Welcome to The Risk Insight, a Crisis24 podcast. In this episode, Will Aker, VP Global Protective Solutions, discusses the unique risks in cryptocurrency. As a leader in the security industry, Will Aker shares his expertise in working with cryptocurrency organizations and high-net-worth individuals. As cryptocurrency becomes more popular, it's essential that organizations take a look at the unique risks associated with this high-tech currency. Find out the most important factors to consider when implementing your security and risk mitigation strategies.
Welcome to The Risk Insight, a Crisis24 podcast. In this episode, Will Aker, VP Global Protective Solutions, discusses the unique risks in cryptocurrency.
As a leader in the security industry, Will Aker shares his expertise in working with cryptocurrency organizations and high-net-worth individuals. As cryptocurrency becomes more popular, it's essential that organizations take a look at the unique risks associated with this high-tech currency. Find out the most important factors to consider when implementing your security and risk mitigation strategies.
0:02
Welcome to The Risk Insight, a Crisis24 Podcast, taking a closer look at the risk and security issues facing organizations around the world today. And now, here's your host.
0:16
Hello, everyone. And welcome back to The Risk Insight podcast. My name is Brian Delaney. I'm a VP of Risk Solutions at Crisis24. And today, we're joined by my colleague Will Aker, Will grew up in Grand Junction, Colorado. He's a veteran, and he served in the 2nd Ranger Battalion in the Army 75th Ranger Regiment. Will served in the early years of the War on Terrorism, he did three total tours, two in Afghanistan, and one in Iraq.
So, Will, thank you so much for your service to our country. On the personal side, Will now lives in Oregon with his wife and two kids. In his spare time, he likes to be outside as much as possible. And he is an avid guitar player. I've been working alongside Will for about a year now. And it's been great learning from him. He's a creative thinker, and I've noticed when Will has a goal and something he needs to accomplish, nothing's going to stand in his way. And he's very meticulous in his approach. So, without further ado, Will, thanks for joining us on the podcast today.
1:16
Yeah, thanks, Brian. That might be the best introduction I've had on any type of, you know, any type of medium. So, I appreciate that. And I would say novice guitar player versus avid. So…
1:31
Fair enough. Fair enough. All right, Will, so you're a VP in what we call our Global Protective Solutions division. For the listeners out there, Will, who are not familiar with this acronym, and do not know what GPS is - can you explain that? And what the business does for our clients?
1:49
Yeah, so the Global Protection Solutions is the part of the business that is mainly physical security, anything that falls into that on an ad-hoc or permanent basis. And that could really take form in whether that be residential security, for an ultra-high net worth individual embedded corporate positions, throughout Fortune 500 companies, or travel for executives, celebrities, and anyone else that's kind of fits in between those type of categories.
2:22
Okay. And on the corporate side, what kind of companies do you work with in the GPS sector?
2:27
Yeah, so we work with all companies, I would say, though, our largest clients are usually in the tech space. But we've seen a lot of new and emerging clients in FinTech and in the crypto space over the last couple of years as well.
2:44
Okay. And so, Will, in terms of the crypto space, can you talk a little bit more about that?
2:50
Yeah, so you know, obviously, crypto has been around for over a decade. But as it's become more and more legitimized, you have a lot of institutions that are now moving to crypto using different types of currencies, and really having success with that, and its volatility has, you know, posed a lot of security issues, frankly, whether they're an actual currency that's operating as a currency or if they're trading company, or they're just someone that has was an early investor that's made, you know, a great deal of money out of crypto as well.
3:26
Okay. Okay, so it sounds like you're supporting all types of people that are involved in different ends of the crypto business and space. Is there anything unique to protecting or delivering services to somebody in the crypto space versus other programs that you put together?
3:45
Well, I think, you know, one of the things I love about Crisis24 is we're always learning, right? So, crypto is obviously new and emerging for a lot of folks. And we're still kind of learning what that actually means, from a threat perspective, or a physical security perspective, if there's anything that you have to do differently. One of the main things that I've personally noticed is that people are polarized in a different manner. So if you're a tech executive, and you're communicating through a medium and someone doesn't like what you're doing, or they don't like your platform, it's a little bit different when you're someone who has invested money, and now that money is reduced, or something happened to it that they weren't really prepared for, or they thought one thing and something else happened with their, you know, money. So, when, when that happens, I really think that you get almost someone who's more inclined to show up at a specific location, more inclined to travel possibly, they're there for a different reason than maybe they don't like the CEO of a company, they're there about a grievance that has to do with you know, their livelihood, which can be really dangerous.
