Alon Bender With CLEER Security

Intro: [00:00:01] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in South Florida. It’s time for South Florida Business Radio. Now, here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:14] Lee Kantor here another episode of South Florida Business Radio. And this is going to be a good one. But before we get started, it’s important to recognize our sponsor, Diaz Trade Law, Your customs expert today on South Florida Business Radio, we have Alan Bender and he is with CLEER Security. Welcome.

Alon Bender: [00:00:34] Great to be here.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:36] I am so excited to be talking to you about this. This is so important. But before we get too far into things, tell us about CLEER security, how you serve in folks.

Alon Bender: [00:00:45] Yeah, absolutely. I appreciate it. So we CLEER security. We are early stage startup and we are helping organization to deal with the problem of being overwhelmed with the alerts and data. And so if you look at the last five years, the volume of security alerts in security operations has doubled. The staff level didn’t double in any organization that we are aware of. So really the solution is to automate more and reduce the workload in a security operations center and allow companies to respond quicker and faster to to security threats.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:28] Now, for the listeners who aren’t kind of in the weeds of this as much as you are, can you share a little bit about cybersecurity and and the kind of maybe the evolution of the bad actors? At one point, you know, there were movies where the bad actors or teenagers in a basement, you know, with Cheetos and Red Bull. But today’s bad actor, they they’re much more sophisticated. This is a full time job. This is very organized. So can you speak to that a little bit to educate the listener about where we’re at and what we’re dealing with today?

Alon Bender: [00:02:03] Yeah, absolutely. So, yeah, you’re absolutely right about that. Today’s what we call bad actors are sophisticated, that it’s really an underground economy. It’s a very large economy, actually. And what you’re seeing, the type of threats that you you’re seeing, especially since COVID is really going after what we call the human behavior, meaning that you may get a link. So you may heard the term phishing emails say, hey, your PCR results arrive, click here, it’s urgent and it really takes you to an identity stealing basically website or here’s your Amazon gift card or Apple gift card, whatever the case may be, all the way to more sophisticated attacks where the bad actors are assuming or basically stealing an identity and assuming an identity of a manager and finding the way into an organization, sending a message on behalf of the manager to the people that report to the manager, asking them to do something with the typically with the sense of urgency, Hey, I need this account number. Sign your CFO. I’m on the road, please send it to me a.S.A.P. And unfortunately, those type of sophisticated attacks are extremely powerful from the bad actors perspective. And the main motivation here is really is money. There are some government actors that are looking for sensitive data, but for the most, say, a majority of those type of attacks, the driver, the main driver is basically they are looking to make money and they are fortunately making a lot of money.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:47] So what’s your back story? How did you get involved in this line of work?

Alon Bender: [00:03:52] Yeah. So I’ve been walking actually in Silicon Valley before I moved to Florida back in 2017, and I’ve been working with the companies, Fortune 500 companies from all the verticals from NASCAR to Nike to Chevron to Bank of America and others. And what I’ve noticed is that everybody is dealing with the same problem, meaning that DDoS attacks are becoming more sophisticated, they are harder to detect. And if you don’t do take those, then you can really have what is called a response policy in place to go and remediate those as soon as possible. While the different vendors are offering new and shiny tools that will be the best next detection antivirus tools that will block supposedly 100% of threats out there, where the reality is that there’s really no solution. There is no tool that will always block 100% of threats. So this basically turned into an operational nightmare where especially with large organizations, they just can’t keep up with all of the data, all of the alerts that are coming in from all of the different security tools. And they still need to be able to basically investigate every single one because that’s not actually taking place. Many of those alerts are left basically as is. And for the most well known breaches, those alerts actually were buried in the pile of information and no one knew that that’s the alert that they needed to get to a right now. So this is really the background of why we founded Clear Security. With that in mind and with those experiences, seeing those experiences firsthand, working with customers from all verticals.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:40] Now, this is one of the biggest challenges for large organizations especially, is they want to be responsive to their customers. Their customers are expecting kind of almost real time answers and real time information and the ability to get into their accounts. The businesses have to keep the account secure and they have to make sure it’s who they say they are are really who they are. It just and and they’re fighting a force that is just really sharing information and sharing best practices. It’s just it seems like an almost overwhelming challenge. How does clear kind of stay in front of this? Because it just seems like there’s there’s so many challenges in this regard.

