IAM1433 – Founder Provides Cybersecurity Defense System to Organisations

Tom Kirkham, founder and CEO of IronTech Security provides cybersecurity defense systems and focuses on educating and encouraging organizations to establish a security-first environment with cybersecurity training programs for all workers to prevent successful attacks. Kirkham brings more than three decades of software design, network administration, computer security, and cybersecurity knowledge to organizations around the country.

• CEO Story: In 2015, Tom was on the ISIS kill list because of his hack that changed his life dramatically. He was about 20 years old at that time, and it increased his passion for cybersecurity.
• Business Service: Managed security services provider. Providing enterprise-grade cybersecurity defenses to organizations of all sizes.
• Secret Sauce: Servant leadership. Assess your vulnerability and weaknesses, acknowledge them, and address them.
• CEO Hack: Mention: HBR.org Harvard Business Review. Business leaders, leadership, and management topics.
• CEO Nugget: Take cybersecurity professionally. Set aside a budget and invest in it before it attacks your company. Put a security officer in place.
• CEO Defined: Keep all the people who work in the organization happy. Exceeding customer experience.

Website: irontechsecurity.com , tomkirkham.com

Linkedin: IronTech Security

Facebook: irontechsec

Twitter: IronTechSec

Youtube: IronTech Security

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00:26 – Intro

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

00:54 – Gresham Harkless

Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast. I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Tom Kirkham of Irontech Security. Tom, super excited to have you on the show.

01:03 – Tom Kirkham

Oh, it's an honor to be here. Thanks for having me.

01:06 – Gresham Harkless

Yes, excited to have you on and talk about all the awesome things that you're doing. And before we do that, I want to read a little bit more about Tom so you can hear about some of those awesome things. Tom is the founder and CEO of Iron Tech Security. He provides cyber tech security defense systems and focuses on educating and encouraging organizations to establish a security-first environment with cybersecurity training programs for all workers to prevent successful attacks. Tom brings more than three decades of software design, network administration, computer security, and cybersecurity knowledge to organizations around the country. Tom, excited to have you on the show again, my friend. Are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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01:43 – Tom Kirkham

Hit me with it.

01:44- Gresham Harkless

All right, let's make it happen then. So I promise not to hit you too hard, but to kick everything off, I wanted to rewind the clock and hear a little bit more about how you got started, what I call your CEO story.

01:54 – Tom Kirkham

Oh, well, we're about 20 years old. A few years ago, one of the things that's not in my bio is I was put on an ISIS kill list in 2015 and all of a sudden, it was because of a hack that I was on this kill list. And all of a sudden things changed dramatically. It definitely increased my passion for cybersecurity and it allowed me to reflect upon my life a lot more and things like that. And so I've begun to take more of a philosophical approach to strategy, management, leadership, hr, vendor relationships, and all of that.

02:37 – Gresham Harkless

Oh, wow. So I usually always say that it's of course important to know what people do, but it's probably even more important to know why they do it. And I think that would definitely top one of the most maybe jarring things that people have experienced and lead them to actually decide to do what they do.

02:52 – Tom Kirkham

Yeah, well, I've never met someone else on the ISIS kill list, so I will, I will one day, but I haven't actually met anyone.

02:59 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. So I love that you've been able to share that and obviously, use that experience, you know, for good. So I guess could you take us through a little bit more on like what you're doing, how you're providing your services, and supporting the clients you work with?

03:12 – Tom Kirkham

Oh, yeah, sure, sure. So we are what's known in the business as a managed security services provider. So we provide enterprise-grade, you know, Fortune 10-level cybersecurity defenses to organizations of all sizes. Not just Fortune 500 companies, but all the way down to a single accountant, a single attorney, law firm. It's really affordable for everyone. Yes, it does cost more than the do-it-yourself days of Norton antivirus and things like that. But the world has changed just in the last, well, since about 2015, maybe 16, 17 might be a little bit more critical.

But, we're in a different game when it comes to protecting our identity, protecting our client data, medical data, and private personally identifiable information, because they're using enterprise-grade offensive cyber warfare tools against us each and every day. I mean, I'm talking NSA-level, Israeli, and Russian industrial strength weapons that are meant to be used in a military environment, whenever they're a complement to the Air Force, Marines, and the Navy cyber. And that's what these, these weapons were designed for. But now, unfortunately, they're being used against each and every one of us all the time.

