This post is based on an interview with Randy Brumfield. It is part of our series of interviews of OODA Network members. Our objective with these interviews is to provide actionable information of interest to the community, including insights that can help with your own career progression. We also really like highlighting some of the great people that make our continued research and reporting possible. For the full series see: OODA Expert Network Bio Series.

Career Progression:

When you talk to Randy Brumfield, you get a sense he’s seen it all!  Randy started his cyber-journey with the Air Force in the early 1980s in Germany, learning how to provide secure communications between Allied Nation partners.  When it was time to transfer Stateside, he was offered a job at Cheyenne Mountain to be part of President Reagan’s “Star Wars Program”.  Political changes and budget cuts turned what should have been a fun, exciting mission into long, dreary hours stuck in an office inside a mountain supporting NORAD.

When Randy left the service, he chased job leads throughout Silicon Valley, hoping to get work with one of the big Systems Integrators.  Instead, he found himself in the Marshall and Midway Islands, performing critical work during the Cold War.  In such an isolated environment, he learned early on that he needed to be an expert in ALL the equipment, not just his gear.  This gave him a 360-degree perspective on communications that helped form his future career choices.  With the help of a good mentor and CEO at LARSCOM who took a chance on young Randy, he broke into the Commercial market and product management.

In 2001, Randy took a side-step to work as a Venture Partner at TPG Ventures.  Companies that had survived the Dot-com bubble of 2000 were strapped for cash and hunting for funding sources.  Randy sifted through the rubble to find some nuggets worth investing in.  He waded through hundreds of business plans, and chuckles now as he reports that he “passed” on Linked In and other social media efforts because he couldn’t see how they would make money!

Surprises:

Looking forward, Randy states “Artificial intelligence will catch many people by surprise.  I’m not sure how organizations will deliver on their promises without sacrificing their users.  How will they put security and privacy around AI?”

Advice for Political or Executive Decision-Makers:

After the 2016 Elections, Randy was part of an effort to help the campaign committees secure their information by educating them about what information should and should not be put across unsecured communications.  He said, “There is an interesting dynamic between candidates who aren’t usually technically sophisticated and the young summer interns, who are technically savvy but not good with applying protections.”

Randy wants organizations to focus on “data governance, making sure the right policies are in the right places.  They need to have a data minimization policy that will allow their employees to effectively do their jobs, without the worry of having to retain ALL the data.”

Security Improvements:

When asked about his views of the greatest security improvements of the last few years, Randy underscored the importance of continuous training and user awareness. Phishing is the biggest issue and all indications are it will remain so, so organizations training on a continuous basis here is helpful.  Have external parties doing red-teaming and takeovers is also critically important and has been a huge improvement over the last several years.

Risks in The Near Future: 

Randy sees our biggest risks as our ability not to change as fast as the adversaries.  This includes in the political landscape. Randy believes we need to make more investments for our national security strategy and our approaches to cybersecurity or we will fall behind China, Russia and other adversaries.

The Federal Market:

When providing advice to small innovative companies trying to find work in the Federal sector, Randy warns “Don’t bite off more than you can chew.  Also, you don’t need to do everything by yourself.  Find a good Federal client that will take the journey with you.  For example, you don’t have to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on FedRamp before you do work with the Government.  A good client will guide you through the process.  Leverage people who have been doing this in the marketspace for a long time.   Federal clients want to test and deploy cutting edge solutions into the hands of the users as quickly as possible.  Find a customer who is willing to reuse “as-like” ATO’s from other missions.”

Technology of Interest: 

Randy is a big fan of Wickr’s secure team collaboration tools.  He does almost all of his important messaging through this platform (as do we). Wickr is an ephemeral and secure messaging app.  For more see: www.Wickr.com

Views on Thought Leaders: 

Randy has had some excellent mentors in his life, starting with his first Chief Master Sergeant in the Air Force. He has been lucky to work for people who “gave me a chance in the high-tech world” he says.  He considers USAF Retired General Hayden as an inspirational thought leader. He follows Peter Wagner at Wing Venture Capital to learn where business technologies are headed.  He stays up to date by reading OODALoop daily and weekly updates.

You can connect with him by downloading Wickr from the App Store/Google Play.

Quick Hits:

• Book Recommendations: Cult of the Dead Cow by Joseph Menn, and The Cowboy President, which is about Theodore Roosevelt.
• Favorite piece of content on OODAloop: Randy leverages both the daily and weekly updates to drive his decisions and forwards key content on to others.
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/randy-brumfield-453206/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/BrumfieldRandy
• Wickr: [email protected]