Interview with the CEO of Guardian Digital – Dave Wreski

In 1999, Dave Wreski founded Guardian Digital, leading in Business Email Protection. As the CEO, Wreski’s 20+ years of industry experience drive the company’s innovation in Cloud Email Security.

Let’s explore his career journey and the challenges he’s navigated.

DigiBharata In an Interview with Dave Wreski, CEO of Guardian Digital

1. What core mission drives Guardian Digital Inc., and how do the company’s values align with this mission?

Guardian Digital provides customers peace of mind through highly effective, end-to-end email security vigilance. 

Every year, successful email breaches account for billions in losses. Productivity collapses, reputations are ruined, and customers go elsewhere due to a lack of trust. Guardian Digital provides real-time email security and around-the-clock system management so our clients can focus on their business. We are hands-on. We learn our clients’ digital landscape, including their email patterns and key company targets for potential cyber thieves, and tailor our protection accordingly.

Using the open-source development model enables us to do all of this and still be cost-effective and scalable to any business of any size.

This mission aligns with our values of quality, transparency, and cost-efficiency.

2. Can you outline key strategies that Guardian Digital Inc. employs to stay competitive in the ever-evolving cybersecurity market?

We are the only open-source business email security provider. Leveraging open-source development allows our engineers to tap into resources and tools from a vibrant, collaborative, global community. In real-time, we secure business email accounts against serious and sophisticated digital threats such as spear phishing, ransomware, and wire fraud in a way no other vendor can.

We also provide a fully managed vCISO service focused on email security and build a relationship with each individual client to understand their key assets and what they have to risk.

Through the use of open-source software and a specific concentration on security from the inside out, Guardian Digital can deliver to our customers a vastly greater level of performance than proprietary solutions.

3. From Guardian Digital Inc.’s perspective, what are the primary challenges and opportunities within the cybersecurity industry today?

Challenges:

• Keeping Up with Evolving Cyber Threats: Constantly evolving phishing tactics and sophisticated ransomware attacks.
• Allocating Resources Effectively: Struggling to manage email security without diverting significant resources from core business functions.
• Maintaining User Trust and Brand Integrity: Ensuring that customer data and communications are secure to maintain trust and uphold the company’s reputation in an environment of increasing cyber threats.

Opportunities:

• Leveraging advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) to enhance email protection.
• Leveraging open-source development to update email security measures in real-time to counter evolving threats, ensuring clients’ email systems remain resilient against the latest information security threats.

4. How does Guardian Digital Inc. foster innovation within the company, and how does it leverage cutting-edge technology to address cybersecurity challenges?

For over two decades, Guardian Digital has been an innovator in the realm of email security. The company’s first product, EnGarde Secure Linux, took an OS renowned for its security and stability and made it notably more secure by implementing SELinux by default, along with other unique security features. Despite the success and impact of EnGarde Secure Linux during its decade as a standalone product, Guardian Digital has always acknowledged that digital security is a process, not a product, and defenses must adapt and evolve to meet organizations’ ever-changing security needs. With the proliferation of cloud email and its central role in over 90% of modern cyberattacks, the company recognized the need for superior email protection to make email safe for business. Guardian Digital also saw the potential in EnGarde Secure Linux to provide an inherently secure and resilient foundation for developing business email security solutions. Today, Guardian Digital EnGarde Cloud Email Security, built on the foundation of EnGarde Secure Linux, provides exceptionally secure, highly customizable email protection to organizations of all sizes worldwide.

Guardian Digital remains invested in its clients and their safety and leverages the transparent, collaborative, open-source development approach as a competitive advantage to provide clients with the most innovative and effective solutions. Guardian Digital’s use of open-source development results in robust phishing and zero-day protection. Emails gathered from millions of systems worldwide are used to identify patterns and perform large-scale tests on filters. The results of these tests are then distributed back and incorporated into Guardian Digital solutions, fostering ongoing innovation within the company.

Guardian Digital emphasizes security from the ground up. The company develops native applications for its clients, not ones cobbled together from acquisitions and legacy solutions. Guardian Digital is now expanding its presence with MSP partnerships and new product offerings.

