Эксперт по кибербезопасности Ричард Харрисон возглавил глобальное подразделение AI в Trend Micro

Harrison shares what his new global role means for the vendor’s partners and customers locally. For Richard Harrison, making the move from working on the frontlines of cyber security as a chief information security officer (CISO) to working for a global vendor happened organically, rather than by design. Harrison joined TrendAI, the enterprise division of security vendor Trend Micro, in June as its New Zealand-based global vice president of AI security after almost four years as CISO at Foodstuffs South Island and, before that, five years as CISO at healthAlliance. Harrison spoke to Reseller News about why he decided to move from the customer world to working for a vendor, and what his new role means for the vendor’s partners and customers locally. One the key reasons Harrison decided to join TrendAI was the vendor’s approach to partnership, which he previously experienced as a customer. “I’ve been a Trend customer since about 2017. One of the things that always used to distinguish them from other vendors was their willingness to partner in the true sense of the word partnership,” he said. “They were always responsive to issues that we may have had [and] open to conversations around product development and features we thought would be useful.” Harrison saw the launch of TrendAI as an enterprise-focused business at the start of the year as an opportunity to bring his over 30 years of practical experience on the front lines to the new division. “I developed a very close relationship with many of the people at Trend over the last nearly 10 years. I spoke at various events for them on a number of different subjects, and that led to some conversations when the rebrand and launch of TrendAI happened and ultimately to me making that decision [to join the company].” From those conversations, Harrison helped create the vice president of AI security role to which he aims to bring a practitioner’s experience of what he calls the “practical reality” of security. “I bring that real hard practitioner experience [about] the challenges and problems vendors don’t tend to see into conversations internally, which then results in better products and better outcomes for practitioners,” he said. “Security isn’t just about a tool. Security takes place in a socio-economic environment. We can deploy tools and we can automate a lot of stuff, but in order to get security done, you have to work through partners and colleagues. “For me, that’s the bit I think vendors don’t always see: is that there’s a there’s a practical reality. There are processes you have to fit into, and not everyone in the organisation worries or cares about security as much as you do. So, it’s very much an influencing role.” The role has a broad remit, Harrison said. “The focus at the moment is very much about being a global voice of the customer – taking the sounding of key customers, understanding what that means from a practical point of view, and then translating that back into [product] requirements for the business,” he said. Understanding the role of channel partners and providers play is another vital aspect of the role, Harrison continued. “It’s very much an ecosystem and it’s understanding how that all fits together from a practitioner’s point of view, he said. “Channel partners are very important to us. They have direct relationships with customers and have the potential to be a great source of intelligence that we can understand and respond to so they’re getting the right outcomes.” Harrison aims to work with TrendAI’s local and regional channel leads to develop strategies, thought leadership and resources to help partner s engage with customers. “I’ll probably start more locally here in A/NZ [Australia and New Zealand] and then expand into the global channel partner leads,” he said. Having a global role based in New Zealand offers benefits not only to local customers and partners, but also to the company. “Many vendors are from the US and tend to have a very US-dominated perspective,” he said. “I think being a Japanese company with a global spread, we tend to have a more varied understanding of the needs of [different] markets. So, I can bring an A/NZ perspective into that. And because I have that practitioner experience, I can translate that back into the business in a way that hopefully results in better outcomes for people like me in my previous role.” One of the biggest differences for Harrison in the new role is not having responsibility and accountability for an operational environment. In fact, he describes himself as a “recovering CISO”. “I sleep better at night – not having to be in constant preparation for incidents. I might start to miss that. You never know,” he said. Ultimately, Harrison’s aim is help make organisations safer. “That’s why we’re here. That’s what we’re here to do, whether we’re on the practitioner side or the vendor side,” he said. “It’s about how do we make the world a safer place, and dealing with the threat landscape and in the current era, what’s potentially coming down the track and make sure we are best placed to respond to it. “The gives me the motivation to work hard on behalf of fellow practitioners.” As such, Harrison is open to hearing feedback from New Zealand customers and partners. “If people want to reach out and have a say, I’m here,” he added.