CyberWire Daily - Encore: Stu Sjouwerman: Trying for a win, win, win game. [CEO] [Career Notes]

Episode Date: April 14, 2024

Founder and CEO Stu Sjouwerman takes us on a journey of how his career developed from starting a software service company to currently focusing on the infosec side of the business where his team essentially helps to create human firewalls. Stu talks about learning all aspects of the business while creating startups and suggests you learn to speak the language of the area you are looking to get into. He even touches on predicting the future and taking over the world. Our thanks to Stu for sharing his story with us.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to the Cyber Wire Network, powered by N2K. and VPNs, yet breaches continue to rise by an 18% year-over-year increase in ransomware attacks and a $75 million record payout in 2024. These traditional security tools expand your attack surface with public-facing IPs that are exploited by bad actors more easily than ever with AI tools. It's time to rethink your security. Thank you. Learn more at zscaler.com slash security. My name is Stu Schauerman, and I am the founder and CEO of KnowBefore. I started a software service company for non-profits like Greenpeace with four friends of mine. That was my first startup. The current one is the fifth. And I had to train myself.

I had to learn sales. I had to learn marketing, learn computing. And that was the first one, really. marketing, learning computing. And that was the first one, really. We sold that and I started a little training company that did training for first-time computer users through a little audio cassette that you plugged into the cassette player, click play,

and then it said what you had to do. It's a forerunner of Novi 4. Well, I hopped over to system utilities for many computers. And we were selling to the system administrators who had as their job to keep the network and the systems up and running. Learned an incredible amount. And then we started a company called Sunbelt Software. And we were selling system management tools for the new Windows operating system that was mid-95. And they badly needed security tools. So that's how I got into the InfoSec side of the business. What I like about what we do today is that it's a win-win-win game,

as opposed to a zero-sum game. Zero-sum game, there's no final plus. There's somebody wins or somebody who loses. In our case, the employees in our customers win. All the no-before employees win. Our investors win. And the only ones you could say who are not happy with us are the bad guys. But that's what we do for a living.

We essentially train a human firewall. Keep employees able to make smarter security decisions every day and make sure that they don't click on bad links or open attachments and let the bad guys into the network. If you could predict the future, you'd be so ahead of anyone else. You just want to create a future that is a positive kind of environment where people can flourish and have a great job. where people can flourish and have a great job,

I would vote for no criminality with the current hat that I'm wearing. The funny thing is that most of my mentors have been books. I know how to study. If I figured out or if I had to figure out how to do something, I just grabbed the books and read them and applied them. I mean, heck, if I would be 25 with what I know today, man, I could take over the world. Any new area that you endeavor into has its own language. Biology, atomic fission, they have their own language. Find out what the words are, make your own lists,

create your own dictionary, and learn to speak that language. Whatever new area you are trying to get into. Cyber threats are evolving every second, and staying ahead is more than just a challenge it's a necessity that's why we're thrilled to partner with threat locker a cyber security solution trusted by businesses worldwide threat locker is a full suite of solutions designed to give you total control stopping unauthorized applications, securing sensitive data, and ensuring your organization runs smoothly and securely. Visit ThreatLocker.com today to see how a default-deny approach can keep your company safe and compliant.