Theos Cybernova Ep.1 - Alex Hudelot: Building THEOS Cyber, Embracing Growth, and the Journey Ahead

What does it take to grow a cybersecurity startup into a trusted leader in the industry? In this inaugural episode of Theos Cybernova, host Paul Jackson sits down with Alex Hudelot, founder of THEOS, to discuss the company’s beginnings, the challenges of scaling a business, and the vision for its future.

Alex shares his personal journey from cybersecurity consultant to entrepreneur, the inspiration behind THEOS, and why he decided to step aside as CEO to focus on innovation and technical leadership. Together, they explore the evolving cybersecurity landscape, the importance of building resilient teams, and what lies ahead for THEOS in its mission to become a leader in the Asia-Pacific region.

Tune in for insights into leadership, collaboration, and why timing and teamwork are essential to success in the fast-paced world of cybersecurity.

About Alex Hudelot:

Alex Hudelot
Co-Founder & Chief Security Officer at Theos Cyber

With over 15 years of experience in cybersecurity, Alex Hudelot is a seasoned leader specializing in transformative security solutions. As the Co-Founder and Chief Security Officer of Theos Cyber, Alex drives the company's mission to empower businesses across the APAC region with intelligence-driven, proactive cybersecurity services. Under his leadership, Theos Cyber has established itself as a trusted partner for organizations seeking to stay ahead of evolving threats while aligning security strategies with business objectives.

Production Credits:

Presented by: Paul Jackson
Studio Engineer & Editor: Roy D'Monte
Executive Producers: Paul Jackson and Ian Carless
Co-produced by: Theos Cyber and W4 Podcast Studio

Transcript

 Wherever you are in the world, hello and welcome to Theos Cybernova Podcasts. Before we begin, I've got a quick favor to ask from you. There's one simple way that you could support our show, and that's by hitting the follow or subscribe buttons on the app that you're listening to the show on right now.

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The Theos Cybernova podcast hosted by Paul Jackson. As I mentioned, this is the very first episode of Theos Cybernova. CyberNova. My name is Paul Jackson and each week I'm going to be digging into the latest trends, challenges, innovations, and stories that are shaping the cyber security landscape. I'll be bringing on many guests who together they form a fantastic mix of leading industry experts, thought leaders, technologists, legal experts, and other insights into the cyber landscape.

Whether you're a professional in the field or you're simply curious about staying safe In the digital age, we hope that the Theos Cyber Noga podcast will offer up valuable knowledge and actionable insights for everyone. So, here we are. First one, our first guest, the founder of Theos Cyber, Alex Hudlow.

Alex, welcome. And, , this is more of a conversation because you're the founder of Theos, so, , I'm the newbie. I'm the new CEO. And I think the question on everyone's lips right now, Alex, is,  Why? Why have you stepped aside as the CEO of, , of Theos?  And why are you letting me take the reins? But before we get to that, perhaps just tell everyone a little bit about your background and, , and your, your journey in cyber.

And what led you up to this point where you've made this decision.  Hi Pau um, well, thanks for having me,  , as the first guest.   um, before we get into the big why question, , a bit about myself. , I've spent roughly the last 15 years in, in cyber. , I, , originally I'm from France. You may hear from my accent, but, , I quickly moved on from, , you know, working and living in different parts of the world, in the UK and the US.

And, , I found myself landing in Hong Kong about 15 years ago. ,  And,  , I, , from, from a cyber perspective, I spent most of my career on the consulting side, solution architecture, , helping organizations, , go through transformation programs, , understanding where they are, what are the risks, , they are facing and how we could, , you know, accompany them to, Get to the next level to get to the next stage,  , build better cyber resilience and, , and be more proactive when it comes to, to, to mitigating threats. 

, and, , six years ago, I find myself starting my own business Theos.  , so you could say that I'm a, I'm a security engineer turned entrepreneur.  , it has been a very interesting journey, , with a lot of ups and downs and,  , I wouldn't have it any other way. It's been fantastic. And, , we're still here.

So touch wood. , you know, things, things have been going well.  That's excellent. So tell us then, why did you make that decision to step aside as CEO after building, going from a startup to being an established force in the Asia cybersecurity landscape?  Yes. And you know what, this is probably the question I get the most over the last couple of weeks, ever since we announced,  , and disclosed to, to everyone that you were joining us as a CEO of Theos.

