Jamie Graves is the co-founder and CEO of ZoneFox, a security software that helps businesses protect their critical data from unwanted intrusion. In the run-up to the 2017 Scottish Cyber Awards, DIGIT caught up with Jamie in the company’s Edinburgh HQ.

DIGIT: How would you characterise Scotland’s tech landscape?

Jamie: “The characteristics of the tech sector in Scotland are, in a good way, very similar to others around the world. We’ve got world-class talent here, so we’ve been able to build ourselves a fantastic, incredibly well skilled, and creative team of technical engineers, marketers and other individuals who are truly world-class. We compete alongside the best, and I think that’s a testament to the kind of quality people we have here in Scotland.

“We’re a smaller ecosystem in some respects. Edinburgh to Glasgow is like trying to travel from one side of London to the other, it only takes 45 minutes. [But this means] you’ve got a ‘network effect plus’, which makes collaboration very easy to do.

“We’ve also got world-class talent coming out of our universities, whether it be research talent or practical capabilities, in the form of individuals who staff and monitor the secure operations centres that are based here – some incredibly talented, passionate people. Across the sector you can see it – last year [at the Cyber Security Awards] it was great to see those faces in the crowd – individuals who live and breathe information security 24/7.”

DIGIT: How would you characterise 2017 in terms of the focus on security?

Jamie: “It’s been a really interesting year. You’ve actually had a lot of the same old stuff happening. Let’s think about the recent HBO insider threat release of the Game of Thrones episodes – which were performed for various reasons, probably not for financial gain, probably for various factors we may not know of because when it’s insider threat there are organisational issues at stake. There were things like WannaCry, which propagated like old-school worms did probably a decade ago. And then things like Russian interference at the French election. It’s really interesting to see the continuation of nation states using these offensive capabilities against each other in order to try to influence what’s going on in those countries.”

DIGIT: Are there any challenges specific to Scotland?

Jamie: “People are starting to take it [cyber-security] a lot more seriously. A lot of the challenges we have are about getting enough good quality, talented people into organisations which are offering the correct service. There’s a bit of a skills and a capability gap there. Certainly, sitting in the room at the [Cyber] Awards event we’ll have some incredibly talented people, but we’ll need 10 or 20 times more rooms full of people like that in order to help cover the scope and scale of the challenge in front of us.

“I know that universities around Scotland are doing an incredible job of training these individuals. But we need to make sure that we’ve got to where these individuals can translate the business need into the technical challenge on the ground as well. That can help close-off that gap between the board and what happens at an operational level. So really, it’s about talent – making sure we’ve got the right people providing the right services at the right level to organisations to help them solve their business challenges.”

DIGIT: Has the increased focus on cyber security created any new opportunities?

Jamie: “The opportunities for getting things right are really interesting. A number of CEOs view the information security challenge as an opportunity for innovation within their organisation. From a high-level perspective I can see that – in terms of innovation process and of culture too across the organisation. It gets people talking a lot more effectively. And from that, other innovative ideas and methods may come out of it as well. For organisations clearly there’s the bottom line of staying in business and staying competitive, but also the opportunity to make sure that your customers and partners have faith in your posture as an organisation.”

Thanks to ZoneFox and Dr Jamie Graves for taking part..

DIGIT is the official media partner of the Scottish Cyber Awards which take place in November 2017. Nominations for the award close on Friday 8th of September.