The Founder Playbook: Brett Rowe on why cybersecurity is never “done” and how to stay ahead

In this episode, Asanti’s Emma Lauchlan talks with Brett Rowe, Founder and Director of Securus Communications, one of the UK’s leading cybersecurity consultancies. Brett shares the story of launching Securus 12 years ago to bring service back into the heart of security solutions and why that customer-first approach still sets them apart today.

From the misconception that public cloud providers handle your security, to why cyber risk should be treated as a core business risk, Brett offers sharp insights for leaders navigating today’s constantly evolving threat landscape. He also talks about the role of AI in shaping the future of cyber – both as a tool for defence and as a weapon for attackers – and reflects on the business lessons he’s learned along the way.

If you want to understand why cybersecurity is never “done” and how to stay ahead, this conversation is a must-listen.

Brett Rowe on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rowebrett/

Emma Lauchlan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emmaeboyle/

Download our whitepaper on IT Resilience: https://asanti.com/resource-centre/guides-white-papers/whitepaper-why-some-organisations-are-still-not-getting-their-it-resilience-plans-right/

Transcript

Introduction: This transcript has been generated for reference and accessibility, with subtitles included on the video for easy navigation. It will not be 100% accurate but should be very close to the conversation.

So next on The Founder Playbook is Brett Rowe. Brett is the founder and director of Securus Communications, one of the UK's leading cybersecurity consultancies. Brett founded the

business 12 years ago after he spotted a gap in the market for not only a cybersecurity specialist, but one who really puts service at the heart of what they do. Brett, thanks for joining me today. 

 Thanks Emma.

 Tell us a little bit about why you founded Securus and tell us a little bit about exactly what your business does.

 Okay, so why did I, I found it, or why did we set it up originally? I just found that at the time, there were an awful lot of businesses that were removing service from their solution. So, ultimately, they felt that somebody buying a service from them didn't need a good help desk, didn't need good support, didn't need somebody to help them in times of trouble, but they still wanted to charge a premium price. So, we felt that if we could put the service back in, then people would be a little bit dazzled by it. So, we built a support desk that had engineers answering the phone not call handlers. So, people would actually ring in and speak to someone who should know more than they do, rather than ringing in and speaking to somebody that literally wouldn't know what it was or what cybersecurity was. And we found that the process of calling into someone, dumbing down what was going wrong, so then could be relayed onto an engineer, was just crazy. So ultimately, we removed that. And it proved to be quite popular, and we did really well with it and customers liked it. And our very first customer back in 2012 is still with us today.

 Great. And so, I guess that the timing was crucial there. You've seen a change in the industry, yeah.

 Timing was key. At the time, broadband, as everybody has at home these days, wasn't new, but it was fairly new. And people, when they were putting into a business environment, were charging huge fees for it. And the price was dropping through the floor, which is why all of the businesses started to look at their costs and say, what can we remove? Because the price of the product is dropping through the floor. So, we now need to cope with that. Rather than innovating, they just start cutting costs. And so, we thought, we'll jump in and put some of the bits back in that people were now missing. 

 Yeah. And why is this a passion for you?

 Well, cybersecurity particularly has become the passion over the last sort of four or five years for us and specifically really since COVID. We've become more and more passionate about cyber. And the reason for that is people need to understand that cyber is a moving target. You never complete it, you're never done. Because the threat actors, the cyber criminals, are never done. They're sat there, if you take the cliched view of a cybercriminal sat in a darkened room, tapping away on a computer, they're doing it 24-7. And they all use AI these days and go out and drink coffee by the way. But ultimately, they've got a new evolved way of hacking every day. So, you have to keep up with it. And that's the passion for me is trying to explain to people that if you've bought a firewall and then you review that firewall, next time it's up for renewal, you're three years behind someone. And so, you're wide open.

 And what is it, in your view, that businesses are still getting wrong today when it comes to cybersecurity?

 Biggest problem I find is that they're not treating cybersecurity as a business risk that therefore needs a budget. They're seeing it as I read an awful lot about it. So, I better do something. I never really put the right budget to it. I don't think about the what ifs. If we had this problem, what would it cost my business? And so, they're not thinking about that heavy cost. They're only looking at the fact that I've got to buy the cybersecurity thing or something. We'll never be attacked. Well, frankly, that's a bit of a naive way of looking at your own business.

