The Gately Report: TD Synnex CISO on Protecting the World's Largest Distributor

TD Synnex CISO Dan Lasher knows what it’s like to go from leading cybersecurity for a $35 billion company to doing so for a $60 billion company overnight.

Lasher was Tech Data’s corporate vice president of enterprise architecture, governance and cybersecurity until its $7.2 billion merger with Synnex to become TD Synnex. He then became TD Synnex’s CISO.

“I’ve been with the company for 33 years, and it hasn’t been security the whole time,” he said. “But I’ve been in various innovation roles, architecture roles, and then my career journey led me down the path of becoming the leader of security. My role didn’t change other than size.”

Responsibilities as TD Synnex CISO

As TD Synnex CISO, Lasher said he’s focused on helping the organization innovate and grow, and at the same time keeping it safe.

TD Synnex’s Dan Lasher

“I have a team of 95 individuals that comprise our cyber defense center, so all the prevention, detection and response because of our vast amount of innovation,” he said. “I’ve got a team that focuses on securing our software development life cycle. I’ve got a team that focuses on risk management, which also includes vetting third parties. I have a red team that is constantly pressure-testing all of our processes and assessing any vulnerabilities that we need to be ahead of. I’ve got a security awareness team. And then I’ve got a team focused on information protection. We’re a hands-on group protecting a $60 billion business, and that of our supply chain customers and vendors.”

A big message at last week’s TD Synnex Beyond Security was providing resellers what they need to help SMBs shore up their cyber defenses.

“There are a number of opportunities for our SMB market to bring to those organizations similar disciplines that we do in the enterprise space,” Lasher said. “Everybody has issues around the threats of ransomware or social engineering attacks. And TD Synnex has invested a lot of money and resources to protect ourselves. But not every SMB customer has made that same level of investment. And for our resellers, that’s a huge opportunity for them to help those organizations get ahead of that train. They have an opportunity to focus on growing their profitability and their revenue base by seizing those opportunities. Not every SMB customer is doing phishing simulations. Not every SMB customer has robust policies. Not everybody is doing penetration testing. And these are all things our resellers can step up and do.”

Scroll through our slideshow above for more from Lasher and more cybersecurity news.