【视频专访 】WhiteHawk创始人Terry Roberts：化解数字时代风险 帮万千企业守住“皇冠明珠”

疫去春来，诸多受疫情影响被迫按下“暂停键”的科技公司重回增长轨道。澳交所上市公司、在美国拥有技术团队，目前正在全球市场积极扩张的WhiteHawk Limited（ASX：WHK）表现尤其亮眼：

- 今年前三季度WhiteHawk已确认营收激增132%，由去年同期的190万美元增长至260万美元；

- 公司收入来源持续稳定，以美国联邦政府机构、全球性社交媒体平台巨头、美国前12大金融机构为代表的蓝筹客户阵营不断扩大；

- 在美国高通胀背景下，WhiteHawk所有订阅类产品线毛利率维持在25%-40%的高水平；

- 公司财务状况良好，零负债，新近又获得全球知名投资公司The Lind Partners大额注资。

通过携手强有力战略合作伙伴，这家源自美国，扎根澳洲的网络安全科技公司正将自己的产品服务与解决方案推向全球数以万计的中小企业。

而商业模式向订阅制、年费制的顺利转型意味着WhiteHawk的增长质量提升，有望很快迎来收入爆发的窗口期。

WhiteHawk Limited（ASX：WHK）系全球首个网络安全交易平台，旨在为各种规模的企业和组织监测、评定并降低网络安全风险。

WhiteHawk创始人兼首席执行官Terry Roberts女士近日接受ACB News《高管访谈》栏目视频采访时表示：网络犯罪、网络诈骗和蓄意破坏活动几乎会影响所有企业和组织，而我们能够以直接、有效、可评估的方式应对和化解“数字时代风险”。

作为全球首个网络安全交易平台，WhiteHawk的产品和服务有何独特优势，为何能够吸引诸多政府与金融机构大客户并且保持强黏性与高续约率？

公司如何看待后疫情时期需求趋势的变化？在稳步发掘高价值客户的同时，WhiteHawk将如何撬动巨大的中小企业市场蛋糕？

面对全球网络安全市场蓝海，WhiteHawk对行业未来有怎样的展望？公司在迎接未来机遇方面有哪些战略准备？

欲了解更多详情，请点击上方视频链接观看本期《高管访谈》；同时您也可以阅读本期访谈的文字精编版：

——访谈全文——

ACB News《澳华财经在线》：可否向我们读者简要介绍一下WhiteHawk的主要产品和服务？

Terry Roberts女士：思考“数字时代”这一话题时，如何让每个人都有办法了解数字时代的风险、能够划定风险优先级并化减风险，是非常重要的。

我们所做的是创建一个在线平台，所有公司和组织都可以访问该平台。在这里他们可以进行风险评估，了解自己在应对风险上的成熟程度。

对于有合规性要求的受监管组织，他们能够从我们的创新型市场得到一份行动计划，其中包括各种可扩展、经济高效、易于实施的解决方案。

所以，我们实际上采用的是端到端的方法。我们有几个特定产品线，一个是针对单个公司的“网络风险计划”，另一个是由供应商提供的“网络风险雷达”，可以由50个或1000多个供应商参与，然后是可自动生成的长达20页的网络风险评估报告，这份报告是我们所有业务的基础。

ACB News《澳华财经在线》：可否介绍一下您的个人经历？为什么要创立WhiteHawk？

Terry Roberts女士：在结束海军情报局的职业生涯后，我一直担任卡内基梅隆软件工程研究所（Carnegie Mellon Software Engineering Institute）的执行理事。我曾在20世纪90年代末专注于网络安全技术，深知这就是未来，所以我想重新投身于网络领域。

我在卡耐基梅隆大学主要从事网络风险和网络韧性方面的工作，随后又涉足具体行业领域。在工作期间，我负责大量与网络风险、网络工程和分析有关的工作，并见证2013年、2014和2015年左右网络犯罪和欺诈开始爆发对全球造成的影响。

我知道凭借我在网络情报、分析和在线平台方面的背景，我们可以创造一种能力，使所有公司都获得平等机会，去识别、区分和减少网络风险。

ACB News《澳华财经在线》：作为一家在美国拥有技术团队的网络安全公司，WhiteHawk选择2018年在澳大利亚而不是美国上市的主要考虑因素是什么？WhiteHawk如何将自己与其他ASX上市的网络安全公司区别开来？

Terry Roberts女士：让WhiteHawk成长为一家全球性公司是我一直以来的梦想。通过我在卡耐基梅隆大学的熟人，我了解到ASX上市方法以及ASX小盘股在获得投资上的能力。我认为可以做到一箭双雕：我将获得创建平台所需的初始资金，同时将可真正振翅高飞，挺进全球市场。

