CyberWire Daily - Interview Select: Diana Kelley, CSO & Co-founder of Cybrize to discuss the need for innovation and entrepreneurship in cybersecurity.

Episode Date: December 28, 2022

This interview from September 16th, 2022 originally aired as a shortened version on the CyberWire Daily Podcast. In this extended interview, Dave Bittner sits down with Diana Kelley, CSO & Co-founder of Cybrize to discuss the need for innovation and entrepreneurship in cybersecurity. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to the Cyber Wire Network, powered by N2K. Diana Kelly is CSO and co-founder of security workforce development company CyberEyes, and she also is one of the judges of the upcoming DataTribe Challenge, where startup hopefuls compete for up to $2 million in funding. The CyberWire is a media partner with DataTribe. Here's my conversation with Diana Kelly. Yeah, I think it's a really incredible time in cyber right now in terms of innovation, because there have been a lot of advances in technology that have now enabled us to create and to come up with just really new ways to use that technology. So what do I mean specifically the cloud?

We've talked about digital transformation and we're all going to be multi cloud. And now we're here. We are in the cloud. Organizations take a huge advantage of all that's offering, all the offerings in the cloud. And that means that security now can take that step of, we don't always have to sit on premise. We can now go into the cloud, go into multiple clouds, get that signal, that information, the economies of security scale, as I like to call it. So then that's really just driving a lot of innovation and adoption. We've also seen

other advances that are helping in terms of things like the technology is we just have faster computers. We have more compute power that's available to all of us. We have always on, which is not something that has been a reality. Even now you can be on Wi-Fi on the plane, like it or not, but you can literally work anywhere, anytime. So it's a really great time right now in security. And the other thing that's driving the innovation is this forcing factor of we need to be able to manage not just our own organizations, but also our entire system, our ecosystem, which includes our partners and consultants and vendors that we work with. And that means that there's this real big drive for automation because we just can't do all of this manually. for automation because we just can't do all of this manually. What does that mean for the folks who are out there looking to innovate, for those hopeful people who you think they have an idea

that may change the world and are looking to just get the word out and tell people about their ideas? Well, there's a lot of, I don't want to say noise, I just said it though, but there are a lot of voices who are competing for attention. And you've got some voices that are very loud because they've been here for a long time and they've been contributing to security and have a fairly big megaphone. the phone. So as new or innovative companies, you need to find a way to have your voice kind of vibrate at the right level so that you can be heard above some of this conversation that's going on, an important conversation that's going on. So it's really about differentiating. It doesn't need to be a blue ocean anymore. If you remember that book or, you know, try and find the blue ocean. You don't need to find a pure blue ocean, but do understand what may have gone wrong if the ocean's already red. And what I mean by that is that you look at, we seem to sort of improve and optimize in this cyclical way in security. So SIEM, Security Event Information Managers,

were introduced to the market a little over 20 years ago. And over time, we've seen next generation SIEMs come out that are smarter, easier to use, cloud aware or functioning in the cloud. Very importantly, are using things like machine learning to be better about the information and their analysis and the alerts that they're sending. So it doesn't have to be a space no one's been in before. There's a lot of next generation optimization that's going on in existing tool categories. And then there are also new and emerging tool categories to keep up with

the pace of technology. You're going to be participating in the upcoming Data Tribe Challenge. Why is this something that you feel as though is worth your time, that you want to contribute to? Because, again, it's very hard to get your voice heard if you're a new, exciting idea, but there isn't a market space or a niche for it yet, or you just haven't gotten the funding. So I really love that DataTribe is doing this where three finalists are going to split the $20,000, but then there's an up to $2 million in seed capital that's available potentially for the winner. And I think that it can be very hard to get an idea off the ground.

And I love that Data Tribe is going out and saying, let's just let everybody come in. In VC, sometimes it can be as in anything in life. It can be a little bit of a who you know. And in this case, it's not a who you know at all. It's open to everyone. That's why we've got a judging panel to look at what's submitted. So I just love that it's this very open democratic process to help give funding and support to these ideas that may not have been heard yet. What's your advice to that hopeful startup or someone who's out there trying to get noticed? Any words of wisdom? Define the problem. Founders can decide there's a problem, but they don't really understand that. So define the problem very, very clearly. Make sure that you've researched it and that you actually have a solution that is a problem and

not just a solution that's looking for a problem. So be very clear on tying those together and focus the message. It's not uncommon with founders. You kind of want to solve everything and do everything. And very often when you go out and you start talking to investors or to potential buyers, they'll say, but what about this? And what about that? You got to stay laser focused in your message. So laser focused as you explain what your solution is to the judging panel. And then the other thing that's really important is to make sure that you've differentiated, understand who the competitors are.

You've got a problem, you're very focused, but also who else is solving that problem and why do you do it better? That's Diana Kelly from Cybrise. You can find out more about the upcoming Data Tribe Challenge on their website, datatribe.com. Thank you. businesses worldwide. ThreatLocker 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.