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3 Key Takeaways From a Business Roundtable with U.S. Cybersecurity Leaders

Mon, 08 Jul 2024 13:00:01 Z

A new front has opened in American national security. It is being fought in cyberspace, and private businesses in critical industries like energy, healthcare, water and financial services are on the frontlines.

This was the message delivered by Congressman Mark Green (R-TN-7) and Jen Easterly, Director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) at a business roundtable in Nashville, Tennessee, this week. I was privileged to attend, along with other business executives, to discuss the cybersecurity challenges we face from nation-state attacks. A primary theme was how the U.S. government can assist businesses to defend and secure their networks against these attacks.

Chairman Green and Director Easterly summarized the following ways the U.S. government can assist businesses in addressing their cybersecurity needs.

Increasing the cyber workforce

According to a recent Congressional hearing, there are nearly 500,000 vacant cybersecurity jobs in the U.S., which is a critical vulnerability to our national security. Chairman Green discussed the need for creating a federal pipeline of cybersecurity talent by incentivizing public service that could then lead to the needed talent for the private sector. Likewise, CISA highlighted the need to prioritize hiring for cyber skills, knowledge, and capability over less-relevant educational requirements that often discount many qualified applicants.

Streamline government regulation

Chairman Green and Director Easterly were eager to hear from the business leaders on repetitive and burdensome regulatory reporting requirements. Many industry representatives shared how these well-intentioned regulations have the unintended consequence of diverting companies’ staff time and resources from protecting organizations against cybersecurity attacks. Chairman Green discussed his efforts in Congress to ensure that no new duplicative reporting requirements were added to businesses.

Incentivize for Secure by Design

Earlier this year, CISA announced “Secure by Design” commitments from software manufacturers who will build security directly into their software design. Director Easterly discussed how this pledge is a significant shift in cybersecurity risk for software, which in the past prioritized being the first to market or distinguishing features over security. I was proud to be the first CEO to sign this pledge, committing Ivanti to principles, standards and actions that will help us further elevate the security of our products and better protect our customers.

Globally, organizations are facing cybersecurity threats that threaten to disrupt day-to-day operations and endanger national security. The challenges that businesses and governments face to keep their products and networks secure are significant and consistent.

I am confident, however, that through collaboration between the public sector and private industry, we can create a stronger business environment that is secure and continues to lead the world in technological innovation.

The Secure-by-Design Pledge: A Commitment to Creating a Safer Digital Future

Wed, 08 May 2024 22:06:03 Z

The exciting benefits of digital transformation and automation — global interconnectedness, efficient operations, greater business outcomes — have come with an equal measure of concern over digital safety. It has become clear that to safely realize the benefits of digital acceleration, as an industry we must take bold steps toward securing the digital landscape and mitigating cybersecurity threats.

At Ivanti this evolution is already under way — and we are committed to being at the very front of the movement. As a company, we have always believed that our customers’ interests – including security – should be a cornerstone of software development. With the threat landscape rapidly evolving, and tactics becoming increasingly aggressive and sophisticated, the imperative to put security first has never been greater.

That is why last month I outlined a bold plan for Ivanti to meet the new reality we are all facing. Our efforts are rooted in Secure by Design principles, weaving security into every stage of our software development lifecycles. Given this commitment, it makes sense that we’re among the first to sign the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s (CISA) Secure by Design pledge, which they unveiled on May 7, 2024 at the RSA Conference in San Francisco.

The concept of Secure by Design is not new, but it has never been more relevant. It ensures that products are built with security embedded from the ground up, reducing the risk of vulnerabilities and making it more difficult for malicious actors to exploit them. That is why this pledge is so meaningful at this moment in time, and why companies like Ivanti are answering the call. We see this as a meaningful step forward in the industry’s commitment and collaboration around security, and we look forward to setting a new standard for the broader ecosystem.

A bold new level of security

By signing the Secure by Design pledge, we are committing to a set of principles, standards, and actions that will help us further elevate the security of our products and better protect our customers. This includes implementing multi-factor authentication, reducing the use of default passwords, mitigating entire classes of vulnerabilities, increasing the adoption of security patches, establishing a vulnerability disclosure policy and improving our customers' ability to gather evidence of cybersecurity intrusions. I’m pleased that our products and our organization already meet many of these Secure by Design principles, and we are looking closely at opportunities to enhance and accelerate our efforts and practices throughout our organization and product development lifecycle.

For Ivanti, these commitments are far from simply words on paper or empty promises. By signing this pledge, we are making a public commitment to raise the bar and that we will be accountable for delivering. We will work diligently over the coming year to make measurable progress toward each of these goals, and we will update our customers and the wider security community on our progress. We believe that transparency is essential in building trust and fostering a broader culture of security.

Stronger together

We’ve taken a big step by acting as early signers to this pledge. Still, we recognize that we cannot achieve a safer digital future alone. It is crucial that other vendors in the industry also embrace the principles of Secure by Design and take similar steps to prioritize security in their products. We strongly encourage our peers to join us in signing the CISA Secure by Design pledge and to work collaboratively toward our shared goal of protecting our customers and the broader digital ecosystem.

It's good business, and it’s the right thing to do for employees, partners, customers and the communities we serve.

Our recent experience at RSA has only reinforced our belief in the importance of the security community coming together to tackle the challenges we collectively face. Our conversations with customers and partners were invaluable, and they highlighted the need for a collective effort around software security. By sharing knowledge and best practices and holding each other accountable, we can make significant strides toward a stronger and more secure future.

Ivanti is committed to being a leader in this effort, and we look forward to engaging with our customers and the wider community to make Secure by Design the new reality.

