Lewie Dunsworth, CEO of Nuspire – Cybersecurity Interviews

Lewie Dunsworth, is the CEO of Nuspire a leading managed security services provider (MSSP) founded over 20 years ago to revolutionize the cybersecurity experience by taking an optimistic and people-first approach.

What initially made you passionate about cybersecurity?

The first part of my career was spent in telecom operations and IT. When I got the opportunity to build the program at H&R Block, I quickly realized why it was a great fit for me. I always viewed the bad guys, or hackers, as the bully and there is nothing I dislike more than bullies. They were always doing harmful things to others. So, I guess you could say I found my calling; something that marries my love for technology, my disdain for bullies and my desire to help others.

Could you share with us what a managed security services provider (MSSP) is and why Nuspire is a great option for companies researching MSSP options?

Many companies today struggle with protecting their companies.  They either don’t have the money, people, processes or technology to be successful. Because of that, they don’t know where to start. MSSP’s will step in to provide that 24X7 support, the people, skillsets they don’t have, processes to help them be successful and hopefully at a lower price point than what it would cost for them to build the capability themselves. The “next generation” of MSSP’s need to do more though. That’s where Nuspire firmly sits in the industry. We take the client on a journey. We help them understand who the bad guy is for their company, how they will attack them, whether or not they have the right defenses in place, define a plan that will help close security gaps and help manage/monitor their environment on a 24X7 basis.

Nuspire’s featured platform is myNuspire, an operating system that enables CISOs to view the entire cybersecurity system in one single pane of glass. What makes this platform a gamechanger for CISOs?

When I was a CISO, it wasn’t possible to see the state of my entire security program at one time, in one single pane of glass, all personalized for what I need to see. That is myNuspire. We essentially solve the problem that I always had as a CISO, and my peers always had, with the hope that one day a security leader could essentially run their security program off of a smartphone. Our clients will know exactly what to take action on, and when, and we will make it extremely easy to do.

What are some of the fundamentals that CISOs should prioritize?

All the stuff that is very difficult but essential. When I was a CISO, I focused on what I called the trinity: vulnerability, visibility and access. If I knew where I was vulnerable, I could close those gaps. If I had visibility, I could identify when something bad was happening. If I managed access appropriately, I could control who had access to something, what they were authorized to do and monitor for misuse. Once those are in place, the operational processes to continuously reduce mean time to detect and contain was critical. And finally, strong change management processes are imperative for any security program; the ability to react fast, and it a high quality way, based on security issues in your environment will always lead to success.

Could you discuss Nuspire™ Threat Modeling Tool and how it is able to provide customized insights?

Organization’s shouldn’t build a program until they have a customized threat model for their organization. You must understand who is trying to attack you, what they are trying to steal, how they are going to try and do it and how prepared you are to defend against those attacks. Our Threat Modeling Tool takes what is typically a several week consulting engagement, automated it, and made it real-time, based on some simple company demographic information you give us. The best part, it’s dynamic in nature. As the inputs change, so does the model. We built the data platform to continuously reflect up to date threat intelligence, mapped to MITRE’s ATT&CK framework and assessed against our Nuspire Security Program (defenses you have in place) to produce a specific set of recommendations for clients.

The Nuspire CyberX Platform offers a self-healing feature, what is this specifically?

Modern cloud platforms, by nature, have a few characteristics that we found valuable: 1. It’s built on modern technology 2. You can expand and contract compute as necessary 3. Software as a service allows you to develop rich feature sets and automate functions 4. The ability to leverage native, and third party tools, to monitor the production environment, you can develop responses to events that allow the platform to continuously heal itself based on a problem being identified.

Nuspire has a 99% annual client retention rate, what do you attribute this success to?

Our vision is to revolutionize the cybersecurity experience for clients. Our mission is to make our clients fanatically happy through a relentless focus on excellence. Our purpose, ultimately, is to help them become more secure based on what they need or expect as a business. Because of that, we approach our client relationships with a long-view in mind and built on a strong foundation of GREAT service delivery.

Is there anything else that you would like to share about Nuspire?

To undertake what we are trying to do in the industry, it will require us to do what nobody else has done before; to meet you where you are today, only provide the services and technology that you need, consult you on how to improve your security program, be there for you if something goes wrong and, finally, have a long-term relationship with you. That relationship can only be built through mutual trust; something we strive for every day with our clients.

Thank you for the great interview, readers who wish to learn more should visit Nuspire.