Cincinnati in the Forefront of Cybersecurity

Competing with Silicon Valley for talent and resources, Greater Cincinnati can now boast of being home to one of the world’s top leaders in cybersecurity. Morphick, one of only 13 companies certified by the National Security Agency (NSA) to respond to cyber incidents, is fighting online threats on a global scale and has continued to triple in size year over year during its existence. CEO Brian Minick talks about the company’s success in a growing industry, and why their work is increasingly important.

LEAD: Why is cybersecurity so crucial for private businesses and organizations today?

Brian Minick: Risk differs depending on the business. Everyone can be targeted with ransomware and be extorted, but the other big risk is actually losing intellectual property. Research and development is key to a business’s future. If someone can steal that research for the price of a couple hackers and then undercut you in the market, your enterprise could be finished. Intellectual property and customer data are definitely the top targets, and customer data refers to far more than just credit cards now. Hackers go after people’s addresses or family information for the purpose of extortion or blackmail.

LEAD: Can you explain how compliance with safety standards differs from security?

Brian Minick: Compliance is like making sure you have locks on your doors. Security, as Morphick

implements it, is like having security

cameras around the building and guards patrolling the property. Cybersecurity requires an extremely elevated skill set in order to critically analyze what’s happening on a network. That means looking at an enormous amount of data and trying to figure out the rest of the story behind it. Most people and businesses don’t even have the digital equivalent of a security camera, while we have 24/7 monitoring.

LEAD: How has Morphick grown?

Brian Minick: Tremendously. We’re just over two years old, and we’ve tripled in size every year. We have global deployment, working with numerous Fortune 500 companies. Gartner (one of the world’s most successful IT research and advisory companies) highlighted Morphick in a report on "Managed Detection and Response Services," a field in which Morphick excels above most security companies.

LEAD: Why do you think Morphick has been so successful?

Brian Minick: Talent. We are practitioners. All of us have defended global enterprises against attacks, and we have some of the best people from the defense sector and intelligence communities as well. Not long ago, we helped a manufacturer in Texas after ransomware shut down every computer they had. We had someone out there within a few hours, and the client’s computers were back up and running in eight hours, so the manufacturing company only lost one full shift of work. Our goal is to truly change the security industry. As we focus on that mission, we are attracting the top talent and making a real difference. 

Morphick is located at 4555 Lake Forest, Suite 200, Cincinnati, OH 45242. For more information, call 513.562.5924 or visit Morphick.com.