Our Commitment to Security: An Open Letter from Ivanti CEO Jeff Abbott

Wed, 03 Apr 2024 15:01:32 Z

To Ivanti’s Valued Customers and Partners,

Our organization strives to produce the most secure solutions for Everywhere Work. Events in recent months have been humbling, and I want you to hear directly from me about the actions we are taking to ensure we emerge stronger, and our customers are more secure.

We and many others in our industry have witnessed, firsthand, the increasing complexity of the threat landscape and the specific evolution of threat-actor tactics. This activity has brought one of our products to the forefront of conversation regarding recently reported security incidents. We have responded by working diligently to protect and support our customers, and we are taking a very close look at our own posture and processes to ensure we are well prepared to address the current landscape.

We will use this opportunity to begin a new era at Ivanti. We have challenged ourselves to look critically at every phase of our processes, and every product, to ensure the highest level of protection for our customers. We have already begun applying learnings from recent incidents to make immediate improvements to our own engineering and security practices. And there is more to come.

We are now executing a plan that accelerates security initiatives already underway and implements improved practices to anticipate, prevent and protect against future threats. We have engaged the industry’s most recognized security and product development experts to support the Ivanti team’s review and to provide best-in-class execution guidance, ensuring we meet our commitment to you, so that your organization can work easily, securely and with confidence. This plan is backed by a significant investment and has the full support of our board of directors and everyone at Ivanti.

Our Path Forward

We are committed to a broad shift that fundamentally transforms the Ivanti security operating model. This includes:

Revamping core engineering, security and vulnerability management practices to ensure our current products are secure, and that customers have the resources needed to deploy them securely for their organization.
Ensuring all products that we create embrace secure by design methodology, with security considered as a key factor at every stage of the software development lifecycle.
Formalizing partnerships with key cyber-defense agencies to make sure Ivanti products, and the lessons we learn in creating them, uplift the entire security ecosystem.
Sharing information and learning with our customers – and actively soliciting feedback so that we continue to meet their needs.

Below I have outlined our initial focus areas, and you should expect that they continue to evolve as we make progress towards our goals.

The challenges we face are not unique in the software industry and we are committed to taking the necessary steps to lead the way for others. Threat actors are constantly evolving — know that we will be too.

On this journey we have placed customers at the center. Your interests and partnership will always be our priority, now and in the future.

Sincerely,

Jeff Abbott

Our Plan for the Future of Ivanti

1. Bolstering Product Security and Embracing Secure by Design Principles.

Adhering to Secure-by-Design: Our focus is on embedding security into every stage of the software development lifecycle, with robust processes that anticipate and preemptively address potential vulnerabilities from product inception to deployment and beyond. Our approach will entail rigorous threat modeling exercises, ensuring that security is ingrained as a foundational element of our products. This proactive stance will serve as the cornerstone of our commitment, enabling us to enhance protections for our customers, and stay ahead of emerging threats.
Optimizing Products for Security and Customer Trust: We are already strengthening the overall security posture of our product portfolio. This includes accelerating the stack modernization of our Network Security products (Ivanti Connect Secure, Policy Secure and ZTA) with a variety of isolation and anti-exploit technologies to reduce the potential impact of future software defects. We are committed to maintaining the latest underlying operating system on our Network Security products and are integrating further hardware-based protections and remote monitoring and support options to increase protection for our customers.
Alleviating the Burden of Security for Customers: We will be enhancing our capabilities to provide solutions that are secure out of the box (Secure by Default) and building products that can be optionally managed, monitored and secured by Ivanti. We will work with our customers to determine the appropriate level of monitoring and management responsibility based on their product line and industry segment.
Prioritizing Customer-focused Security: We are redirecting resources and making new investments focused on product security across the organization. This includes growing our product security teams, creating dedicated, collaborative engineering-security pods, and driving a proactive approach to threat modeling, security reviews, and increased penetration testing methodologies across our product portfolio.

2. Elevating our vulnerability management program.

Internal and External Research to Identify Vulnerabilities: We are committed to improving processes and collaboration around vulnerability discovery to better enable us to quickly identify, remediate and report security issues across Ivanti’s portfolio. To this end, we are intensifying our internal scanning, manual exploitation and testing capabilities, engaging trusted third parties to augment our internal research and facilitating responsible disclosure of vulnerabilities with increased incentives around an enhanced bug bounty program.
Risk-based Patching and Vulnerability Remediation: The objective of this heightened vulnerability management program is to promptly discover and address any potential issues. While this may naturally cause an initial spike in discovery and disclosure, we are making additional investments in engineering resources, technology and workflow processes to support a risk-based approach that will reduce average time-to-patch for product vulnerabilities that pose the most risk to customer systems.

3. Providing enhanced support for secure product deployments in the field.

Accessibility of Security Resources and Documentation in the Community Portal: Customers should expect community portal enhancements in the coming months, including improved search functionality powered by AI to allow for more curated results based on the specific products that a customer uses. This will include information on patches and documentation. We will also be improving customer security engagement with the implementation of a customer-focused feedback lifecycle, and other user experience upgrades focused on the application of security best practices in customer environments.
Deploying an Improved and Smarter Interactive Voice Response (IVR) System: We are committed to providing our customers with the support they need quickly and effectively. In the coming months we will have implemented an AI-powered Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system that will improve the customer experience for routing calls, alerting customers to security-related information on their product, and automatically open support cases upon request.
Working with Customers to Upgrade to the Latest Platforms: As we work to improve the security of our latest releases, it is also important that our customers are able to benefit from these improvements by running on our most supportable and secure platforms. We are working with customers to reduce friction – be it contractual, technical or financial - to facilitate adoption of the latest and most secure solutions and security enhancements that are built to protect against the current threat landscape.
Overcoming Practical Impediments to Security Hygiene for On-Prem Devices: We understand that the real-world administration of enterprise networks balances practical realities and constraints. When customers require a fully on-prem solution, we are committed to helping them operate within these limits without compromising system security. In the coming weeks, we will be working with on-prem customers to communicate lessons learned and best practices for operating their solutions in the current environment.