04:38 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. And I don't know if that was definitely like a precursor to everything that happened with you being on the list and kind of spurring you to start, you know, the knowledge and information and background that you have.

04:49 – Tom Kirkham

Well, in some ways it is, it was a, it was actually a, I was attending a trade show and the company, you may remember, Sun Microsystems. Okay, so this database was breached a long time ago. It was before the dot com bust and you have to sign a waiver to look at this new technology that they had. And so I did all that and they gathered up all of my information. And that was the database that actually got hacked. So it was Sun Microsystems first of all, which shouldn't have happened, but we weren't in that environment back in those days. Now the database wasn't used for what, 15 more years, I guess roughly.

And then they said, this is a kill list. And as opposed to the others, if you remember, in 2015, they were New York City, Met area, Washington D.C. law enforcement's military targets, politicians. But there was one list. It's about 7 or 8,000 people all over the country. And what I've since come to learn is where the data came from and how it was gathered. Well, it makes sense. I'm at a convention at McCormick in Chicago. There are people from all over the country or all over the world actually, at this particular trade show. But it really puts a fine point on what your mission in life is.

Something like that. And I'd had plenty of tragedy just before that. This was kind of the capper event that said, holy cow. You know, I've survived two or three cancers and other bad stuff in a very short period of time, and then two months later, I'm on an ISIS kill list. And I'd always dabbled in philosophy and tried to understand human knowledge. It's not like we have to reinvent everything again. You know, some of the stuff that was thought of thousands of years ago is still true to this day. I think it's the very foundation of human wisdom. And so particularly stoicism and others.

And so I took all of this tragedy and reprocessed it and started figuring out what my role as a CEO really and truly is. And one of the things that I came up with was you've heard this from servant leadership. And that's something that I kind of started doing before I knew there was an official buzzword for it. And, but. But then realizing that this works for everybody in the company. And my number one job there is to make everybody the best they can be, to make them the most successful in their life, if possible.

07:30 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. It sounds like, for lack of a better term, see the forest for the trees and be able to kind of understand each of the aspects even as you just, like, it's not just serving leadership from what you're doing, but it's also like creating that, for lack of a better term, domino effect and reverberation within the organization. Do you think, it could be for yourself or the business, but do you think that's something that you feel sets you apart and makes you unique?

07:52 – Tom Kirkham

Yeah, I think so. I really haven't done a lot of self-reflection on what makes me unique. As I said, it's different for everyone. I think one of them, my secret sauce, one of the things it's composed of is to, is to read biographies of iconic leaders, you know, like David Ogilvy or Elon Musk or Steve Jobs and the list goes on and on and on, and other books like Built to Last, the whole, I forgot his name, Jim, I'm sure everybody's heard of the book and his.

08:29 – Gresham Harkless

Huh, Jim Collins.

08:31 – Tom Kirkham

Yeah, Jim Collins. Yeah. And that was one of the first books I read. You know these companies are built to last and what are the strategies that they employ? But yeah, I see it every day. I've been dealing with small businesses, small to medium-sized businesses all my, all my life, all my adult life. And in some capacity or another, I was either the owner, the president, the entrepreneur or I was in executive management. But all I've ever dealt with is small to medium-sized businesses. And I, and I see it that, there's just so much lacking and, and it's a lot of self-acceptance.

You've got to really, it's like one of the things we preach in the cybersecurity world is you've got to be able to assess your vulnerabilities and your weaknesses and, frankly acknowledge them and address them. You, you know, hoping that you don't get attacked is not a strategy prayer. It doesn't work. So you've got to be strategic about that. Whenever I see somebody not implementing or investing in it properly or trading it as an expense is the simplest way. Same thing with cybersecurity. Maybe the same thing in HR or they're not getting a good finance person in there, or marketing is treated like a stepchild, and you're just worried about sales.

Well you, sales only get you so far. You still got to have marketing and if those are your weaknesses, you have to address those for the good of the company as a whole. Fill in those gaps and you got to do it simultaneously. You've always got to be thinking about all of the gaps that are out there and they'll always be there. But a good leader and a good visionary, he'll have a good handle on all the gaps and there will be a point in time where it's time to address that gap.

