VEJLE, Denmark & WILMINGTON, Del.– BullWall, the global leader in ransomware protection for critical infrastructure, today announced the appointments of Steen Lomholt-Thomsen as Chief Executive Officer and Kerry Grimes as EVP and Chief Partner Officer, and recognized several 2023 benchmarks and growth indicators, marking the company’s most aggressive growth year since its launch in 2017.
Steen most recently served as BullWall Chairman of the Board and Chief Revenue Officer of Clarivate, a frontrunner in advanced analytics software, and was previously Chief Revenue Officer of Aveva, a global leader in industrial software. Steen also brings extensive experience in enterprise software, SaaS sales, and general management gained from roles at IBM, HP, and IHS (now S&P Global). With a robust track record in commercial scaling, business growth, sales transformation, and M&A, Steen has consistently demonstrated his ability to drive success and commercially scale companies across various sectors of the technology industry.
“The world’s policy makers are, at long last, awakening to the realization that ransomware attacks are conducted by highly sophisticated and extremely well-funded syndicates,” said Steen. “The question now has become: is it time to mandate that organizations implement ransomware last-line-of-defense safeguards, knowing that an attack is a case of when, not if?”
“BullWall Ransomware Containment, the first and only ransomware kill switch, entered the North American market this year, having shut down ransomware attacks within seconds at several of Europe’s top companies and organizations. In the earliest phases of one of the first U.S. installs, BullWall Ransomware Containment identified a ransomware attack in progress, a discovery that became one of the top public sector stories of 2023,” Steen added.
Newly appointed BullWall Chief Partner Officer Kerry Grimes, noted: “Zero day attacks are doubling every few months, and unfortunately, most organizations rely solely on endpoint detection and response (EDRs) as their primary prevention strategy against ransomware, unaware that these are unable to prevent or thwart zero day attacks. Only BullWall can do so.”
Kerry brings to BullWall a proven track record of leading large-scale transformations and managing change at the enterprise level. He was most recently Global Head of Partners for Aveva, where he managed relationships with over 5,000 partners, and aided customers of all sizes in achieving effective, profitable digital transformations. He was previously Divisional Vice President of Global Partners for PTC Inc. and drove a highly partner-driven market and operations expansion. Kerry is also a recognized global channel executive within the channel community and brings over 20 years of international experience including being President of PTC China.
“On behalf of Axcel, I am thrilled that we have been able to attract two very experienced and proven software senior executives to BullWall. It’s a testament to the incredible strength and potential of BullWall’s suite of cybersecurity software products on a global scale. With these two appointments, we have finalized the build-out of the leadership team, and we are looking forward to working with Steen, Kerry and the rest of the team to fulfill the growth potential of BullWall in the coming years,” says Axcel Partner Christian Bamberger Bro.
In addition to the North American launch of its award-winning ransomware containment solution, Steen noted other major product benchmarks BullWall achieved in 2023. In particular, the global launch of BullWall Server Intrusion Protection (SIP), which brings multi-factor authentication (MFA) behind the firewall to protect servers and thwart breach attempts. SIP protects RDP sessions – the entry point for 50 percent of all ransomware deployments — with MFA that detects and entraps unauthorized users, preventing their ability to install ransomware or perform other nefarious actions while also identifying and isolating any compromised device or credentials. This innovative approach to MFA does not require a second device, resulting in a user experience so frictionless that users are happy to fully deploy it for every server login, a requirement most are unaware is mandatory to be compliant with most cybersecurity insurance policies.
BullWall CTO Jan Lovmand noted: “Unlike other security stack elements, BullWall’s purpose-built solutions are designed to both prevent and contain ransomware. Unlike other MFA and security stack products, BullWall was designed specifically to stop ransomware installation on servers and block its spread throughout the enterprise. It is a specific, extremely effective response to an urgent problem.”
“BullWall has from day one taken a revolutionary approach to stopping ransomware, not only delivering a unique prevention and containment layer but delivering cyber resilience across companies and institutions,” Steen commented. “I am joining an amazing team with deep expertise and experience, and I look forward to working to change the impact of ransomware, and ultimately, defeat it.”
Greg Byles, Zivaro CEO and BullWall partner, said: “Our focus is on providing the highest levels of cybersecurity and effective IT services to national infrastructure sectors, and we view BullWall Ransomware Containment and SIP as invaluable additions to our portfolio. BullWall embraces our mission of delivering security, safety, health and welfare, and financial stability to the critical services and infrastructure that serve us all, and we are delighted to have been selected as a partner.”
Recent research conducted by market researchers at Cybersecurity Insiders underscores the need for BullWall. It reveals that 79 percent of cybersecurity professionals surveyed believe their organization is likely to be targeted by a malware/ransomware attack in the next 12 months, and 77 percent incorrectly believe their endpoint security solution (EDR) can sufficiently protect their servers against malware attacks. Moreover, only 35 percent were confident in the organization’s current ability to remediate ransomware after it locks or encrypts data within their systems, and 35 percent mistakenly believe they can recover from an attack in a few days, despite research showing that recovery averages months.
“We’ve seen some organizations becoming almost resigned to the eventuality of a ransomware attack, and that is simply not an event we can or will tolerate. Instead of relying on EDR, we have moved to a more layered, comprehensive strategy that includes BullWall’s rapid containment of ongoing attacks. Our customers, our valuable data, our operations and staff, and our reputation deserve no less,” said BullWall customer John Hyland, Director of Information Technology, Town of North Andover in Massachusetts.
Kerry concluded: “2024 looks even more promising both for enterprises seeking that invaluable last line of defense against ransomware, for the community of MSSPs and IT and cybersecurity partners helping them do so, and for our world-class and global team at BullWall.”
