Stelios Valavanis​:A Technovert with Incomparable Leadership

Every leader must have patience, discipline, vision, opportunism, adaptability, calmness under
pressure and steadfastness. Staying the course when the path seems difficult or unknown, but
the willingness to explore and act as a pathfinder for the community. These traits are necessary
for self-improvement but the most difficult job is to induce people to follow and inspire them by
setting good examples. Stelios Valavanis, CEO at onShore Security, is one such proficient who
is bringing changes with his extensive experience ranging from OS and development to network
design.

Below is his story​:

Stelios has always been interested in science and technology. He started learning to program at
the age of 9 years but didn’t recognize his entrepreneurial spirit, even though his parents were
entrepreneurs. In high school, he thought it would be a good idea to start a software company
and identify as a technologist, rather than a businessman. After getting his physics degree, he
again had that same lack of clarity for understanding ambitions towards entrepreneurship. After
that he worked on several entrepreneurial ventures, as much in art and media as tech and IT.
When he founded onShore as a software development company, it took landing a few larger
clients to finally realize what he actually needed to focus on. Since then, he fully embraced the
business world and was able to rebuild onShore as a prominent cybersecurity company.

onShore Security has its own proprietary platform, which allows for a good amount of
customizability. But so much of what a particular client needs has to do with categorizing and
weighing criticality for events and that’s embedded in rule-sets that the company fully manage
and tune on an ongoing basis. In addition to that, there are varying compliance needs, and
onShore Security offers add-ons to satisfy those.

All of the company’s clients share one thing: the desire to do what they do best, in a way that
keeps their business as well as their own clients as safe and secure as possible. Beyond that,
clients are a truly diverse pool of organizations and businesses. The platform was developed, in
house, with this diversity in mind. The platform itself is highly customizable, but the staff must
also be prepared to serve every kind of customer. In the company, the team manages and tune
rule sets that are as unique as clients, as well as compliance requirements and additional
services and equipment.

Cybersecurity​, in the tech industry, developing good talent is a huge challenge, especially in
cybersecurity. There is a large need for talent and there are many opportunities for skilled
experts. Employee retention is directly tied to building culture, which can be challenging to do
from the top. As a CEO, it can be a challenge to find the right balance between process and
flexibility. Having a well-designed process will make it easier when flexibility is necessary, and to
adapt the process to meet changing obstacles. Stelios advises emerging leaders, “not to do it
unless you’re willing to make a very big commitment.” Being the CEO of a company can put
undue stress on a CEO’s family. As a CEO, there is a feeling that there is always more that can
be done, and doing anything not related to the company is at its expense.

Staying informed is crucial. Stelios makes sure to stay invested in education and broadening his
knowledge and expertise. He still attends events such as classes, workshops, and seminars, as
well as regularly reading news and developing theoretical material. He constantly stays
up-to-date on fast moving topics, such as new regulations or ongoing issues in the space and
also learns a great deal from his own staff and their experience. Communicating with peers and
experts in other parts of the same field is also a good way to learn. According to Stelios “I’m
always willing to experiment to further my own understanding of cybersecurity and we test out a
lot of ideas and hypothetical solutions in-house. Many of our passion projects have informed us
and become onShore Security products.”

For budding entrepreneurs Stelios advises “Before you do anything, you should know why
you’re doing it. If you’re goal is to make money, stop right there. Climb the corporate ladder
instead. It’s safer and easier. If you want to do something amazing, don’t think small and safe.
Do something big, bold and if it fails, fail fast, learn the lessons, and move on.” Build a
leadership team around by choosing carefully additional effective leaders or by finding people
that can be groomed and trained for leadership roles. Most importantly, listen to everyone, but
use that information to chart own course. Don’t be afraid to dilute equity if investors brings
additional leadership to the table. One has to be prepared to take the good with the bad and see
it all as part of a rocky, but rewarding adventure.

Stelios believes cybersecurity CEOs must absolutely have a high degree of expertise in
cybersecurity and IT in general. They have to have expertise in things like risk management,
and legal matters. They have to guide their organization and their clients through complex
problems with many potential solutions, and make the best choices for all parties. Sometimes, it
isn’t immediately clear what the best solution may be, and CEOs will need to draw on both past
experience and new ideas. In many other kinds of companies, CEOs don’t have to be as much
of an expert in their company’s offerings. In cybersecurity, a CEO should be well-versed in
history, best practices, and tested methods, but also able and willing to explore and try new
things. The problem that cybersecurity solves grows more complex every day, and it is the job of
the cybersecurity CEO to simplify and solve that problem.

onShore Security leads by example. It believes that analysis and detection are the most
important tools in the box, and the company has developed the capabilities in these areas to put
it at the very top of the security maturity stack. To get best results, it pushes peers and
competitors both so they develop their own technology, as well as their people. The company
values its analysts and considers that technological development is all ultimately to serve
experts and solving evolving obstacles in cybersecurity by applying experience and adapting the
company’s hardware, software, and process.

onShore Security wants to continue to be part of the national cybersecurity community in a

meaningful way and increase its outreach. It believes that members of a community care for
each other and care for the community as a whole, and that this is a uniquely dangerous time
for the community. Stelios asserts, “we, as a country, are at tremendous risk. I feel both a
personal responsibility as well as a financial responsibility to my company to elevate the security
posture of every single company that we can.”

Case Studies​ :
onShore has worked with one Midwestern bank for the past three years. Since then, no network
breaches were witnessed and the bank now completely relies on one managed security
services provider. The bank also states that banking regulators, the C-suite and board are
happy and onShore has brought “calmness to a turbulent environment.”

“It’s nice to have someone overlooking everything. We didn’t have visibility over our entire
network before onShore. We have a lot more peace of mind and can sleep better at night with
onShore,” says the bank.

Prior to working with onShore to handle all of their network security, the bank used numerous
outside RMS to provide cybersecurity, which did not work well. Having worked with onShore
previously at another Midwestern bank with over $3 billion in assets, the bank’s CFO brought
onShore in to provide Cybersecurity Leadership consulting, focused on addressing major
upgrades and network changes.

Below are some of the services provided by onShore as part of the consultation:

❏ Develop a scheduled monthly meeting

 ❏ Establish a preferred communications dynamic
❏ Participation in the bank’s IT steering committee
❏ Review and discussion of security related projects
❏ Ongoing discussion and recommendations for security and architecture.
❏ Start discussion for development of risk management practices and security policies.
❏ onShore was selected so that cybersecurity could be incorporated into bank planning
and was then selected to provide security orchestration – i.e. onShore’s
“SOC-as-a-Service.”

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