4:54
Okay. You use the word volatility so as we're recording it's, it's towards the end of May 2022, I think volatility if anyone's looking at their 401k, or their investments, I think that's the best word to describe right now. Right? What was that?
5:11
I said you could describe that, use that word, to describe a lot of things right now in the world. So, it's not lost on me.
5:18
Absolutely. So, I mean, with that, have you - in the teams that you manage for our clients, seen any new kinds of risks presented or things that they need to look out for with all that volatility happening?
5:33
Yes, and no, I mean, I think we're obviously seeing cryptos plunging in a lot of areas right now. And you have some, like unprecedented events, you know, especially with Luna coin. I don't know if you saw that in the news. But it definitely came off of being a stable coin and plunged down to zero. So, I think that there is just with what's been going on. And but it's not, for those folks that have been kind of invested in crypto over a longer period, there's certainly been other spells where things have gotten really low again, and then gone back up. And I think that's just part of the nature of the beast, for a lot of people, but it as new people come in, and they don't understand that or they make, you know, a pretty big risk. I just think that each time that it's at a lower point, I think that you see, you know, more folks that are upset.
And that's a big generalization, it is something that we kind of go off as our team as we're actually at a place where we may not have to pay attention to the market for some of our other clients, but it's very much something that we have to watch a little bit, especially if we're protecting someone who is actually working for a crypto currency and that currency is going way up, you need to be taking a look at some risk factors or if it's plunging as well. So maybe the best thing for someone like that is that it is just an average day, right? There's not too much high or not too much low. So.
6:56
Right. Right. And you said risk factors. So, like somebody in this space, like for crypto companies out there, and security-related personal safety related - what are some of the recommendations that you and your teams out there make for people and their families in the space?
7:13
Yeah, I think where we start is, is kind of twofold. We offer a service through our company called DigitalTrace. And it's really positive for a lot of those folks to see what's actually on them in on the internet, that they maybe haven't thought of. And of course, this is not unique to crypto in any way. But I think when you are starting to become an ultra-high net worth individual, or you're really looking at your security from that point of view, you really want to know what's out there about you. And that DigitalTrace really helps to do that. And then it also helps you to know what's out there about your family. So I think that's one of the biggest things that I see as folks that are have new and emerging wealth is that they're just not prepared for not someone to track them down. They've kind of thought about that like, and they might have security in place for that. But what they really haven't anticipated is that someone's going to look up their sister or their parents and show up at their house and try to speak with them about something, not always in a sinister way. But they just haven't really anticipated like family members getting approached or like where that they live and how easy it is for folks nowadays to access that information.
8:26
Okay. All right. So that's interesting, is that happening quite a bit at some of the crypto-related clients that you guys are supporting today,
8:34
It was happening a lot more as we were first kind of working in the space, I think that, you know, folks that have been around crypto now have gotten smarter. And some of that has transformed back to like, obviously, they're looking at that, but then they're looking at what they can do at their residence, or their home is where they spend the most amount of time. So that's an area that I think like a lot of folks and companies that we need to be safe at work, which is undoubtedly true. But the next kind of level of that is like, am I actually safe at the place where I spend my most amount of time, which is my home. And have I considered factors, you know, if someone comes over my fence in the middle of night, is my family going to be safe? Do we know what to do? Do we have someone there in some cases, you know, to protect us all hours of the day? So that's where you know, GPS, we really specialize in that.
9:21
Right? Okay. And I think you know, coming out of the whole pandemic, and people are still working from anywhere, right. And home office is much more prevalent than it was maybe back in like 2018-2019. So, you're saying basically, a lot of folks in the crypto space need to account for that personal residence. And I know you guys do a ton of work around the personal residences - keeping that safe. What are some considerations on the personal side, and the residential side to keep their families safe, that they would need to consider if they're kind of a high-profile person in crypto?