, well, look, I think. You have to go back to the early days in the beginning, , when, when I started, when I decided to start the company, it was essentially myself and then a couple of folks that I was working with. And,  , we, at that time, we're, , all engaged with a cryptocurrency exchange. , we were building, , slowly their cyber capabilities and, , long story short, it was tough times for us, , for that market.

And, , you know, that, that company didn't really make it, unfortunately. And,  , there were a couple of areas during that experience that really struck me. , and first of all, , I spent most of my career in, on the sort of service provider side, consulting system integrator. And for once I was sort of internal. 

, and that's really not what I liked.  , my, you know, what, what I really enjoy in my day to day work is working with, you  security leaders, technology leaders, and figuring out what are the challenges and finding ways to strike the right balance between,  , their technical challenges, their security ambitions, and, , and I guess the reality of financial constraints and sort of the commercial, you know, environment that we all live by. 

, and really narrowing, narrowing things down and finding that right balance.  , and when I was internal, I did have obviously those challenges to, to try to solve, but you know, I, it was, Within only one organization and kind of slow moving, et cetera. Whereas I really enjoy my position. The fact that I get to work with many organizations out there, many leaders, I get to see,  , really what, how the market is moving.

What are some of the new trends? , what are the new conversations that we've been having? And, , and I just missed out.  And when the, you know, the, the, the, the, the opportunity sort of presented itself to having to figure out what the next step in my career would be, , then, , you know, I thought, Hey, you know what, why not give it a try?

, you know, let's see, it's my first venture.  , so I came in really as a newbie. , I had obviously, you know, a certain degree of expertise, , you know, individuals that I've worked with before who were willing to, to help us out. , but it was really a step into the unknown. And,  , No, we, we went at it in a very hble way. 

, you know, one project at a time, one, one client at a time. And, , you know, every time we managed to get one step further, it was all about, okay, how do we capitalize on this? How do we reinvest? How we, do we try to go to the next little step?  , and that sort of worked for us for, you know, about four or five years.

And,  , when, you know, sort of fast forward, we're not a company, we have, , you know, a sort of decent brand, I would say, you know, , we've, , we've been really privileged to work with some, some, you know, awesome organizations in, in the region in APAC. And,  , but we've always sort of followed that. That approach of, you know, going one step at a time, all organically. 

, and what it is gratifying and it is a, you know, one way to grow a business.  , we sort of found ourselves, you know, maybe six, 12 months ago trying to figure out, okay, what's the next step here? We could basically continue doing this. You know, virtually forever. And, , we would, you know, hypothetically continue to have a certain degree of success.

,  But, , you know, as a company, where do we want to go? We, we managed to get this far, but what's the next step? What, what's the next, you know, big challenge.  , and it's also, you know, not just for the company, but all its people, , for myself, but also for, for our leaders internally, for, for the rest of the team.

,  And, , you  , you know, there, there was this big question mark of, , of what's next. And, , , about mid year, 24, , we started really digging down and, and, you know, putting our heads down and trying to figure out, okay, what, what's the next step? And we, , we came up with, you know, a vision and a plan that we call Theos2.

0. And Theos2. 0 is, is really about stepping things up. It's about going from where we are as a, As you said, you use the word startup,  , going from a startup to a leader in the APAC region when it comes to cyber.  , and that takes a lot more than just wanting it than just working harder. It takes also a bit of a shift in mindset. 

, it takes definitely a whole new level and a whole new, you know, addition of leadership and, and ideas and innovation and drive and, and, and perhaps as well, a bit of a shift in our culture. And,  , as we sort of shaped that plan and, , and starting putting and rolling out a couple of strategies and putting things in motion,  , you know, the opportunity arised and, , you know, you and I had a chat,  , you know, we've had, we've had discussions every now and then over the years and, you know, we, you know, over coffee or tea, et cetera. 

, you know, what if one day we could work together, it'd be nice. And, you know, you do great in your area and, and, you know, we, we, we potentially could have some synergies. ,  And, , you know, that, that conversation happens, , and it was not planned, but, , I guess it, it arrived at the right time. And,  , you know, the way I remember it and, you know, keep me honest here, but the way I remember it, , you know, we had a chat on Friday and, you know, maybe a week later, then they go, you, you know, you were set to join. 

