Data Breach Today: Senators Demand More Coordination in SolarWinds Investigation

In this article for Data Breach Today, Dr. Chris Pierson provides advice for SolarWinds in the aftermath of their data breach. Said Pierson, “this is perhaps the largest cybersecurity incident to affect our nation and government agencies, the situation calls for a lead to coordinate the flow of information to interested parties and deconfliction of teams who are overlapping each other.”

Read the Article: Senators Demand More Coordination in SolarWinds Investigation

 

 

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BlackCloak mentioned in Business Insider article on Where Insiders Say to Place Your Investments

October 20, 2020 – Business Insider released their article, “Investment in the booming cybersecurity industry could be one of ‘the first signs of recovery’ – here’s where five insiders say to place your bets in the fast-growing industry” which mentions BlackCloak.

Cybersecurity is heading into the home stretch of 2020 as a bright spot in investing – especially for new startups that address certain areas such as remote work needs – according to a new report and commentary from top investors. This makes investment in cybersecurity an early and promising area of economic recovery from the COVID-19 downturn, they say. New research from cybersecurity startup accelerator DataTribe shows seed investment in security startups is booming, both in comparison to past years and to other parts of tech.

Mike Janke is quoted in the article saying protection of executives working at home is a hot trend, led by DataTribe investment BlackCloak.

“You now have CEOs, CFOs, and board members all working from home, on home networks,” he says, where they are vulnerable to hackers, including well-funded nation-state hackers from adversaries such as Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran.

Read the full article here: https://www.businessinsider.com/investors-cybersecurity-startups-kleiner-bain-netskope-biocatch-2020-10

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Dr. Pierson comments on Leaked FinCEN Reports that Reveal Sensitive Security Details

Doug Olenick of BankInfoSecurity reached out to BlackCloak’s CEO Dr. Chris Pierson to comment on, “Leaked FinCEN Reports Reveal Sensitive Security Details.”

According to the article, “The leaked documents describe how five major banks, – JPMorgan Chase, HSBC, Standard Chartered Bank, Deutsche Bank and Bank of New York Mellon – were allegedly involved in handling the flow of money between individuals and groups that may have been acting in a criminal manner, according to BuzzFeed and other media reports. Experts note that suspicious activity reports, or SARs – which form the heart of many of the leak-derived reports being released this week by media outlets – contain a great deal of sensitive information that might be weaponized by criminals or nation-states.”

“SARs can contain information on databases used to track IP addresses, intelligence-enhancing tools, client ‘know your customer’ effectiveness and other tools and techniques that could allow adversaries to study this information and work around controls that were once private and now are exposed,” Pierson tells Information Security Media Group.

Read the full article here: https://www.bankinfosecurity.com/leaked-fincen-reports-reveal-sensitive-security-details-a-15031

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Google Offers Fresh Details on China-Linked Hacking Group, Dr. Pierson Comments

October 17, 2020 – InfoRiskToday covered a report issued from Google’s Threat Analysis Group offers fresh details about the Chinese-linked hacking group that targeted Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden’s campaign with phishing emails earlier this year. The article titled, “Google Offers Fresh Details on China-Linked Hacking Group” features Dr. Chris Pierson, CEO of BlackCloak.

“In the final two weeks before the November election, the amount of nation-state activity that targets the campaigns of Biden, Trump and others is likely to increase, making this a crucial time for cybersecurity measures, says Chris Pierson, CEO and founder of security firm BlackCloak.”

Read all of his comments and the full article at https://www.inforisktoday.com/google-offers-fresh-details-on-china-linked-hacking-group-a-15196

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Idaho Business Review covers Thompson Coburn CLE including Dr. Chris Pierson as Panelist

On September 30, just in time for National Cybersecurity Awareness Month in October, Thompson Coburn hosted a remote CLE on cybersecurity focused on the risks faced by high-net-worth or high-profile individuals. The panel of speakers included Jim Shreve, the Chicago-based chair of the firm’s cybersecurity group, Luke Sosnicki, a Los Angeles-based partner for the firm, and Chris Pierson, founder and CEO of BlackCloak.

