Stroz Friedberg's Software Analyzes Email for Threats (Audio)

Engineering Institute Search program. Do you know that a third of the electronic attacks Kathleen on organization's public and private? You know where they come from? Yes, you tell me though, they come from inside the organization. So you want to know what is happening inside your technology network, You're gonna have to listen to our next day. Yes. Ed Straw's co founder and chairman of Straw's Feed Freeber based right here in New York City. Career law enforcement specializing on

cyber risks and technology led him to this very fascinating company. Him, I don't want him to put the software on me and never know. Well, let's put the software on Katherine Conry. Now she is in the newsroom with a Bloomberg Business flash, Thank you, Kathleen wall Street. Starting off this holiday shortened

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fourteen points at two thousand eighty eight. Nastakis down forty two points at And that's a Bloomberg business flash. You're listening to taking stock with pim Box and Kathleen Hayes on Bloomberg Radio. Of US organizations believe that they are vulnerable to insider threats. That's according to the data security firm war Metric. Here to tell us more about security threats and how to protect against them is Ed Straws. He is the co founder and the chairman of Straws Freeburg.

You're based in New York City and Mr Straws is a former FBI agent. He spent sixteen years with the Federal Viewer of Investigation. He was then appointed to form a computer crime squad in New York City at the time, it was only the third in the country at Straws. Thanks very much for being here. Happy to be here. This idea of internal threats versus external threats, you know, hold your friends close, hold your enemies closer. Uh. Tell us how this relates to people in the workforce. It

relates to people in the workforce two ways. The first is you could have an insider that represents a threat, and by threat I would say somebody who intends to do something that they know they shouldn't do. Maybe they're disgruntled, um, maybe they've been paid to do something. But then there's another side to it where you're just talking about good people who represent one of the biggest risks to your organization.

That is, they're either careless or in some ways are responsible for clicking on an action uh in an email that infects the system. And those both those situations malintent and maybe carelessness come down to the human factor. And so what we've tried to do is say, if the human being is the ground zero for the action that we're talking about, shouldn't we be analyzing the human being

as a human being. So and in fact, electronic attacks on organizations, public and private come within according to many services. You know, that is just noting some of these statistics. But so, so what does scout scout do? What is what is the program? Like the software the algorithm. So Scout is the name of the tool that Strasfreeberg developed to try to unders damn people better. And the tool analyzes the language that appears in your emails and other

forms of communication that are written. It does not work on voice, and it analyzes the language and the way you normally speak and looks to see does it change in a meaningful way over time and if it does change, in what ways does it change? And we have about sixty different attributes that we can analyze about people just through their language. Can you give us an example, just

share with us how this might work? Sure? Um, So we drew from psychology, and in fact, the software has ten patents on it based not on computer science but on psychological science. So we analyze words and relationships two of words to each other, the way you normally speak. So, for example, if you are normally somebody whom communicates in shades of gray talks about well, you know, this could work out this way, it could work out that way. A kind of it of sense that this might be

a good idea. You're showing sort of subtle, nuanced communication patterns. If you suddenly change from that and to start saying this will never work or this is always going to go this way, Um, you're now going into a more

black and white zone. Also, if you refer to the organization that you work for in the normal course to say this is my company, our business, and then over time you start talking about this place the organization, that is psychological distance, and there's a reason why your language is changing from first referring to it as our firm, our company, my company, into one where you put distance.

So analyzing the sixty different attributes, there's too many to go into here, but these are examples of the kinds of things that people indicate through their language that psychologists understand very well. But nobody had really brought that insight into the insider. How accurate is it? Accurate is it? How have you tested it? It seems to me a lot of people can turn that like get mad your company, But doesn't mean you're going to hit it with some

kind of cyber attack. How do you know this works? Now that's true? I think, well, for one thing, if you do see this kind of language, it raises a question for inquiry, it does not provide the answer, and you have to look to see how often is this occurring, and we typically flag less than one one persentable communications

is even deserving any additional analysis. And then you really have to look to see, well if it does flag, if it does indicate a significant variation and deviation on one attribute, do we see other attributes that are moving at the same time, And that is what I think you need to have. The seltware is designed to make sure that you do protect privacy, but you're not left in the dark so that you're blindsided. Is it also designed to protect intellectual property and also flag compliance issues.

Intellectual property is one of the most important things to guard against because when it is stolen, it tips it is not um stolen in a way that deprives the owner. Everything that is stolen is still there. So to indicate whether or not an individual who had the authority to access and copy files is actually um in a state of mind where maybe they're going to do something they shouldn't do becomes very very key. So the intellectual property

is quite important. So what's the next step for the company. Tell me in a nutshell, Well, we've always been a services company at Straws Freeburg, but there are certain areas where we cannot find the tools that we're looking for and so we had to build them. So the next stage for us is really to continue growing the company and work with investors to make sure the values there well. Fascinating company and obviously the need for it seems to be growing, or maybe we've just become aware of how

great that need has been all along. Ed Straws, thank you so much. Co founder and chairman of Straw's Free Work. Here in New York City, I'm Kathleen Hayes along with pim Fox. This is Bloomberg. Coming up on taking stock, will be speaking with Rob Hayworth. He is the senior investment strategist for U S Bank Wealth Management, helping to manage a hundred and thirty three billion dollars. What is he telling his customers to do that's next