, so, you know, for me, the, this, you know, the planets aligned or the stars aligned,  , it means that, you know, we have found one additional sort of, you know,  , , component to the, to the old vision and strategy,  , bringing your expertise, your leadership, your ideas, ,  and,  , kind of driving that next phase.

, and as far as myself, , well, , as any entrepreneur would probably tell you, when you start your business, you, you basically, you know, ahead of everything in the company.  , you do things that you really enjoy and you do things that just have to be done. And, , and I think with you coming on board, then I get to do a little bit more of the things that I really enjoy and hopefully a little bit less of the things that I don't.

You know, just need to be done.  , so for me, I see it as a win win. , you know, I, I think our, our business is nine in very capable and, and very good hands. And, , and for myself, , you know, I'm, I'm, I'm refocusing on what I really like to do and where I like to spend time. And, , I think that's a win win for everyone.

It is a win win for everyone and, , yeah, look, , the second most asked question is obviously why did I, , make the decision to, , to, to move as CEO of Theos, , but before I perhaps delve into my, , perspective on this, one last question, well, not the last question, but anyway, one further question on Theos, , Why the name?

Where did Theos come from? Oh, Theos. , Well, , you know, funny story. , When, , when we decided to, to start the company, you know, you, we do what many founders do, which is you start to go on internet, on Google, all the others, and you start looking for names of stars or names of constellations and planets, and, you know, that's usually the first one.

Then you go into Greek gods and, you know, you, you, you sort of venture around, , , and, , you know, throughout my sort of journey of Googling for potential startup names and, you know, spoiler alert, you always find the same one actually coming up, , actually, , started drifting towards actually the name Theos and some, some of that sort of mythology type of, type of idea. 

, and actually the moment I found Theos, it kind of resonated because actually my son is named Theo and, , it, it sort of, you know, again,  Planets aligned and he, you know, we landed on this and,  , you know, it was an instant, instant click. So, you know, the minute that, that sort of word, you know, was in front of me, it was like, this is it, this is the one let's, , let's speak that name.

And,  , I love it. I love it. It's a great name. It is a great name. And, , yeah, congratulations on bringing the firm to where it is now. I mean, it's, , it's been a huge success and,  , , you know, when, when I get  I made the decision to move to, to a smaller but established company and also take on the onerous responsibilities of actually running the firm. 

, well, it's a pretty good question. , but a little bit about me first for those, , you know, listeners who've, who've never met me or don't know me. I've, I've been out in the Asia Pacific region since 1988.  That's rather a long time, but what brought me out to the region was law enforcement. So I joined the Royal as it was then the Royal Hong Kong police.

Even though I had a technology background as an engineer, I wanted something a bit more outdoor, you know,  kind of appeal to me being in the police. So  I, I took the plunge and applied for the Hong Kong police and luckily got the job and moved out. And in the mid nineties, everything started changing, right?

The mobile phone markets opened up and internet became more prevalent and the police needed somebody with my kind of background and knowledge to spearhead and lead these new teams that would investigate and gain, gather intelligence. Related to the new technologies and that got my hunger back for for cyber work.

And I've been in ever since been very fortunate to be a pioneer, being a pioneer in this field is particularly in in digital forensics and incident response and worked with Interpol around the region and indeed in Europe running training capacity building for law enforcement in particular. So I've been very privileged and very lucky to have that start in my career.

, but inevitably, , it was time to move on in around 2010 when I joined J. P. Morgan. And again, luck and timing. We all, you know, you mentioned Alex about luck and timing and it was there. It was the right time to move to, to the big banking world and it was privileged to be promoted quite quickly there and move to the U.

S. to head up the,  , their cyber investigation capability. It had a very interesting time in their history. If you look back on the 2014, still the world's biggest bank breach, , and a nber of other incidents around that time. So,  it's a priceless experience that you couldn't buy. , which led me in the end to go into,  into consulting once I moved back to Asia from, from JP Morgan and, , been loving consulting ever since, because I think it resonates with what you said, Alex, that you like working with multiple clients, hearing different perspectives, solving different problems, gives you a new challenge every day, right?

So, , that's, that's my reason for going consulting and never look back. Now, things change all the time with companies you work for, , especially when you're not. calling the shots from the very top. And, , you know, things did change for me in the consulting world. And you spoke to me at exactly the right time when one of these changes was taking place.

