Security Gets Serious Episode 003: Jon Miller on Building Security Startups

The security market has exploded in recent years as we have seen words like hacker” and “cyber” go from being obscure terms to part of the everyday vernacular of end-users everywhere.

So, what does it take to build a successful security startup? What hurdles do founders face and how do they overcome them to disrupt the market and advance the tradecraft of the security sector?

In this episode of Security Gets Serious, host Ben Carr sits down with Halcyon co-founder and CEO Jon Miller who first led critical teams at several well-known security vendors, then rose to the ranks of CEO to co-found and shepherd several more to success in a very competitive market.

Miller discusses everything from how his understanding of the evolving ransomware threat landscape shaped his experience as a cybersecurity entrepreneur, to the most alarming trends in ransomware attacks and their impact on businesses and individuals.

Miller also discusses his unique perspective in building defensive security solutions based on his extensive experience in building offensive tools for the U.S. government, and how understanding good offense is critical to mounting a good defense.

Miller has spent 25+ years working in the cybersecurity industry. Prior to co-founding Halcyon, Miller was the CEO & Co-founder of Boldend, a next-generation defense contractor focused on building offensive tools for the US Government.  

Before his work at Boldend, Miller held the title of Chief Research Officer of Cylance (now Blackberry) where he focused on malware and product efficacy.  

And prior to Cylance, he was employee number 70 at Accuvant (now Optiv) where he helped build and lead the largest technical consultancy at the time Accuvant LABS, working with over 95% of the Fortune 500 as an offensive security expert.  

Your Host, Ben Carr, Halcyon Advisory CISO: Carr is a Security & Risk Executive and recognized thought leader with more than 25 years of results driven experience in developing and executing security strategies. Carr has served in global leadership roles at advanced technology, high risk, and rapid growth companies such as Ericsson (Cradlepoint), Qualys, Aristocrat, Tenable, Visa and Nokia. Ben has served as a member of the Board of Directors for organizations such as IT-ISAC and NTXPKUA. He is an advisor for Noname Security and Syn Ventures and has previously served on Advisory boards for Living Security, TruStar, Mimecast, Qualys, and Accuvant. ‍

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Halcyon.ai is the leading anti-ransomware company. Global 2000 companies rely on the Halcyon platform defeat ransomware with minimal business disruption through built-in bypass and evasion protection, key material capture, automated decryption, and data exfiltration and extortion prevention – talk to a Halcyon expert today to find out more. Halcyon also publishes a quarterly RaaS (Ransomware as a Service) and extortion group reference guide, Power Rankings: Ransomware Malicious Quartile, and check out the Recent Ransomware Attacks resource site.