9:54
Yeah. Great question, Brian. I think that is actually kind of funny, in a way because a lot of folks are like, Will, I'm not important enough to have someone at my house 24/7 is kind of one of the first things that they think about. Secondly, it's like, Will, this person's going see everything that I'm doing, you know, they're going have access into that. So, I think for us, one of the two things, we have to kind of fight against this one, you know, if you have the means, you're going to enjoy this service. We aren't going to disrupt your privacy. First and foremost, we can design a security system that we're only in places where you want us to be, and we only see what's appropriate for you and your family. And there's no kind of gaps in what we see versus what you know. And so, we're working in lockstep to start out with, but in terms of the actual residents, uh, you know, I think that having a solid camera system obviously is important. But we're really big into, you know, not just one thing.
So if you actually have security on site, you need something to go with cameras. So we use beams in a lot of cases for that. So a motion beam that's tied to a camera area. So if you step across the motion beam, it's going to trigger an alert for our folks. And then they're going to be able to also see that on camera. So there's like a misconception of if security has cameras, well, if you have 36 cameras, you're not going to see what's going on in every camera. Nor is like the human brain really set up to function like that you need something that's going to trigger you to look at a certain camera at a specific time. So that's, that's really important for protecting a residence. It's also important outside of that, obviously.
But I think the other thing is if you're an ultra-high net worth individuals, especially in the crypto space, do you have a safe room? Do you have a plan? What happens if there's something that's sinister happening at my residence? Do I know what to do? Does my family know what to do? You know, because most police response times in a major place where folks like these lives are between five and 10 minutes on average. So really, it's like, do you have something to do for those 10 minutes until, you know, help shows up? And I think a lot of people as they're kind of growing in this space, are, they don't really want to think about that sometimes, because it's not something that's pleasant to think about. And, to take it even a step further.
Also I've been on, you know, teams over my career where it's like, we practiced scenarios like that our whole team, we actually practice with the principle that we were protecting, and that was the level that I knew and had the most confidence in our team to be able to practice is because they knew what they were supposed to do. They knew what we were supposed to do. And frankly, like one time, we got really lucky where we had practiced the drill of someone trespassing. And then literally two weeks later, someone, as the gate was shutting, just ran through it to get on the principal's property. And, you know, our protector, went out there and was able to apprehend them. And, you know, I was just incredibly grateful that we had actually practiced that with everyone prior to that happening. Because it happened and this person was just mentally ill. I don't think that they were trying to, you know, hurt anyone, but they were clearly like, triggered in a specific way. And it resulted in, you know, a pretty jarring event for both the family and you know, for our team, which we were very happy about how we performed.
13:31
Okay, so Will, in a nutshell, what you're saying is, essentially you want to have a plan in place, things could happen, especially for high net worth individuals who have made their fortune in crypto, and it's just, it's better to be proactive, versus reactive and something happens, you just you really don't know what to do. Is that kind of what you're going towards?
13:52
Yeah, absolutely. And I think that, you know, a lot of these people, not just in crypto but ultra-high net worth individuals are sometimes having come to the realization that they're having like, some, in some cases, a level of monetary success that they hadn't really thought of previously. And I think that that's actually just tricky from a personal matter, as you know, in many cases where Brian, you and I have met with founders of companies, and they're telling us, you know, hey, I want to be approachable by all my employees. And these, this value matters to us as a company and you know, I'm just a normal person. And I want to be treated like such and, you know, sometimes it's a difficult conversation for us to be like, well, you know, you made a billion dollars, you're no longer a normal person, you know, and, and the way that you think about things is really going to need to change if you if you want to live a more peaceful existence and because eventually, you know, I think that regardless of whether it's in crypto or other industries, people are ultimately you know, targeting wealth In just a lot of cases, and I think, you know, that's obviously a lot of our clients, you know, they've been highly successful for legitimate reasons, and we're there to protect them and not just provide physical security.
But beyond that, things to think about are, is your address easily searchable? Can people find your phone number? You know, can I send mail directly to you? And do you pick up the mail personally and read it? I think as you know, graduate into some of these other realms of wealth, that's something that you really need to consider. Can someone in my workplace just walk in and figure out where my office is? Right? And then I think, even a step further, a lot of times is the use of a panic button, you know, if you didn't, so obviously, we do a lot of residential protection where we're actually at the residence of someone, but if we're not at that point, and you're someone in crypto - do you have a way to contact emergency services without having to use your phone?
