EP 17 — SolarWinds VP of Security Tim Brown: Behind the Scenes of the 2020 SolarWinds Breach

Those in IT, DevOps, and SecOps are all too familiar with the demands of a complex and dynamic technological landscape. For more than two decades, SolarWinds has helped technology professionals and organizations manage and adapt to an ever-expanding ecosystem of IT applications and infrastructure. 

In this episode, Tim Brown, Vice President of Security at SolarWinds, gives us an insider view of the 2020 cyberattack where hackers slipped malicious code into the company's popular network management system and software program, Orion.  He shares how his team worked tirelessly to resolve the breach, and how this incident  has brought light to the software supply chain security issue and has helped strengthen the whole security industry. 

Topics discussed:

• Tim’s perspective on the dependence of security maturity on engineering process or development process maturity 
• How the SolarWinds team handled the 2020 breach
• The importance of creating SBOMs for every application and learning to utilize the data to protect against security vulnerabilities
• Tim’s advice for security leaders working with a supply chain
• What supply chain security will look like in the next few years

Links:

SolarWinds hack explained: Everything you need to know

SolarWinds breach: Lessons Learned & Practical steps