4. Sharing information with our customers and community.

Information Sharing and Transparency: Healthy customer relationships are central to our company’s success, and our robust engagement with and feedback from customers throughout this incident has yielded tremendous mutual benefit. We want to ensure this continues. Customers and partners should expect Ivanti to share lessons learned, and we also plan to continue our customer briefings with outside experts, launch a dedicated blog series related to the current threat landscape and conduct webinars and roundtables to address privacy and security topics with our community.
Creation of a Customer Advisory Board: Each of the initiatives above needs to be guided by customer input and tuned with customer feedback. We will institutionalize this process and will be announcing plans in coming weeks to gather customer input for the benefit of product development, feature prioritization, security concerns and strategic decisions about our product roadmaps.

Fighting the Good Fight for a Resilient Digital Future

Sun, 01 Oct 2023 13:00:00 Z

This Cybersecurity Awareness Month, cybercriminals have far too much to celebrate. Attacks are rising in sophistication and brazenness, and no company or organization is immune. We could panic. Or we could lock arms, fight the good fight and put customers first. I vote for the latter.

Hop in the time machine

When October was first dubbed Cybersecurity Awareness Month in 2004, no one — unless you’re a time traveler or incredibly prescient — could have envisioned the current digital landscape.

If 2004 doesn’t feel like that long ago, consider that the first iPhone was still three years away. Windows XP was having its reign. Facebook was just launching. When it came to internet search, Google and Yahoo were still neck and neck.

Much of the advancement since then has been thrilling, and arguably positive. But as technology has advanced rapidly, so too have the capabilities of those who would exploit it. With the rise of AI and an increasingly digital world, we may be at a tipping point between progress and peril. As we speed toward even more technological advancement, it has never been more urgent that the entire industry works together to put security at the forefront.

What’s at stake

The consequences of neglecting cybersecurity in our hyperconnected world are stark and far-reaching. From critical infrastructure to personal privacy, the very foundations of our digital existence hinge on robust security measures. The integrity of our governments and financial systems, the protection of sensitive data and the resilience of our digital infrastructure all hang in the balance.

If it sounds like I’m being dramatic, I wish I were. The threat scope is very real. Here are some of the most eye-popping statistics:

Phishing attacks have increased by 47.2% in just the last year.
Worldwide, cybercrime is estimated to cost $13.82 trillion by 2028.
The 2022 ransomware attack on the Costa Rica Government cost $30 million a day.
37% of security pros cite tech stack complexity as one of their biggest barriers to security excellence.

Now imagine — you’re on the frontlines — as an IT and/or security resource inside a company that is a ripe target for attack. Further imagine that the tools you have to battle are dated, not integrated, and clunky. Unfortunately, many don’t have to imagine.

Ivanti’s most recent Digital Employee Experience report shows that 57% of IT workers encounter a significant amount of technology ‘friction’ at work. Additionally, our cybersecurity survey indicates 1 in 5 security professionals feel ill-equipped to adequately protect their organizations.

There is a course of action to take. Here’s a closer look at what’s happening right now and what needs to happen next:

1. Rapidly evolving threat landscape

The digital battleground is more complex than ever. Attack vectors are increasing exponentially, from alarmingly convincing phishing attacks to insidious ransomware campaigns. AI poses a serious risk where in the future it could enable those with little to no coding expertise to wage sophisticated attacks, further enhancing the rapid proliferation of threats.

To effectively protect against sophisticated threats, security teams need complete visibility into an organization's threat landscape. That’s step one.

2. Lack of cybersecurity talent

The shortage of skilled cybersecurity professionals is making a challenging situation worse. With too much to handle and not enough people to handle it, everyone is spread thin, which means gaps. Bridging the talent gap is a multifaceted problem.

Automation must be part of the solution — not as a replacement for skilled workers, but as an enhancement. Focusing on the digital employee experience, proper tools and the right environment are key. In Ivanti’s recent DEX survey, we found that IT teams are strained, and IT workers reported tech stress because of too many digital notifications (47%), too many tools (42%) and too many logins (39%).

3. Vendor collaboration and information sharing

Effective cybersecurity requires seamless cooperation between vendors, researchers and government entities. This isn’t a place for competition. We must establish transparent information-sharing channels to respond swiftly to emerging threats.

4. Responsible disclosure and vulnerability management

Identifying vulnerabilities is only part of the battle. As an industry, we must follow responsible disclosure practices to protect potential victims. There’s a fine line between the need for ethical security researchers to highlight issues and disclosing information that would magnify the vulnerability if a patch isn’t available yet. Education and clear guidelines are essential in navigating this delicate balance.

5. Regulatory compliance and data protection

Patchwork regulatory compliance leads to patchwork results. A standardized federal data protection measure is critical, but in the meantime, security teams must challenge themselves to manage to the highest possible level of compliance — not the bare minimum.

Locking arms and fighting the good fight

If this sounds like a lot, that’s because it is. Ultimately, the aim is and must continue to be protecting our customers and our increasingly digital infrastructure.

It’s a tall order, but our strength lies in unity. And the time is now. Cybersecurity Awareness Month traces back to when the digital frontier as we know it today began taking shape. Since then, this annual event has grown into a global initiative, mobilizing individuals, organizations and governments to take proactive steps in fortifying our collective digital defenses.

