Welcome Jason Truppi

I recently had the opportunity to chat with Jason Truppi, who has joined Armis as an advisor, where we discussed many things including the state of the security market, the security challenges associated with the proliferation of unmanaged, unagentable and IoT devices, how the hackers are winning & why he wanted to be an advisor to Armis.  Jason recently founded ShiftState Security, a cybersecurity services firm focused on applying cost effective, enterprise security practices to organizations looking for a new perspective on security.

How Did You Get Started in Cybersecurity?

Believe it or not, I’ve been in this space for 20 years. At 18, I founded my first company focused on web design and hosting. From there, I moved into various roles such as system administrator, network administrator, network engineering and telecommunications consulting.

In 2007, I was recruited into the FBI, and started the first Cyber National Security squads in New York. I spent several years as an FBI Cyber Agent in New York City where I worked some of the Nation’s largest national security and criminal cyber intrusions. I was later promoted as Supervisory Special Agent at FBI Cyber Division where I was responsible for major data breaches, hacktivism and cyber extortion cases across the country.

After leaving the FBI, I joined Tanium where I helped advance the security and forensics capabilities of the product, which helped many corporate defenders analyse, detect and mitigate incidents at enterprise scale. I’m now consulting many small, medium and enterprise companies on how to achieve the best security posture based on their level of commitment and risk. I’m also advising several startups to help evolve their products to continue to support enterprises on their path to cybersecurity maturity.

What Are the Biggest Challenges Enterprises Face Today?

Over the last several years I have interfaced with half of the largest enterprises in the US. It is  consistently apparent that organizations are challenged with understanding their own networks and the assets that are connected to it. Most organizations struggle with the identification of those assets even when there are reports of critical vulnerabilities exposed by them.

This problem has been exponentially compounded by the number of newly connected devices, numbering in the billions, that do not have the same security controls and best practices built into traditional operating systems and applications. This explosion in connected device innovation and Internet of Things (IoT) has caused an even wider visibility gap and a larger vulnerable landscape in each business globally.

Unfortunately, most organizations don’t have a solution.

What is it About Armis that Made You Want to Join Their Advisory Board?

I believe, the future of compromised networks will not come from the successfully managed enterprises, physically or in the cloud, it will come from the unmanaged, un-agentable and unknown devices lingering in networks around the globe.

Armis is one of the few vendors solving the asset visibility problem in a fast and efficient way that is not disruptive to customer networks. Their device knowledgebase is vast and their detection signatures are incredibly accurate and effective. When I saw the product and was introduced to the talented team, I immediately knew that I had to work with them.