impact is resilience in action.

If you want to better understand Ciena’s security strength, look beyond the firewalls and look at the faces.  Our team operates like a family.  We trust each other, challenge each other, and care deeply about the mission: protecting Ciena, its customers, and its innovation.

We share certain traits that define how we show up every day:

  • Grit to overcome and adapt to ever-changing threats, and to not give up until a solution is found.
  • Communication and collaboration across time zones and teams.
  • Proactive, because waiting isn’t an option.
  • Humor and perspective, because calm minds solve crises.
  • Egoless teamwork, where the best idea wins.
  • Resilience, not just in systems, but in spirit.
  • Adaptability, curiosity, and a passion for learning that fuel continuous growth.

We’ve learned how to detach, when necessary, how to support each other when the pressure is on, and how to see paradoxes, like caution and speed, not as contradictions but as complements. It’s this human chemistry that transforms our security program from a function into a force.

Looking ahead

As we look toward 2026 and beyond, we see a landscape shaped by both risk and possibility.

Artificial intelligence will redefine both attack and defense. Quantum computing will demand new forms of encryption. Supply chains will become more complex, and regulatory expectations more diverse.

We see opportunity in that complexity. Ciena’s future-ready approach, which is built on integrated defense, confident compliance, secure products, and a risk-conscious culture, positions us not just to respond, but to lead.

We’re investing in AI-driven detection, autonomous response systems, and quantum-safe cryptography to stay ahead of tomorrow’s threats. Additionally, we’re deepening partnerships with customers, vendors, and industry peers to strengthen the security ecosystem we all depend on.

Through it all, our people remain our most resilient layer of defense. Resilience at Ciena isn’t an aspiration; it’s an operating reality – one built on trust, adaptability, and purpose.

Because a well-defended and resilient operation isn’t just about surviving, it’s about inspiring confidence in every connection.