This month serves as a rallying cry, a call to arms for all stakeholders to prioritize cybersecurity in an era where the stakes have never been higher. It’s a perfect time to forge stronger connections between vendors, researchers and public and private entities. We are far stronger together than siloed.

Employees Confirm that Ivanti Is a "Great Place to Work," Earning Ivanti the Prestigious Great Place to Work® Certification™

Tue, 16 Aug 2022 16:20:25 Z

We are thrilled to announce that Ivanti is now Certified™ by Great Place to Work®. The prestigious certification is determined entirely by what current employees have to say about their experiences working here at Ivanti. A resounding 88% of Ivanti employees said our company is a great place to work — the national average is 57%. We take our employee experience seriously, and the Great Place to Work® certification shows our leadership’s dedication to providing a positive workplace culture.

Great Place to Work® is the world's leading authority on workplace culture, employee experience and the leadership behaviors that have been proven to deliver market-leading revenue, employee retention and increased innovation. It is the only recognition based solely on what employees report about their workplace experience — specifically, how consistently they experience a high-trust workplace. Great Place to Work® Certification is the global benchmark for identifying and recognizing outstanding employee experience. Every year, more than 10,000 companies across 60 countries apply to get Great Place to Work®-Certified, and Ivanti is proud to be among the elite organizations selected.

At Ivanti, we all work daily to foster a sense of collaboration and enhance the employee experience. Our quarterly Employee Engagement Survey is distributed to ensure that we have our finger on the pulse of what employees feel and can make improvements accordingly. Survey results indicate tremendous recent improvement across many areas, and these findings give us even more insight into opportunities to keep leveling up. The overwhelming 78% response rate to our most recent survey gives us a strong sense of where we stand and where we need to go.

What makes Ivanti’s culture so great?

Our company, because of our foundation through acquisition, is made up of a diverse set of companies, backgrounds and cultures. As an acquisitive company, we know our whole is greater than the sum of our parts, so we strive to spread the culture of inclusion. In fact, our diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging policy (DEIB) has been completely revitalized to make sure it truly represents who we are as Ivanti. We recognize that our differences contribute to the richness of our culture and the success we achieve for our customers.

That’s why we’re committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment where all perspectives are heard, respected and valued – and we’re taking action. I’m happy to share that we’ve successfully increased the representation of women in our executive leadership team to 50%. We also recently placed renewed emphasis on our partnership with Circa, a diversity recruitment service. This is an important partnership that enables us to hire a diverse workforce for the future. Our goal is to attract, develop and retain the best and brightest from all backgrounds. Additionally, Ivanti recently sponsored the Utah Pride Festival for the first time ever.

Ivanti’s core values

Overall, our commitment to creating a winning, diverse and inclusive culture is deeply rooted in our core values. We defined our core values by and for our employees: Locking Arms, Fight the Good Fight, Champions for our Customers, and Outcomes Matter Most. Every day, our employees do an outstanding job of demonstrating each and every one of these core values.

Locking Arms refers to how teamwork is intrinsic to what we do and why we do it. We encourage locking arms across all departments of business, because success comes from cross-functional collaboration that elevates everyone on the team. One example: Michael Mills, Ivanti's newly appointed Chief Experience Officer, established the Office of CXO to bridge the gap between Ivanti's employee experience (EX) and the Ivanti customer experience (CX). Locking Arms is embracing the link between customer experience, employee experience and our culture. We are accountable to each other and support one another. We provide opportunities to grow, learn, add value and thrive — while also achieving new levels of performance. In our effort to enable and secure the Everywhere Workplace, it is important for employees to work together, lending a helping hand whenever possible.

Fighting the Good Fight can be defined as our commitment to enable, prepare and protect our customers so they can drive their own business success. We are grateful to our Security team for waking up every day to fight the good fight against cyberterrorism. The Security team’s main goal is to protect the confidentiality, integrity and availability of Ivanti information systems and data. It is through the Security team’s vigilant and strenuous efforts that we can operate at the leading edge of cybersecurity. When our customers, our governments and our people are safe and protected from threats, we are winning.

Being Champions for our Customers is more than just excellent customer service. We aim to always anticipate our customers’ needs and deliver innovative solutions that exceed their expectations. We’re highly responsive in answering all customer inquiries while consistently developing new innovative solutions for our customers. Our Sales and Product teams have been exceptional in bridging the gap between customer needs and Ivanti solution offerings. Ivanti Neurons is just one example of how we innovate to deliver excellence, both for our customers and — as Customer Zero — for ourselves. With the power to continuously sense, discover and remediate security threats even before users know about them, Ivanti Neurons makes it possible for our company to enable and secure the Everywhere Workplace.

Our fourth core value, Outcomes Matter Most, is tailored to our mentality of starting with the end goal in mind — for our customers, employees, partners and investors. We are dedicated to not only reaching but exceeding our expectations. If our solutions do not deliver the appropriate expectation, we cannot succeed in our mission.

We are committed to demonstrating our values through not only words, but also actions, and each of our employees embodies our values every day.

It is a great honor to receive the Great Place to Work® Certification, which was only made possible by our wonderful Ivantians. More importantly, we’re beyond happy about what this certification reflects — that we are creating positive experiences for our employees. We aren’t complacent, and we will continue to be diligent in our efforts to provide employees with a great place to work.

Looking to join our amazing team? Visit our career page!

