Dealing with resellers was frustrating, says new ITC CISO

IT security suppliers often get it wrong, former British American Tobacco security manager claims as he crosses fence into channel

A former British American Tobacco (BAT) security manager who has crossed the fence into reseller land has spoken of his frustration of dealing with IT suppliers in his previous roles.

Gareth Lindahl-Wise, who held a number of senior roles at BAT including group information security manager, this week joined network and security integrator ITC Secure Networking as its chief information security officer.

He has been tasked with growing the Cisco and CyberArk partner’s consulting business, particularly around risk management.

Talking to CRN, Lindahl-Wise admitted IT security suppliers had often failed to demonstrate their value during his dealings with them at end users.

“The one obvious difference on the customer side is that you have your view of risk and sometimes you have suppliers who struggle to understand that picture and where they may or may not fit in,” he said.

“That’s something I want to help ITC with, by giving them that risk overview to help them understand where they can support and help and when the appropriate time to do that is.”

Lindahl-Wise added: “Organisations don’t have the time to do everything at the same time, even if they did have the money. Where I’ve had frustrations in the past is when people have been peddling products without having a view of where they fit in and what role they would play.”

Lindahl-Wise’s time at BAT also taught him about the importance of locking down security throughout the supply chain.

“At BAT we would do these third-party information security reviews but that doesn’t actually mean the supply base is suddenly secure, only that you know where there are problems,” he explained. “One area where ITC can play more of a role is helping mid-sized organisations [in the supply chain] raise the bar, which helps the health of the whole ecosystem.”

Founded in 1995, midmarket specialist ITC has 60 staff, revenues of about £10m and counts CyberArk, Fourscout, Cisco, Qualys and Palo Alto among its vendor partners.

"ITC have some excellent, high-quality services and I want to complete the circle by having the right risk-based discussions with clients so everyone is sure the right things are being done for the right reasons," said Lindahl-Wise.