Read the full-story here: https://idahobusinessreview.com/2020/10/14/expert-home-is-new-battleground-for-cybersecurity/

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BlackCloak Appoints Chief Information Security Officer and Head of Sales & Marketing To Enhance Leadership Team

Concierge Cybersecurity Provider Hires New CISO and Appoints Revenue Growth Leader to its Executive Team 

Orlando, FL — September 15, 2020 — BlackCloak, Inc., the cybersecurity industry’s leading provider of Concierge Cybersecurity™ for Executives, High-Profile, and High-Net-Worth Individuals, today announced that Daniel Floyd has joined the company as Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) and Christine Schaefer has been added to the executive leadership team as Head of Sales & Marketing.

Daniel Floyd, the company’s first CISO, is responsible for the security and infrastructure of BlackCloak, overseeing the Security Operations Center, Threat Intelligence Platform, and Penetration Testing & Forensics Teams. Floyd also provides subject matter expertise to the product team, advising and innovating on the product vision, running the Security Operations Center, and over the horizon capabilities.

With over 20 years of experience protecting FinTech companies, Floyd has developed and delivered technology and security solutions for growing startups, highly regulated financial sector companies, and has worked across business lines to deliver secure technology products to the market. He formerly served as the Chief Information Security Officer for, one of the largest independent invoice financing providers, LSQ. Floyd also served as the Senior CyberSecurity Architect at Viewpost. 

Christine G.D. Schaefer leads the sales and marketing team at BlackCloak with a unique balance of being data-driven, creative, and people-centric. She has over two decades of deep experience in leading go-to-market efforts for tech companies including marketing, sales, product management, customer education, and operations. 

Christine previously served as Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) for ThreatConnect, where she was instrumental in the phenomenal growth of the well-respected threat intelligence and security orchestration, automation, and response (SOAR) platform provider. Prior to that, Christine was VP of Product, Marketing, and Learning for Salsa Labs, a VC-backed emerging SaaS company. Before Salsa, she served as the VP of Marketing at DLT Solutions, a tech data company.  

“These new appointments further strengthen BlackCloak’s leadership team as the company focuses on innovation, security, and global expansion,” said Dr. Chris Pierson, Founder and CEO of BlackCloak. “Daniel and Christine add important, diverse expertise to our executive team with their impressive resumes and extensive experience as a driving force for the company’s growth trajectory.”

About BlackCloak

BlackCloak provides Concierge Cybersecurity™ services to executive, high-profile and high- net-worth individuals to mitigate their hacking, financial, and reputational risks. Learn more at https://blackcloak.io/ or follow them on Twitter @BlackCloakCyber.

Media Contact

Danielle Ostrovsky
Hi-Touch PR
410-302-9459
[email protected] 

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BlackCloak Named Winner as Top 100 Cybersecurity Startup for 2020

BlackCloak has rapidly grown with its Concierge Cybersecurity platform and services for Executives, High-Profile, and High-Net-Worth Individuals

Orlando, FL — August 11, 2020 BlackCloak, Inc., the cybersecurity industry’s leading provider of Concierge Cybersecurity™ for Executives, High-Profile, and High-Net-Worth Individuals today announced that it has been named a Top 100 Cybersecurity Startup for 2020.

BlackCloak competed against many of the industry’s hot startups in cybersecurity for this prestigious award.  Cyber Defense Magazine searched the globe and found over 3200 cybersecurity companies with nearly 30% in the startup range having been incorporated within the last 36 months or releasing their first round of innovative cybersecurity products and services.  

“We’re pleased to name BlackCloak as a winner among the Top 100 Cybersecurity Startups for 2020 in our second annual Black Unicorn awards.  This award showcases those companies like BlackCloak with this kind of incredible potential in the cybersecurity marketplace,” said Judges Robert R. Ackerman Jr. of www.allegiscyber.com, David DeWalt of www.nightdragon.com and Gary Miliefsky of www.cyberdefensemediagroup.com.  

“I am very proud of everything the team here at BlackCloak has accomplished,” said Chris Pierson, CEO of BlackCloak. “Their dedication to protecting the personal digital lives of our clients with our platform and white-glove service is why we are growing so fast. I am grateful to receive this award in recognition of their hard work and results.

