Gary Chan is the President of Pragmatic Security at Alfizo and specializes in data protection and security. Tom Fox welcomes him onto this week's show as they discuss the ways to help businesses leverage IT departments, enable sales, and meet compliance.

Why Information Security

When people buy information security, Gary explains, they're not looking for someone to go in and solve every problem. Clients want to look at information security from a business perspective: how will it help them generate revenue and protect only the things the business wants to protect while saving money? Gary calls this ‘pragmatic information security’ because it delves into the why. It is an approach that helps businesses understand what the highest risks are, and how to manage those risks.

Security Within Executive Branches

Gary finds that even the most sophisticated Board of Directors lack a proper understanding of data protection. They are more concerned with meeting compliance and avoiding fines. “They don’t really understand what security can do for them outside of keeping them from getting hacked,” he says. Tom comments that boards consider their reputation surrounding compliance more. Gary suggests tying data protection to the issues boards are more concerned about to get them to do something about it.

The Impact of COVID-19 on Security

From a business perspective, Covid-19 had a large impact. Security arms of firms were shut down as security isn’t seen as something that brings in revenue, Gary remarks. He adds that people’s behavior changed and that having the majority of your employees working from home increases your business risk. COVID-19 has been a golden age for hackers because stealing is easier, and they’re less likely to get caught. However, when businesses started reopening and companies realized that turning off security tools was dangerous, they have ramped up security. This time loss increased companies’ security expenses and boosted the demand for security and data protection from more people.

Resources

Alfizo

Start-Training.Alfizo.com

Gary Chan | LinkedIn