5. What is Guardian Digital Inc.’s approach to balancing business goals with environmental, social, and governance (ESG) considerations?

Guardian Digital recognizes that businesses must balance their goals with Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) considerations by aligning their strategy and operations with responsible and sustainable practices, thereby achieving growth while reducing negative impacts on society and the environment.

Guardian Digital prioritizes treating its employees fairly, maintaining appropriate labor practices, and contributing positively to the community. The company highly values diversity and inclusion, employee health and safety, labor standards, and community involvement.

Guardian Digital operates in data centers that are designed to be free from the negative impact of carbon emissions generated through its operations. This type of data center uses a combination of renewable energy sources, energy-efficient technologies, and carbon-offsetting mechanisms to balance out its carbon footprint. Some examples of renewable energy used in data centers include solar, wind, and hydropower. Energy-efficient technologies, such as virtualization, help reduce energy consumption by optimizing hardware resources. Carbon offsetting mechanisms involve investing in projects that remove or prevent an equivalent amount of carbon emissions from entering the atmosphere.

The company balances governance considerations with its goals by engaging in responsible decision-making and transparent disclosure of business activities. Guardian Digital believes that these priorities and practices contribute to the environmental and economic performance of the company, aiding the sustainability of its products and services.

6. How does Guardian Digital Inc. shape and maintain a strong company culture, and what role does it play in the company’s success?

Guardian Digital shapes and maintains a strong company culture through our connection to the global open-source community. At Guardian Diigital, we all value the transparency and collaboration that open-source development embodies.

Our team is committed to offering our clients the highest quality email protection at affordable prices.

7. Can you provide insights into Guardian Digital Inc.’s strategy for talent acquisition and ongoing workforce development?

We recruit passionate, talented, and hardworking individuals who are committed to making a difference in the realm of cybersecurity.

8. Given the rise of remote work and digital transformation trends, how has Guardian Digital Inc. adapted its operations and strategies?

Guardian Digital has prioritized a flexible and efficient work environment from the start, and its employees have always worked remotely, even before the pandemic. This made the rapid transformation to a remote work environment brought on by the pandemic easy and seamless for the company.

Guardian Digital recognizes that the rise in remote work has diversified the digital threat landscape, making everyone’s home computer a target and requiring heightened security and vigilance.

Guardian Digital solutions are designed specifically to meet the demands of a remote workforce and secure businesses’ migration to the cloud. These solutions integrate seamlessly with Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace, closing dangerous security gaps in default cloud email protection with critical additional layers of security. 

Guardian Digital EnGarde Cloud Email Security safeguards users and critical business assets against employee error, mitigating the most advanced threats before they reach the inbox. This level of protection is much greater than endpoint security alone, which takes a non-specific, retrospective approach to addressing email risk, leaving the responsibility of identifying and responding to these threats in the hands of the end-user. 

Guardian Digital has extended its support to become a remote extension of clients’ IT teams to help ease the burden on IT managers with the increasing demands. This expert, ongoing support provides greater security for a remote workforce when IT teams may not completely understand the evolving threats and risks their company faces.

9. What cybersecurity measures are in place at Guardian Digital Inc. to protect sensitive data and ensure the security of its products and services?

Guardian Digital prioritizes protecting not only its clients’ data but its own. The company implements a defense-in-depth data protection strategy that includes multi-factor authentication (MFA), limiting access to only what is required, strong passwords, encrypted backups in the cloud, continued education and security training, consistent auditing, penetration testing, and regular security reviews and assessments.

Guardian Digital’s information protection services draw on advanced encryption and layered email authentication to protect data and secure email communications. These measures ensure the security of our solutions and services. Our clients can be confident that their business and its sensitive data are protected with the most effective technology and the highest level of industry expertise.

10. How did Guardian Digital Inc. navigate challenges arising from the COVID-19 pandemic, and what adaptations were made to ensure business continuity?

Guardian Digital’s workforce was always remote, so changes in the work environment brought on by the pandemic were not a big shift for the company.