And although I did have another offer lined up to doing pretty much what I was doing,  , with, with my previous role,  what you said to me resonated, right? Because A lot of people have said to me, Hey, Paul, why, why don't you set up your own firm, Paul Jackson cyber or whatever.  , and I've just never been brave enough like you have.

And I do admire you for, for doing that from the very beginning. And,  , when you chatted with me, I felt this gave me the opportunity to do something.  Without going through the initial startup pain that you'd gone through and to join at the right moment when it was already established and just needed taking to that next level.

So the risks were lower. It was already an established brand. Great people. I mean, when, you know, when I looked at the people you've got, and when I heard the testimonials from clients, it was an immediate like, wow, this, this firm takes cyber seriously. They do what's right for the client. It's the personal touch and it's the capability.

The people that you've somehow managed to recruit into Theos are brilliant. And, , they, they, they do excellent work for the client. So  I think the old expression is I'm standing on the shoulders of giants. With this role and I feel privileged and it all takes me in my personal career development to a new level because obviously CEO is a, is different responsibilities to being a regional head managing director type role.

And I'm, I'm, I'm thrilled to be part of this journey. It's a new challenge for me. It's given me renewed energy and I'd love to leave a legacy here with this company. And, you know, as you rightly say, position it as a leader. Asia focused, no minimal geopolitical influence, just doing the right thing for clients in terms of cyber and, you know, understanding their needs and delivering and the fact that you have moved into the or back into this more technical role means that the firm can go from strength to strength, developing new innovation in the technology side.

And meeting our clients needs so a  bit long winded, but that was my story as well and I'm really happy to be here. Now, just going back to you, Alex.  , what, what, what, what's made you feel most proud about what you've achieved so far? What's, what's, what's your feeling of pride, , around Theos?  ,  Wow, good question. 

, I think, I think it's probably the team that we have been able to assemble. And, , you, I often say that, , when I started the company and as we grew through, you know, through the years,  , I had the opportunity to sort of create my own job,  , and create my, create my sort of own employer, if you want. 

, so, you know, I could focus on, on the culture. I could focus on what sort of values we want to stand for. , what kind of traits, , are we looking at in individuals? The curiosity, obviously the skill set, but you know, more around the curiosity, the enthusiasm, the passion for,  , for solving problems, the fashion, the passion for clients. 

, and you know, that, that, that little fire that I have in me, you know, this, this is off some of the elements or traits of character that I look for. , in, , in individuals and, , I think my biggest, yeah, probably proud moment is, , you know, the ability to, , to have, to, to have been able to assemble that team, , to see grow, to see it, , embrace new challenges.

, you know, we have, , our situations are of tensions, like every, like every business or every team or, you know, every group of individuals. But,  , I think that the underlying  , you know, principles and values that drivers mean that, , we usually end up in the right place,  , you know, most of the time, , because at the end of the day,  , we are driven by the same motivations, by the same passion, ,  and,  , yeah, that's what gets me up in the morning.

And I think that's what, you know, a lot of our people in the team get up in the morning for. Right. So one of the advantages that both you and I have is that we work both sides of the table, right? We've, we've seen, I mean, I've worked government, big finance and, and consulting and, , we, we, we've seen cyber from all perspectives, from all angles.

And you obviously set up Theos,  , to deliver particular services. And, and perhaps you'd like to elaborate on, on that. You know, on those services so that the listeners can understand more about what Theos currently delivers. But also, I'd like you to touch on where you think Theos should be taken to next.

What additional services must Theos be giving? But,  , perhaps, yeah, just explain what Theos delivers currently.  Sure. So we, we deliver currently two main capabilities, , one on the cyber defense side, one is the offensive services.  , so on the defense side, we've, , we've essentially built, run and scaled,  , threat detection and response capability, , which, , really focuses on acquiring telemetry on, on client's environment and enabling them to identify threats as early as possible.

And,  , You know, talking about some of the gaps and kind of how we shape the company and the services, a couple of things were really important for us when, when we decided to go down that route. , one is that, , we, we often see in SOCs, , or generally speaking, , you know, security operations centers and MDRs, et cetera. 

, the, the challenges faced by organizations are usually quite similar, actually.  , one is a usual. Sort of slow response time. , so whenever, you know, threats are detected or incidents are triggered, it takes a time. It takes quite a bit of time before someone actually, , starts looking into it before, , you know, it goes up the ranks before the right people are mobilized.

