The Big Interview: Meet the counterterrorism expert turned cybersecurity entrepreneur

Oz Alashe MBE opens up to CRN on how a taste for adventure led to a 17-year career in the military, how it prepared him for the channel and upending the status quo

From economics student to battling nation-state attacks on behalf of the UK, Oz Alashe MBE has taken a more unusual path to cybersecurity than most others have.

He founded security and data analytics platform CybSafe in 2015, after retiring from the army, where he specialised in counterterrorism and national defence in the Special Forces.

Born in 1976 to two young Nigerian immigrants, Alashe entered the army after studying economics at university because he wanted to do something that would involve "lots of fun", anticipating that it would be no more than a four-year stint.

That four-year spell ended up being a 17-year long career. He attended Royal Military College Sandhurst, where he was commissioned into the Parachute Regiment and from there worked his way up to the rank of lieutenant-colonel, leading a unit that specialised in national cyberdefence.

He admitted that prior to entering the force, his technological aptitude was more "consumer-focused", such as building things and playing games.

But his experience in the military woke him up to the nature and methods of cyberthreats, and when he retired from military life, cybersecurity was a "natural space" for him to move into.

"We were focused on trying to identify and find people who meant our nation harm and dissuade them from doing that, which meant that we really got to understand the way we used the internet as individuals, that exposed ourselves to people who are looking for us," he explained.

"But it also meant that we got to understand what cybercriminals are doing in order to access information and data and networks and systems. Some of that is to fund activity - you'd be amazed at how much organised crime work actually goes to fund activity that is related to national security.

"So that was my insight into cybersecurity from that perspective. It was very focused on people: what do people do? How do we use technology? And how do we make the mistakes we do?

"When I left the military, I realised that when we look at the cyber resilience challenge that most organisations address, we all pay lip service to the people. We think that training people is a way to affect that and reduce that risk, and training in itself doesn't work - it's a really important intervention, but in itself, it doesn't work."

CybSafe came out of stealth in 2017, and since then it has accrued over 250 customers in 14 countries, including the Premiere League, John Lewis Partnership and Credit Suisse.

It partners with Cloud Distribution and counts Softcat, CDW and Caretower among its reseller partners.

Civilian life

Having spent 17 of his 43 years working in the military, it would be easy to presume that a civilian job would present a new kind of challenge to Alashe. In fact, he described his transition as "seamless" - partly thanks to having a young family - saying that his military background had prepared him well to found and lead a cybersecurity firm.

"We sometimes forget that leadership is arguably one of the military's biggest, broadest traits. One of the most useful things I learned coming here [to CybSafe] enables you to understand this fight; how you can enable the people you work with to be as successful as possible," he stated.

"Obviously, the case for me as a businessman now is ‘How do we help our partners be as successful as possible? How do I help my team be as successful as possible?' That's my only job really, as a CEO.

"Of course, the things that people focus on [in the military] quite often are honesty, integrity, discipline and attention to detail. Here at CybSafe, we see those things as important when looking for passionate people who are from all walks of life - like the military is looking for passionate people from all walks of life.

"There are lots of parallels and I learned the benefits of bringing groups of people like that together."

The standard challenges of setting up a company from scratch were more of an issue than transitioning into a civilian job, according to Alashe.

Finding the appropriate skills, making sure the idea to support the company is good and strong enough to support it and ensuring the market is supportive were more pressing for Alashe (pictured left).

However, he claimed the transition made these challenges easier in a way, as he didn't expect it to be a walk in the park and was, therefore, ready to enter the industry with all guns blazing in order to carve out a section for CybSafe.

"I didn't expect it to be easy. We don't expect to everyone to understand and believe what we're saying just because we say it; we expect to have to demonstrate it, we expect to have to be transparent, and we will go out of our way to do so," he said.

"That's really helped us because it meant that we've got really passionate, sticky customers and we have partners who are speaking very highly of us, and we're listening to them, and learning from them.

"The transition journey probably forced me down that route. If you were in software sales forever, and you grew up in it; or if you had been in the channel forever, and you grew up in it, you probably take some new stuff for granted. I take nothing for granted."

Status no

Alashe was awarded his MBE in 2012 from Prince Charles for leadership in complex and sensitive conflict challenges.

Leadership is something the avid Arsenal supporter takes very seriously and he believes firmly that his role as CEO is to encourage the next generation of leaders.

"I believe in the concept of that everybody's a leader," he declared. "There are appointed positions for certain things, but everybody's a leader, and a leader's job is to create more leaders. I think sometimes we forget that.

"My sole job is to create the conditions for those I work with to succeed. That starts with being really clear about what our vision is and the direction that we're moving in and then of course, when necessary, provide the guidance that allows the most talented people to do their best work in accordance with the vision.

"I think my leadership style kind of reflects that. It means that I don't know it all. In fact, if I am the person who knows everything, then I'm in the wrong room."

Alashe set up CybSafe four years ago because he believed the industry was missing a trick when it came to cybersecurity. The cybersecurity and data analytics platform focuses on the human aspect of cybersecurity, taking awareness training "forward several generations".

"Awareness, behaviour and culture are the three parts that you would look at together," he said.

"We help organisations reduce risk using resources such as awareness training, and simulated intelligent phishing, but also using a number of other interventions such as providing prompts and nudges and information to people at the time they need it. So it's quite a big difference between a standard awareness training package and CybSafe."

The human risk in cybersecurity is a niche he believes is ripe for partner opportunities and predicts that in the coming years more partners will move into this area.

"For too long organisations have kind of paid lip service to it, but it has the biggest bang for their buck," he said.

"I'm slightly biased, but the area of human cyber risk is the most exciting; I think it's exciting for the channel and that's the area that I think the channel hasn't stepped into. As a result, when the channel does decide to step into it, I think there are going to be partners who identify opportunities to generate sticky revenue from the existing customer base."

As the world becomes increasingly digitised, Alashe has ambitions to not just grow his company but to implement policy change when it comes to ensuring people have sufficient awareness and training when it comes to cyberthreats.

"We want to fundamentally change the way that people approach this. So we would like to see policy changes and we'd like to see people-centric approaches to the way that we consider cyber resilience as a whole," he stated.

"The status quo doesn't need to be the status quo and I think that's the thing that's quite exciting. If we have a series of problems, the UK tech sector exists to solve problems.

"As a society, we are increasingly digitised, increasingly interdependent, and increasingly interconnected and that's not going to slow down. So it doesn't take a lot of brains to work out that if you can help solve problems in that space, that's an amazing win.

"I guess this is more personal than professional, but I wanted to continue that element of service. This is another way for me to serve."