Right, to get the police to your residence? In a very timely manner? And can anyone do it? You know, and I think that's, that goes into having like, a safe room with a panic button in it, Panic button tells the police station, hey, you need to dispatch right now, this is very serious. And even having taken a step further having that in your office, you know, and taking that even another step further. Not only do you have it in your office, you've had the local police station, come and walk through that office, they know where it is, they know who you are, they know that you have a button like this. So, you're actually prepared in the event that you use it. And I think that fostering those local relationships are really important for especially for these FinTech institutions.
16:50
Right? No, it's a good point. And I know you and I have talked about it in depth. You know, sometimes, there's leaders in an organization where maybe security is not seen as the cool thing, or like you said earlier, I want to be approachable, right? As the CEO, I want people to be able to come up to me and have a conversation and not feel strange, because there's a protector behind me. Right? So for the listeners who do not know, Will actually started his career as a frontline protector. And I think things are a bit different now.
Will, I think that might be fair to say, when you're traveling around the world, and you might be, you know, in San Francisco one day, and then Venice the next day, and on a private yacht, and, you know, looking out for families as they're traveling for business or personal. I think it's a lot different now, with you and your leadership capacity in building these programs out. So in terms of how you present those conversations, and kind of approach these different ideas with stakeholders, that are high net worth individuals, like how has it changed from when you were a protector to now and how you're delivering those programs, since you know, security might not always be, you know, seen as the cool thing to do or something they really need?
18:08
I think, you know, when you when you look at LinkedIn, you're like, oh, man, the security industry like, whoa, but, in actual truth from when I started working in security to now the actual industry itself has made a ton of progress. And that, in turn, I remember a majority of companies barely had a security budget, when I was starting out, it wasn't even something that was familiar to them. They weren't hiring like a director of security a lot of the times or he was the only employee in their entire, like, origination that was dedicated to security. And I think that just given the state of the world and as people become like, educated and moved around different companies, that's this thing I've really noticed a lot now as folks come from a company that has a competent security program, not that they're experts, but they come to another company, and the second that they noticed that like, whoa, this is not what it should be, or we're not taking this seriously enough, or dedicating, frankly, enough cash into this day start to change that.
So I think a lot of things is, is obviously you know, people in general move companies a lot, directors of security do as well. And building some of those relationships have been, you know, just really important for my career. And I think yours as well. And when you do, you know, you meet different people and you see a bunch of different security programs. And each of those kind of look different, but they're ultimately trying to a lot of times achieve the same thing. And there's not one way specifically to do it. And I think for them as well. And I think this is also big in the crypto space.
You have to be cognizant of what the culture is, right? Because each company has kind of a different, a different nomenclature. I guess I'd use a military term about how they did it. by culture, what it actually means and how it impacts security. And I think that's one of the places we've had to evolve. Just a ton over the last, you know, year, just a year, five years, however you want to look at it. How do we fit folks that are working in the corporate setting into their culture? And it's not something that like, well, you can have a great protector who could have the most hard skills you've ever seen - the best shooter, the most physically fit, dresses really well, you know, those are some of the traits that you would want that would make them successful, but if they don't have soft skills in that environment, a lot of times they're not going to be successful.
20:42
Okay. No, that's, that's fair, I think a big part of what I've learned, is, you know, all of these security leaders like to benchmark with one another, right? What works for this tech firm might not work in the culture at this crypto org right? So that's a really good point. Now, there's programs out there that are starting from scratch, right? And you've helped a lot of those progress and mature over time. Somebody listening into this podcast right now, who maybe doesn't have any kind of security posture plan in place, what's a good place to start?
21:18
For the corporate spaces you're referencing, yeah, I think from our end of this, you know, the service we offer, a lot of times, we will, as they're trying to figure out how many employees they need for security, or you know, what kind of level or how they're going to hire, I think that's pretty confusing, right? If you haven't really figured out who your security lead is yet, so, in some cases, we've embedded like a director of security, that's, you know, obviously our employee, but to help them. And we've even done that as like a manager level, so that they're kind of able to have a conduit to greater Crisis24, whether that be consulting, you know, technology, obviously, with, you know, some of our programs we have, or just physical protection, travel, they can kind of be, you know, your first-line person that's going to be able to use the rest of our D bench and then use other products as well.