Yeah. And tell me a little bit about how the services that Securus has can help businesses? I mean, if it sounds like some of the businesses you speak to don’t even know where to start

 Well, most people are on a journey of some description from somewhere. You know, they will have a firewall if we use that term for now. And they'll believe that they have a cybersecurity posture that is adequate. And in most instances, they're not wrong. But where they've got to understand is the risk goes up. As you grow and you get bigger, the risk gets bigger. And so, you've ultimately got to evolve your stance and your posture all the time. And that means you've got to look at budgets and you've got to look at things. What we try to do is create a bespoke solution for each individual. So rather than saying, here's the product off the shelf. We look at your problem. We find out what it is that's keeping you awake. We look at the likely risk and then we decide what it is that you should have. And then, you know, we do some penetration tests. We look at your risks and we try to deliver a solution that can evolve with you at a price that you can afford. It doesn't always work. You know, sometimes people just can't afford it. You know, ultimately, you know, budgets are tight for every business, but they have to look at the risk and decide whether the risk is worth taking.

 Just from what you've described there, it doesn't sound like cybersecurity will ever be a one size fits all for each organisation. If we think about the IT infrastructure different businesses have to where they're hosting their data, whether it's in a data centre like Asanti, or whether it's an own on-prem, whether it's in the cloud. I guess, you know, again, it's like you described, it's a moving beast. 

 People's needs change. So, you have to be able to evolve the solution. And you're right. We have security services in data centres. We have them on-prem, you know, and we can design a bespoke solution that fits what they need. 

 Yeah, and you talk a lot on your LinkedIn posts and your blog posts that you do about security and public cloud. And you're, I guess, quite passionate about, you know, people needing to take their own responsibility for their infrastructure that is in public cloud platforms like your Amazons, like your Microsofts. I think there is a mentality out there that these huge businesses are doing that work for you, but that's not the case, is it?

 No, they're giving you infrastructure, they're not securing it in any way, shape or form. You have to do that. And people need to wake up to that fact. I've lost count of the amount of times I've looked across a board room table to people who are absolutely convinced that they're absolutely fine because they've got it in the cloud with AWS, Azure, Google, whoever. And these guys are not responsible for your cybersecurity in any way, shape or form. You are. 

 I mean, it's the same with our data centre, like Asanti, right? We're a colo provider, so we stop at the infrastructure, security and resilience. So, we tell our customers cybersecurity is the layer that you're responsible for. So, people need to understand that it's the same with those big public cloud providers.

 So, what do you see then as the biggest challenge in your industry today?

 Well, I'm going to mention it. AI is the big thing. There's an awful lot of people that are counting on it, either from a cyber defence perspective or just from an infrastructure full stop. I think AI has some real opportunity for all of us and there's also some threat to it. But ultimately, levels of AI have been used in business for years, years we've allowed technology to make its own decisions. And I guess now it has a term called AI. So, I would say that's the thing that's going to shape our business most over the next sort of four or five years. And ultimately finding the power to drive that AI is going to be one of the biggest challenges.

 Power is a challenge for the data centre industry too. We just had a discussion offline there about the cost of energy and the disparity really between the cost of it and the UK versus the cost in Norway. So, it is a challenge for all businesses and industries, I think.

 So, what advice would you give to those starting out in your industry or someone that wants to come along and be part of the journey at Securus? 

 Don't do it, it's really, really hard. (Laughing) No, in all honesty, I wish I'd done it earlier. So, I think if there's any advice to anyone who's thinking about starting their own business, whatever that business is, take the risk. Nobody ever found financial freedom by sitting on their hands. You do need to take a risk. And I guess there's some bits that perhaps I'd have done differently, but ultimately be prepared for the graft, be prepared for the knockbacks, take some risks, but it's how you finish, not how you start. You've got to keep going. 

 And is there anything, thinking back on your journey, your 12 years with Securus, is there anything that you would do differently?

 Yeah, I was very, very anti-borrowing money. And I guess now I'm a lot older and the business is far more secure and it's bigger. Borrowing money and doing things paid for by someone else is absolutely the way to do it. And again, going back to anybody looking at businesses, don't be frightened to borrow that money. There are benefits to using somebody else's money to grow. I didn't do that. We spent 10 years scrabbling around trying not to borrow money. And I guess the last four or five years, we've worked it out that actually using somebody else's money to buy these things is the best way to do it. So, I guess if there was one thing I'd done differently, I think we would certainly look at the finance side and say, well, yeah, take a few more risks in that way.

 Yeah, do you think that's obviously just drawn on your experience now, right? I think at the time you're making the decisions based on the knowledge that you have.

 Yeah, at the time, we didn't want to take that financial risk. And I think we would have grown significantly quicker if we had taken those risks. But then obviously growing quickly comes with its own challenges as well. So that's all things that happen for a reason.

 Brett, thank you.

 Thanks, Emma.