The Rise of MDR: Combating Cyber Threats Amidst Headcount Shortages – Randy Watkins – RSA23 #1
The continued headcount shortage facing cybersecurity teams is driving many organizations to embrace Managed Detection and Response (MDR) as a way to combat cyber threats. With this demand, dozens of MDR companies have emerged over the past two years. Critical Start’s CTO, Randy Watkins, will discuss the origin of MDR, share evaluation tips, and reveal some of the potential pitfalls.
Segment Resources: Resources to help buyers pick the right MDR provider: https://www.criticalstart.com/resources/top-10-capabilities-mdr-provider/
This segment is sponsored by Critical Start. Visit https://securityweekly.com/criticalstartrsac to learn more about them!
Guest
Randy Watkins is the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) for Critical Start and an emerging thought-leader in the security industry. As CTO, Randy is responsible for designing and executing the company’s strategic technology initiatives, which includes defining the strategy and direction of Critical Start’s Managed Detection and Response (MDR) services delivered by the Zero-Trust Analytics Platform (ZTAP).
Previously, Randy served as Critical Start’s Director of Security Architecture, where he set the strategy for emerging vendor technologies, created the Defendable Network reference architecture, and set product direction for the company’s internally-developed Security Orchestration Automation and Response platform. Watkins was employee number five when he joined Critical Start in 2012.
Randy is a respected author and speaker on security trends and is well-versed in applying security technologies, in practical and meaningful ways, to improve risk management and security infrastructure for enterprise customers. He holds numerous security certifications in data analysis, data science, computer science, and leadership. Randy earned a bachelor’s degree in Information Systems Security and an associate degree in Computer Networking Systems, both from ITT Technical Institute.
In his free time, Randy continues to contribute to the security community through his consultancy to security product manufacturers to help them drive value to the customer through their solutions.