April 14, 2014
Shop Talk
Q&A with Ashley Stephenson, Corero Network Security
Ashley Stephenson, CEO, Corero Network Security, Hudson
By Rick Saia
Businesses have long realized the value of property and casualty insurance in guarding their physical assets against disaster. As they become increasingly dependent on electronic data — especially data that travels over the web — inoculating information infrastructures from outside attack becomes even more critical. In Hudson, Corero Network Security is fighting that battle for businesses on the front lines. And as its CEO, Ashley Stephenson is looking to expand the Hudson company on a global scale.
You've been in your role for more than a year, as the company was seeking to boost sales. How's that going?
We had a good year last year … we ended the year with some great results.
This DDoS (distributed denial of service) defense and cyberthreat marketplace, unfortunately for our customers, is growing. There are more threats, more attacks every day. So that led to increased demand for the kinds of products that we provide to protect them from the malicious traffic that's out there.
Do you think business customers are more savvy today about how the Internet works and what they can do to protect their digital assets from outside attack?
Yes, we've done several surveys, actually, about readiness for DDoS attacks, and they reveal some startling information: that more than half of businesses out there aren't really aware of the risks of connecting to the Internet. Some high-profile incidents — like the recent Target breach — draw attention to that. But Target's not alone. If you look at the past year, it's been banks, retailers, legal institutions, even police … have been attacked. Whenever you connect to the Internet, you get the good with the bad.
Have those attacks, such as the one on Target, caused many clients and potential clients to re-examine the security of their infrastructures?
Yes, reexamine is one word, but (another is that) it's becoming a c-suite or executive-level question now. It's been elevated from a technical discussion down in the basement — with all of the wires and Ethernet connections — up to the boardroom, where it affects the day-to-day operations of the business.
How have those attacks impacted vendors such as Corero?
Double-digit growth is forecast for the coming years, and information security is one of the hottest sectors in IT at the moment.
You hold several U.S. patents. Since many in business and government stress innovation today, are there ways the government can make the patent process easier?
The patent process has gone through several gyrations over my career. I've been involved in this industry for more than 25 years. I think at the moment it's in a pretty good place. We recently filed for a patent on a new product we just introduced … and the process is going pretty well. I'm happy with it.
You also have professional expertise in the global market for IT. Are there countries whose infrastructures are improving to a point where they could become bigger players in the world economy?
I'm fortunate to have operated in the Far East, Japan, China, Korea and Malaysia, as well as all across Europe and in the U.S. We by no means are clear leaders in the field of cybersecurity. There are competitive products that come over from overseas, from China, for example, or from India, though I do definitely see a preference for U.S. companies to buy U.S. security products. So there is a “trust as an aspect” of purchasing DDoS defense or DDoS technology in the current marketplace. I wouldn't be surprised though if, in a few years, that trust (expands) to these other products because we've seen it with every other part of the technology supply chain. It does move around the world to those companies that deliver the best value.
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