I think that, you know, one of the things I've really appreciated just about Crisis24, is that we're not just like, hey, it has to be done this way. Right? Like, we are very much involved throughout several different business units, people have an open mind to trying, you know, other products or working around some stipulations that we get from our clients. And I think, you know, a lot of folks maybe in the industry would say that that's normal, I don't just from my previous experience, I do not believe that that's normal, or, you know, easily achievable. And I think, you know, we really try, as I've worked with you on different projects, Brian, we, we try to get the best outcome for our client. And that doesn't always mean, you know, more dollars in the bottom line some of the times for our benefit. And I think that, you know, obviously, we are a private company that, you know, wants to be successful, but we also have, like, almost a fiduciary duty to the people that we protect, to make sure that they're protected, regardless sometimes of the outcome for us, which, you know, I in turn, really view that as kind of the noble part of our artwork.
23:34
I think noble is a good way of putting it. You're ultimately what the programs you put together and the team puts together as well, it's helping protect people, it's helping protect a brand. All of the above, right, so no, I do think it's very noble. So is there anything that I did not ask you today in terms of just security in the crypto space? Anything that I should have asked you that you'd want to mention to the listeners here today?
24:00
No, I mean, I think we covered a little bit of it, it's hard to sometimes be a little bit more specific, just so people understand without, you know, running across an NDA, obviously, in the wrong way. But I do think it's, you know, it's really unique that you have different currencies out there. And each currency is like its own company in a way and they're trying to obviously innovate on blockchain or some other aspects of that. And, and it's been kind of fascinating to see the rise of that over like, a few years and even you know, they have massive success and, you know, failure and kind of being an outside vendor. We and a lot of cases we've been on along for that ride. So I think it's still, you know, it's still an emerging industry. By no means do we know everything about it. I think there's a lot of stuff from regulation that's going to have to play out, certainly. And, you know, we pay attention to that, and we position ourselves. Where are our products around? A lot of those factors that come up. And I think from an intelligence standpoint, it's something that we incorporate into how we work with these different clients as well.
25:11
Absolutely, well said Will. The last thing I'll close out here with is I hear that you're having a security and crypto event soon here. Do you want to talk about that a bit?
25:22
Yeah, we’re trying to, it's kind of the first time that we've really done this as we're trying to pull some leaders from, obviously, different crypto companies, trading platforms, or currencies, or investment firms as well, that work in the crypto space. So we're having our very first crypto networking event. And I'm hoping that it's going to be a success, we certainly have some, you know, RSVPs, from folks from tech and the crypto space and also the banking space. We're really going to be seeing just how it works. And hopefully, it's something that we will do more on a regular basis and in different locations. Just to be inclusive for people that are interested, that we are connected with, and then also, you know, to continue learning and connecting folks. So, I think that's how, oftentimes you solve the most amount of problems in the easiest manner.
26:16
Okay, so connecting people, networking functions, and yet hoping to do more down the road?
26:21
Yeah well, we're making it pretty simple, right? We're not a hey, you have to go see this person speak. Obviously, you can speak to them if you want, but there's not a tried-and-true crypto fashion, it's a bit decentralized, so we'll see if that actually works. And, you know, I'm confident that it will and optimistic, but we are kind of sticking to the nature of how the space works.
26:46
Okay, interesting. No, I love that.
26:49
Well, even you Brian, you're invited. So
26:53
Thanks. I appreciate it. Will, so with that, I think we'll close out here today. I know we unpacked quite a bit and it's hard to give a great overview in such a small amount of time when you're packing, you know, over a decade of experience into a podcast, but Will, thanks for taking the time today for walking through everything with us for the listeners out there. I hope Will's advice in the things that he talked about helped in some way, shape, or form. I know we'll be happy to take your phone calls if you want to talk more about this subject. But until next time, thank you for joining us on The Risk Insight podcast. This is Brian Delaney and Will Aker signing off.
27:38
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