Introducing Ivanti Everyone: Renewed Focus on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging

Wed, 01 Jun 2022 11:01:08 Z

Fostering and supporting a diverse and inclusive workforce has always been a priority for me throughout my career. Shortly after I took over at Ivanti as CEO, I pulled together a taskforce to look at our diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEIB) policy and make sure it truly represented who we are as Ivanti. Our company, because of our foundation through acquisition, was made up of a diverse set of companies, backgrounds and cultures. As an acquisitive company, by our very nature we know that our whole is greater than the sum of our parts, so we want the mindset of inclusion – and the Ivanti Everyone principles – to proliferate.

It has been proven that diversity enhances innovation and better decision making within an organization. Making sure that we have diversity of thought at Ivanti will help us reach new markets, increase performance, and will help us improve our business by being more innovative, creative, flexible and equitable.

I’m proud of our new DEIB policy presented below, and to share a few ways that we are supporting this important program. Because actions speak louder than words.

Ivanti Everyone in Action:

Ivanti is sponsoring the Utah Pride Festival for the first time ever.
- We hope to see our customers and partners based in and around Salt Lake City at our booth at the festival.
In honor of Juneteenth, we are placing renewed emphasis on our partnership with Circa, a diversity recruitment service. This is an important partnership that enables us to hire a diverse workforce of the future. Our goal is to attract, develop and retain the best and brightest from all backgrounds.

I hope everyone will celebrate these days and events.

At Ivanti, a core value is creating a diverse and inclusive environment where all perspectives are heard, respected and valued. We enable and secure the Everywhere Workplace by ensuring that everyone at Ivanti can bring a full range of views and talents to work with them every day. Through inclusive practices and diversity Ivanti will be increasingly capable of solving complex challenges, locking arms with one another, and providing unique insight and support to customers and partners. To meet increasingly global and complex challenges, Ivanti must attract, develop and retain a diverse workforce that will enhance organizational success.

Happy Administrative Professionals' Day to Ivanti Executive Partners

Wed, 27 Apr 2022 14:22:55 Z

Today I send a heartfelt thanks to all Ivanti Executive Partners on Administrative Professionals' Day. Upon becoming CEO, I realized quickly that the employees that we then called “Executive Assistants” held much more importance than their title described. It was important for me to change the role to “Executive Partners” to accurately describe just how large of a contribution they make. Our administration professionals are partners. They partner with us to execute, grow and change our company. Administrative Professionals’ Day gives us an opportunity to acknowledge and appreciate the phenomenal work done by our special professionals. Each of our Executive Partners fights the good fight each day by locking arms with us to accomplish company goals. Without the dedication of these individuals, our path to success would be a tough one.

To celebrate the commitment of our Ivanti Executive Partners, our leadership team has provided some insight into the things that make our partners so amazing. We can’t thank our Administrative Professional team enough for all they have done to make our lives easier. Happy Administrative Professionals' Day to all those at Ivanti and across the globe for your daily efforts towards success.

“For those of you familiar with the 1970s TV show, M*A*S*H — Stacy is my Radar O'Reilly. If you are not familiar with the show — Stacy is two steps ahead of me in keeping me on track. She is the traffic controller who makes sure I see the things I need to see, when I need to see them. That is a very challenging task — and she does it all with professionalism. I am tremendously grateful for Stacy and her leadership of the other Executive Professionals!” - Jeff Abbott, CEO

“I only started yesterday, but…Stacy Murdock has been truly awesome to work with these last two days and the period prior to joining. I am sure that’s just a leading indicator of how important she will be to me at Ivanti!” - Dennis Kozak, Chief Operating Officer

“I really feel like one day a year to celebrate the people that make all the magic happen, in front of and behind the scenes, just isn’t enough! There are so many great examples of locking arms, fighting the good fight and a better place to work, it would be impossible to narrow it down to one or quantify it into a singular thing. Our Executive Partners are force multipliers in everything; there is no way my team or I would be half as productive without their partnership. Simply put, no Executive Partner Team…no success! Thank you all for everything you do, all day, every day!” - Mike Mills, SVP Chief Experience Officer

“I greatly appreciate how my executive partner Kim Thayne efficiently manages critical meetings; coordinating busy team members that are spread across multiple time zones is truly a challenge. Your positive attitude to provide support and a multitude of work streams is very much appreciated and invaluable.” - Rick Martin, Chief Financial Officer

“Belinda Bennett has been instrumental in helping me rebuild the International structure and bringing back the normality in business as we come out of the pandemic. I greatly appreciate her focus and support in these very interesting times! Angelica Barthel has been critical to maintaining support for the Central team, which has been operating without a leader for the past four months. Her continuous enthusiasm and positive attitude is infectious to the team and has helped stabilize the Regional Leadership and bring them support when needed.” - Helen Masters, EVP and General Manager of International Sales

“Joey Hamada is a fantastic executive partner, and she truly is a partner in helping the legal and privacy teams run smoothly. She assists with essential operational issues, is always the first to volunteer for difficult assignments and thinks three steps ahead of the rest of us. We love working with Joey and are lucky to have her on our team!” - Brooke Johnson, Sr. VP and Chief Legal Counsel

“So, this is one of the many reasons our EA’s rock. This story is from Kristine tonight — her husband is a pilot and said hello to this guy at the hotel breakfast buffet and the man happened to work at Ivanti! The passion and energy Kristine brings every day is second to none, never a 'no' and always 'I’ll make it happen.' I couldn’t do every day without her efforts as traffic controller. It seems to run in the family. Sending from a flawlessly executed Monday of logistics heading to SLC for another week of QBRs. Kristine rocks!” - Cyrus Hatfield, EVP and General Manager, US Sales

“Yesenia offers structure where there may otherwise be chaos. Her reliability and responsiveness are unmatched.” - Kristen Kamp, SVP, Human Resources

