Small Business Stories - Parameter Security Video

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Small Business Stories - Parameter Security

Ivy: Welcome to our coverage of Vision Adventure here in Saint Louis. I’m Ivy Hartman and with me is Chronister of Parameter Security. And Rene, you started Parameter Security as an ethical hacking company. Talk about what that means. Rene: What that means is company’s financial institutions will actually hire us to come in and hack their networks, hack their people to act like malicious hackers and then obviously infiltrate their networks to see how far we can get in and present our findings on how we did that. Ivy: Now, you don’t necessarily fix those problems, you just find the problems? Rene: Correct. That is one of the things that makes us different which is we don’t fix the problems. We’re strictly third party, we can be objective. We’ll actually find the problem, identify them. And then if you have another third party coming in or your IT department fix those problems, they would come back and rehack it to ensure that they were properly secured. Ivy: When did you start and where do you hope to take Parameter? Rene: We started in January of ’07 and I hoped to take Parameter to be an international company. I really see big things especially now that information security is such a hot issue and it’s obviously not going away. There’s a lot of compliance coming down in certain industry if they haven’t already been established. So there’s always going to be a presence. There’s always going to be a need there. I see this company just growing and lease some bounds. Ivy: And how are you going to stand the cutting edge of that? Because with technology changing so often and hackers are changing their messes, so how do you stand the cutting edge of those things and still be ethical? Rene: There are certified ethical hackers in which you can learn the ways that the bad hackers have. There’s also a bunch of groups that you can affiliate yourself with to learn what’s going on, find out what the latest tactics that hackers are using, how to employ those in our services so that we can keep up, always staying one foot ahead and staying abreast of what’s going on in the hacking field really. Ivy: What brought you to Vision Adventure here in Saint Louis? Rene: Well ironically, I stumbled upon it and I thought it was everything I needed and more in the sense of just reaffirming what I’m doing but also getting me some ideas for my direction, my vision, how to expand that, even the talk today about how we need to always think about, where we’re going, how we’re going to get there, the financials and things like that and there are so many things that encompass a business owner that you get to be professional in every single one of them, an expert rather. But I really wanted to find out where I was lacking. Since I am living this day to day, it’s really close to me. And so if I can come to this conference and step back from it and look at it in the bigger, I can see where my holes are, where my strengths are, how to fill those holes and start turning the wheels that way. Ivy: It sounds like you’ve already kind of glimpsed some of those things. Are there a few things that you think you might do after you leave here? Rene: Absolutely. I guess specifically, I’d probably re-evaluate my business plan, but also, I’m going to do some long-term strategic planning and growth sales, et cetera, finances and things like that. Ivy: It seems like the business might come to you because it is such a huge bundle to market. Rene: If we know what it says. I mean, it’s ironic in the sense that those regulated industries do seek us out, and those aren’t, they’re like most corporate American types of companies. They’re doing it because there are new regulations now being put upon them or they’re really security conscious and realize the benefit of us doing this to emulate a hack to avoid a real world threat so we can catch those problems ahead of time and say, “Hey guys, you need to fix all these because this can get you in serious trouble and then bad press, everything else that goes along with it.” You know, no company can recover from that. Well, I shouldn’t say no company but it’s hard to. And if you’re a small business, good luck. Ivy: And as a consumer, I have to be honest with you as a consumer of these financial institutions, I’m very relieved to hear that they are employing ethical hazards and detect my security. Rene: Absolutely. Unfortunately, our information is everywhere. It’s unfortunate the way it is. But the only thing we can do is be proactive instead of reactive and that’s really what our difference is. We’re the proactive, we’re the offensive security team, we’re going to be there, the ethical hackers to make sure that you can be as protected as you possibly can. Ivy: Rene, thank you so much for being with us on SBTV.com. I hope you’ll enjoy the rest of the Vision Adventure good luck to you.

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Ivy: Welcome to our coverage of Vision Adventure here in Saint Louis. I’m Ivy Hartman and with me is Chronister of Parameter Security. And Rene, you started Parameter Security as an ethical hacking company. Talk about what that means.

Rene: What that means is company’s financial institutions will actually hire us to come in and hack their networks, hack their people to act like malicious hackers and then obviously infiltrate their networks to see how far we can get in and present our findings on how we did that.

Ivy: Now, you don’t necessarily fix those problems, you just find the problems?

Rene: Correct. That is one of the things that makes us different which is we don’t fix the problems. We’re strictly third party, we can be objective. We’ll actually find the problem, identify them. And then if you have another third party coming in or your IT department fix those problems, they would come back and rehack it to ensure that they were properly secured.

Ivy: When did you start and where do you hope to take Parameter?

Rene: We started in January of ’07 and I hoped to take Parameter to be an international company. I really see big things especially now that information security is such a hot issue and it’s obviously not going away. There’s a lot of compliance coming down in certain industry if they haven’t already been established. So there’s always going to be a presence. There’s always going to be a need there. I see this company just growing and lease some bounds.

Ivy: And how are you going to stand the cutting edge of that? Because with technology changing so often and hackers are changing their messes, so how do you stand the cutting edge of those things and still be ethical?

Rene: There are certified ethical hackers in which you can learn the ways that the bad hackers have. There’s also a bunch of groups that you can affiliate yourself with to learn what’s going on, find out what the latest tactics that hackers are using, how to employ those in our services so that we can keep up, always staying one foot ahead and staying abreast of what’s going on in the hacking field really.

Ivy: What brought you to Vision Adventure here in Saint Louis?

Rene: Well ironically, I stumbled upon it and I thought it was everything I needed and more in the sense of just reaffirming what I’m doing but also getting me some ideas for my direction, my vision, how to expand that, even the talk today about how we need to always think about, where we’re going, how we’re going to get there, the financials and things like that and there are so many things that encompass a business owner that you get to be professional in every single one of them, an expert rather. But I really wanted to find out where I was lacking. Since I am living this day to day, it’s really close to me. And so if I can come to this conference and step back from it and look at it in the bigger, I can see where my holes are, where my strengths are, how to fill those holes and start turning the wheels that way.

Ivy: It sounds like you’ve already kind of glimpsed some of those things. Are there a few things that you think you might do after you leave here?

Rene: Absolutely. I guess specifically, I’d probably re-evaluate my business plan, but also, I’m going to do some long-term strategic planning and growth sales, et cetera, finances and things like that.

Ivy: It seems like the business might come to you because it is such a huge bundle to market.

Rene: If we know what it says. I mean, it’s ironic in the sense that those regulated industries do seek us out, and those aren’t, they’re like most corporate American types of companies. They’re doing it because there are new regulations now being put upon them or they’re really security conscious and realize the benefit of us doing this to emulate a hack to avoid a real world threat so we can catch those problems ahead of time and say, “Hey guys, you need to fix all these because this can get you in serious trouble and then bad press, everything else that goes along with it.” You know, no company can recover from that. Well, I shouldn’t say no company but it’s hard to. And if you’re a small business, good luck.
Ivy: And as a consumer, I have to be honest with you as a consumer of these financial institutions, I’m very relieved to hear that they are employing ethical hazards and detect my security.

Rene: Absolutely. Unfortunately, our information is everywhere. It’s unfortunate the way it is. But the only thing we can do is be proactive instead of reactive and that’s really what our difference is. We’re the proactive, we’re the offensive security team, we’re going to be there, the ethical hackers to make sure that you can be as protected as you possibly can.

Ivy: Rene, thank you so much for being with us on SBTV.com. I hope you’ll enjoy the rest of the Vision Adventure good luck to you.

Transcription by: Scribe4you Transcription Services