Patrick Garrity: Safeguarding Vulnerabilities

Patrick Garrity has over 15 years of experience spanning various marketing, sales, and product roles for high-growth cybersecurity companies. For this Kitecast episode, he delves into detail on his expertise in vulnerability management.

To start the podcast episode, Garrity discusses the rapid evolution of vulnerability management over the past few years. He notes that vulnerabilities are growing exponentially in both volume and complexity, with over 25,000 new vulnerabilities identified in 2022 compared to just 5,000 several years ago. Despite this growth, many organizations still struggle to patch even known critical vulnerabilities in a timely manner. In response, Garrity emphasizes that organizations need to focus first on addressing externally facing, actively exploited vulnerabilities before attempting to tackle everything at once with their limited resources.

The podcast episode also covers the role of AI and machine learning in vulnerability management. While emerging AI tools show promise for use cases like prioritization of vulnerabilities and automated reporting, Garrity cautions that the underlying data feeding these systems needs stringent accuracy and validation. He advocates leaning on trusted threat intelligence from established providers to help inform data-driven decisions around vulnerabilities and incident response.

Shifting gears, Garrity reflects on seminal lessons learned from his experience rapidly scaling Duo Security before its $2.35 billion acquisition by Cisco in 2018. When asked by the hosts to provide career guidance to others pursuing work in the cybersecurity field, Garrity highlights the outsized importance of continually assessing the market landscape with an eye for evolution. Similarly, he stresses that individuals should embrace openness to filling a variety of roles in early-stage companies as they grow. Finally, Garrity emphasizes the urgent need for sustainable business models in cybersecurity rather than overvalued fundraising built predominantly on hype. Underpinned by this sobering perspective, he still goes on to express optimism about the industry's overall trajectory thanks to the advent of various “secure-by-design” initiatives.

LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrickmgarrity/

Check out video versions of Kitecast episodes at https://www.kiteworks.com/kitecast or on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/c/KiteworksCGCP.