Joining us now is Danny Jenkins.
Danny is the CEO and co-founder of Threat Locker.
Danny, nice to have you join the broadcast today.
So, let's talk about your big raise, $190 million.
What does this funding allow you to do next?
Well, what it really does is allows us to focus on the mission of stopping cyber threats, whether they're coming from AI or whether they're coming from humans.
Cyber attacks are increasing, vulnerabilities are increasing, and our goal is to protect as many companies as possible, possible, as fast as we can.
Danny, first of all, what, what event are you at right now?
It looks really cool where you are.
Yeah, I'm, I'm at Black Hat here in Las Vegas.
It's very loud, so hopefully the sound's coming through OK.
It's been a great few days.
We're talking to a lot of cybersecurity leaders about the problems they're having, the challenges they're having, having, and how zero trust is really being focused Drive point to protect against the new AI threats.
My man, it sounds great.
You're coming through loud and clear.
I'm just saying it also looks very cool where you are.
Let's get back after it.
Zero trust.
You know what this means very well.
I don't know that a lot of our viewers do, but it is a very splashy buzzword in the world of cybersecurity.
What does it mean simply?
Uh, very, very simply, what it means is, rather than giving access by default, we give access by exception.
Whether that's to a program, a game, an AI agent, we say, your access is constrained, unless we tell you you can have it.
Uh, it's a really a smart way of thinking about.
Cybersecurity, it's impossible to try and detect everything that's bad.
We've heard over and over again of detection tools failing.
When you use zero trust, you're not relying on something being detected.
You're saying, is this required for our business?
If it's not, it's irrelevant whether it's good, it's bad, it's an attack or not.
What is the biggest cybersecurity mistake that you still see far too many companies make?
I, I think the biggest mistake is actually really the simple things, like just trying to rely on, I, I'm, I'm going to leave things open, and I think we can defend by simply patching everything, which we of course we should be doing.
Companies just need to focus on really basic controls, taking away software rights, taking away uh SAS rights, and just making sure they can be done really easily.
I think the biggest mistake is just not relying on basic controls.
Danny, the so-called bad guys have access to all the same tools as the so-called good guys.
How do you ensure that the good guys use it better than the threat actors?
Well, and I, and I think, look, the good guys are always at a disadvantage, because we have to be right 100% of the time.
We don't get the opportunity to say, we stopped 99% of ransomware, and the company says, well, we've still got ransomware, because 1% isn't good enough.
So, we, because we have access to the same AI tools, we have access to the same defense tools, the problem is, they're looking to create ways to evade detection.
Uh, we're, we're, we're looking to find more innovative ways to detect them faster.
The way we avoid problems is just by stopping relying on the idea of detection, and simply saying, I'm gonna basically shut the door, I'm gonna allow what I need, we're gonna allow the business to run and do exactly what it needs, and not try and play, don't try and play their game of cat and mouse.
Just play, let's lock the door, we'll open it when we need it open, and for what we need it open.
Danny, as we take a look ahead, what are some of the trends in the underlying technologies that are at the heart of my conversation with you today that most excite you to invest in over the next decade?
What most excites me to invest in?
I, I think it's really about, I mean, cybersecurity is a.
An amazing opportunity right now, I think investing in technologies that are making tangible change, controlling software, just general technology that's going to actually enhance delivery beyond just AI, but I think AI is creating a lot of opportunity and cybersecurity is the place to be.
I've got about 30 seconds left, my friend, before we let you go.
What is one reality of the cybersecurity ecosystem that you wish more people better understood?
Malware is just software, whether it's AI created or not, it's just software.
If everyone understood that, they'd be able to handle it and treat it as software and uh control it as such.
If everyone can understand that, I think we'll be in a better situation.
Danny Jenkins, CEO co-founder of Threat Locker, joining us live from the great city of Las Vegas, Nevada.
Danny, take good care.
We'll talk to you again soon.
Thank you.
