Every yr, Cisco selects leaders who exemplify the fervour, tenacity, and information required to be a cybersecurity defender. We are delighted to announce the Cybersecurity Defender of 2024 for the EMEA area: Stuart Perkins, Operations Leader for the Cyber Prevents workforce at Vodafone.
From Networks to Cybersecurity
A graduate of London University, Stuart’s profession started on the Royal Air Force as an Engineering Officer. After serving, Stuart moved to the non-public sector, the place he specialised in managing totally different applied sciences and technical groups. At Vodafone, a number one telecommunications firm headquartered within the United Kingdom, Stuart is liable for the Network and Telco Platforms that present safety on the perimeter of the Vodafone property. Stuart leads a workforce of 100 workers throughout Europe and India and is the lead for Operational Best Practice throughout the Cyber Prevent workforce.
“You’re on the side of doing the right thing.”
– Stuart Perkins.
With a background in constructing and configuring networks and understanding and securing these networks, Stuart has been fascinated by exploring the massive quantity of knowledge out there in cybersecurity. Finding out extra about menace actors and what they’re doing by the a number of instruments he makes use of, piques Stuart’s curiosity. However, what issues most to Stuart about cybersecurity is that “you’re on the side of doing the right thing, making a difference, and preventing people with malevolent intent from being successful,” he mentioned.
The community by no means lies.
Stuart is devoted to including worth and bettering experiences for colleagues and prospects who depend on Vodafone to conduct enterprise securely. Stuart’s workforce manages to safe tens of 1000’s of units internally and plenty of thousand units inside their enterprise area. Given that Vodafone is thwarting tens to lots of of hundreds of thousands of threats relying on the day, Stuart is energized by his collaboration with Cisco and with the ability to analyze knowledge to get detailed perception into menace actors.
“Using the MITRE attack Framework, we’ve actually been able to map from Cisco’s intelligence what those various attacks are attempting to do and where they fit into the framework,” he mentioned. Stuart finds this work “unique and groundbreaking” for each Vodafone and Cisco in that “we’re using the perimeter of our infrastructure as a sensor to understand what people are trying to do against us and what their objectives are and start to look at areas where we need to bolster the defenses.”
Given Stuart’s community background, what excites him about partnering with Cisco is Cisco’s historical past of community functionality. In a latest name with Cisco colleagues, an concept that significantly struck Stuart was that the community by no means lies. “Cisco is giving me insight to see the traffic flows across our infrastructure. Using the MITRE mapping helps us quickly assess and act on any alerts, whilst our blocking actions are great, we know that some cyber attacks will be successful. Our mission is to protect customers, colleagues, and society from this type of criminal activity,” he mentioned.
Stuart’s dedication to infrastructure safety is mirrored in Vodafone’s use of the MITRE ATT&CK framework and Cisco Security options. By leveraging these instruments, Vodafone is ready to block tens of hundreds of thousands of malicious makes an attempt each day. This stage of safety effectiveness protects Vodafone’s methods and enhances the shopper expertise by guaranteeing that points are handled promptly.
Empowering the subsequent era of cybersecurity defenders
Stuart’s ardour for his work extends to empowering his workforce members to change into the subsequent era of cybersecurity defenders. As there’s a vital cohort of early-in-career contributors beginning their careers at Vodafone, it’s essential to Stuart that his workers have ample coaching alternatives and fascinating issues to work on in each community tooling and reporting. The workforce can also be enthusiastic about an upcoming Cyber Range coaching with Cisco Talos’s Threat Intelligence workforce.
Something Stuart is proudest of is the transformation of his workforce changing into extra proactive about their platforms and extra curious concerning the data gleaned from alerts. This focus and collaboration have led to much less time on calls due to the workforce’s due diligence.
The workforce of colleagues at Vodafone who’ve labored intently with Stuart are so pleased with this achievement, they assume it’s very effectively deserved. His mission focus and the expertise he makes use of to educate others are so essential to us.
Congratulations, Stuart! We all profit out of your contributions to the sphere.
Passionate about cybersecurity?
If you, too, are making a distinction in cybersecurity with Cisco, be thought-about for our subsequent Cybersecurity Defender of the Year award.
We’d love to listen to what you assume. Ask a Question, Comment Below, and Stay Connected with Cisco Security on social!
Cisco Security Social Channels
Instagram
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Share: