← The Digital Executive
The Digital Executive
Cybersecurity, E-Commerce Threats, and Mentoring the Next Generation with Executive Amit Patel | Ep 1029
00:17:45
Loading summary
Transcript14 lines
- [00:00]
A
Foreign.
- [00:09]
B
Welcome to Coruscant Technologies, home of the Digital Executive podcast. Welcome to the Digital Executive. Today's guest is Amit Patel. Amit Patel is a Senior Vice President at Consulting Solutions, one of the nation's fastest growing IT workforce and consulting services firms, where he helps businesses navigate their most complex technology challenges. With a deep background in IT advisory and talent strategy, Amit has also held leadership roles at Accenture and Consulting and Strive Consulting. Beyond work, Amit is passionate about mentoring the next generation of innovators. As an active member of the Thai Young Entrepreneurs Dallas chapter, he helps high schoolers develop their entrepreneurial skills and their mindsets. In today's discussion, we'll be tapping into Amit's extensive knowledge of cybersecurity, of the most pressing issues facing businesses. Today. He'll break down the top cyber threats companies should be aware of, and more importantly, what they need to do now to stay ahead of evolving risks. Well, good afternoon, Amit. Welcome to the show.
- [01:07]
A
Thank you, Brian, for having me on your show. I'm again big fan of your podcast, so looking forward to the conversation today.
- [01:12]
B
Awesome. Thank you so much, brother. I appreciate it. Hailing out of Dallas, Texas. I'm in Kansas City. We're same time zone, but just a few hours drive away. Right. So let's just jump right into your first question, Amit. Can you share your journey to becoming the senior Vice President at Consulting Solutions and what makes you passionate about helping customers with cybersecurity, particularly concerning e commerce platforms?
- [01:35]
A
Yeah, absolutely, Brian. You know, I think I'm truly a tech nerd at heart, right. And I think that truly start off as an earlier age, I'll tinker around with electronics, take them apart, see how they work, right. And really be able to put them back together again. You know, luckily for me, my parents fostered that curiosity and that kind of helped lead me down that path of technology. And fast forward. I had bachelor's and master's in information technology, joined a large IT consulting firm right out of college, and that gave me the exposure and opportunity to work with dozens of different clients in various different industries all across the globe. I got to travel a lot up and down the eastern seaboard of the US Mostly living in a hotel in a suitcase for many, many years. At the time, I was single and so that was great. Got to see lots of different people, cultures, all that good stuff. And then fast forward. My then my girlfriend, now my wife, we're getting a little bit more serious, so wanted to settle down a little bit, joined smaller boutique firms, consulting Firms where I didn't have to travel as much. The last about 13 years, I've been in Dallas, Texas. I left consulting for a little bit, launched a couple of tech startups of my own for a little bit. And then about five years ago I had an opportunity to work with my mentor, which led me to my current organization More. I lead our consulting practice nationwide for our company. And you know, in all honesty, Brian, I just love to help identify and solve problems for our clients. Right. And that, that's what really gets me up. And as far as cybersecurity goes, right, it's a huge, huge problem. As you can see in all the news outlets. It's a constant game of cat and mouse, right. I love being on the front lines of, you know, helping a lot of our clients and businesses just remain safe. And, and I think there's a couple of aspects to this, right? When you look at the financial side, a single data breach can wipe a business out overnight. And I mean, we're talking about millions in fines and lawsuits and lost customers. So helping businesses stay ahead of these cyber threats, it's not just a job for me. It's about saving them from a massive financial disaster. And when you speak about customers, everything in E commerce is really to trust. And brands build these loyalties. You know, it takes years and years to build a lot of customer loyalty. And with one breach that customer, that trust is kind of gone. And so my job is to make sure that that never happens. And so I love helping businesses kind of lock down their security, which ultimately just helps their protect their reputation and relationships that they build with their customers. And so I think that that is really just this meaningful. And you know, when you're, when you're talking about growth as an overall, especially from an E commerce business perspective, the bigger these organizations get, the more vulnerable they can become. And so helping them scale safely, you know, whether it's securing global transactions and creating third party tools, whatever that looks like, I want to help businesses make sure that they're set up the right way. And you know, frankly speaking, I think at the end of the day it's just about making the world a little bit safer. E commerce obviously is a massive part of the global economy as a whole. And that I think is a prime target for cybercriminals across the board. And so that's what helps me get out of bed every morning. And I love what I do. To me, it's not just about firewalls and encryptions, right. It's about protecting people, businesses and that overall trust that makes E commerce work as a whole.
- [04:48]
B
Thank you so much. I mean, I appreciate that. Love the story. Growing up, obviously, curiosity has taken you a lot of places, and technology has treated you very well with your consulting and all the things that you've done. But what, what really resonates with me is helping others fills your cup. It's your purpose, and especially in this, I think it certainly applies in protecting them in this cyber world where we have to be ever vigilant. So I appreciate you sharing that. Amit, in your recent article, you highlighted the top cybersecurity threats facing e commerce businesses. Could you elaborate on these threats and the strategies you recommend mitigating them?
- [05:22]
A
Yeah, Brian, absolutely. You know, and what I'll do is I'll kind of walk through some of the big ones. There's dozens out there, right? But I think, you know, when you look at cyber threats in E commerce, right, it's evolving fast and, you know, businesses need to stay ahead of them. And, you know, one of the biggest ones, in my opinion, is data breaches, right? Because this is, you know, an e commerce business's worst nightmare. Hackers will target online retail stores to steal sensitive customer data, right? Credit card details, addresses, login credentials, right? You name it. And they typically do this by exploiting weak payment systems or unsecured databases of some sort. And the best way to mitigate those, or at least that is encrypting all your sensitive data, right? This ensures that even if somebody does intercept that data, it's kind of useless to them performing regular security audits. Businesses, especially large online footprints, they need to constantly test for vulnerabilities because hackers will do that, right? And so you want to beat them to the punch a little bit. And you know, and lastly, I think for that specific issue, even adopting things like tokenization, where these tokens replace sensitive data like credit card details, so you're not storing the credit card details, but you're. You're storing that data or that token. And so even if that data was stolen, a token is useless because you're never really storing that customer information. So I think those are a couple of ways to help with data breaches. Now, I think some of the things that we hear all the time in news outlets especially are these ransomware attacks, right? And these attacks can get brutal where hackers encrypt entire systems and they demand basically a ransom to unlock it. And, you know, for e commerce stores, right, a downtime means lost sales, lost customers, and it can be a total nightmare. For them. So I think, you know, a couple ways to mitigate that. I think, you know, having frequent data backups helps. So store your data in these offline, secure locations. You can always restore systems without paying that ransom. Adopting a zero trust security model to ensure that even those that should have access to your architecture, you're constantly monitoring their activity. You're constantly, frequently asking for credential updates as well and kind of deploying that architecture across the board. And lastly, it's kind of almost common sense. It's amazing how many people don't do this, but just basic employee training and because, you know, a lot of these ransomware attacks, they start with a simple phishing email. So I think awareness is key. Making sure that people aren't clicking on things that they shouldn't be clicking on or giving away information where they shouldn't be. And so I think those are some key things that a lot of businesses can do. And you know, frankly, Bern, speaking of phishing attacks, right, it's, you know, these days it's a major threat to E commerce, right? Hackers are impersonating legitimate organizations, they're tricking customers, your employees to handing over sensor data. And these phishing attacks are getting incredibly sophisticated. So I think a couple of ways to mitigate that is obviously you hear about mfa, right, Multi factor authentication. So even if an attacker steals login credentials, they won't be able to actually get access to accounts without that second authentication having advanced email filtering systems. And a lot of email system tools out there are getting better at this. But you know, there are a lot of AI driven filters that can help detect and block phishing attempts before they even reach customers, employees, which is I think phenomenal. And again, basic just security awareness training, right? I mean educate your staff, recognize what these phishing emails are attempting to do and just kind of being on the forefront of that. So I think, I think those are a couple of the big things. Brian, we also hear about AI, right? I think AI is a game changer in E commerce. You're seeing personalized shopping, right? Fraud detection, chatbot, right? But it can be a double edged sword a little bit because hackers are manipulating these AI models, they're injecting bad data, they're even hijacking these AI powered decision making processes. So we've got to be on the forefront of that. So perform regular audits to test your AI system, ensure only limited authorized personnel can modify these algorithms and things like that. So some of those are big areas that a lot of organizations should invest in and If I could give just one general advice to a lot of e commerce outlets, it would just be to invest in cybersecurity before you need it. Right? Because too many businesses wait until they've been hacked to take security seriously and at that point that damage is done. Right? So be proactive with your security culture, stay ahead of these threats and make cybersecurity a priority, not an afterthought.
- [09:49]
B
Thank you, I really appreciate that. I think that's so important. You highlighted some great things. Obviously cybersecurity is just so paramount now with these cyber threats evolving so quickly. You know, the data breaches you covered, especially in the financial sector and E commerce businesses, that they're targeted quite a bit and of course malware is prevalent. But you kind of took that multilayer security approach. You know, you said firewalls, endpoint protection and multi factor authentication, being ever vigilant, adopting a zero trust architecture and then of course security awareness. You need to make sure that everybody is well trained, well aware of some of those threats. So you covered quite a lot there and I appreciate that. Amit, I'm going to switch to your third question here. As a proactive member and leader in Thai young entrepreneurs for the past six years, how do you approach mentoring young entrepreneurs and what key qualities do you believe are essential for their success?
- [10:37]
A
Yeah, Brian, by the way, great question. You know, I think I love mentoring young entrepreneurs, right? I'm just, it's something that I'm just passionate about because I've been in their shoes and I've had some phenomenal mentors in my lifetime. And so I've seen what positive mentorship can do for individuals. And so when I speak to you young audience, you know, when I. And my approach is pretty simple, right? I always try to just listen first and then advise second. Right? Because every founder, every young entrepreneur, they have their own vision, their own struggles. And if you don't take the time to really just understand where they're coming from, it's tough to really help them out, right? Because no two people are the same, no two businesses are the same, and no two struggles are the same. And so. But one of the biggest things that I emphasize is resilience. Startups, as you know, they rarely ever go as planned. There's always setbacks, failures, tough decisions that we need to make. And the entrepreneurs who succeed aren't necessarily the ones with the best ideas, but they're the ones that push through those tough moments and that ties right into adaptability. You know, markets change, customer needs shift all the Time. And there's always these unexpected challenges that pop up. And so the ones that can pivot and keep moving forward are the ones that are going to win out. Right? And so I always tell them that, you know, regardless of the idea, to me, execution matters more than the actual idea, right. I would rather take a grade A execution plan rather than a grade A idea. And I've seen so many entrepreneurs, they just sit on great ideas for months and years waiting for the perfect moment, right? But there's never a perfect moment. It'll never come, right. It's all about taking action. It's, you know, launching quickly. It's testing, learning and iterating, right? And so I always encourage them, get your product out in front of your customers, get real world feedback as soon as possible and continue to iterate on that. And just don't build enough vacuum, right? Just don't think you know what your customers want ultimately. And so, you know, those are some of the big things that I always try to emphasize. You know, at the end of the day, my goal is just to help them avoid common mistakes, build these strong business fundamentals and just connecting the right people. And so I think, you know, again, similarly, if I could give kind of one piece of advice to young entrepreneurs, it'll always be just, just start, right? Start small and just start right. You can't wait for the perfect moment. It'll never come. Take action, get feedback, keep learning, keep listening. And that success doesn't happen overnight, but you've got to stay resilient, adaptable, right? And just focus on your execution and you'll eventually get there.
