Balancing Risk & Innovation with Alex Dow
Curious about the mind behind Mirai Security's innovative strategies? In this episode, Alex Dow, our distinguished guest, takes you on a fascinating journey from his teenage years inspired by the film "Hackers" to his influential role as Chief Innovation Officer. Alex shares his compelling story, including his pivotal experiences with Bell Canada and his contributions to the Olympics' security operations. You'll gain insights into how his dynamic approach shapes Mirai Security's vision and the industry's transition from network to data-centric strategies, especially in cloud environments.
We promise you'll walk away with a fresh perspective on modern cybersecurity practices. Alex discusses the nuances of simplifying IT infrastructures and the significance of integrating cloud solutions for enhanced security and resilience. He critiques the prevalent market trend of indiscriminately acquiring multiple cybersecurity tools, emphasizing a more balanced approach that starts with understanding core problems. The conversation extends to the role of AI in cybersecurity, challenging the status quo, and addressing the skills gap in hiring.
Looking towards the future, Alex offers practical advice on building robust cybersecurity frameworks. From addressing the emerging challenges posed by AI and quantum computing to leveraging employee awareness as a human firewall, this episode is packed with forward-thinking insights. You'll also learn how to connect with Alex through his professional and creative pursuits, offering opportunities to engage with one of the industry's leading innovators. Join us for this enlightening discussion as we navigate the balance between innovation and risk in today's rapidly evolving cybersecurity landscape.
About Alex Dow
Over the past two decades, Alex has worked within three mission-critical security operation centres (SOC), including the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics SOC, established Vancouver’s cyber security community and in 2017 co-founded one of Western Canada’s best cyber security consultancies.
Alex is a community builder. In 2013 he established Vancouver’s cyber security community through the founding of the BSides Vancouver cyber security conference. In 2017, frustrated with how broken cyber security consulting had become, forged Mirai Security from within the community. Mirai Security has quickly become the centre for cyber security excellence in Western Canada by attracting cyber security professionals who want to do cyber security better.
Alex is an innovator. Over the years, he has focused on balancing risk by pragmatically improving situational awareness and incident response capabilities through business-enabling security architectures. Today, Alex is the Chief Innovations Officer at Mirai Security. Mirai, Japanese for the future, focuses on the “future of cyber risk” by helping enterprises securely digitally transform through innovative governance, secure Cloud adoption and maturing software development practices to align with privacy and security requirements.
Alex is a thought leader. He has a passion for knowledge and giving back to the community through public speaking, contributing to cyber security books, has taught for the SANS Institute, and continues to advise the higher education sector on the future of cyber security.
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