Dtex hired a Mandiant veteran to make insider risk the next big thing (interview)

Dtex Systems uses machine learning to monitor endpoint and network activity for unusual employee behaviour, serving financial services and major sports companies

Insider-risk monitoring is an undisrupted category Dtex can lead the way Mandiant led threat intelligence — if a credibility hire can build the market

Dtex built machine-learning insider-threat monitoring aimed at employees who leak data on purpose, by accident, or under coercion — from phishing clicks to nation-state spies — in companies from financial services to major sports.

In December 2023 Marshall Heilman, a longtime Mandiant executive and most recently CTO of Google Cloud's Mandiant, left to become Dtex's CEO — described by Axios as a huge bet on the subsector's potential. In an interview with Axios he said 'it's a space that needs to be disrupted', drew parallels to Mandiant's early days in threat intelligence and incident response, and laid out plans: a customer listening tour, building out marketing and sales, expanding government clients and working toward federal procurement cybersecurity certifications. He said investment-community interest was high, while staying coy about raising more venture capital.

The CEO hire moves a recognised Mandiant operator into a category with no clear leader.

Incidents rose nearly 8% year over year, with $16.2M average response costs, per the Ponemon/Dtex report.

Most organisations budget for insider risk but few know how to address it — the gap Dtex is aiming at.

Dtex's last round was 2020's $17.5M; Heilman says investor interest is high but raises are undecided.

Category creation starts with a credibility hire: a famous operator from the adjacent category signals the bet before the product does.

As of 5 December 2023 Heilman was starting a customer listening tour and building out marketing and sales. Whether Dtex would raise additional venture capital was left open.