Meet the Cybersecurity Defender of 2024 for EMEA

Yearly, Cisco selects leaders who exemplify the eagerness, tenacity, and information required to be a cybersecurity defender. We’re delighted to announce the Cybersecurity Defender of 2024 for the EMEA area: Stuart Perkins, Operations Chief for the Cyber Prevents crew at Vodafone.

From Networks to Cybersecurity

A graduate of London College, Stuart’s profession started on the Royal Air Power as an Engineering Officer. After serving, Stuart moved to the non-public sector, the place he specialised in managing completely different applied sciences and technical groups. At Vodafone, a number one telecommunications firm headquartered in the UK, Stuart is chargeable for the Community and Telco Platforms that present safety on the perimeter of the Vodafone property. Stuart leads a crew of 100 workers throughout Europe and India and is the lead for Operational Finest Observe throughout the Cyber Forestall crew.

“You’re on the facet of doing the correct factor.”– Stuart Perkins.

With a background in constructing and configuring networks and understanding and securing these networks, Stuart has been fascinated by exploring the large quantity of knowledge out there in cybersecurity. Discovering out extra about risk actors and what they’re doing by the a number of instruments he makes use of, piques Stuart’s curiosity. Nonetheless, what issues most to Stuart about cybersecurity is that “you’re on the facet of doing the correct factor, making a distinction, and stopping individuals with malevolent intent from being profitable,” he mentioned.

The community by no means lies.

Stuart is devoted to including worth and bettering experiences for colleagues and prospects who depend on Vodafone to conduct enterprise securely. Stuart’s crew manages to safe tens of 1000’s of gadgets internally and plenty of thousand gadgets inside their enterprise house. On condition that Vodafone is thwarting tens to tons of of hundreds of thousands of threats relying on the day, Stuart is energized by his collaboration with Cisco and having the ability to analyze information to get detailed perception into risk actors.

“Utilizing the MITRE assault Framework, we’ve truly been in a position to map from Cisco’s intelligence what these varied assaults try to do and the place they match into the framework,” he mentioned. Stuart finds this work “distinctive and groundbreaking” for each Vodafone and Cisco in that “we’re utilizing the perimeter of our infrastructure as a sensor to grasp what persons are making an attempt to do in opposition to us and what their aims are and begin to have a look at areas the place we have to bolster the defenses.”

Given Stuart’s community background, what excites him about partnering with Cisco is Cisco’s historical past of community functionality. In a latest name with Cisco colleagues, an concept that notably struck Stuart was that the community by no means lies. “Cisco is giving me perception to see the site visitors flows throughout our infrastructure. Utilizing the MITRE mapping helps us rapidly assess and act on any alerts, while our blocking actions are nice, we all know that some cyber assaults shall be profitable. Our mission is to guard prospects, colleagues, and society from this sort of legal exercise,” he mentioned.

Stuart’s dedication to infrastructure safety is mirrored in Vodafone’s use of the MITRE ATT&CK framework and Cisco Safety options. By leveraging these instruments, Vodafone is ready to block tens of hundreds of thousands of malicious makes an attempt each day. This stage of safety effectiveness protects Vodafone’s programs and enhances the client expertise by making certain that points are handled promptly.

Empowering the following technology of cybersecurity defenders

Stuart’s ardour for his work extends to empowering his crew members to change into the following technology of cybersecurity defenders. As there’s a vital cohort of early-in-career contributors beginning their careers at Vodafone, it’s essential to Stuart that his workers have ample coaching alternatives and attention-grabbing issues to work on in each community tooling and reporting. The crew can also be enthusiastic about an upcoming Cyber Vary coaching with Cisco Talos’s Risk Intelligence crew.

One thing Stuart is proudest of is the transformation of his crew changing into extra proactive about their platforms and extra curious concerning the data gleaned from alerts. This focus and collaboration have led to much less time on calls due to the crew’s due diligence.

The crew of colleagues at Vodafone who’ve labored intently with Stuart are so pleased with this achievement, they assume it’s very nicely deserved. His mission focus and the expertise he makes use of to teach others are so essential to us.

Congratulations, Stuart! All of us profit out of your contributions to the sphere.

Enthusiastic about cybersecurity?

Should you, too, are making a distinction in cybersecurity with Cisco, be thought-about for our subsequent Cybersecurity Defender of the 12 months award.

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