For Jordan and Noah Potti, a productive day at work is one where they get to “stick it to the bad guys.”
The Potti brothers are co-founders of Adversis, a boutique cyber security company that helps businesses monitor breaches and develop robust security systems. After building a career advising Fortune 500 companies and government agencies, Jordan and Noah have settled in the Flathead Valley, where they’re focused on helping local businesses defend themselves against online threats. As they work with clients throughout the Flathead, Jordan and Noah are putting years of experience towards solving the unique security issues the valley’s small businesses face.
Jordan and Noah built their careers as “ethical hackers” — a job where companies and government agencies would hire the pair to hack into their systems, just like an online predator would, to find gaps in their security. The work involved everything from phoning a call center to convince a representative to give away personal information, to physically breaking into a data center, to hacking into a website.
“You’re putting yourself in the shoes of a hacker, whether it’s Russia, or a script kiddie or a really novice hacker,” Jordan said.
As they built a reputation as ethical hackers, companies began hiring Jordan and Noah to develop security tools. The pair built a model for “red teams” — or ethical hacking units within large companies — that is now used by nearly every large bank in the U.S. They also developed some of the first widely used cloud security tools.
In the midst of working with major companies, Jordan and Noah began to get phone calls from small business owners who were concerned about cyber security, but didn’t know where to start when it came to safeguarding their company. As requests began to flood in, the brothers came up with an idea.
“What if we built something that a small business owner could go to, click a button, basically, and make sure their business is secure?” Jordan remembered thinking.
Now, Adversis offers what Jordan and Noah call a “Small Business Cyber Security Framework” — a set of steps that ensures small business owners’ confidence in their company’s online safety, and which gives them a greater understanding of the risks they face. When working with a small business, Adversis runs a basic assessment to evaluate security risks and sets up a continuous security monitoring system, which involves constantly scanning the dark web for data breaches, watching external web assets for changes and vulnerabilities, and training employees on avoiding phishing scams.
“There’s a lot of small businesses out there who think, ‘People aren’t interested in me. I’m just a little business, I’ve got 10 people in the office,’” Noah said. “They may not even be aware that people are targeting them opportunistically.”
Jordan and Noah explained that hackers often target data held by small businesses, such as credit card information and health records. The brothers have even seen a small business shut their doors completely when hackers stole all their data, a disaster that Jordan said is “usually totally preventable.”
Yet, many business owners are not aware of these risks. Or, if they are, they don’t know how they can bolster security.
Noah said one of the most rewarding, yet challenging, elements of transitioning to working with small businesses is the “education and awareness gap” between smaller companies and larger firms.
While government agencies and Fortune 500 companies are well financed, and can usually afford to support large cyber security teams, small businesses often don’t have the same resources to dedicate to online protection. Oftentimes, this can leave business owners in the dark about the risks and solutions at hand. Because they got their start working with some of the country’s largest organizations, Jordan and Noah feel uniquely equipped to navigate these challenges with small companies.
“We’ve literally hacked into companies, so we know what a business needs to do,” Jordan said, explaining that Adversis brings a unique combination of corporate experience and local relationship building.
“We help educate small business owners, that’s a huge part of it. Help give them peace of mind,” he added.
Though the duo moved to the Flathead for reasons unrelated to work — family ties, a desire to be outdoors, wide open spaces to fly a plane (Noah is a trained pilot) — they’ve felt encouraged by the valley’s tech scene. The brothers have been able to connect with other local startups and tech workers, and have built relationships with a number of local companies looking to improve their security. Jordan said it’s been important for Adversis to meet with businesses personally, form connections and get to know their clients.
As far as the future, Noah said “it’s a difficult question to answer” for a startup. Though, he noted, “It would be awesome to continue to grow and hire locally and regionally.”
For now, the Potti brothers are focused on keeping businesses in the Flathead Valley secure — and, as Jordan said, keeping the online “bad guys” away.
