a16z Podcast

Think of a security team, and your image is of a beleaguered goalie trying to prevent the latest hacker from getting their hands on customer data or other valuable intellectual property. But coming directly from a Chief Security Officer job at Box, a16z Operating Partner Joel De La Garza makes the contrarian case that things are actually getting better for computer security practitioners. In this hallway-style conversation with operating partner and head of research & deal team Frank Chen, which originally aired as a video on our YouTube channel, the two walk through the history of security attacks from the days of solo hackers working late nights to organized hacker networks served by marketplaces and readily purchasable source code to, most recently, the advent of nation-state sponsored attacks.Despite this increase in attacker sophistication, the defenses have also gotten better, with more capable hardware and software, heightened cultural awareness, cyber-insurance, public clearinghouses for security breaches, dramatic improvements in the public cloud's security posture, and more. Which leads Joel to the argument that things are actually in a pretty good state these days. But since the cat-versus-mouse game of security is never over, Joel highlights a few areas where he's actively looking for security startups.