“Anne is a true partner who understands the purpose and mission. She is always there for me and the team.” - Srinivas Mukkamala, Senior Vice President, Security Products

“Running four business units at Ivanti certainly takes its toll on getting the day-to-day tasks done and done on time. Thanks to her positive get-it-done attitude, as well as the skill set to get it right, Kristine Wang brings a ray of light into each day. Communication is key in identifying the needs of these demanding teams and Kristine is the GREAT COMMUNICATOR. I can’t thank you enough, Kristine, for staying on top of all things Andy Byrne and the teams I support. Have a great day and I look forward to all the collaboration in the future.” - Andy Byrne, SVP and General Manager

“Carlie, thank you for everything you do. You have been the best of the best in supporting me and our entire team in being phenomenally successful!! Look forward to many, many more years of partnership!” - Nayaki Nayyar, President and Chief Product Officer

“If it wasn't for Rosa, my calendar wouldn't give me time to think. I appreciate how she protects my time better than me and generally enables me to operate at my best.” - Daniel Spicer, VP Security and Chief Security Officer

“Jessica Ratter is a true partner in every sense of the word. She takes the initiative to take on important strategic projects. She is always one step ahead of us. Her positive energy is contagious. We are truly blessed to have Jess as our executive partner.” - Melissa Puls, Chief Marketing Officer

“The role of a good Executive Partner is so important in helping execs manage their sanity. I know that Rosa is coming up to speed on a variety of topics at Ivanti, but I always like how calm and collected she is in all the different asks that I throw at her and she always comes through. She has been great at aligning with my work routine and helping to execute. Thank you, Rosa!” - Al Arun, Chief Customer Officer

“Anitha has been a quick learner and it was amazing to see her pick up the NSG EA activities in no time. She comes with lots of positive energy and can-do attitude. Happy to see Anitha build on this and have greater success in coming quarters as she scales to take on Ivanti India Site Initiatives.” - Nagesh Ayyagari, Vice President, Engineering

“Brandi — thanks for all you do for Ivanti! We appreciate you!” - Bob Grazioli, SVP, Saas Operations & CIO

The Everywhere Workplace Is Here. Now What?

Wed, 13 Apr 2022 20:12:52 Z

The future of work doesn’t have to be a mystery. And now we have numbers to tell the story of what’s now and what’s next.

Ivanti canvassed the opinions of thousands of professionals across several countries to cut through speculation and highlight trends. What’s it really like in the Everywhere Workplace? Who’s benefiting from it? What are the drawbacks? Are there divides along gender lines? Generational lines?

The results are integral to understanding not only where we are now, but how to move forward.

The full Everywhere Workplace Report is available here, and we’ll be breaking it down in a blog series highlighting the key takeaways.

Here’s a teaser of what’s to come:

Hybrid vs. remote vs. in-office. What does the future of work look like? It’s not all remote. We discovered how many people prefer hybrid, how many prefer remote, and how many absolutely dread going back into the office full-time.
The gender divide is real. We confirmed what many have suspected, which is that the Everywhere Workplace is far from a universal experience. The gender divide is particularly stark, with women (who have long faced an imbalanced caregiver burden that was particularly egregious during the pandemic) most concerned about work/life balance in the Everywhere Workplace while men in the survey were concerned about missing out on in-person time with leaders and potentially losing out on promotion opportunities.
Promotions aren’t everything. Despite the statistic we’ll cover regarding concern over being passed up for promotion, a stunning 71% of respondents would choose the ability to work from anywhere, anytime, over getting a promotion.
IT is the key to the next phase. IT workers are severely overburdened and understaffed in the Everywhere Workplace, and yet IT is critical to meeting the current workforce challenges. The secret: digital transformation and automation. We’ll break down all of this and more in future posts in this blog series.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. The Everywhere Workplace Report is full of insights that can help employers plan the next phase. Can’t wait for the next blog? Don’t forget to check out the full report here.

Business Leaders Need to Evolve to the Everywhere Workplace. Or Fail.

Wed, 09 Mar 2022 05:00:01 Z

The pandemic catalyzed a monumental shift in where and how people work. Amid all the uncertainty of emerging variants, returning to the old normal seems improbable. The success of the remote workforce experiment and the influx of newer generations with different work priorities also contribute to the unlikelihood of returning to offices full time. The decision of where to work is shifting from the employer to the employee. Today’s employees expect to be productive from any device and everywhere they work – the office, kitchen tables, sofas, coffee shop, or anywhere there is a hotspot – and anytime they work. They want any device to be able to access the corporate network, including wearables and other edge devices; they want the Everywhere Workplace.

And we have the numbers to back it up with the Ivanti Everywhere Workplace study. We surveyed over 6,100 office workers and IT professionals in the US, UK, Germany, Spain, Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden and Australia and worked with leading “future of work” experts to uncover employee sentiments related to the future of work.

The survey provided a massive volume of thoughtful, candid responses. I encourage each of you to view the full report here, but in the interest of efficiency, I’ve compiled a few highlights.

71% of employees would choose to work from anywhere over being promoted
And 64% of employees would even take a pay cut to be able to work from anywhere
Only 13% of employees would like to permanently return to the office full-time.
42% would prefer a hybrid model.
44% consider themselves digital nomads.

Quick math: That means 87% of respondents are saying no to full-time office work. That’s a massive shift from pre-pandemic levels, when a mere 5% of workers were remote.

There’s reason to be optimistic about this remote/hybrid future. In the Ivanti Everywhere Workplace Survey, 58% of respondents said that remote work has impacted their morale positively – and that’s a big deal given that this survey necessitated reflection on a very uncertain time in our global experience.

