Joshua Belk is the co-founder of the security startup Opsec360. Previously, he was the cybersecurity manager at the electric utility PG&E and the CSO for the FBI back at the beginning of this decade.

His earliest memory of a security issue was with managing people: “I have found that no matter how comprehensive our policies may be, if you don’t have the right culture among your workforce they won’t matter. Education, understanding, and inclusion are the ways to build the right security environment.”

He is drawn to tools that provide useful analytics. “With TB of data available to your team, trying to find the needle in the haystack can be a challenge. Each tool has its place in your security architecture so picking one is difficult, but those which are capable of providing me good information for analysis are the ones I prefer. That said, knowing your use cases and setting up your tools is probably the biggest impact to any security organization.”

His best advice for dealing with insider threats is to first, start with the basics. “Many companies have not taken adequate measures to protect their information or environments. At the lowest level, access provisioning, data classification, and updated antivirus and firewalls are all mandatory but when new systems or services get introduced into your environment the effects are often not well known. Protect against the drift.”

He sees MDM as a careful balance between protecting the employee and preventing unauthorized access. “At the core of the issue, no one wants their data put at risk and most users and organizations are willing to conform to a good policy in order to protect themselves.”