Interview


I understand you are a passionate advocate for women in tech and women in leadership roles. Please could you explain a bit more about this? I was very fortunate to have been given stretch assignments early in my career, by people who helped to mentor me which enabled my journey into leadership. I try to pay it forward by sponsoring and mentoring women who otherwise might not think they are ‘ready’ for more. I encourage them to raise their hands and take chances with stretch assignments and also applying for positions they think they aren’t yet ready for – this increases their visibility within the organisation and helps to build confidences. I appreciate companies and teams with diverse leadership and want to make sure I am contributing to growing and developing future leaders.


Please could you explain a bit more about Malwarebytes platform integrations program? Our customers and partners use Malwarebytes’ business products with a wide variety of other security and IT tools. To ensure that they can facilitate management of tools as seamlessly as possible with popular tools, we continue to build and host a number of platform integrations with leading SOAR, SIEM, ITSM, and RMM/PSA platforms. Te recent relaunch of our platform integrations program enables partners and customers to more easily find and access our integrations and more effectively try them to determine that they provide the right level of functionality and ultimately value. We see many partners and customers extending their endpoint security practice with automations, enhancing their threat intelligence, and finding new operational efficiencies by using our platform integrations.


What inspires you about working in the channel? I value collaboration and working with channel partners allows me to have a combined team of people who can help customers meet their needs. I am also a very social person and enjoy having colleagues to work with who aren’t within my immediate company – working in the channel expands your network! Also, when selling cybersecurity solutions, having channel partners allows you to be one of a few solutions that can combine to meet the customer’s needs – the channel partner can pull it all together.


How has business changed within the channel over the past couple of years and where do you see the foreseeable future headed? How our customers consume solutions has radically changed over the past several years. Tis change started to emerge as the transition from hardware into soſtware became more ubiquitous. Now subscription-based SaaS models have become prolific both at the consumer and enterprise levels. Tis plus the move towards digital transformation, hybrid workplace transition (especially accelerated by COVID), and the need for end-to-end security has created unique opportunities for our Channel partners. Our customers rely on these very partners to build solutions that encompass all elements of the technology stack, creating a unique opportunity for our partners to become


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experts on the security stack, providing end-to-end solutions and guidance to our customers. Tis, coupled with the need for consultative guidance, also creates great opportunity for our partners to position professional services and managed services to help customers ensure they are getting the maximum return on their investment.


How has Malware become more of a threat over recent months? Overall, malware has become more of a threat recently because of the focus on targeting critical infrastructure, manufacturing plants and supply chain operations. Ransom against these organisations cause significant disruption and possible loss, so it’s in the best interest of the organisation to cooperate with the criminal. At the same time, however, increased operations against cybercriminals by global law enforcement has likely pushed some groups to launch more daring attacks with a greater payout, perhaps to take what they can and get out of the game before LE closes in. In addition to that, during the pandemic, many criminals had


the time to develop and repurpose tools which make intrusion and exploitation easier. So, organisations who already struggle to keep systems and services updated and secured, will find themselves being targeted more and more.


Just how sophisticated have ransomware attacks become and can you give any recent examples that you have encountered? Sophisticated attacks are coming from every direction. What we have seen over the last year are attacks that are perhaps less technically sophisticated, but bolder and more calculated in attacking bigger targets and demanding higher ransoms. Te attack against Acer earlier this year was accomplished by exploiting a vulnerability in a Microsoſt Exchange Server. Te attacks against the IT company Kaseya were so effective at hijacking soſtware supply chains, that it infected between 800 and 1500 small businesses who utilised an MSP who deployed Kaseya to their customers. Finally, attacks against CD Projekt Red & Quanta by the REvil gang, prove that stealing intellectual property, like blueprints & source code, may be an effective way to extort a victim.


Where are these attacks originating from and who are these attackers? Attacks come from all over the world, but many of these groups refuse to infect systems within the former Soviet Union, leading many to believe that most of these folks are in Russia or surrounding countries. Tere have been many arrests in Ukraine, however we’ve seen arrests in Spain, Italy, France, Germany, Switzerland, the UK and the US for various cybercrime efforts over the last year. Attackers are usually part of a larger group or gang that share


responsibility for running attacks. Tey are mostly financially motivated, however there are plenty who are very Anti-Western countries and the occasional based on the text they use in their ransom notes. When a group becomes large enough, constant revenue is important to maintain healthy relationships between affiliates and leadership.


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