EXECUTIVE INSIGHT
W ith the cybersphere erupting with new threats , vectors and AI-augmented attacks , keeping up with what ’ s out there and what can pose harm to your operations can seem like a herculean task .
Luckily , detectives of the digital frontier exist to lend a helping hand . These threat intelligence experts keep their eyes on the analytics of attacks and shine a light on the dark web to uncover not only what threats are circulating , but what ’ s the next threat on the horizon .
This enables companies to save resources to find ways to manage the threats instead of stretching them to finding out what they are . Few people are more experienced to lead this investigation than Senior Director of Threat Analytics at Rapid7 Christiaan Beek , a man who has dedicated more than 20 years to threat research , intelligence and gathering .
With the threat landscape being so dynamic , Cyber Magazine spoke to Christiaan to find out more about his role in helping keep companies ahead of their adversaries and what threats might be lurking over the horizon .
Q . HOW HAS YOUR EXPERIENCE AT A NUMBER OF CYBER COMPANIES SHAPED YOUR APPROACH TO THREAT ANALYTICS AT RAPID7 ?
» I began in offensive security as a pentester and later became a forensic investigator . Both roles taught me how to break into systems and the challenges in hunting and defending against threats .
“Whilst attacks can be complex , organisations often fail to adequately secure their networks ”
From there , I worked for several companies designing threat intelligence backends , developing new systems for gathering intelligence , and leading threat intelligence and vulnerability research . This is where I observed the struggles threat teams face in processing their data . I realised the struggle to process data , along with the lack of tools and technology to investigate incidents properly , meant it was critical to provide customers with context into cyber incidents .
Therefore , when I joined Rapid7 , and even before at McAfee , I focused on how we can turn all the telemetry and data we have into actionable insights . Only by providing context and actionable intelligence can organisations truly prioritise tasks and address critical security gaps . cybermagazine . com 19