Click here for Part I & Part III

Meeting evolving threats head-on with comprehensive cybersecurity solutions

Jeffrey Lipson serves as CEO at Layer 8 Security, a cybersecurity consulting, advisory, and technical services company. From risk management and assessments to staffing, training, monitoring, and incident response, Layer 8 Security helps clients meet rigorous and evolving security and regulatory needs. In his role at the company, Jeff draws on his 26 years of military service, intelligence and communications experience, and cybersecurity industry expertise.

EDWIN WARFIELD: In addition to your background, what sets Layer 8 Security apart?

JEFF LIPSON: We have a unique corporate culture at Layer 8 Security. It’s a combination of military camaraderie and left coast, big tech liberalism. It creates a very fun environment. Our first corporate motto is “have fun.” From that we are looking for teammates who have a myriad of skills, not necessarily pigeonholed in one area. Some are going to be more technical, the ones that work on our red team and our blue team and our forensics teams. Others are compliance experts; they know the legal and regulatory landscapes and they provide that advisory. From that perspective, we’re looking for people with the right attitude and the right enthusiasm in addition to the technical skills.

We have a lot of clients who are in the life sciences—pharma and biotech. We also have a lot of clients who are in finance because of the regulatory needs that they have. But we don’t have any specific vertical; we are very horizontal. We have customers across the spectrum, really anybody that needs cybersecurity.

We worked with a realtor in the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton area. Initially, they were hit by ransomware, but after we cleared the ransomware off their computers, I said we should probably do a scan and see what else was here, and the Chinese were very kludgy in their attempts to cover up the fact that they’d stolen this gentleman’s entire customer database. I thought to myself: Why would the Chinese be interested in a real estate office in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton?

So I asked the owner, “tell me about your customers.” He went through and he said, “They’re normal people.”

“Well, tell me about your high-end customers.” He said, “oh, most of our high-end customers are executives in the oil fracking business. That was the one-plus-one. That’s why the Chinese were interested. They wanted the secrets that the oil executives had about fracking and they were using this real estate company as a means of gathering information—that social engineering I talked about—to be able to spearphish or target those oil executives.

Starting Marine Cyber Command was an opportunity that came up in the summer of 2010, a little by accident. All reservists have a deployment-to-dwell time, which is what we call that frequency between being mobilized and getting to be home. The last time I was mobilized was in 2004–2005, when I went to Iraq. And so by 2010, the phone was ringing—and I’d gotten this phone call before—“Hey, Sir. Good news, bad news. The good news is we’re giving you a chance to volunteer. The bad news is if you don’t, we’re going to involuntarily recall you.”

I chose option A—that I would volunteer—and the Marine on the phone said, “we have this opportunity to go to Fort Meade and to start this thing called Marine Forces Cyber Command.” I said, “that sounds like a great option.” As I mentioned earlier, it was probably one of the most rewarding jobs I’ve ever had.

I ended up being a cyber team leader. We were doing activities against high value targets in the CENTCOM AOR. CENTCOM is the Central Command. It’s basically the Middle East. We were looking for bad guys, and we were working with three-letter agencies and special forces. I would brief General Alexander who was Director at NSA and Commander of USCYBERCOM. And he would say, “This is great. I’m going to go brief the joint chiefs and POTUS”—President of the United States—and I would pinch myself and be like, “Who has this kind of job? It’s, like, total cool.”

Now, my wife had to learn quickly: “Don’t ask me about my day.” I would take a line from The Godfather when Michael Corleone was asked by his wife about his business and he would say, “Don't ask me about my business. Kate.” I would have to say the same. She would say, “so how was your day?” “Well, good. How was yours?” I really couldn't say much more.

Connect with Jeff on LinkedIn

Sponsored by:

ABOUT NEWMARK KNIGHT FRANK

Newmark Knight Frank (NKF) is one of the world's leading commercial real estate advisory firms. Together with London-based partner Knight Frank and independently-owned offices, NKF's 15,000 professionals operate from more than 400 offices in established and emerging property markets on six continents.

With roots dating back to 1929, NKF's strong foundation makes it one of the most trusted names in commercial real estate. NKF's full-service platform comprises BGC's real estate services segment, offering commercial real estate tenants, landlords, investors and developers a wide range of services including leasing; capital markets services, including investment sales, debt placement, appraisal, and valuation services; commercial mortgage brokerage services; as well as corporate advisory services, consulting, project and development management, and property and corporate facilities management services. For further information, visit www.ngkf.com.

NKF is a part of BGC Partners, Inc., a leading global brokerage company servicing the financial and real estate markets. BGC's common stock trades on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the ticker symbol (NASDAQ: BGCP). BGC also has an outstanding bond issuance of Senior Notes due June 15, 2042, which trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol (NYSE: BGCA). BGC Partners is led by Chairman and Chief Executive Officer  Howard W. Lutnick. For more information, please visit www.bgcpartners.com.

Edwin Warfield, CEO of citybizlist, conducts the CEO Interviews.

If you're interested in reaching CEOs, please contact edwin.warfield@citybuzz.co

Connect on LinkedIn