Governance & Risk Management , SASE , Video

Skyhigh Security CEO on Taking a Data-First Approach to SSE

Gee Rittenhouse Explains Why Data Policy Must Be Consistent Across CASB, SWG, ZTNA
Gee Rittenhouse, CEO, Skyhigh Security (Image: Skyhigh Security)

The security industry has traditionally tried to protect sensitive data by putting control points on endpoints or networks, but Skyhigh Security has taken a different approach.

See Also: OnDemand | Simplifying your Security Stack with SSE Integration

The company has eschewed a network-centric approach to security service edge and instead applies consistent policies around how data is treated across its ZTNA, SWG and CASB offerings, says CEO Gee Rittenhouse. Skyhigh Security was born in March from McAfee Enterprise's SSE business and has been recognized by Gartner as one of three leaders in SSE alongside Netskope and Zscaler.

"We now see with SSE the convergence of security and data, those that come at it from a pure security play may have different policies for the web proxy, network firewall and workload protection," Rittenhouse says. "When you come at it from the data perspective, that policy is the same. There's no gaps. There's no inconsistencies. You do it once and then apply it to many enforcement nodes and sensor nodes."

In this video interview with Information Security Media Group, Rittenhouse also discusses:

  • The benefits of taking a cloud access security broker-centric approach rather than a secure web gateway-centric approach to SSE;
  • Why Skyhigh embraces multivendor SASE rather than offering native SD-WAN;
  • The relationship between Skyhigh and Trellix under private equity firm STG's ownership.

Prior to joining Skyhigh Security in January, Rittenhouse spent eight years at Cisco, culminating in nearly four years leading the company's security business group. Before that, he spent 13 years working at Alcatel-Lucent's Bell Labs business, which included a one-year stint as president of Bell Labs. Rittenhouse has appeared before the U.S. Congress, U.S. Federal Communications Commission, European Presidential Commission and World Economic Forum. He has given a TED Talk and numerous conference keynotes and has been twice elected to the Global Telecoms Business Power 100.


About the Author

Michael Novinson

Michael Novinson

Managing Editor, Business, ISMG

Novinson is responsible for covering the vendor and technology landscape. Prior to joining ISMG, he spent four and a half years covering all the major cybersecurity vendors at CRN, with a focus on their programs and offerings for IT service providers. He was recognized for his breaking news coverage of the August 2019 coordinated ransomware attack against local governments in Texas as well as for his continued reporting around the SolarWinds hack in late 2020 and early 2021.




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