Industry veteran joins groundbreaking cybersecurity startup in their mission to provide control and protection for the corporate network airspace
AirEye, the leader in Network Airspace Control and Protection (NACP) solutions, announced today the appointment of Rich Mason, formerly Vice President & Chief Security Officer of Fortune 100 manufacturing conglomerate Honeywell (NASDAQ: HON), to the company’s CISO Advisory Board. Mason, an experienced executive security leader with 20+ years in the industry, joins AirEye as it works to implement NACP for enterprises across industries.
“I’m thrilled to team up with a company that has not only adeptly defined an increasingly pervasive and highly vulnerable attack surface, but is ahead of the industry curve in developing protection for it,” noted Mason. “Now is a critical time to confront this network security gap and I’m honored to lend my insights to such an impressive team that has already achieved such a great deal in the cybersecurity space. I look forward to sharing my own industry insights as we pave the road for CISOs to gain control over their corporate network airspace.”
Wireless-capable devices within the organization act as invisible entry points into the corporate network, allowing attackers to gain unauthorized network access, launch ransomware, and silently exfiltrate data, without leaving forensics or network logs. The need to protect these vulnerable wireless pathways has become exponentially more urgent due to the growing ubiquity of wireless IT and IoT devices across sectors and industries. While other network security solutions are positioned to secure the network at predetermined entry and exit points, today’s enterprise wireless assets open new shadow networks and consequently, a new attack surface. Attackers can directly connect to these assets and bypass the network security stack, using remote and software-only tools.
“We are working to close a network security gap that has been exploited by state and commercial attackers alike,” noted Shlomo Touboul, CEO and co-founder of AirEye. “Adding Mason to our growing CISO Advisory Board further strengthens AirEye’s tight cooperation with the industry, allowing us to urgently address the enormous lack of control and protection over the enterprise’s network airspace. AirEye is inviting industry leaders to join forces and shed light on this invisible attack surface and lack of enterprise control over it.
Mason is currently President and Chief Security Officer at Critical Infrastructure LLC, assisting Fortune 500 companies and select critical infrastructure supply chain businesses in the development of their security strategy, organization, and personnel. He is also an angel investor and advisor for Silicon Valley CISO Investments as well as sits on numerous executive advisory boards for public and privately held cyber security companies. Mason is a former member of the Secret Service’s New York Electronic Crimes Task Force, a graduate of the FBI’s Executive Academy, and a retired member of the FBI’s National Security Business Alliance Council (NSBAC) and Domestic Security Alliance Council (DSAC). He is a proud member of the Security Tinkerers: a values-based tribe of global cyber security executives who celebrate diversity, collaborate openly and responsibly, and give back generously to their security and greater communities.
Alongside AirEye’s development of its network airspace control and protection solution, AirEye is known for their cutting-edge research on wireless threats and network airspace vulnerabilities. In recent months, the AirEye research team has predicted the true threat of iPhone’s recent format string bug, exposed the remote possibilities of FragAttacks, and uncovered an entirely new Wi-Fi vulnerability dubbed SSID Stripping.
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