The top benefits of remote work were:

Time savings due to less commuting (48%)
Better work/life balance (43%)
Flexible work schedule (43%)
Saving money (40%)

That’s not to say that remote work is all sunshine. Top concerns about remote work were:

Lack of interaction with colleagues (51%)
Not being able to collaborate or communicate effectively (28%)
Noise/distractions (27%)
Screen fatigue (24%)

What does this mean? In short, to attract and retain top talent, employers have to accommodate flexible working models.

That’s where we come in. We’re here to support these employers – and employees – as they navigate this monumental change in the business landscape. The piecemeal, stopgap solutions that more or less held things together during the pandemic aren’t going to cut it anymore. We need to be vocal leaders in advocating for and supporting a comprehensive overhaul that considers issues of operations, access and security. Innovative tech solutions like ours are at the heart of making this work. Our platform enables maximum employee productivity, allows employees to interact and collaborate from wherever they are, and enhances security posture and IT efficiency. It has never been more important than it is now.

First, businesses need to make “Employee Experience” a top priority and focus on technologies that improve and secure employee experiences because it is critical for “future of work” success and retaining top talent. We are seeing a need for wider adoption and integration of employee-facing resources (cloud-based apps, self-service resources) that work for a remote environment in the channel of choice for the employee. This has challenged many organizations that don’t have streamlined request/fulfillment processes and wide access to knowledge and other resources on a self-service basis. Service catalogs, knowledge bases and other self-service tools – especially those which can be easily accessed without burdensome access processes (e.g. Zero Trust) - are gaining greater attention now that the issues have proliferated because these technologies improve employee satisfaction.

Also, in the Everywhere Workplace, hardware, software and cloud assets are no longer just confined to access from an organization’s network alone. Software and cloud assets can easily be accessed through web browsers on personal devices (that can be shared within families), integrate via marketplaces and interact with Internet of Things (IoT) devices and bots. To complicate matters, the infrastructure that supports software has evolved to meet these demands. Organizations are increasingly adopting and relying on new hybrid infrastructure to develop and deliver applications. Organizations must gain better control of IT investments and Ivanti provides the tools that enable them to do just that.

Lastly, employees need to feel safe when working. While employees didn’t cite security as a top concern, it’s certainly top of mind for IT and security professionals. The pandemic has catalyzed an alarming rise in both the frequency and sophistication of cyber threats. Remote work complicates matters as businesses try to balance facilitating access and productivity for employees while trying to keep bad actors out of a newly perimeterless workspace. Cybersecurity threats are reaching catastrophic new heights with a 30,000% increase in COVID-19 themed attacks, such as phishing, malicious websites and malware targeted at remote workers since January 2020. For growing businesses and organizations facing the overhead and uncertainty of managing their cybersecurity, Ivanti offers solutions that help organizations improve their security posture with management, automation and prioritization of their cybersecurity journey spanning across users, devices, access and applications.

Creating an Everywhere Workplace where employees can thrive is one of the biggest challenges business leaders and IT teams face today. As much of the world scrambles for top talent, it is becoming increasingly clear that the Everywhere Workplace will continue to evolve to meet the technological expectations to retain top employees. Creating a great place to work isn’t about a ping pong table, or fully stocked breakroom anymore, employees need the right tools to be their most productive and secure no matter how or where they work.

Onward and Upward: Celebrating Several Promotions and an Organizational Alignment for the Next Chapter of Ivanti

Wed, 22 Dec 2021 13:00:00 Z

Big things are happening! Ivanti recently announced several exciting changes to our organizational structure, go-to-market model and solution vision. These aren’t simply changes on paper; they’re going to be seen and felt throughout our entire community, from team members to partners to customers.

We’ve already claimed our well-earned place at the leading edge of enabling and securing the Everywhere Workplace, and these shifts tee us up for a new chapter where we align even more closely together and push that edge forward, creating One Ivanti and zeroing in on the customer experience.

People are key to making this happen, and that’s why I’m thrilled to announce several new promotions that align with the vision and goals of this new chapter:

Cyrus Hatfield, EVP and GM – Americas Sales
Helen Masters, EVP and GM – International Sales
Al Arun, Chief Customer Officer
Mike Mills, Chief Experience Officer
Andy Byrne, SVP Americas Security/UEM, EXM Solution Sales, Goldmine and LMO
Mark Stevens, SVP Strategic Alliances & OEM
Hamid Ashouri, VP International Security/UEM Solution Sales
Andrew Brickell, VP International EXM Solutions Sales

Please join me in congratulating these individuals on their new roles. I couldn’t be more excited about what the future holds for all of us here at Ivanti at this vital moment.

Wishing all of you a safe and joyful holiday season and a happy, healthy 2022!

Stop the Chase: How Ivanti is Transforming Cybersecurity in the Everywhere Workplace

Thu, 14 Oct 2021 17:28:41 Z

Threat actors have been a constant, persistent, and ever-evolving part of doing business in a digital world. For the entire history of digital business, security teams have been trying to keep pace with the threats. On a good day, they might be able to get a few steps ahead. But it’s always a chase. And it only takes falling behind one time to lose big.

This has never been more clear than it is today. The pandemic catalyzed an abrupt shift to remote work, and teams scrambled to get everyone securely connected and supported. Threat actors seized on an unprecedented opportunity. Attackers have increasingly waged phishing attacks at mobile devices, which remote workers are using more than ever before. Where corporate email used to be a key security gap, now it’s email plus via text and SMS messages, instant messages, social media, and other modes of communication.

According to a recent survey by Ivanti, nearly three-quarters (74%) of respondents said their organizations have fallen victim to a phishing attack in the last year, with 40% confirming they have experienced one in the last month. A whopping 58% of those surveyed also said their organizations have suffered a ransomware attack in the past year. Of those organizations that suffered a ransomware attack, the majority (53%) said it took between one to four weeks to recover.

