At Black Hat Riyadh 2024, Axidian had the privilege of being part of the action and sharing our expertise with the cybersecurity community. Our Head of Sales and Partnerships, Anna Surovova, was interviewed to provide her insights on the event, the evolving cybersecurity landscape, and what excites her about her role in the industry.
During the interview, Anna discussed her experience at Black Hat, highlighting the event’s value for building connections, staying on top of the latest trends, and identifying the industry’s most pressing challenges. She also took the opportunity to speak about Axidian’s Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR) solution, Axidian Shield, and how it plays a crucial role in addressing the growing need for identity security.
Watch the full interview below to get Anna’s expert take on these critical topics and learn more about Axidian’s contribution to the cybersecurity ecosystem.
Transcript
Q – You’re currently at Black Hat in Riyadh — what’s your experience been like so far? How does it feel to be at such a major cybersecurity event in person?
Anna – Let me start with a couple of words about our company. Axidian is a security vendor with expertise in identity security. Together with Axidian, we have participated in many events such as GITEX, IDC, and GISEC, and for me, this is my first time at Black Hat. So far, I see that many local and international companies are showcasing their interest in new IT technologies and trends. It’s a great pleasure for me and for our company to be here and have the opportunity to share knowledge with our potential customers and partners and exchange experiences with them.
Q – Do you feel it’s a major cybersecurity event on a business and personal level?
Anna – There are many different cybersecurity events hosted in GCC countries. But this is definitely one of the major events in the region, and a major one for Saudi Arabia.
Q – What are some of the most interesting discussions or trends you’ve encountered at Black Hat this year? Anything that particularly stood out to you?
Anna – Axidian has experience in the identity security field, and many of the discussions centered around this topic. The most notable point was that the majority of customers are trying to comply with the Zero Trust concept. But, we also noticed that there are still many uncovered and unprotected areas, such as the lack of traditional MFA security or control over admin accounts. This means that a lot of work still needs to be done, but companies are moving in the right direction. And that’s great!
Q – Cybersecurity challenges are constantly evolving the region. From your conversations here at Black Hat, what do you believe are the key challenges organizations are facing when it comes to identity security?
Anna – You’re right. Modern attacks have become cheap, simple, and profitable, and there’s no longer a need for bad guys to have special knowledge to hack into systems. This brings us to the main challenges we’ve learned about from customers and partners.
One major unprotected area involves users who have already passed authentication — those who are authenticated in the system and have access to internal company systems. Many customers have stated that this is one of the primary reasons for current breaches.
Another challenge is that companies trying to control the activities of authenticated and privileged users are often performing a lot of manual tasks. These tasks are resource-intensive and time-consuming.
The third challenge concerns systems where traditional MFA doesn’t work. For example, network shared folders, service accounts (for routers and printers, for instance), and legacy applications. This is one of the biggest headaches for most CISOs.
Q – Axidian Shield has recently been launched. Why is it so essential for businesses today?
Anna – We have many customers, and all of them are using dozens of different products and tools to build comprehensive identity security, such as PAM, IDM, MFA and others. However, all these tools protect only at the client level. There is a gap that is not covered by any security measures. With Axidian Shield, an ITDR (Identity Threat Detection and Response) solution, we can fill this gap. The solution sits before the domain controller, receiving, analyzing, and responding to all traffic—from users to devices, as well as from service accounts. Most importantly, with Axidian Shield, it has become possible to help companies achieve their initiatives in building the Zero Trust architecture
Q – Finally, for companies looking to stay ahead of the ever-evolving security landscape, what are the key steps they should take now to prepare for the challenges of tomorrow?
Anna – As our CEO says, before thinking about the steps, you should first consider the goals you’d like to achieve. My suggestion is to follow these steps:
- Determine what goals you want to achieve in terms of identity security.
- Review your infrastructure and systems to identify potential vulnerabilities.
- Build a roadmap and focus on the areas with the highest potential risks.
- Choose a reliable partner who will assist you 24/7.
Q – We’re seeing more women in Black Hat and more women stepping into leadership roles within the cybersecurity field. As a woman in cybersecurity, what has your journey been like, and what advice would you give to other women entering the field?
Anna – I started my way in a totally different area: I worked as an interpreter for an international relations organization. It was quite boring for me, and there was no career growth. That’s why I started searching for something more interesting and with more prospects. IT security was a perfect fit for that.
What I can suggest to all ladies is, first of all, to work hard and pay a lot of attention to the tasks that you’re doing. The second thing, which I think is one of the most important, is that you should be curious. You should try to learn something new on a daily basis, keep track of local trends and global trends, and you should also monitor what your competitors are doing. Continue learning from different external sources, your colleagues, and, of course, you should work hard.
Q – How do you see the role of sales in a tech company like Axidian? In your opinion, what’s the most important part of successfully presenting and delivering a solution like Axidian Shield to clients?
Anna – When it comes to sales, many people think it’s just about making money, but it’s a bit more than that. It’s not just about selling products and generating revenue. It’s more about building connections with people, communicating with customers and partners. By the way, with many of them, we’ve become very good friends. It’s also about listening to your customers and partners to understand their pain points, then conveying these pain points to your technical team and convincing them that these issues are important and should be addressed.
Additionally, we actively participate in the marketing process because we communicate closely with the marketing team. We provide information about local compliances and the requirements of local customers. I can say that the sales team participates in almost every aspect of the company’s life, which makes our job very interesting.
