Content

Threat Seeker – Ziv Mador

Category: Threat Seeker

Name: Ziv Mador

Title: Vice President, SpiderLabs Security Research

Company: Trustwave

Why nominated: For his work with the SpiderLabs Security Research team and previously as a member of Microsoft's response team where he helped formalize the incident response program and the malware protection center.

Profile: The fact that cybercriminals do not respect national borders, time zones or corporate reputations is something Ziv Mador realized early on in his career and he has since made certain that his cyberdefense teams similarly disregard these manmade obstacles.

Mador's primary accomplishment in overseeing the 150-person strong SpiderLabs security research team at Trustwave has been to unify this force that is scattered around the globe into an organization that can not only quickly respond to a cyberattack, but also spend time investigating a wide range of on-going threats and problems.

Each year Mador's team handles about 9 million web application attacks and conducts about 2,500 penetration tests. This has led to the disclosure of numerous vulnerabilities, including a zero-days being sold on the Dark Web to finding a critical security hole in a large number of Netgear routers that if exploited would allow a malicious actor to take over a home or business network.

Mador came to Trustwave in 2012 after it acquired M86 Security, where he was director of the Malware Security Lab. Previously, he had worked for Microsoft for almost 14 years on various security projects.

Mador's tenure in cybersecurity has led him to be a featured speaker at most of the major industry events, such as, RSA and BlackHat. This includes his talk at BlackHat “Cybercriminal Underground: The Bad, The Worse and the Ugly” where he showcased just how cybercrime has turned into a money machine, further detailing how cybercriminals communicate in close, vetted forums and how they advertise their merchandise there.

What colleagues say: “Ziv is one of the brightest and most innovative technologists I have ever had the pleasure to work with. After Ziv joined the Trustwave team, we immediately saw an opportunity to grow Trustwave SpiderLabs Research thanks to his impressive background. Managing a team of highly skilled technical players comes with its own set of challenges - an area that Ziv clearly knows how to navigate. The Trustwave SpiderLabs team benefits every  day from his experiences and leadership skills. In addition, his encouragement and coaching are a huge asset for our team, and I am extremely proud of what we have accomplished during our time together.”

Larry Podmolik, CTO, TrustWave

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