There are times in every security startup’s life where buyers lean in to listen to their stories and learn about their solutions. For award winners, these times come more often. In this interview series, we interviewed leaders from security startups who have won the most prestigious cyber security awards (along with invaluable third-party validation.)
Today we host Courtney Brady, VP of Marketing at ThreatBlockr after their recent win at the 2022 SC Awards for Best Managed Security Service. We talked with Courtney about ThreatBlockr’s award-winning solution and about her tips for industry awards.
So, what is the story behind ThreatBlockr?
Founded in 2012, we built the only solution that blocks every threat from every path in your network. With the cyber-attacks becoming increasingly more sophisticated, we saw an opportunity to create a new technology that allows organizations to gain instant network protection without expensive upgrades and complex systems and blocks every known threat in real-time.
Every successful attack has breached a security stack. Unfortunately, firewalls and other security products are not enough to block the sophisticated attacks that today’s hackers use. Networks relying primarily on archaic firewall technologies without modern security layers are easy prey for cybercriminals.
We created a product that allows organizations to gain instant network protection without drastically re-engineering their existing security stacks, whether on-premise, in the cloud or both.
How do you stay on top of new threats?
ThreatBlockr addresses organizations that rely on archaic firewall technology without additional security layers. Organizations with old firewall technology are easily traversed by port forwarding fragmented packet attacks. They’re often misconfigured. Side-channel attacks, BYOD, and WFH all compound the problem.
To stay on top of organizations' threats, whether they are on-premise, in the cloud, or both, ThreartBlockr:
Enables an ideal protected network while improving firewall efficiency
Seamlessly integrates into and enhances an existing security stack
Mitigates false positives quickly and intuitively using automation, saving time and resources
To ensure network security, ThreatBlockr analyzes and blocks known bad traffic in both the inbound and outbound directions while ensuring that known good traffic will always be allowed. Most traditional security controls are limited to 150,000 externally configured third-party IP addresses. This makes no sense, and it’s why we exist.
ThreatBlockr can support over 150M (1000x more than traditional security controls) - all in real-time - without adding any latency. Moreover, this exponential increase in efficiency has a downstream effect: the rest of the organization's security tools require fewer resources and can run more efficiently.
When you speak with prospective clients, do they understand easily what you do and why it is valuable?
Yes, prospective clients immediately see the value in our product because enterprise defenders need a way to block modern threats from hitting your network. Our customers don’t need to change a thing in their existing stack; they can plug the holes with ThreatBlockr and rest easy, knowing that every threat is blocked in real-time.
What makes ThreatBlockr better than other players in the market?
Most vendors focus on specific attack methods or targets in the threat intelligence space and effectively create their own silos. With ThreatBlockr’s open platform, we can partner with the best vendors across all those individual silos to collate the data and focus on the bigger picture: enabling protection from all angles for all verticals from all threats. As a result, we command 100% of the market share of companies with the capabilities that we do - to efficiently block hundreds of millions of threats every day.
While some players claim to use similar technologies, our partner-friendly platform and open data approach to the problem set us apart. ThreatBlockr is a truly open data platform with limitless capabilities to add more data, and our customers are continually adding new data. In addition, we partner with the best data providers in the world to enhance the value of our product.
We can deploy anywhere in 30 minutes or less, typically in front of or behind a firewall. In addition, we’re complementary to most of our “competitors” – ThreatBlockr only amplifies an organization’s security posture and makes trusted external data enforceable. Our competitors on the enforcement side take a very different approach - without ThreatBlockr’s open platform or partnership perspective.
You recently won the 2022 SC Awards for Best Managed Security Service. Can you share a couple of tips on how to write an award-winning application?
Technology business award competitions are an excellent opportunity to showcase your company, product, and staff, all while building a lasting and credible brand. However, award submissions can often be intimidatingly long, or they just ask hard questions. While submitting to prestigious awards can be a process, it is also an opportunity to pull together your company’s greatest highlights and successes.
When drafting answers for award submissions, it is important to do the following:
Show impact using statistics. Statistics are vital because they highlight the facts about your company and product and back your story with evidence. Whether it be revenue growth, employee headcount, or client wins, it is important to showcase your successes with data.
Tell a story by using examples of your technology solving real-world problems. Every company with a good product helps customers solve their problems. Addressing these challenges and using examples from your customers is a great way to showcase your technology and stand out from the other nominees.