我的职业生涯有很多是在太平洋和印度洋度过的，所以这也像寻根之旅。能够同时和美国、澳大利亚联系在一起，令我备感振奋。

说到我们与澳大利亚其他同业公司的区别，我想再次强调，WhiteHawk提供的是一种端到端、自动化、可扩展的在线方法，这有别于较为传统的网络安全保护方式，比如咨询服务——我们确实与顾问机构合作，他们可以使用我们的风险评估工具和产品线，或者是传统的网络安全合规方式，这类工作内容繁重、依赖现场技术，但却不可扩展。

并且，我们的合作方包括多家澳大利亚网络安全公司。因为我们是一个交易平台，我们希望能够提供各种可减少网络风险的服务和解决方案选项。

ACB News《澳华财经在线》：网络犯罪分子对Medibank和Optus网络发起攻击，大量个人信息被置于危险之中。犯罪分子获取多达970万名Medibank当前和前客户的个人信息。您从专业角度对这件事有什么看法？公司和组织应当如何防止此类事件的发生？

Terry Roberts女士：这体现了合规性方法（如清单法）和基于风险的方法之间的摩擦。我认为不能只关注合规性，虽然合规性是基础，但并不足够。

通过应用我们平台内置的网络风险监控尖端技术和优先级排序功能，可以从黑客的角度诊断各种漏洞，我称之为风险卫星图像。这是一种由外而内的监测，与由内而外的监测不同。像Medibank和Optus这样运营复杂度较高的企业需要两者兼有，但他们现在并没有做到。

如果不采取基于风险的方法来保护你的“皇冠明珠”，一旦系统遭黑客入侵，该如何弥补呢？对于Medibank来说，客户数据集就是皇冠明珠，在线金融交易就是皇冠明珠。

因此，应当优先考虑重点问题，然后把解决方案、缓解措施和加密措施落实到位，目的不是阻止黑客攻击，而是阻止其对皇冠明宝造成影响。

我认为，每个公司都应该有一个应对计划，提前练习、实践，预留时间，预先设定沟通策略，事先锁定和引入合作方，让他们帮助你做出应对。

ACB News《澳华财经在线》：根据澳大利亚网络安全行业发展路线图，目前澳洲的网络安全行业规模较小，大多数澳大利亚组织缺乏雇佣大型内部网络安全团队的能力。根据您的经验，使用外部网络安全服务的优势和劣势是什么？

Terry Roberts女士：据我估计，大约90%的公司和组织没有足够的资源和人才，从内部组建高水平的网络安全团队。

我们的网络风险评估方法（我称之为网络风险计划）能够在第三方的持续努力下，帮助企业和组织进行优先级排序，然后根据预算制定关键解决方案。这样企业或组织就可以顺利应对任何事件并安全运营，这些方法组合很有必要。

我还想强调，在澳大利亚墨尔本有一个很棒的网络安全加速器CyRise，这个加速器已经走出很多优秀的初创公司。

ACB News《澳华财经在线》：澳大利亚网络安全市场规模达70亿澳元，呈现良好发展机遇。然而，大多数澳大利亚网络安全公司，包括ASX上市的网络安全公司，其市值和业务收入都不是很高。在您看来，这背后的原因可能是什么？你预计未来行业内会发生更多并购吗？

Terry Roberts女士：过去几年，受全球性疫情和俄乌军事冲突影响，一些令人兴奋的新技术领域停止增长。但我认为我们现在已经走出困境，而ASX上市的网络安全公司面临很多增长机会。

我相信会有兼并和收购发生。作为一家在线交易平台，我们一直在寻求优化合作伙伴关系，希望通过合作不断拓展新的能力。

我们希望找到当前时代最好的合作伙伴。大型网络安全公司也是如此，他们需要保持与时俱进，有时只有通过收购最好的技术解决方案初创企业，兼收并蓄，才能丰富自己的技术能力。

ACB News《澳华财经在线》：您能给我们分享一个WhiteHawk实施产品和技术解决方案的案例吗？

Terry Roberts女士：好的。最初我们创建了一个为中小型企业提供服务的平台，这些企业往往没有首席信息官或网络安全专业人员。但我们发现，即使通过搜索引擎优化，他们也不会找到我们，因为他们并没有搜索“网络安全”。

因此，我们基于我们的方法、我们的网络风险雷达，构建平台并广泛覆盖各类供应商，其中大多数是中小型公司。通过这种方式我们可以帮助大型企业识别和减少其供应商群体存在的相关风险，同时我们又可以与大量中小企业进行互动。

ACB News《澳华财经在线》：WhiteHawk最近完成一轮300万澳元的私人配售，以支持在美国和澳大利亚的业务发展和扩张。可否详细介绍下WhiteHawk的业务战略及其在澳大利亚的扩张计划？在您看来，WhiteHawk有哪些投资亮点？

