Top 3 problems I solve
- Helping organizations reveal what is hidden, providing both literal interpretation and, when required, an allegorical dimension, to extract, explain, and illustrate deeper understanding of cybersecurity ideas, problems, challenges and solutions.
- Supporting investment decisions by providing cybersecurity due diligence as a component of investment risk; guiding cybersecurity in next-generation innovation; and evaluating the cybersecurity readiness of a prospective and existing investments.
- Strategy advisory services for cybersecurity vendors, enterprises, and investors, including: positioning and messaging; product content and marketing; market and competition analysis; vendor selection; investment thesis development; opportunity identification; and technology due diligence.
- External expert, coach and mentor to cybersecurity executives, company boards, cybersecurity entrepreneurs, and investors.
Background
- Front-and-center in the cybersecurity industry as an IT auditor and CISO long before either became a vogue-and-fashionable profession, cobbling together forensics, investigation and audit tools to stalk the wily hacker before there was a market for commercial solutions.
- Helped build the premier first-generation advanced persistent threat startup, driving thought leadership, and envisioning and chairing one of the first industry standards efforts focused on enabling content exchange and inspection across leading cybersecurity solutions.
- After recognizing (in the mid-1990s) that on-ramp to Internet-enablement required cybersecurity infrastructure, jumped to the vendor / solution side of the table, serving as the top technology, R&D, and strategy executive at three of the largest multinational software companies, before moving into venture capital with a focus on funding and mentoring entrepreneurs driving innovation and introducing emerging cybersecurity technologies.
Important facts
- Considered an innovator and puzzle-maker in the cybersecurity industry, deft but firm around available strategic choices and directions.
- Drove market awareness around the interlock of network, systems, storage and security management (NS3M).
- One of the first thought leaders pushing to merge physical and logical security.
- First multinational software executive and corporate officer to flag industry failure to write secure program code.
- Fluent in the art of cybersecurity communication:
- keynoted major industry, investor, and customer conferences, and sales-team “ra-ra” events;
- authored multiple articles and chapters published in books and leading industry magazines, websites, blogs, and academic journals;
- source of hundreds of quotes in busines and trade press.
- Proven general manager and successful senior leader who came up through the technical and product marketing ranks and provides the big-picture and long-view.
- Well-versed in the art of cross-border software development and international sales and marketing with global leadership and operational experience.
- Venture capital leadership with investments in nearly 30 cybersecurity startups and M&A leadership through cybersecurity acquisitions totaling over $5B.
- Sample of industry leadership activities:
- Chairman, Cyber Together, the Israeli Cybersecurity Industry Association.
- Board member and founder, Cyber Security Industry Alliance
- Co-chair, National Cyber Security Partnership Task Force
Strong Points of View
- There is no longer a need for cybersecurity brands; best to find a next-generation managed security services provider to cover end-to-end cybersecurity needs.
- The source of all cybersecurity evil begins with program design, the development of insecure software, and sloppy engineering; solving cybersecurity means shifting left, adopting principles of trustworthy computing, and applying cybersecurity at all points of continuous integration, delivery and deployment of applications and services.
- The biggest unaddressed threat is the failure to build security into machine learning systems (MLS); failing to consider security in the design of MLS introduces new risks that can have significant impact on business decisions and operations, and our trust in such systems.