10:26 – Gresham Harkless

I think that really hits home Especially since sometimes we aren't aware of the actions that we take and the reverberations that happen as a result of that. Whether you're CEO, entrepreneur, business owner, or you're in the C suite or you just were hired yesterday in that same shape or fashion, you still have to kind of understand the impact of the decisions that you make.

So I really think that really resonates with me and understanding from a leadership standpoint how we all have that ability that's in front of us. So truly appreciate that. So I wanted to switch gears a little bit and I wanted to ask you, you've already mentioned some of these, but ask you for a CEO hack which could be like an app, some books, or some habits that you have. What's something that you feel makes you more effective and efficient?

11:07 – Tom Kirkham

I tell you what, I've been reading HBR stuff off and on for the past, I don't know, however long, several years, but I really got serious about it this year. And every, in fact, I have one right here. I think it's a couple of months old, but every time I just thumb through a new issue or I get the daily email, without a doubt, every week there are five to 10 different things that apply to my overall strategy and vision, things that we need to do and new ideas. I mean, they really are on the cutting edge.

When I zoom out even further from the macroeconomic view, you know, cybersecurity is a very good industry to be in. It's recession-proof at this point in time. But that doesn't mean, everybody's all fat and happy. It's a competitive business, so. But, when I zoom out even further then I'm starting to go back to biographies of good leaders. I'm thinking about things that are totally alien to what some people would think are leadership and management topics.

12:21 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. But that, and that might be the CEO nugget that I was going to ask you for and something you might tell your favorite client or something you might tell yourself if you hopped into a time machine.

12:31 – Tom Kirkham

If the CEO doesn't have a fully educated, you know, 50,000-foot view is fine. That's where the CEO is really at his best. He's got a good 50,000-foot view of all the components. To have a successful organization and happy people and happy customers, that's what he's bringing to the table. But he's not even getting exposed to that, especially when it comes to cybersecurity. You can just ask the president or the CEO of Colonial Pipeline for that they did not have a security officer. And I believe I wasn't involved with that event at all, but I believe that's what contributed to it. Because the very thing that they didn't trap for is something. Which is why you put a security officer in place. Keep that in mind.

13:17 – Gresham Harkless

Appreciate you mentioning that and saying that. So I want to ask you now my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. We're hoping that different, quote, unquote, CEOs on the show. So, Tom, what does being a CEO mean to you?

13:30 – Tom Kirkham

I want to keep everyone happy. All the stakeholders in the organization that means all the people that work there, all the people that satisfy clients on a daily basis, all of them, the. All of the things that the culture is designed to do. Transparency and ethics and exceeding customer expectations and on and on and on like that. And you can't do that without a team. You just can't. You know, one of my favorite sayings is, we need to relentlessly pursue perfection.

Now, you'll never be perfect, but if you try to be, you will definitely attain excellence and don't. And if. And if you're looking at the competition, you've got it wrong. You should always be improving yourself. And if you do that on a daily basis, then you won't really worry too much about the competition. Or at least if you do, it's only going to be a really good competition. And that's what you would want to peg yourself to. Not just any. That's what I enjoy about it. I mean, really and truly, that's. It's just the creation, the maintenance, and the growth of all parts of the organization that I, and I would say that I think any. Any good.

14:45 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. It's so important to do that. And I always say if you run your own race, you can't lose. So what I wanted to do now was pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional that you can let our readers and listeners know. And of course, how best people can get a hold of you. Find out about all the awesome things you're working on.

15:00 – Tom Kirkham

All right, you can. I've got a book coming out in July, just next month. I got. Finally got a publisher and I got some. I got it where I could get it out the door. I'm working on another one on management leadership. Be out next year. The easiest way to get a hold of me is either through irontechsecurity.com or you can reach me on my website, tomkirkham.com and I think that's, I think you've exhausted all my knowledge. So I hope that everyone, everyone listening to this is going to be much smarter than me because you already knew what you knew and hopefully you picked up one or two nuggets out of this, out of the 30-minute commitment to this podcast that you're now smarter today than you were yesterday.

15:47 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely Tom. We will have the links and information in the show notes so that everybody can get a hold of you and find out about your books and all the awesome things you're working on. I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

15:56 – Tom Kirkham

Same to you. Very nice. Enjoyed it.

16:00 – Outro

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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