So, you know, we, we put a lot of focus on speed. And, , not just investigating, you know, early, but also having processes people and the tech in place that, that allows us to respond really quickly.  , so that, that's one big area. The, , sort of second, , you know, main focus for us,  , has been to ensure that we do provide some level of response with clients.

,  And, , and again, I think what What organizations don't want, it's just someone else to tell them what to do.  , but they also want someone to actually come and do it with them. , or at least, you know, hand, hold their hands and, and, and really go through,  , the technicalities of, of facing and responding to these situations. 

, so our, our, our threat detection and response really focuses on, on this being fast, having good visibility and, and helping the, with the response. , so that, , you know, threats are detected early, they acted upon quickly and they are mitigated and responded to, you know, really, really fast.  , on the cyber offense side, , we, , we run a team of ethical hackers who would go into,  , ethically, I insist on that, hack into, , into your, , , your digital footprint, whether it's applications, whether it's clouds, whether it's active directory, et cetera, any sort of piece of infrastructure, but also, , at a broader level, , try to, , compromise to through various means a business unit.

a specific department, , or your entire group. It could be, you know, we've run out of exercises where we looked at a group global presence, 50 countries, a hundred thousand people.  , so those sort of services scale,  , and really adapt to the nature of the business, the nature of the threats, , but also the sort of outcome that you're looking at out of the, out of the exercise. 

, so that's sort of where we, we currently are.  , obviously there's, you know, there's huge expectations with you joining that we are,  , you know, gonna get ourselves, , into the DFIR space, , which, , you know, will happen, , you know, soon enough. And, , that will be, you know, really about focusing on, , enabling companies to be more efficient.

more resilient in events,  , of, of compromise or cyber events of significance,  , helping with, you know, actual,  , investigation when it comes to the nature of incidents, when it comes to identifying root causes.  And, you know, obviously the recovery and sort of aftermath of, , of the situation. So, you know, we're, we're quite excited, obviously to get into, into that space and offer additional,  , capabilities to organizations and clients to, to help them, , be more cyber resilient. 

Yeah, I think you, you make a very good point and obviously it is my background. the incident response space, the forensics and incident response space. And it's been a top priority of mine since joining Theos, obviously only a month and a bit in, but,  , there is a big gap in the market. So if I could just talk to that a little bit,  , what we're seeing in Asia is that, , companies are now required or bound by increasingly harsh, , regulations and laws to have notification processes in place for any incidents, to have incident response plans in place and to have tested those incident response plans because resilience is the key now.

It's no longer about cyber security. It's the question is cyber resilience. How, how can you cope with an incident and how quickly can you recover? And part of those recovery plans is having a firm like ourselves. on standby to respond should there be an incident to give expert assistance in helping to determine the root cause of an incident to ensure that the incident hasn't spread.

There are no further backdoors being planted. There's no other gaps within the, within the, the organization to help them to clean up and rese operations and business as quickly as possible. So retainers are critical and, and, Companies throughout Asia now are looking to companies like ourselves to provide that fireman, almost like a fireman type service where should something bad happen, we're on the end of a phone call and we're ready to respond to put out that fire or to put out that cyber fire, if you like, as quickly as possible and just minimize their losses.

So this is something we know there's a gap in the market for. We are positioned in Asia. We are Asia focused and a lot of the companies providing these services currently are headquartered in the US or Europe and their footprint in Asia is limited. So we can provide personalized service here in Asia.

There's a gap in the market for this and we have the expertise coming on board and we will be building a world class team. That is able to, , to deliver this. And, you know, it all syncs together as well with the, , with the other team. So as CEO, I've got to also look at motivation of the team, retention of staff, and attracting the top talent.

And what I found is that the, say, you know, you spoke about our ethical hackers. Right? Well, yeah, sure. They love doing what they do. They love pen testing. They love doing the red team testing to a very high standard. But what they love even more is solving problems, right? And very often when we're faced with complex incidents, hacking incidents, ransomware incidents, the underlying breach or the patient zero is hard to determine and Because they have a hacker mindset, they're able to often look at the evidence, look at metadata, determine how the hacker got in, what steps they took, and hence help us with the remediation.

So they play a very important role. And I hate to see companies where these roles are siloed. And I've seen that in the past where, you know, the pen testers will be kept in one room and they don't really talk to the investigators. And that to me is wrong, right? You've got to have this collaboration because both skill sets are needed.