Alon Bender: [00:06:28] Yeah, absolutely. And you touch a very important point, which is brands, right? So brands are built in the digital economy on trust. If you don’t trust your back, you may think twice before you sign up or open an account. With Bank A versus bank B, your bank is getting breached and it’s all over the news every other week. So that that has a real impact. So with clear security, what we identified is that most of the breaches. So if you look at the latest, some of the latest reports from the top analysts in the cybersecurity industry, 82% of threats are actually targeting humans people. So what we did with clear security, we build a technology that allows us to identify how people, how humans are being targeted and from there adding that missing visibility to all of those threats so that even if that entire event took place outside of the corporate network, when someone was on their smartphone, working from home, working in a hybrid type of environment where the security team don’t necessarily have full visibility into the user’s activity, by bringing that exposure, we are able to basically add that missing context around how your employees or your people are being targeted and then bring in all of the other signals or security alerts from your existing tools so that you will know which alert you need to respond to right now and fully automate that entire process from there.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:09] So now is the is your ideal customer, are they these kind of are they only enterprise level or does this trickle down to the smaller business as well?

Alon Bender: [00:08:19] Yeah. So it’s very interesting. It’s a good question because we see interest from MSPs or managed security service providers that are typically smaller in size. So one of them from the West Coast that we are working with right now, they have about 115 customers. They very lean, mean a level of staff that don’t have lots of employees. It’s fairly a thin type of environment and they need to manage for their customers. Exactly the. Ability to respond quickly to those type of threats, and they don’t have the ability to add lots of staff. So what we see is that with clear security, we are like a force multiplier. So by adding that automation, we’re able to basically allow the MSP, the service provider, to provide better services, more services without necessarily having to increase the size of their team by doing so. Also keeping their cost costs of a customer, their customer within their profit margin.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:27] Now let’s talk a minute about the South Florida Tech community, especially around cybersecurity. Are you able to find the talent you need there in South Florida or is your team kind of everywhere?

Alon Bender: [00:09:40] Yeah. So we we are all working remotely, but we do have several employees that are based in Florida and South Florida. So most of our employees are local. Finding talent in cybersecurity is not as easy. There is a big gap in the industry. So just a couple of months ago, the White House actually started an initiative trying to address the talent crisis we have in the cybersecurity industry right now. There are 714,000 cybersecurity analyst positions that companies and organizations are trying to fill, and that talent is nowhere to be found. So this is a real problem in the entire industry. And we see some of that also here in Florida, in south Florida. And this is also where I’m involved with several initiatives, working with Miami-Dade College, working with NSU, and then being a member in several associations like James Isay for South Florida and others to basically help build that that cybersecurity talent and that next generation cybersecurity and resources that are desperately needed here in Florida, in South Florida.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:01] Are you finding that the universities are open to allowing some people from industry to help create this curriculum that will kind of train that next generation of cybersecurity expert with the help of industry for these jobs that you know so that your team and others like you can kind of grow your own employees and at least get them pretty trained up just through the universities.

Alon Bender: [00:11:28] Yeah, absolutely. So we’ve been working with clear security, we’ve been working with the Miami-Dade College, for example, last year and also actually right now on internship programs. So working closely with the Miami-Dade College and others to really perform any number of things from what we call mock interview interviews, meaning expose the students to what is expected of them in a real cybersecurity workplace type of environment, all the way to internship programs, which is we’re hiring students, exposing them to cybersecurity. In our case, it’s a startup environment. So using lots of innovation, innovative tools, collaboration tools and other tools that they will most likely see in the in the commercial industry once they go out there. And and the third pillar here is my personal involvement through the different committees, whether it’s an issue or whether it’s a Miami-Dade College. I remember the advisory center of the America Advisory Committee with the Miami-Dade College with NSU. I’m also a member in the Cyber Security Advisory Committee as a member. So that gives us in the private industry an opportunity to influence, communicate and support the students and the next generation cybersecurity talent that is coming out of education.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:03] Now, having come from Silicon Valley where there’s so much innovation and has been around for so long and there’s so much density when it comes to startups, so that when a startup doesn’t go the way that the founder wanted, there’s a place for that founder to land or to mash up with another startup that might be doing something similar. Are you seeing the South Florida kind of ecosystem kind of taking that same tact where they’re trying to increase the number of startups there and as well as giving those founders a place to land when the the startup doesn’t go the way they want?

