Tech Exploration Lab students heard directly from members of Fulcrum Solutions Monday, February 24, on the prevalence of ransomware and the demand for cybersecurity.
Fulcrum Solutions is a cybersecurity firm based in Houston, Texas with offices across the country, including Wisconsin, that helps global healthcare companies to prepare and repel security breaches.
President and CEO, Mike Grall, spoke to students about the current threat of ransomware. This type of cyberattack involves an assailant encrypting a company’s files and charging a sum in exchange for decryption.
Grall urged students to understand that ransomware isn’t just a form of cyberattack, but a billion dollar industry, which employs hundreds of employees per organization.
“The business of ransomware, and I say the business, that’s an important thing to understand, these aren’t just people sitting in their basements,” Grall said. “These are very sophisticated operations.”
Many different players contribute to the ransomware industry, Grall said. There are Initial Access Brokers — cybercriminals who specialize in gaining initial access to a company’s network.
There are also backend Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS) platform providers — who provide contractors with the technology to perform ransomware attacks.
Ransomware is an incredibly lucrative business — one that is likely to experience large growth and innovation. As a result, the demand for trustworthy and professional cybersecurity services, like those provided by Fulcrum, is also growing.
Fulcrum Security Engineer Zach Brantmeier spoke to students about identity security — which ensures that access credentials to company networks are properly monitored.
Brantmeier said companies are often compromised by cyberattacks that gain access through individuals with high network security clearance.
“A lot of the work in identity is just maintaining systems of automation because the more automation you have on hiring events, transferring events, termination events, the less likely things get missed and access gets retained,” Brantmeier said.
On the other side of the ball, students heard from Roy Vreeland who works on Fulcrum’s offensive security team as a “friendly hacker.” Roy works to penetrate clients’ networks for the sake of identifying vulnerabilities real cybercriminals would likely exploit.
“I’ve been the passionately curious type my whole life and If you’re in this room you can probably resonate with that,” Vreeland said. “It’s critical for organizations to stay ahead of the curve when it comes to cybersecurity these days, it’s a back and forth game between defense and offense.”
There are nearly 70 multidisciplinary students working on identifying use cases for emerging technologies such as AI, VR/AR, and IoT. Come to the Lab’s Open House on April 24 to see what students are working on.