Right. And obviously, when you have an incident, that means something's gone wrong in the organization, something, there's a gap occurred, and again, we have the monitoring and threat detection, threat hunting capability that can help those organizations, once they've had a breach, to enhance their overall security posture.

And just make sure it doesn't happen again and make sure that they are fully protected moving forward. So all of these moving parts fit together. So you're right, Alex, it did make absolute sense to expand the range of service into DFIR. So for those of you listening, watch this space, , the announcements will be made soon.

But yes, Theos is there and Theos is going to be hitting the, ,  the, , DFIR scene in Asia in a big way.  Yeah. So yeah, Alex, you want to call it? I want the, I wanted to just, you know,  , sort of carry on, on, on, on something on piggyback on what you, something you just said, , in terms of the synergies and,  , we talked a bit earlier about the team and the motivations and obviously for, , for a business of our nature, , you know, talent is, you know, predominantly our, really our business engine, so to speak.

And, , you know, the, keeping the interest and that, that,  , That, that burning fire alive,  , is, , is also done through,  , you know, exposing individuals to areas that they're, that are not their core focus or that are not their,  , you know, core to their job description.  , you, you took the example of an investigation where we take a, you know, we could involve folks from, from the ethical hacking team. 

, actually the, the opposite is also true. , we see, we see ourselves sometimes in exercises where,  , you know, our team is trying to get a foothold into an organization and is really struggling. And they're not really sure why they're different attack vectors are not working, why they're script being called out, why are they being blacklisted, et cetera. 

And, , you know, interestingly on some occasions, , some of the folks from the, , the, the SOC basically come in and, you know, have a look at what they're doing. And they sort of like, well, yeah, obviously, because I can see that it's you because you're doing this or, you know, you're using that sort of tool and, you know, we have detection capability for that sort of thing.

So we know right away, you know, we, we see you coming a mile away and, , you know, we know how to respond and how to block that. So. You know, what, what one way that perhaps would make it more stealth or would make it harder for us to see would be, you know, maybe to tweak this or, you know, maybe hide some of your,  , you know, meta data or put your, put yourself behind a wall for that sort of thing. 

, and more often than not, it actually works as well.  , so those synergies and the way teams help each other actually goes really, really both ways. ,  And, , I think the other. Sort of example around around those synergies and the collaboration is all around the threat intelligence and the information that we acquire that we gather. 

, you know, we sort of have internally a single source. I mean, a single point where we aggregate all the intelligence that we gather from our partners that we gather from open source,  , data feeds, et cetera, some that we produce ourselves. And we aggregate all of these and then we make it available to everyone so that everyone internally, obviously, so that,  , if it's in the threat detection and response space, obviously all that Intel is fed into our platforms that we, you know, continuously update and, and, and get higher fidelity on these,  , if a, if a team manages to write a new exploit that bypasses, you know, ADR A or ADR B, once the exercise is concluded, we give that, you know, Intel to our, our SOCs so that they build new, you know, new models or new detection capabilities so that the next customer on which, you know, this is best, this is being tested on is not, you know, it's not going to, it's not going to work.

It's going to be detected right away.  , so for me, it's a bit of a virtual circle. , you know, the more, , the more one of the team is able to come up with, you know, a little bit of an advancement and also, and everyone benefits from it. And then. anything after that is just compounding.  , and, and over time you build that, that virtual circle that just, you know, advances everybody, everybody together.

I agree a hundred percent. And, , you know, often we refer to the combination of the blue team and the red team as being a purple team. kind of exercises. And we know more and more companies are looking to bring in these kind of exercises to test their capabilities, both on the defense and the offense side.

And, you know, with Theos having that capability on both sides of the house, it enables us to work with our clients much more effectively in this manner. And additionally, you know, another area, I mean, there's so many, you know, possibilities, but another area where,  , aligning or combining the strengths, , leads to, , , you know, such an effective capability is in tabletop exercises, crisis exercises, because, you know, as I mentioned at the beginning of this, this podcast, the resilience is a real focus for organizations around Asia and regulators and authorities are requiring.

an increasing nber of companies to test their security through effective crisis exercises and you know, show the results to the, to the regulators, et cetera. And we've moved from the days where, you know, a consultant would come in and just put a scenario on a PowerPoint for leaders to go, Oh yes, what do we do?

