Tag Archive for: exec

Former Twilio exec joins crypto tech firm MoonPay

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Nils Puhlmann, MoonPay

Cryptocurrency payments solution MoonPay has appointed Nils Puhlmann as its Chief Risk and Security Officer. 

Puhlmann was previously the Chief Trust and Security Officer at travel tech firm TripActions and before that held the same role at Twilio, a cloud communications platform-as-a-service based in San Francisco.  

He was also the co-founder and former board member of the Cloud Security Alliance, a global community of over 50,000 computer security professionals. 

In his role at MoonPay, Puhlmann will focus on assuring the safety and security of all operations as the company continues to scale.  

The company says his wealth of experience in security, risk management, and compliance will be critical as MoonPay grows its user and partner base across new markets, ensuring the business adheres to all regulations and creating a secure ecosystem for its users. 

Puhlmann’s appointment follows MoonPay’s hiring of former Coinbase UK CEO, Zeeshan Feroz, as its Chief Growth Officer in March. 

The future of crypto – and creating a fairer financial ecosystem

Ivan Soto-Wright, founder and CEO at MoonPay said: “At MoonPay, we have ambitious growth plans, and as we continue on our journey and expand into new markets, the safety and security of our customers and partners’ data is of the utmost importance.  

“Puhlmann’s experience and strength in protection and risk management will be fundamental as we continue to grow. We’re delighted to welcome him to the team.” 

Puhlmann added: “MoonPay’s growth over the last 24 months has been impressive in a particularly competitive market.  

“Its mission to provide the technology that will allow one billion users to access cryptocurrency by 2030 is one that I have long-shared and I am thrilled to join this talented team at this exciting stage of the company’s development. 

“As MoonPay continues to expand into new markets and work with a range of new partners, risk, compliance and security will become increasingly important. I look forward to building on the stellar work already done by the team, and working to set a higher bar for…

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DOJ charges security exec for hacking a Georgia healthcare company in 2018

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A security company executive has been charged for hacking into (PDF) the Gwinnett Medical Center’s network on or around September 27th, 2018. According to the Department of Justice, Vikas Singla from Georgia conducted a cyberattack on the not-for-profit network of healthcare providers in part for commercial advantage and personal financial gain. Singla was the chief operating officer of a network security company in metro-Atlanta — the DOJ didn’t name the company, but the profile matches that of Securolytics — that served the healthcare industry. He (and his yet-to-be-named associates) allegedly disrupted GMC’s phone service, obtained information from a digitizing device and disrupted network printer service during the attack.

While the DOJ didn’t dive into the specifics of the case, it was reported back in 2018 that GMC was investigating a possible data breach that led to the leak of patient information online. The attackers also threatened GMC’s staff and shamed the provider on the internet. Now-deleted blog posts on Securolytics’ website written by Singla describe attacking targets in healthcare, presumably to fix problems with their security. How that activity is linked to the data breach reported in 2018, or the charges filed this week, is still unclear.

The executive was indicted by a federal grand jury on June 8th and was charged with 17 counts of intentional damage to a protected computer, with each charge carrying a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. He was also charged with one count of obtaining information by computer from a protected computer, which has a max sentence of five years in prison.

Special Agent in Charge Chris Hacker of the FBI’s Atlanta Field Office said:

“This cyberattack on a hospital not only could have had disastrous consequences, but patients’ personal information was also compromised. The FBI and our law enforcement partners are determined to hold accountable, those who allegedly put people’s health and safety at risk while driven by greed.”

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Optiv Exec Julie Talbot-Hubbard On Securing Multi-Cloud Environments

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In the last year we’ve seen cloud migrations explode as companies rushed digital transformation projects to meet changing business demands brought on by the pandemic, and in many cases, at the expense of security.

Julie Talbot-Hubbard, senior vice president of Cyber Protection and Identity at Optiv, No. 26 on the 2020 CRN Solution Provider 500, talks about some of the challenges companies face in today’s COVID-driven digital workplace as companies work to secure their new digital footprint.

“If we look back to last May, last June, it was all hands on deck to really help our clients, working with our partners on how do we enable users to work remotely, store their data in the cloud, you know just work very mobile and agile,” said Talbot-Hubbard. “Now fast forward to where we are now… now we know that’s more of a permanent nature and we’re trying to make sure we have the right controls in place, the right visibility, the right technology, working with our partners to ensure organizations have compliance, all of that across [multi-cloud environments].”

Talbot-Hubbard told CRNtv, partners are also discovering a new problem: there are no effective tools for managing identities across multiple clouds.

“Now [organizations] are distributed across a hybrid-cloud environment, so their perimeter has changed,” which calls for a new cybersecurity strategy centered around identity and access management (IAM) said Talbot-Hubbard.

And why she’s calling on IAM technology vendors and cloud platform vendors to leverage partnerships, processes and technology across the cybersecurity life cycle “to be able to provide that full visibility and integration into identities and entitlements.”

“Think about today, it’s not just on human IDs, think about that machine element as well and how quickly we’re ramping up you know from a cloud infrastructure standability and tearing it down, all of those machines or infrastructure have an identity,” Talbot-Hubbard said. “And so ensuring that we’ve got the right technologies that can integrate with these cloud partners is going to be really critical to help clients and customers secure their environment.”

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Biden selects former Army acquisition exec for DOD’s top tech job — FCW

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Defense

Biden selects former Army acquisition exec for DOD’s top tech job

  • By Lauren C. Williams
  • Apr 27, 2021

Heidi Shyu, the assistant secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics and Technology, vists Ft. Bliss May 2015 DOD photo by Sgt. Jessica Littlejohn 

Heidi Shyu on a 2015 visit to Ft. Bliss. (DOD photo by Sgt. Jessica Littlejohn)

President Joe Biden has nominated Heidi Shyu, former assistant secretary of the Army for acquisition, logistics and technology, to lead the Defense Department’s tech investments as undersecretary for research and engineering.

Shyu chairs the board for manufacturing company Plasan North America, leads her own consulting firm and has held several executive positions at Raytheon.

As the Army’s acquisition executive, Shyu worked to streamline the Army’s program executive offices, especially around cybersecurity.

“Cyber cuts across every single one of my programs,” Shyu previously said. “It’s not stove-piped. You don’t want … Cyber Command to talk to every single PEO individually – that’s just stupid.”

The White House also nominated former Defense Department acquisition chief, Frank Kendall, to be secretary of the Air Force.

Kendall, who was most recently an independent consultant and a senior fellow for the think-tank Center for American Progress, served as DOD’s acquisition chief during the Obama administration and the deputy director of defense research and engineering for tactical warfare programs.

Previously, he was also the vice president of engineering for major defense contractor Raytheon. He also sits on the board of directors for Leidos, another major defense technology contractor.

Gina Ortiz Jones, an experienced Air Force intelligence officer and former special advisor to the Defense Intelligence Agency’s deputy director, was also nominated to be the Air Force’s number two. In addition to her military experience, Ortiz Jones was the investment director for the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) portfolio.

The White House also nominated Thomas Monheim to be the inspector general for the intelligence community. Monheim is currently acting in the role and…

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