“Now more than ever, home networks and personal devices are the easiest attack surfaces for cybercriminals both to target individuals and also as a backdoor into companies. Because BlackCloak addresses that, we see them growing even faster in the current environment of remote work,” said John Funge, Chief Product Officer at DataTribe and board member of BlackCloak. “This award recognizes the team’s success in creating a holistic cybersecurity and privacy platform that protects executives and high-profile individuals in their personal lives.”

About BlackCloak

BlackCloak provides Concierge Cybersecurity™ services to executive, high-profile and high- net-worth individuals to mitigate their hacking, financial, and reputational risks. Learn more at https://blackcloak.io/ or follow them on Twitter @BlackCloakCyber.

About Cyber Defense Awards

This is Cyber Defense Magazine’s 8th year of honoring cybersecurity innovators, in this case the Black Unicorn Awards for 2020 on our Cyber Defense Awards platform. In this competition, judges for these prestigious awards includes cybersecurity industry veterans, trailblazers and market makers Gary Miliefsky of CDMG, Robert R. Ackerman Jr. of Allegis Cyber and David DeWalt of NightDragon with much appreciation to emeritus judge Robert Herjavec of Herjavec Group.  To see the complete list of Top 100 Cybersecurity Startups for 2020 please visit https://cyberdefenseawards.com/top-100-cybersecurity-startups-for-2020/

About Cyber Defense Magazine 

Cyber Defense Magazine was founded in 2012 by Gary S. Miliefsky, globally recognized cyber security thought leader, inventor and entrepreneur and continues to be the premier source of IT Security information. We are managed and published by and for ethical, honest, passionate information security professionals. Our mission is to share cutting-edge knowledge, real-world stories and awards on the best ideas, products and services in the information technology industry. We deliver electronic magazines every month online for free, and limited print editions exclusively for the RSA, BlackHat and IPEXPO conferences and our limited edition paid reprint subscribers. Learn more about us at http://www.cyberdefensemagazine.com. Cyber Defense Magazine is a proud member of the Cyber Defense Media Group.

In DarkReading, Mike Janke Cites BlackCloak as an Example of a Good CyberSecurity Investment

In her article yesterday, “VC Investment in Cybersecurity Dips & Shifts with COVID-19,” Kelly Jackson Higgins of DarkReading talks about how the pandemic has emboldened investments in cybersecurity companies that address remote work. She cites research by DataTribe and interviews its co-founder and investment board member on his take on what’s happening.

“Permanent work-from-home opens the door for once-boutique technologies to become more mainstream. Take BlackCloak, a cybersecurity service for executives’ at-home technology, including their home networks. ‘Enterprises are buying it for their board and top 100 executives, [who] are becoming the new attack surface for nation-states,’ Janke says. ‘Why attack Exxon’s network when you can attack the CFO’s daughter’s iPad at home?'”

— See full story at: https://www.darkreading.com/risk/vc-investment-in-cybersecurity-dips-and-shifts-with-covid-19/d/d-id/1338426

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CEO Pierson Speaks to High-Profile Individual Twitter Account Hacks

This week certain high-profile Twitter accounts were hacked and used in a cryptocurrency scheme. BlackCloak CEO Chris Pierson spoke to Bank Info Security about the importance of high-profile individuals securing their social accounts.

From Bank Info Security: “Several prominent business executives, politicians and celebrities, including former Vice President Joe Biden, former President Barack Obama, Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Microsoft’s Bill Gates, had their verified Twitter accounts hijacked Wednesday in what appears to be a cryptocurrency scam, according to multiple media reports and screen shots posted online…Although attackers have occasionally gained control of a prominent Twitter account before, this attack was notable due to the number of high-profile people and entities that were hijacked. The attack was so audacious in scale that it caused computer security experts to suspect it was likely a problem on Twitter’s side.”

While this attack maybe have been an “inside job,” Pierson reiterated the importance of two-factor authentication to secure accounts – social media, bank, everything. We give more advice on how to protect your social media accounts in this blog post: “Protect Your Social Media Accounts.”

— See full story at: https://www.bankinfosecurity.com/several-prominent-twitter-accounts-hijacked-in-crypto-scam-a-14631