We've got ransomware. Should we pay the ransom? Shouldn't we pay the ransom? And fairly high level, just decision making to much more integrated exercises whereby you deliver the exercise on a technical level to the, , to the, , to the blue team,  you know, injects to the blue team within the, , within the organization.

So they are receiving alerts that are relevant to their systems that they have deployed within their organization and watch how they escalate the severity of those incidents. up through the chain. So it tests not only their ability to detect these kind of incidents, but also their communication skills in explaining the severity and the impact.

of such a, such an inject, , in, in, , up to the leadership. And then they make decisions based on information provided by their own teams, rather than us as consultants coming in spoon feeding it. So these are the kind of evolution of crisis exercises that, , you know, having a blue team and a red team that works together seamlessly, , and an investigation team, , can provide to clients and help them to effectively test Their readiness and response capability.

So all very exciting stuff. And, , and I think these are going to be examples of the topics that myself and perhaps yourself, Alex, as hosts, we'll be discussing with, , external experts, you know, , the leaders in the industry from all sorts of backgrounds. And there's so many topics we're going to be focused on as we go through this, this series of podcasts.

But, you know, for this, this, , opening or this, , intro, podcast. , you know, I think we've achieved, you know, what we set out to do, which is to give everybody an understanding of a, who we are, what we do, and, , and more background on Theos. And, , these are exciting times in Asia. The, as I said, the dynamics is changing across the region and.

The skills and the, and the, and the services that can be provided by Theos can, can help to build a much stronger infrastructure right across the region. And we're, we're proud to be spearheading this, I think. So Alex, any, any final words before we close off this, , this podcast?  Well, first of all, thank you for having me as your first guest.

, Second, , I'm very much looking forward to, to the podcast series.   um, um, you know, I think it, it will be an opportunity to hear,  , you know, different thoughts, to have the opinions of various, , sort of participants of, you know, that, that. More or less, , you know, form the cybersecurity ecosystem. 

, also perhaps various opinions from different locations within APAC.  , you know, there, there are differently, you know, obviously common challenges, but also very specific areas, whether you're looking at Hong Kong or Singapore or the Philippines or Malaysia, et cetera. ,  And, , and I think it would be a good platform to, you know, to hear those thoughts, to, to compare notes as well.

,  And, , and for everyone to, you know, get away with some insights, , you know, something interesting and, and maybe some thoughts as well, , that they can take back to their, to their organization. Fully agree. I think a lot of what we hear is very U. S. centric or very Europe centric, and it's nice to have a voice of Asia and, and hearing those, , perspectives from our art.

our region that we call home. I have one final question for you before we close up though, and , you may or may not know Alex, but I'm a real music lover. I have a, you know, extensive vinyl record collection at home, and it's what I do to unwind. I like reading and, , and listening to music. And I'm sure you listen to a bit of music at the moment, because it all helps us concentrate sometimes when we're focused on work.

What are you listening to currently?  Currently,  , so I, I tend to listen to music depending on, I think like most people, depending on the mood I'm in, ,  and, , I've been, I've been sort of, you know, training for, for high rocks and, and sort of fitness challenges. And, , that also coincided with Linkin Park announcing they're doing a tour this year.

And so. I've been listening to Linkin Park quite heavily,  , you know, in recent weeks, , not, not my normal sort of,  , you know, sort of playlist, but, , kind of broke back a lot of memories and kind of energizing and, you know, keeps me going if I need to, you know, focus and just go for it.  You surprised me, you surprised me because I was going to guess like Jean Michel Jarre or Air or something like that, but Linkin Park.

Wow.  That's pretty good. All right, Alex. Thanks. , thanks so much for being a part of this first podcast. , obviously, , you know, we'll be, , , talking further as we go through these series of podcasts, but like you. I'm so looking forward to hearing the perspectives and, and getting some interesting insights from the, from the guests that we, , that we have, , lined up.

And believe me, there are some excellent guests that we have in this series. So,  , I'd like first of all to, , to thank you, Alex, and just to say thank you to all the listeners and don't forget to, , to click that, , like button and subscribe button on whatever service you're using. But from me now, this, , Theos Cybernova was presented by myself, Paul Jackson, together with Alex Hoodlow.

, the studio engineer and editor was Roy Damonte, , the executive producer was myself and Ian Carlos, and this podcast is a co production between Theos Cyber and W4 Podcast Studios in Dubai. Thank you very much, and see you next time. 

The Theos Cybernova Podcast.