Thought Leaders in Cyber Security: Mike Potts, CEO of Lancope (Part 1)

Atlanta, Georgia has become a mini hub for Cyber Security companies. Lancope is part of that ecosystem. This conversation is an exploration of the network security side of things.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start by introducing our audience to yourself as well as to Lancope.

Mike Potts: I’m the President and CEO of Lancope. I’m a 20-year-industry veteran who has been in the software security since the evolution of mainframe security technology, which was where I started my career with a company called MSA. Then, I ran a company called Jacada, which we took public. We helped interface to the web legacy applications. I, most recently, ran a software security company called AirDefense, which was acquired by Motorola. That’s a quick recap of my experience in the industry, which leads us to Lancope. We are a network security company that provides network visibility and security intelligence to some 750 global customers at present.

Sramana Mitra: Is this a venture-funded company? What’s the background?

Mike Potts: Lancope is a venture-backed company. We raised a little over $30 million in venture capital. We’ve been in the market since 2000. We’ve grown organically in our right since that time without the incremental need for further equity.

Sramana Mitra: Talk to us a little bit about what, specifically, is the angle with Lancope? Of course, network security is a crowded space. Ideally, if you could sketch an ecosystem map for us so that we can understand that positioning of Lancope, that would be the best.

Mike Potts: I have been with the company for five and a half years now. Just to give you a little bit of a background, in the decade up to my arrival, the market focused on perimeter-based security systems providing firewall protection and intrusion prevention capabilities. As we all know, over the course of that decade despite the fact that we’ve locked all the front doors and the windows, perimeters become porous leaving the interior very vulnerable.

What has come of age is the Security 2.0 market. I would argue to say that we were in the 2.0 market, but the market was buying 1.0 security at the perimeter level. Now, that’s changed. We’re picking up where the others have left off. We’re picking up that inside traffic or what’s known as the east-west traffic that the perimeter cannot secure. You’re seeing this in some of the material compromises over the past couple of years and even recently at Ashley Madison, which was caused by somebody who got inside the network with user credentials to exfiltrate information.

This segment is part 1 in the series : Thought Leaders in Cyber Security: Mike Potts, CEO of Lancope
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