Terry Roberts女士：在全球性疫情期间，我确实感觉到公司增长势头不如疫情前，我们非常需要通过市场营销、公关、思想领导和销售方面的资源，向更高水平迈进。

最初我们利用这些资源与更多全球性咨询集团建立合作伙伴关系，现在已经初见成效，形成一些令人振奋的合作关系，我们应该很快会公布相关消息。

我们还与Sontiq重新展开合作。Sontiq目前从属于TransUnion。在疫情前我们曾经合作过，后来他们进入并购期，合作就停止了。

但是现在并购阶段已经结束，我们正共同努力，向拥有商业客户组合并有能力嵌入我们软件即服务业务的大型全球性公司进行营销。我们有望为他们的商业客户提供支持，同时服务多达1000家、10000家，甚至20000家企业。我对这些机会感到非常兴奋。

ACB News《澳华财经在线》：您能给我们讲讲WhiteHawk的企业愿景吗？未来三到五年，董事会对WhiteHawk有着怎样的期望？

Terry Roberts女士：嵌入服务，即订阅服务，包括年度订阅，将给WhiteHawk带来颠覆性变化。

网络风险计划是我们一项非常重要的功能，但它每次只能销售一个，我们跨多个供应链的网络风险雷达一次也只能配备一个。但通过与Sontiq合作推出订阅模式，我们将可获得数千家公司的订阅，并每年都有续订。

董事会希望我们能够对数以千计的公司产生影响，而非数百家。

——附：访谈英文版——

Online crime, fraud and disruption impacts all businesses and organizations. Addressing Digital Age Risk can be straight forward and accessible.

ASX listed company WhiteHawk specializes in developing and operating an online cyber security exchange platform that prioritizes and mitigates cyber risks for businesses and organizations of all sizes.

Today, we are very pleased to invite the founder and CEO of WhiteHawk limited Ms. Terry Roberts to join us.

ACB News: Could you please briefly introduce WhiteHawk and its main service and products to our readers？

Ms. Terry Roberts: If you think about the digital age, it is so important that everyone has access to knowing their digital age risks, prioritizing them and mitigating them.

What we have done is created an online platform that is accessible to all companies and organizations where they can come and get a risk assessment get a sense of their maturity. If they're regulated, their compliance and then receive an action plan complete with scalable cost effective, easy to implement solutions from our innovative marketplace.

It truly is an end-to-end approach, We have a couple of specific product lines. One is the cyber risk program which is for one company. Another is the cyber risk radar which is across suppliers and vendors so it can be 50 or 1000+ suppliers and then foundational to everything we do are our automated cyber risk assessments which are 20 page reports.

ACB News: Could you please tell us a bit about your experience and why did you established WhiteHawk？

Ms. Terry Roberts: I had been the Executive Director at Carnegie Mellon Software Engineering Institute after my career in Naval Intelligence and I wanted to go back to cyber because I had focused on it in the late 1990s and I knew that it was the future. 

Therefore I worked in the risk and resilience field at Carnegie Mellon and then went on to industry. And while I was working and running a large body of cyber risk and engineering and analytics work, I saw what happened in the world in around 2013,14,15, when online crime and fraud started to explode and I knew that with my background in cyber intelligence and analytics and online platforms, we could create a capability that would democratize all companies to be able to identify and prioritize and mitigate their risks.

ACB News: As a cyber security company with technical team in USA, What is the major consideration to list in Australia rather than in America in 2018. And how does WhiteHawk differentiate itself from other ASX listed cyber security companies?

Ms. Terry Roberts:  I always knew that I wanted it to be a global company. Through my Carnegie Mellon connections I was brought to how the approach, the small-cap approach of the ASX and the ability to get investment over time through the ASX small cap. I thought it was a twofer: I would get the initial funding that I needed to create the platform and at the same time truly spread my global wings. 

I've lived a lot of my career in the Pacific and Indian Ocean and it was also like going back to my roots and I find it very exciting that we are both US and Australia connected

How do we compare to other Australian companies? It's that end-to-end automated, scalable online approach as opposed to a more traditional cybersecurity, either consulting service which we do work with consultants, they can use our risk assessments and product lines, or a traditional cyber security compliance approach which is very heavy, on-premise technical but not scalable. 

Meanwhile, we partner with several Australian cyber security companies. Because we're a marketplace, we want to have services and solution options that mitigate risks.

ACB News: The cyber criminals behind the Medibank and Optus cyber-attack put a lot of personal information in danger. Personal details of 9.7 million current and former customers of Medibank were accessed by the criminals. From your professional perspective what's your thought about the incident? And how can companies and organizations prevent such event to happen in the first place?

Ms. Terry Roberts: It's that friction between a compliance approach like a checklist approach and a risk-based approach. I think by focusing only on compliance while compliance is foundational, but it's not sufficient. 

