The CISO Perspective

Kouns Barry :

Barry Kouns is a security and risk management expert with over 25 years of experience in information security consulting, risk assessment and quality management. Barry formed and operates SQM-Advisors, an information security, risk assessment and IT service management firm that has led eight organisations to ISO/IEC 27001:2005 certification. He is frequently quoted in magazines and news articles on information security and has held the position of Trainer for the British Standards Institute (BSI). He holds a BS in Statistics and an MS in Industrial Engineering Management. Barry has earned the CISSP designation and is a trained ISO/IEC/27001 Lead Auditor and ISMS Implementer, and is ITIL Foundation certified.

Kouns Jake :

Jake Kouns has an MBA with a concentration in Information Security from James Madison University. He holds a number of certifications including CISSP, CISM, CISA and CGEIT. He is currently Director of Cyber Security and Technology Risks Underwriting for Markel Corporation, a specialty insurance company. He has presented at many well-known security conferences including RSA, CISO Executive Summit, EntNet IEEE GlobeCom, CanSecWest, and SyScan. He is the co-author of Information Technology Risk Management in Enterprise Environments, and has also been interviewed numerous times as an expert in the security industry. Jake is the co-founder, CEO, and CFO of the Open Security Foundation (OSF), a non-profit organisation that oversees the operations of the Open Source Vulnerbility Database (OSVDB.org) and DataLossDB.

Barry Kouns is a security and risk management expert with over 25 years of experience in information security consulting, risk assessment and quality management. He formed and operates SQM Advisors, LLC an information security, risk assessment and IT service management firm that has led numerous organizations to ISO/IEC 27001:2013 certification. Mr. Kouns co-founded Risk Based Security, Inc., a vulnerability intelligence and data breach analytics company, that was acquired by Flash Point in 2022.

Jake Kouns holds a Master of Business Administration with a concentration in information security from James Madison University. He holds a number of certifications including CISSP, CISM®, CISA®, and CGEIT®. Jake co-founded Risk Based Security, Inc., and is currently the Chief Innovation Officer at Flashpoint. He is well known from his presentations at security conferences including RSA, CISO Executive Summit, EntNet IEEE GLOBECOM, CanSecWest, and SyScan. Jake is also the co-founder of RVAsec, a Richmond, Virginia information security conference that has grown to host more than 500 attendees. He is the co-author of Information Technology Risk Management in Enterprise Environments and has also been interviewed numerous times as an expert in the security industry.