THE HAGERTY ADVANTAGE – OUR PEOPLE: Rob Denaburg

October is National Cybersecurity Awareness Month (NCSAM), and, throughout the month, we are highlighting Hagerty employees working to support our cybersecurity needs. During this fifth and last week of NSCAM we highlight Rob Denaburg, a Senior Managing Associate on Hagerty’s Preparedness Team and a Hagerty’s Cyber Team Member.

Briefly tell us about yourself – how did your career path lead you to Hagerty Consulting?

I came to DC after graduate school without a job lined up because I knew I wanted to be in the nation’s capital. From there, my career took me down a few different paths – counterterrorism, management consulting, cybersecurity, and, most recently, a focus on critical infrastructure security and disaster response. For nearly the past four years, I examined threats to critical infrastructure resilience and the challenges associated with responding to complex catastrophes to help clients develop and implement solutions to them.

While I learned an incredible amount, worked closely with an outstanding mentor, and developed a genuine passion for resilience-related work, I’d been doing so from a very high-level, policy-focused perspective. I recently decided that I wanted to work with organizations on the ground and directly assist clients implement the policies and procedures I had been previously recommending to further improve their disaster preparedness. I came to Hagerty at the end of September to do just that.

What is something every individual or business should know about cybersecurity?

Cybersecurity is a constant and all-inclusive effort. There is no such thing as securing a system or network and being done with it. Adversaries will keep looking for new tactics and techniques to penetrate your defenses. Organizations must stay vigilant and keep looking for novel ways to counter innovative offensive strategies. Even as network security improves, attackers are increasingly targeting product supply chains and individual employees to try to gain a foothold. So, everyone within an organization must do their part to keep ahead of the bad guys.

What do you find most meaningful about the work you do here at Hagerty?

For many natural and manmade hazards, the question is not “if” but “when” an organization or government agency will be affected. As a member of Hagerty’s preparedness team, I know that we’re putting our clients in a position to succeed at a time when their ability to mitigate impacts and respond to a crisis are the most essential. In many cases, our work will help them save lives and minimize other societal and economic impacts when disaster strikes.

Rob Denaburg is an experienced consultant with a concentration in critical infrastructure security and disaster response. Mr. Denaburg has worked with public and private sector clients to minimize the societal, economic, and national security impacts of catastrophic infrastructure outages. He has advised policymakers and industry leaders on how to build resilience against severe natural and manmade hazards, and navigate cross-sector interdependencies in sustaining and restoring lifeline services.