Unfortunately, as threat actors continue to get more sophisticated, many organizations still struggle with prioritizing the patch management process and remediating critical vulnerabilities, such as those tied to ransomware. High-profile zero days are being used by threat actors within hours of release, and security teams can’t respond fast enough. In some cases, IT systems are difficult to patch because they cause outages. It’s the perfect storm of poor visibility due to the recently decentralized workforce and the growth of sophisticated threat actors targeting critical vulnerabilities.  

Security teams are tired. Employees are concerned about maintaining productivity – and about inadvertent exposures. They’ve all been in a nonstop race against threats, with no clear finish line.

Everywhere security for the Everywhere Workplace

Ivanti is calling off the race. Not because we’re giving up. Quite the opposite, in fact. We’re changing the rules forever, so security teams can stop chasing and start moving forward on a new path – one marked by hyperautomation and innovation, where threat actors don’t even get to toe the start line. We call it “fighting the good fight.”

Ivanti has doubled down on its mission to secure the Everywhere Workplace, declaring a commitment to protecting our customers and mitigating threats as quickly as possible. We’re relentlessly focused on outcomes, because it’s not enough to develop excellent products. We need them to work. (And they do.)

Hands off

Our hyperautonomous platform makes it possible to discover, manage, secure and service every asset, everywhere. That means automatically securing the brand, people and data that a business needs to thrive in – not just survive – the Everywhere Workplace.

Hyperautomation is a critical component of this platform, because it means Ivanti can find, heal, and protect devices without manual intervention or excess downtime. A security team doesn’t need to chase every threat, because the platform assumes that bad actors are always on the network and responds accordingly. Whether your team is down the hall or around the globe, they’re covered – even when an asset is offline.

Zero trust, 100% visibility

That leads to another key element of how we’re fighting the good fight: zero trust. Zero Trust security enables organizations to achieve a stronger and more impenetrable network by continually verifying each asset and transaction before permitting any access. President Biden recently signed an Executive Order requiring federal agencies to quickly develop plans to implement Zero Trust Architectures. Yet all organizations – not just federal agencies – should implement a Zero Trust strategy to achieve comprehensive visibility across users, devices, apps, and networks, and combat growing cyberthreats.

To help all organizations modernize their cybersecurity approaches and comply with President Biden’s Executive Order, Ivanti recently announced that it is collaborating with NIST’s National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (NCCoE) in the Implementing a Zero Trust Architecture project. As a collaborator, Ivanti is helping to develop practical, interoperable approaches to designing and building Zero Trust architectures.

Risk-based intelligence

Fighting the good fight means being prepared and proactive. That’s why Ivanti recently acquired RiskSense, a pioneer in risk-based vulnerability management and prioritization, to revolutionize patch management. By leveraging risk-based intelligence for patching, teams can shrink their attack surface and help ensure that the highest-priority risks are being addressed at the right time. That means less wasted time and fewer gaps.

Not chasing doesn’t mean we’re ready to sit down and rest. Part of our commitment to revolutionizing cybersecurity means constant innovation. We’re continuing to educate and spread the word while serving as a champion for our customers. Because at the end of the day, that’s who we’re doing this for. We want them to stop having to chase too. When you stop chasing, you can start putting your energy toward carving out the path forward.

Ivanti Acquisition of RiskSense Provides Greater Protection for the Everywhere Workplace

Mon, 02 Aug 2021 12:30:14 Z

Delivering on our Strategy

If you have been watching Ivanti this year, you have seen that we are delivering on our commitment to make the Everywhere Workplaces possible by providing our customers more robust solutions to discover, manage, secure and service their IT assets. We have been doing this organically, we rolled out our Ivanti Neurons hyper-automated platform last July, and we have also added to the platform’s capabilities and value with acquisitions. Our latest acquisition, RiskSense is a pioneer in risk-based vulnerability management and prioritization and is bolstering one of our three pillars – Security.

As the global workforce has become more dispersed in the last year, there has also been an increase in cyber attacks and ransomware, placing an ever-increasing importance on security. Business and government leaders are struggling to stay ahead of these attacks costing valuable time and resources not to mention stress and sleepless nights.

By acquiring RiskSense, Ivanti is adding a more sophisticated approach to our already proven process. We know unpatched vulnerabilities remain one of the common points of entry for cyberattacks. With the RiskSense addition, our customers will be able to take a more proactive, risk-based approach to patch management and reduce their exposure to cyber threats while also decreasing the time it takes to take action. And, we can all recognize how critical time can be in a ransom or cyber scenario.

Srinivas Mukkamala, who is joining our Ivanti team, was the RiskSense CEO and has a passion for fighting these cyber bullies and a vision for what was possible for decreasing the exposure for organizations. Together, RiskSense and Ivanti will help customers raise the bar to defend against these increasing threats. Ivanti has already integrated the RiskSense Vulnerability Intelligence and Vulnerability Risk Rating into Ivanti Neurons for Patch Intelligence, which prioritizes and quantifies adversarial risk based on factors such as threat intelligence, in-the-wild exploit trends, and security analyst validation. This feature is currently available to Ivanti Neurons for Patch Intelligence customers who also have RiskSense licenses. 

Summer of Security

The RiskSense acquisition is another proof point in Ivanti’s Summer of Security and our renewed commitment to protecting our customers from these increased and more sophisticated cyber threats. We believe in the Everywhere Workplace and that by working together we can keep every business protected.

Learn more about the RiskSense acquisition and Ivanti’s commitment to keep your organization protected through the Summer of Security.