Internet Security Crime Stopper
Written by Mary Welch Sunday, May 30 2010
Snapshot: Val Rahmani
Val Rahmani brings more than 25 years of leadership to her position as CEO of Atlanta-based Damballa Inc., an internet security company.
Prior to Damballa, Rahmani served as general manager of IBM's Internet Security Systems (ISS) division after IBM's $1.3 billion acquisition of ISS. Prior to ISS, Rahmani held several general management roles within IBM.
Rahmani was born in the United Kingdom and first came to the United States as executive assistant to the chairman and CEO of IBM. She holds a master’s and a Ph.D. from Oxford University in England.
Womenetics: Of what security threats should businesses be aware?
Val Rahmani: Businesses should be very concerned about the types of attacks that allow a criminal organization to take remote control of their IT assets. Criminals are getting more focused and smarter about downloading malware onto a victim’s PC. It cannot be detected by most security systems, and it sets up a two-way command-and-control capability for the criminal. (Malware, short for malicious software, is software designed to infiltrate a computer system without the owner's consent.) He uses this to steal intellectual property and financial data, but also as a tool to perpetrate crimes anonymously, using the victims’ IT systems.
Womenetics: What is it that your company does?
Rahmani: We take a completely different approach from other security solutions. They try to stop infections getting into a system. We agree that every company should do that, but we know that the bad guys will find a way to get it, regardless of the efforts taken to prevent it.
We focus instead on stopping the infection from causing any harm. We use unique, patent-pending technology to detect the command-and-control attempt, which has evaded other security solutions, and we stop the communication from being established. By doing so, we can stop data from being stolen. Or, we can stop other damage.
Womenetics: What were some of the highlights of your career?
Rahmani: There have been many great times. I was around at the start of the UNIX Open Source movement, where we started creating computing that everyone could afford. I was in Europe when wireless was becoming important, and I was fortunate to be able to launch and run a team that eventually created and sold wireless solutions across the world.
I was very excited to take the helm at IBM ISS and to work with a truly great team of people. But my current role stands as the real highlight. What more can you ask for – a problem that every organization needs to solve, a unique solution, a passionate and brilliant team, and all the fun that comes with rapid growth?
Womenetics: What is your next goal?
Rahmani: To win the war against the cybercriminals – to bring the Damballa solution to every organization that needs to protect its data, its reputation, and its people.
Womenetics: Tell us about cyber crimes and remote-controlled attacks.
Rahmani: The whole landscape had changed. It’s now the domain of well-organized criminals, who have clear malicious intent – theft or damage. It’s almost all motivated by money, not as it used to be – by the desire to make a statement. The malware itself is easy to create, using free or almost free kits downloadable from the web. It’s easy to set it up so that it is guaranteed to be undetectable by all the well-known security systems.
And petty criminals are using what they create to infect a lot of machines, quickly. They get paid by the machine or sell whole sets of infected systems, also via the web. The smart people in the chain are the criminal operators who buy these infected systems, then set about using them as they choose – maybe stealing passwords, research data, future business plans, or launching attacks against other organizations. This new breed of malware is so dangerous because it’s stealthy – it sits quietly on the machine, and aims to remain undetected for as long as possible, so that it can get the most value.
Womenetics: You were the executive assistant to the chairman of IBM. What lessons did you learn from him?
Rahmani:
- Always focus on what a business really needs – listen to a customer without thinking you know the answer.
- Prioritize – based on solid analysis and facts.
- Elephants can dance, as he wrote in his book. A large company like IBM can and must be responsive to its customers and to the shifts in the market.
Mary Welch is a freelance writer for the Atlanta Journal Constitution, Dawson Times, Plan Your Meeting magazine, and Atlanta Business magazine. Previously, she held many positions with Leader Publishing, including editor-in-chief of Atlanta Woman, editor of Business to Business magazine, and editor of Catalyst magazine. As editor of Business to Business, she assigned, edited, and conceptualized a series that was awarded Silver in the 2005 GAMMA Awards for Best Series. Welch was a reporter for the Atlanta Business Chronicle for eight years and freelanced for publications including Glamour, Advertising Age, South, Georgia Trend, and Oz. From 2000 to 2003, she served as vice president of media relations for Bank of America, during which time she authored Forever Green: A History and Hope of the American Forest with Rolling Stones keyboardist Chuck Leavell.
