In Conversation with Ty Miller

In this exclusive interview with cybersecurity expert and the brilliant mind behind our groundbreaking product, Evolve, Ty Miller shares his insights. As the founder and managing director of Threat Intelligence, Ty has led us to the forefront of the cybersecurity realm, shaping our vision along the way. Join us as we delve into Ty's journey, triumphs, and the story behind Evolve.

Ty's journey in the cybersecurity world has been one of remarkable success. From the beginning, he always had a knack for computers and the internet. A computer science student in college, he was intrigued by computers and technology and went on to pursue a Bachelor's in Information Technology.

Q: Ty, take us back to the beginning. How did your journey in cybersecurity kick off?

Ty: Right after graduating, I landed a job as a UNIX system administrator at Macquarie University. Although I didn't find the job particularly exciting, it provided me with valuable exposure. At that time, in the early 2000s, the university had no security measures in place. They eventually hired their first-ever security officer, which sparked my interest in cybersecurity. I became fascinated with cyber attacks and how we could safeguard the network. Because security wasn't a priority at the time, I had to teach myself hacking techniques and breach the university's network to demonstrate to my colleagues the severity of the issue. This allowed us to secure a budget of $5 million, provided by the Vice Chancellor, to implement firewalls, VPNs, and other measures and to move critical systems offline.

This gave me a lot of cybersecurity experience - pen testing, security implementation and management, security monitoring, running security operations, and more. That gave me a really good base to work from.

Ty expresses special gratitude to the security officer, who served as both a guide and mentor during the early stages of his career, inspiring him to delve into the realm of cybersecurity. The security officer later went on to become the CTO at Threat Intelligence.

Ty's professional journey continued at Pure Hacking Pty Ltd, where he dedicated 9 impactful years as the Chief Technology Officer. His areas of expertise mainly included penetration testing and he built a team of pen testers at Pure Hacking. He also focused on digital forensics and incident response during his time there.

However, a pivotal moment arrived when Ty realized he yearned for more. This realization marked a turning point, setting the stage for the next chapter in his cybersecurity journey - Threat Intelligence and Evolve.

Q: What made you want to leave your role at Pure Hacking and start something of your own?

Ty: Pure Hacking was mainly a pen testing company and they did that well. But I had a lot of visions that weren't embraced within the company. I wanted to build a cyber threat intelligence platform. So I decided to register threatintelligence.com. I learned and grew a lot at Pure Hacking and that enabled me to start a cybersecurity services business.

Q: Why did you start the company?

Ty: One of the main reasons for building a platform was to enable companies to scale globally and attract customers from around the world. From the beginning, our focus was on creating a specialist cybersecurity team and a scalable product. A significant milestone was hiring our first developer, Sandy, who played a crucial role in building the platform as it exists today.

Another reason for creating the platform was to address the issue of inconsistent skills and expertise within our growing team at Pure Hacking. To combat this problem, I developed various tools that we used internally to automate the tests and establish a baseline.

During my exit interview from Pure Hacking, I was asked what I would have done differently, and my response was that I would have taken all my tools and built a platform. From the very start, I aimed to build a platform that could automate not only penetration testing but also various aspects of cybersecurity. My goal was to make these skills and services accessible to a wide range of people, regardless of their experience or budget.

I observed that smaller companies with limited budgets often struggle to access the same services as larger companies. To bridge this gap, I aimed to create a platform that would be accessible to everyone, from individuals and small businesses to enterprises. And that's how we've created the tiers within Evolve. We don't limit the capabilities that Evolve is delivering to a small business vs an enterprise.

Q: Let's dive into the highlights. Share with us a standout achievement or a moment that you're particularly proud of.

In 2008, I did my first BlackHat presentation. That was probably my first big achievement. The previous year was the first time I went to BlackHat in DefCon. and I went and watched a bunch of the presentations and I remember sitting there and watching one of the presentations on virtual machines and penetration testing and thinking "I can do a much better job than this guy". And so I decided that I would present at BlackHat the next year.

After his first presentation at BlackHat, Ty wanted to develop a course that could be used to train students and cybersecurity professionals. So, he developed ShellCode Lab, a course that teaches students how to write shellcode. Fast forward to today, ShellCode Lab stands as the longest-running course at BlackHat, a testament to its enduring value, having been accepted for an impressive 14 consecutive years!

Q: What do you envision for the future of Evolve?

Ty: Now we're at a point where we're looking at the future and we're building the next version of the platform which is going to be AI-integrated. I can't give away too much but ultimately we want to enhance the capabilities of cybersecurity teams within organizations so that they can do a lot more with their existing tech and existing people. 

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