Guardian Digital recognizes that it is critical to ensure business continuity in the case of a disaster for both the company and its clients, as well as for regulatory compliance purposes. Guardian Digital has always focused on securing client data, using encryption throughout our solutions, multiple backups in diverse locations, and continually revising our business continuity plan.

Guardian Digital also ensures continuity and the highest level of data security by engaging in best practices such as securing endpoints, encrypting connections to data in the cloud, and using high-quality VPNs to ensure safe and private network connections.

11. How does Guardian Digital Inc. prioritize customer satisfaction, and what initiatives are in place to enhance the overall customer experience?

At Guardian Digital, customer support is a top priority and a primary business goal. Guardian Digital Fully Managed vCISO Email Security Services offers a hands-off approach for businesses, where Guardian Digital manages all aspects of email security. This alleviates strain on companies’ IT departments, improves security and efficiency, delivers a rapid return on investment (ROI), and offers invaluable peace of mind. These services free up resources that can be devoted to aspects of business besides email security and management.

Guardian Digital views its exceptional support as a key differentiator that sets the company apart from its competitors, whose traditional tech support is generalized, limited, and more hands-off in comparison.

12. Can you share insights into any recent strategic partnerships or acquisitions that Guardian Digital Inc. has engaged in?

As we’re a private company, we don’t have anything to report at this time.

13. How does Guardian Digital Inc. utilize data and analytics to inform decision-making and improve its cybersecurity solutions?

Guardian Digital uniquely leverages open-source development to gather information on threats from around the world in real-time and quickly adapt its protection based on these threats.

We also prioritize providing our clients with real-time data and analytics on the security of their email accounts. Guardian Digital EnGarde Cloud Email Security Real-Time Dashboard is a user-friendly administrative portal that connects Guardian Digital security experts with clients via shared real-time email security data. These insights improve security and operational efficiency for companies of all sizes and help Guardian Digital serve its clients better according to their specific risks and requirements.

The Dashboard provides real-time insights into the security of clients’ email, the threats targeting their business, and the most at-risk individuals within their organization. This information fosters better cybersecurity planning and enforcement of company security policies. It established an ongoing partnership between a client and Guardian Digital security experts, who manage and maintain their systems for them, ensuring they are secured against the most advanced threats.

14. What steps are taken at Guardian Digital Inc. to promote diversity and inclusion within the workforce?

Diversity and inclusion are two of the values that make up the workforce at Guardian Digital, as well as the different experiences and backgrounds that contribute to the growth and success of our business.

We prioritize expressing our authentic selves to curate a better work experience and empower our employees. It is our belief that by embracing the perspectives of a team built from all segments of society, we can better meet elevated standards and the needs of our employees and clients.

We believe that our strength is in our diversity. Each individual brings their own unique talent, as well as their own life experiences, to enrich the company as a whole.

A diverse workforce can increase creativity, innovation, and financial success. Diversity can bring different perspectives, skills, and experiences to the table, leading to better decision-making and problem-solving. Additionally, a diverse workforce can help companies tap into new markets and better serve their customer base. While diversity has many benefits, it is important for companies to create an inclusive culture that values and leverages all employees’ contributions.

15. Looking ahead, what are the key priorities for the future growth and development of Guardian Digital Inc.?

Guardian Digital emphasizes a proactive approach to dealing with cybersecurity threats. We predict that the cybersecurity threat landscape will become more dynamic and dangerous, and we are dedicated to fortifying security measures in response. Email protection and security is a key focus area for Guardian Digital, as over 90% of modem cyberattacks begin with a spear phishing email. We’ve pushed for measures such as zero-trust frameworks and multi-layered filtering solutions in our approach to securing business email. We’re also committed to innovating within the realm of Open Source, offering unique and agile solutions in email security.

Guardian Digital is closely observing post-pandemic technological changes and asserts that new trends and challenges will continue to grow as technology becomes increasingly advanced. The company aligns its strategic growth plans with major industry strategies. For instance, we’ve followed the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s (CISA) strategic plan for 2023-2025.

Our key priorities in 2024 are to continue to invest in the development of our solutions and to acquire new customers through intelligent marketing and outreach.