- [13:05]
B
That's awesome. And I appreciate what you're doing in the entrepreneur space, especially mentoring young and upcoming entrepreneurs. That's just amazing. I love that. And just to highlight a couple things, obviously you said execution over idea, right? Just start, take action, look for feedback, be persistent. Consistency and perseverance are obviously the key. So I really appreciate that, Amit. And Amit, last question of the day, in your opinion, what are the emerging trends in cybersecurity that businesses should be preparing for in the next five years?
- [13:33]
A
Again, great question, Brian. I think, you know, cybersecurity, it's changing so fast, right? And staying ahead of these threats is critical. I think over the next five years we're going to see some major shifts in the way cyber attacks happen and frankly, how we defend against them as well. Right. I think you hear about the buzzword all the time, right? AI, AI, AI. Right. But I think there are going to be AI driven Cyber threats, but also AI powered defenses, right? It is a game changer. AI is a game changer. Absolutely. It's a game changer for attackers and also defenders across the board. Now hackers are already using AI to automate these phishing scams. They're using AI to scan for vulnerabilities across the board and they're generating these crazy, crazy deep fake content for these social engineering attacks. Right. The scary part is that these attacks are actually becoming harder and harder to detect because they mimic human behavior so well. But the good news also is that AI can also be used as a defense. Right? I mean, businesses should look at AI powered security tools out there that can help detect anomalies in real time. They can recognize unusual activity in real time and even respond automatically before human intervention can even realize an attack is happening. I think those are some key aspects that a lot of organizations need to look at. Obviously we talked about that zero trust architecture. To me, it's just not a buzzword anymore. It's becoming an industry standard. That old school mentality of you have these perimeter defenses and assume that once somebody's in a network, they're safe, they're trusted. Brian, we've got remote work, cloud services, right? Mobile access, tons of third party integration, and so it just doesn't work anymore. And so businesses should really look at that never trust but always verify approach. Again, that means multi factor authentication, endpoint security, and this continuous monitoring of every user and every device. Now is the time to start because I think these attacks are just becoming more and more sophisticated across the board. I think we'll see the more prevalent use of, of cloud, I think you'll see just cloud security as a whole and that supply chain risk take a huge effect when we're seeing more and more supply chain attacks where hackers aren't necessarily, they're not attacking the target company, but they're attacking its vendors or software providers. Right. And so you've got to look at everybody that you're connected to, every organization that has some sort of access or that you're working with, and make sure that those security measurements are in place. There's strong encryption policies across the board and that you really have a multi cloud security strategy to help mitigate those risks. Right? So I think those are some of the big things. And again, I think you'll see more take in that deep fake and that synthetic identity fraud happening. That to me is probably one of the most terrifying. Right? Because these AI generated deepfakes, they're getting so realistic, right? And Cybercriminals are using them for identity fraud, impersonating executives. Right. Or tricking employees into transferring funds, things like that. I've even seen cases where hackers will clone a CEO's voice to authorize fraudulent transactions. And that, that's how sophisticated these attackers are happening. And they're not just happening at the large organizations. Right. They're happening on the mid size and small businesses as well. So I think across the board, when you take a look at it, look at all of these as they're getting more and more prevalent.
- [16:50]
B
Thank you. You really highlighted some great things there. Horses, nefarious actors and hackers are leveraging AI every day to fool people to provide access, using deepfakes and other methods to again gain access. On the flip side, AI is working to help prevent some of these sophisticated attacks. The one thing I heard you say is verify, never trust. And obviously there's a lot of security that needs to be applied around cloud compute and a lot of other platforms nowadays. So. Appreciate all the insights there Amit. I really do. And Amit, it was certainly a pleasure having you on today and I look forward to speaking with you real soon.
- [17:27]
A
Brian, thanks again for having me on your show. I, I truly appreciate it. I really also enjoyed the conversation and the opportunity to share these insights. Look forward to staying in touch and continue the discussion.
- [17:36]
B
Bye for now.