With innovation skyrocketing to a whole new level every day, the modern business landscape has evolved to something completely different than before. With innovation becoming radically intrinsic to growing a business, inevitably, the issues that businesses deal with have also evolved. One of these issues is cybersecurity.
Cybersecurity is much more crucial to businesses than ever before. The issue of data security has taken on a much more profound and menacing visage. As information drives business today, and data is the lifeblood, the theft of precious data is a perilous concept for businesses. And with malicious entities and shady characters wielding much more sophisticated tools and techniques than ever before, cybersecurity has become a board conversation.
Hackers and crackers are more sophisticated than ever before. The bad guys can analyze a business’ security posture to exploit a chink in the armor to exfiltrate sensitive data. More sophisticated tools are freely available today that are easily accessible equally by individual hackers and large nation-states. A shady individual with enough interest and patience can bring down a business through data theft or planting malicious code inside the business’ servers and demand payment for the return of operational data.
Ransomware can be devastating to a business. The malicious entity or individual can deny access to critical data and applications through encryption. They will only provide the key after you pay an exorbitant ransom. These hackers use various techniques to remain anonymous and demand the amount in cryptocurrency to remain untraceable. Without paying, the business stands to lose its precious data, as only the entity or person can access the code that can reverse the situation.
We have seen Ransomware find its way into critical infrastructure, disrupting peoples’ lives and, in some cases, placing people’s lives in danger.
Cybersecurity has evolved to provide solutions to businesses that can secure their data to counter all of that. Cybersecurity consultancies and specialists analyze the security measures to secure the business’ data and identify the weaknesses. Once recognized, these weaknesses can then be removed. Cybersecurity professionals and organizations also recommend solutions that can revamp the security setup of the business’s digital infrastructure, creating a much more robust digital defense for them. One prime example of a consultancy providing this service to businesses today is Sharpe Management Consulting LLC.
Alex Sharpe founded Sharpe Management Consulting LLC over 20 years ago. Mr. Sharpe began his career in cybersecurity right out of college for the U.S. intelligence community. He subsequently built and led business units and two startups on what we now call Digital Transformation, providing him the rare combination of cyber and business. Mr. Sharpe is the recipient of multiple awards. In 2021 he was listed as one of the Top 33 Cybersecurity Experts to Follow. He received the CIO 50/50 for Knowledge Management and has been labeled a thought leader in Risk Management, Cybersecurity, Business Strategy, and the Cloud.
The fields of cybersecurity and risk management have taken on a much more profound role today than ever before. But as it happens, these fields weren’t paid much attention by businesses earlier. But as businesses are waking up to the issues of cybersecurity and data risk, much more attention is being paid today. And Alex Sharpe has been on the cusp of this paradigm shift in thinking.
Sharpe has more than three decades of a profound experience in privacy and cybersecurity with real-world operational experience. He has delivered to clients in almost thirty countries on every continent except Antarctica. He has helped corporations and government agencies reap the rewards afforded by technology while managing their cyber risk throughout his career. This provides him with a great understanding of the balance between cybersecurity, operational effectiveness, and business realities.
Alex Sharpe is also a member of the board of BWG Strategy. He attended the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), earning his BSEE concentrating in Computer Engineering with minors in Math, and Computer Science in 1986. Then, he attended Johns Hopkins University (JHU) in 1995 to secure his Master’s in Program/Project Management, Operations Management, and Systems Engineering. Sharpe’s profound experience and talent won him two merit awards from the Columbia Business School in 2018.
Alex Sharpe began his professional career at the National Security Agency (NSA) in 1986. He subsequently moved into the management consulting ranks, where he built practices at Booz Allen and KPMG. After gaining profound experience in business strategy and corporate governance, Sharpe co-founded two firms, including the Hackett Group, where he ran the eBusiness P&L for the firm, and eForce as the Vice President of Global Operations. He subsequently went out on his own advising boards and senior executive on business strategy, cyber risk, complex program management, and Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A). Throughout his career, Alex regularly works with regulators, industry bodies, and standards organizations like the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), ISACA, InfraGard, Global Resilience Federation (GRF), the Global Digital Currency and Asset Association (Global DCA), the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA), NIST and ISO.