Alon Bender: [00:13:42] Yeah, absolutely. So the short answer is yes, definitely. The longer answer is that when I first moved here in 2017, all of my. Friends from Silicon Valley thought I’m crazy and two years later they want to join me. So South Florida is becoming a major tech hub, and it’s as real as it gets, not just in cybersecurity, but in innovation in general, from crypto to A.I.. Just a couple of weeks ago, Miami Dade College, for example, they launched a brand new AI center. So I definitely see a lot of opportunity in South Florida like never before, so that when you have that what we call the repeat of serial entrepreneurs that may have started one project or one initiative, they had to pivot to something else. Maybe they were successful more or less. There are plenty of opportunities to participate in the ecosystem, and we have the different communities, frameworks, clubs and associations that really are part of that, a fast growing infrastructure that allows all of that talent to continue and invest from their expertise, from their talent, feeding back into the ecosystem and basically finding their way through collaboration, through maybe exploring new ideas or other ideas, through collaboration with the with the academia. And that’s definitely a growing trend. And it’s a very, very strong here in South Florida.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:27] Now, do you have any advice for other founders in the community? Like what are some of the lessons learned that kind of resonate the most with you?

Alon Bender: [00:15:36] Yeah, I think if I were to be asked this question, probably I would say it all starts with people, right? So that would be probably my number one takeaway for at least for myself. You want to surround yourself typically with people that are smarter and more successful than yourself, and that that opens up lots of opportunity. What I learned from previous startups that I founded or was part of is that it’s really it’s all about the people, frankly. It starts and ends with the people, with the team. From there, it’s really make sure that you talk to your potential customers before you start to build anything. And when you build, make sure that you’re able to prove real value and make that repeatable so it can be like a one off thing, but it really has to be a repeatable process. Always negotiate from a position of strength that’s based on my prior experiences. Make sure that you are always negotiating, whether it’s with investors, whether it’s with the employees, whether it’s with customers. Always make sure that you have. When I say strength, I mean value. So always make sure that you have enough value to offer and that’s really your strength. Stay focus. Focus is key, especially in startup. It’s very easy to get distracted, especially with today’s social media, slack, etc. It’s very easy to get distracted to lose focus, and that applies to also the team that you are part of. Or if you manage a team, make sure that you stay on track. But with that being said, always have enough flexibility to be able to pivot and fine tune and have that as a repeatable process. Listening to your customers, listening to the people that you are working with and proving value.

Lee Kantor: [00:17:35] Now, is there anything in the South Florida Tech scene that you wish that they had more of?

Alon Bender: [00:17:44] I think we have the growing pain of a fast growing tech environment. So I would say I would love to see more cybersecurity talent here. I would love to see more cybersecurity startups there. Not too many cybersecurity startups here in South Florida. I would definitely would love to see more. I’m I believe that I’m not afraid of competition per se. I think there is enough room for everyone. Cybersecurity is an industry. It’s it’s a huge industry and there is an opportunity for everyone. So I would love to see cyber security becoming stronger. And I’m doing at least on my side with all humility, of course, whatever I can to support the different through associations, through the universities, to support that. The trend to attract more cybersecurity talent and grow that cybersecurity tech and. Ecosystem here in South Florida.

Lee Kantor: [00:18:55] So what does clear need more of right now and how can we help? Are you looking for more talent? You need more clients. What would you like to have more of?

Alon Bender: [00:19:04] Yeah. So we are just now launching our first release of our product and we have been reaching out to several organizations and design partners that we have been working with and Will definitely would welcome the opportunity to work with any organization that is looking to increase productivity in their security operations center, and that would like to learn more about a human signal technology, a unique and innovative way to respond to threats that matter. Now.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:37] Well, if somebody wanted to learn more, have a more substantive conversation with you or somebody on the team, what’s the website? What’s the best way to get ahold of you?

Alon Bender: [00:19:44] Yeah, the best way our website is clear sec that c. L e e r s e c dot com. And you can also find me on LinkedIn alone. That’s al0n vendor B and the r and the happy to also help others. If anyone is looking for mentorship as far as guidance in cybersecurity here in South Florida, happy to help whenever I can as as far as clear security will definitely welcome the opportunity to to add more customers to our platform.

Lee Kantor: [00:20:21] Well, Alan, thank you so much for sharing your story. You’re doing important work and we appreciate you.

Alon Bender: [00:20:27] Thank you so much, Lee. Appreciate it.

Lee Kantor: [00:20:29] All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you all next time on South Florida Business Radio.