Hi, I am Roman Vasilenko, an Engineering Manager with Lastline’s Anti-Malware Group and an inventor who holds multiple patents, including two US patents for malware detection systems. I have been with the company for seven years, first working at the company’s main R&D office in Santa Barbara and then moving to Boston to open a new R&D office on the East Coast. I lead an international team of developers and security researchers who are responsible for the development of Lastline’s cutting edge network detection and response (NDR) platform, including the design and development of its next-generation automated malware analysis, AI-based threat detection and phishing detection.
Even as Lastline has grown from 10 employees when I joined to somewhere around 160 today, the cultural traits that set us apart from the beginning, haven’t changed. Most importantly, it hasn’t lost sight of the goal of building the best technology for its customers. Unlike a lot of other companies in the security space, Lastline has never been satisfied with developing just an average solution and then shifting its focus to marketing and sales only. We strive to be the best, and we don’t settle for mediocrity.
In particular, NDR requires Lastline to build very sophisticated solutions to keep its customers’ networks safe. Its automated malware analysis is unique in the industry since it incorporates the advantages of both a full system emulator and a hypervisor. This type of innovation is what makes my job so exciting. Since Lastline is constantly trying to build better solutions, there are always improvements and updates that need to be made. We’re putting ourselves not only against our competitors but also the notion of perfection. We know we can’t make a perfect solution, but we’re still trying to get as close as possible to doing so.
In addition to Lastline’s passion for being the very best, I enjoy working at the company because I am surrounded by strong industry personnel for whom I have a great deal of respect and admiration. I have learned a lot from the Lastline team.
Tackling the biggest security issue facing organizations in 2020
One of the biggest problems in security is the sheer number of attacks facing organizations these days. Yes, you have more complex attacks, but there were complex attacks years ago, too. Nowadays, there are just so many different actors and attacks that it’s easy to fall victim to one.
This begs the question: how do you build a structure into your organization that protects the company and its important assets/data?
Previously, you were mostly good if you just installed AV. But now the probability that you’ll suffer a security incident is just too high. Today, it’s a matter of when, not if, you’ll suffer a breach. So, you need to be ready for this and prepare accordingly.
I believe that Lastline has largely accounted for this inevitability by incorporating diversity into its solutions. It doesn’t just do file analysis, for example. Its solution also uses dynamic analysis, static analysis, network traffic analysis and AI, among others, so that the technologies work together to improve the solutions’ overall network monitoring capabilities. These features, in turn, grant better visibility over the network, something which organizations can use to learn of a security incident as soon as possible. It’s these types of solutions that give customers the best shot to address a security issue before it evolves into a breach.
I like the challenge of building the best anti-malware solution. Sometimes, the job is enjoyable. Other times, it’s tiring. But I have never come to the office without a challenge to solve. As long as Lastline stays focused on its task of delivering the best possible protection for customers, I think I will continue to enjoy working at Lastline well into the future.
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Article Link: https://www.lastline.com/blog/meet-lastlines-anti-malware-expert-roman-vasilenko/