Breach Preparedness , Cybersecurity , Data Breach

Arbor's Sam Curry on Re-Thinking How We Approach Cybersecurity Tom Field (SecurityEditor) • July 15, 2016    

As CSO and CTO of Arbor Networks, Sam Curry is in a rare position: He can set security strategy and then go out and find the tools to execute it.

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"It's an unusual situation," Curry says. "There's no hypocrisy here. I can say I need something, and then I have to deliver it, and I only have myself to hold accountable."

Part of Curry's ongoing challenge is to find the right tools to fight cybercrime. But a big part of it is also to ensure that the right people are focused appropriately on the task.

"The first problem we have is: How do we free up more discretionary budget to invest in new technologies that can actually stop the bad guys?" Curry says. The second issue then becomes: How do we get people to use these technologies? "How do we help them catch faster and with higher reliability the bad guys before information is affected or lost?"

In an interview at the Boston Fraud and Breach Prevention Summit, Curry discusses:

His unique CSO/CTO role; How to account for the human factor in cyber conflict; New ways to envision a cybersecurity strategy.

Curry has spent his career focused on the intersection of deep technology and solving customer problems. As Arbor's chief technology and security officer, he leads the development and implementation of the company's product strategy and innovation roadmap. Previously, he held the roles of senior vice president of research and development and CISO at MicroStrategy. Prior to that, Curry held a number of roles at RSA, including general manager, CTO and senior vice president of product management. He has also held a number of leadership roles at McAfee and Computer Associates, among others, and has founded two companies. A frequent speaker and widely quoted subject matter expert in technical and industry forums during the course of his career, Curry has more than 20 patents and is on the board of several companies and organizations.