The Superheroes of Security and Compliance
Meet the Mitratech security team – Marc, Dakota and Logan. These good-looking gentlemen work tirelessly behind the scenes to keep our clients, our company, and even people who aren’t even our clients yet, safe and secure. In other words, they’re the reason we can all sleep at night and the people to thank for our top-of-the-line security and compliance.
And – like most of the IT and security folks in offices around the world – they’re taken way too for granted. Because we know we can depend on them, we far too often don’t recognize and applaud their efforts.
That’s the true nature of being a superhero I suppose – keeping others safe and putting their needs first. Like Batman, this team works mostly in the shadows, never really taking credit for all their hard work.
We wanted to change this.
We wanted to sit down with our security team and get to know them as the people – and the business leaders – they are. We wanted to unveil these men of mystery, discuss their role at Mitratech, what they love most about their jobs and what it takes to be successful at security and compliance.
And while, no, we won’t actually give away any of our security secrets that could destroy the hard work they do on a regular basis, we did want to shine the spotlight on them, especially in the wake of their GDPR efforts.
Meet the Team
Marc Kajiwara
Director of Security and Compliance
Fun Fact: Marc just got a new puppy. He’s a rare french breed called a Coton.
And seriously – look how cute this little guy is…
Dakota Wright
Security Analyst II
Fun Fact: In college, Dakota played trumpet in the oldest and longest Fourth of July parade in the US, which took place in Bristol, Rhode Island. We’re so glad he plays for us, now!
Logan Carver
Security Analyst
Fun Fact: Logan is a rock-climbing and photography enthusiast. This summer, he plans to tackle a 450 foot climb at Smith Rock in Oregon. Sending you best wishes (and rock chalk?!) for your adventure, friend!
And let’s not forget Kristoph Gustovich, the VP of Hosting and Security, who’s SO busy making sure we are fully GDPR compliant that we’ll wait to catch up with him another time!
Now Let’s Dig a Little Deeper…
Q: Could you tell me a little about what your role is at Mitratech?
Marc: We run technology security over both hosting and the entire organization. Basically, we keep our company – and our clients – out of trouble.
We understand and answer security and compliance concerns to the best of our ability, handle all compliance requirements, technical security audits, and work with product management and engineering to develop secure products, which includes testing and validation. We also handle security incidents. If any hack or breach occurs, we handle the whole thing from end-to-end.
Q: What do you love most about your job?
Dakota: The leading aspect is that we get to learn all the time. I really feel like part of a team, and that I can have a positive impact on the organization. I think that’s really cool. It’s tough to even compare it to other jobs, where you can feel like a cog in the machine that doesn’t really matter, where you just paint by the numbers. Being able to actually make a change, follow my passion – that’s a good thing.
Marc: I love the responsibility our team holds for the entire organization. Other groups are not any less important of course, but we have a responsibility to secure everything for our clients. We have a responsibility to secure our infrastructure, our people, even our physical building. I’m not sure there’s any other group that touches each of those pieces in the same manner. Having that responsibility is pretty cool.
Q: What does it take to be good at security?
Marc: Anyone on our team should have a passion for security and compliance. You need passion because this space changes by the second. There are new laws, new threats and new technology all the time. If you don’t want to learn and constantly keep up with it, then you’re in the wrong space. You can’t just sell something and go home. You have to always read and understand how it works.
Right now it’s GDPR, and there are only more regulations coming down the pipeline. So unless you really want to do this, and do it full-time, you shouldn’t be in the field. You have to like what you do.
Security is complex, but it’s fun.
We’re glad you love security and compliance guys, because it sure saves the rest of us a lot of headaches!
