In this week’s episode of The FreightCaviar Podcast, we sat down with Aleksander Frelas, Founding Member of Velite.io, a cybersecurity services company. He discusses what initially sparked his passion for the industry, shares tips on preventing corporate hacks, and offers his insights into AI and its role in the industry.
Early Interest in Hacking
Like many teenagers after school, Aleksander spent the majority of his time playing video games. But not many were also hacking and breaking them at the age of 12. This sparked an interest that led him to later pursue a degree in Science, Computer, and Information Technology from Purdue University.
Professional Journey in Cybersecurity
After finishing school, he worked as an IT security engineer at Crowe, a cyber defense consultant at KPMG US, and a penetration tester at renowned companies such as IBM and GAP Inc.
“I started by hacking the games, and eventually the passion took me towards the corporate side where I wanted to help businesses become more secure. Initially, it was just breaking and reporting the issues, and then once I got into the industry, breaking and writing up the very intricate details on how to fix it.”
Founding Velite.io
All this prepared Aleksander to be the founding member of Velite.io in January 2024, a cybersecurity services company specializing in penetration testing, red teaming, and vulnerability management.
“We provide proactive cybersecurity services, making sure that you are in a good state of cybersecurity before you potentially get hacked. We focus on testing and making sure that if there is anything weak it gets identified and fixed so that you’re in tip-top shape.”
The Growing Threat of Cyber Attacks
According to Aleksander, there’s a lot more danger out there than there was three years ago, with phishing attacks increasing somewhere between 75-100 % year after year. People from all parts of the world are now able to send emails in perfect English thanks to Chat GPT and use them to hack into your accounts.
To keep your data safe, there is one thing every company should implement to prevent data breaches: SOC 2 tests.
“It allows companies to trust you because you’ve gone through the checks that show that you handle sensitive data well. If you own a TMS, you’re showing that the data you manage, that is sensitive, is not going to be leaked.”
No One is Safe From Cyber Attacks
But what makes a company susceptible to hacks? Aleksander says it’s not a matter of someone targeting you specifically. The size of the company makes no difference either.
“That’s not how the hackers are looking. You’re a victim of coincidence because you don’t have some update that’s in place. They’re automatically scanning the internet for what they could break. They don’t care who you are.”
Let’s say you do get hacked. Is it possible to identify who did it?
“It’s difficult to find the individuals, but you can find what kind of hacking group did it because you can attribute certain things, like the way that they did the hacking, and the behavior that you can analyze. Other times they even put their name there, like graffiti. They want to flaunt a little bit.”
The Role of AI in Cybersecurity
Aleksander also shared his thoughts on AI and how it can be leveraged to complement jobs in the industry rather than make them obsolete.
“If I’m a CEO, I have to think about building a strategy to future-proof my business. There’s got to be a way to work with AI, so to have the people we’ve got on our teams somehow embrace that and not become obsolete, but instead become the overseers of that AI. I think there’s still going to be a human element just in a lesser amount.”
Aleksander is living proof that if you follow your passion in life you won’t work a day in your life. Thanks to Velite.io companies across the logistics space are finally able to prevent future bankruptcies and save their business.
Listen to the entire interview on Apple Podcasts, or Spotify, or watch it on our YouTube Channel.
Fuente: https://www.freightcaviar.com/cybersecurity-for-freight-brokers-how-to-prevent-costly-hacks/
