Raffaele Mautone, AaDya: “businesses are struggling with the fundamentals of security hygiene”

Cybersecurity, without a doubt, is incredibly important to each and every enterprise, as it protects all categories of data from harm and theft.

But while its maintenance is a relatively easy task for the big fishes of the pond, small and midsize businesses often face difficult challenges because of a shortage of professional staff and lack of funds. In this case, simple safety measure like choosing a suitable VPN service is not much of a help. Luckily, there are companies that suggest affordable, all-in-one cybersecurity protection.

One of them is AaDya. And today we are speaking with its CEO – Raffaele Mautone, to not only find out more about their services but also to gain more knowledge about current and upcoming cybersecurity-related threats and risks.

Tell us a little bit about your story. How did AaDya originate?

I have had the opportunity to work for several technologies and cybersecurity companies such as Duo, FireEye, McAfee, and Dell. I have been fortunate enough to serve these companies in a variety of roles of increasing responsibility.

My strategic thinking and effective leadership have been instrumental and paramount in my career as an IT, sales, and operations professional. In March of 2019, this extensive experience in the IT and security industries inspired me to launch AaDya Security with a mission to provide smart, simple, effective, and affordable cybersecurity solutions for small and medium business customers.

Can you tell us a little bit about your platform? What features make it stand out?

Powered by Judy, our innovative AI and machine learning, AaDya’s product is simple, affordable, and provides 24/7 cybersecurity protection for SMBs who lack the time, expertise, and capital to successfully implement these solutions.

Judy makes cybersecurity effortless and efficient by protecting your virtual environment with a comprehensive suite of security features you won’t find anywhere else:

• DNS filtering
• Integrated Single Sign-On/2FA
• Password Management
• Endpoint Detection & Response (EDR)
• Managed Threat Detection & Automated Remediation
• Ongoing Cybersecurity Training
• Automated Compliance Management and Reporting

What IT and cybersecurity details do you think are often overlooked by new business owners?

We believe the size of your company (or your budget) shouldn’t limit your ability to combat cyber threats. That’s why we’ve developed an all-in-one software solution to provide smart, simple, affordable, and effective cybersecurity protection.

How did the recent global events affect your field of work? Were there any new challenges you had to adapt to?

Recently, there has been an uptick in the number of Ransomware attacks, however Phishing, Malware and Credential Stealing along with Ransomware continue to be the biggest threats to any organization.

Additionally, businesses are struggling with the fundamentals of security hygiene - Vulnerability Management, Credential & Privilege Management, Multi-Factor Authentication, and Defined (and Tested) Incident Response Plans. As the old adage goes as much as things change they stay the same.

Since various attacks on organizations are becoming a common occurrence, do you think small businesses and big enterprises should rely on the same security measures?

Cyber threats for small and mid-sized businesses are really the same as they are for larger enterprises, the differences being the size and complexity of the attack surface and little to no dedicated security resources.

What types of solutions or tools do you think are little-known, but greatly enhance business operations?

AaDya provides customers with a flexible, comprehensive solution with multiple cloud-based offerings. We are not a point product and pride ourselves on offering a unified approach to what small businesses need.

Our Artificial Intelligence and machine learning differentiate us from our competition. Designed with Small Businesses in mind, this proactive AI approach manages, monitors, protects, and informs. It finds and mitigates issues quickly through machine learning and security automation.

Why do you think certain organizations are unaware of the risks they are exposed to?

Cybersecurity remains at the forefront of many leaders’ minds as the need increases to protect their companies. However, many small businesses do not own security software because of prioritization, cost, internal knowledge, specific expertise, dedicated security staff, etc.

For too long, small and midsize businesses have been overlooked in favor of serving the enterprise. They are left to try to build a strong security stack with point products that are often too expensive, and too complicated for small teams to manage. And, while they have the technical expertise to manage these solutions, the service providers that support these businesses have to pass along the costs to their customers. The end result is the business makes the decision to operate with less protection which puts their business and the customers they serve, at risk.

For AaDya, we are building a Partner program to bring real value to this underserved sector and to those who support it. It gives service providers, value-added resellers, and consultants an offering that is easy for them to deploy and manage and provides their customers with enterprise-level security in one package that even their non-technical users will enjoy using.

What new threats do you think the public should be ready to take on in the next few years? What security tools should every Internet user implement?

The risk will continue to be the attack surface and what businesses can control. The reliance on large centralized infrastructures and software services will mean that one attack could have ramifications for thousands of businesses. More and more connected devices which are not (and in many cases cannot be) managed will create risk for organizations.

Additionally, individual online users now have access to the same tools and the ability to develop TTPS skills on par with APT and cyber criminal organizations. Ironically the same fundamentals as noted in Question 2 will remain the best way to mitigate these risks. Remember the threat actor only needs to be right once, but your security needs to be right 100% of the time.

Share with us, what’s next for AaDya?

We will bring on new MSP and MSSP as we continue to grow globally and evolve our product accordingly.