Using the current cutting-edge cyber risk monitoring and prioritization capabilities that we integrate into our platform, we can diagnose the kinds of vulnerabilities from hacker view. I call it the satellite imagery of risk. It's an outside-in look vs inside-out look. And complex enterprises like Medibank and Optus need both and they're not leveraging both today.

Once the system is hacked, is there any way to make it up if you don't lead with a risk-based approach where you've protected your crown jewels? So for Medibank, the clients data sets are there crown jewels. Online financial transactions are their crown jewels. Prioritizing those and then putting solutions and mitigation and encryption in place would have prevented not the hack but the impact on their crown jewels. 

The other thing every company should have is a response plan so that you know you practice it ahead of time and you have the lead, the communication strategy and the company that you're going to bring in right that you already have a relationship with to help you with the response.

ACB News: According to Australian Cyber Security Industry Roadmap the cyber security sector is small at present. The majority of Australian organizations currently lack the capacity to employ large internal cyber security teams. From your experience, what are the advantages and disadvantages of hiring an external cyber service？

Ms. Terry Roberts: Yes, I estimate that about 90% of all companies and organizations don't have the resources, right. Nor do we have the talent, enough of the talent to have in-house cyber sophisticated teams. 

And in that case, that's why our approach to a cyber risk assessment which I call the cyber risk program, continuously by a third party will help you to do that prioritization and then put in place the key solutions based on your budget. But so that you will be able to operate through any kind of event. It's that combination I think that needs to be brought to be here.

I also want to highlight that in Australia,you have an amazing cyber accelerator out of Melbourne - CyRise and you have a lot of excellent companies start-ups that are coming from that cyber security accelerator as well.

ACB News: Australia offers a significant opportunity for cyber security providers with A$7 billion market size. However, most of the Australian cyber security companies including ASX listed cyber companies are not huge in terms of the market cap and business revenue. From your point of view, What might be the reason behind this? And do you expect more M&A might happen within the industry in the future？

Ms. Terry Roberts: I do think that the global pandemic for the past few years and the Russia-Ukraine crisis has sort of frozen growth in some of these exciting new technological areas. But I think we're coming out of that now so I do see a lot of opportunity for growth for ASX listed cyber security companies.

There will be mergers and acquisitions and we're always looking to optimize partnerships because we are an online exchange and so we're always vetting new capabilities. 

We want to have the next generationian best of breed to partner with. Also The larger cyber security companies need to stay current, and sometimes it's only by purchasing those best-of-breed technical solution start-ups that they can integrate that into their capabilities.

ACB News: Can you please share a case study on how products and technical solution to be implemented by WhiteHawk?

Ms. Terry Roberts: Originally. we created the platform to service small to mid-sized enterprises, those that don't have CIOs or cybersecurity professionals. But what we found was that they would not find us even through search engine optimization because they weren't searching on cybersecurity. 

So we created, we architected based on our approach, our cyber risk radar which is across suppliers and vendors so large, which the majority are small to mid-sized companies. So it was a way that we could help large enterprises identify and mitigate the risks cross their vendors and suppliers but also allow us to interact with large numbers of SMEs.

ACB News: WhiteHawk recently completed A$3 million private placement to support business development expansion in the US and Australia. Could you please tell us more about WhiteHawk's business strategy and its expansion plan in Australia. What's the investment highlight of WhiteHawk from your perspective?

Ms. Terry Roberts: I do feel that during the global pandemic. We lost the momentum that we had just before the pandemic. So we really needed the resources in place both from the Marketing, the PR the thought leadership and the sales side right to be able to take things to the next level. 

What we have been doing initially with those resources is putting more partnerships in place with global consulting groups and we have some exciting ones that are in fruition right now which we should be able to talk about soon. 

We're also re-partnered with Sontiq which is now a TransUnion company. So we had partnered with Sontiq before the pandemic, but then they went into a merger and acquisition period of time where we couldn't work with them and now they're out of that.

And so now we're marketing together to large global companies that have portfolios of business clients and the ability to embed our. Software-as-a-Service approach in support of their business clients for a 1.000, 10.000，20.000 businesses all at once so I'm very excited about those opportunities as well.

ACB News: Can you tell us a bit about WhiteHawk's corporate vision? What's the board's expectation for WhiteHawk in the next three to five years?

Ms. Terry Roberts: It is these embed services which are subscriptions, annual subscriptions that can be the game changer for WhiteHawk. 

So instead of selling cyber risk programs which are very important capabilities but are done one at a time or cyber risk radars across supply chains which are put in place one at a time, it's the subscriptions with Sontiq that would enable us to have subscriptions across thousands of companies and annually renewed. 

And the board wants us to have an impact across thousands of companies not hundreds of companies.

（郑重声明：ACB News《澳华财经在线》对标注为原创的文章保留全部著作权限，任何形式转载请标注出处。）