Our CSO introduces himself!
My name is Patrick Hertig. I am the Chief Security Officer (CSO) and head of the Applications & Microsoft team at ITpoint. In the context of my new role as CSO, I successfully completed my studies (CAS IT Security Management) at the University of Applied Sciences in Bern last year. In addition to information security, my areas of expertise include matters related to IT infrastructure such as VMware, Microsoft Windows, and server and storage systems. This expertise comes from several years’ experience as a systems engineer, after which I took on a leadership role as head of the Berner Engineering Crew.
As CSO at ITpoint, I am particularly focused on organizational security requirements. My primary goal is to protect our customers from security threats and to proactively defend them against any possible dangers. In doing so, I am able to contribute to the safety of our constantly expanding services.
For example, a few months ago, we launched DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) protection for all our cloud customers. Part of my job is to closely monitor the release management of the cloud components used by our customers. One of my tasks is to make sure that the latest security updates are installed on each and every Windows server. This helps to ensure that security threats, such as last year’s «WannaCry» virus, can’t touch the Windows systems in our cloud.
Towards the end of 2017, I supported the redevelopment of our business continuity management (BCM). This resulted in a number of tests, the outcomes of which were provided to our clients in a report. We consider it of the utmost importance that — even after a disaster — we are able quickly put the business services of our customers back into operation with our BCM.
Unfortunately, my role is also somewhat reactive in nature. This was evident in the impressive «Meltdown» and «Spectre» attacks, which were further exacerbated by weaknesses in processor hardware architecture. As a countermeasure, we had to figure out not only how to patch any gaps in security, but also how the patches would impact the performance and stability of the overall system.
It’s safe to say as CSO, there is never a dull moment. The world is becoming increasingly digital, and digital information is becoming more and more valuable. Scams are on the rise, which means that we, in turn, need to generate new privacy regulations and protections against them. For this reason, information security has become a key issue in the IT world, one that requires appropriate attention and action. It is now more important than ever to have someone dedicated to security matters who is constantly working behind the scenes to keep the company safe.
Meet our team
