A conversation with Max Heinemeyer, Director of Threat Hunting at Darktrace

Max is a cyber security expert with over eight years’ experience in the field specializing in network monitoring and offensive security. At Darktrace, Max works with strategic customers to help them investigate and respond to threats as well as overseeing the cyber security analyst team in the Cambridge UK headquarters.

Prior to his current role, Max led the Threat and Vulnerability Management department for Hewlett-Packard in Central Europe. He was a member of the German Chaos Computer Club, working as a white hat hacker in penetration testing and red teaming engagements. Max holds a MSc from the University of Duisburg-Essen and a BSc from the Cooperative State University Stuttgart in International Business Information Systems.

BRW: What do you hope the audience will learn from this webinar?

It’d be great if the audience gets an overview of what the current cyber security threat landscape out there looks like. It is changing quite rapidly with more IoT, BYOD and the advent of the cloud. It is also very hard to keep up with the ever-evolving cyber-security landscape and vendor ecosystem, especially since every solution now claims to use some form of machine learning (ML) and ‘artificial intelligence’ (AI). I’d like to dispel some of the myths and show how ML & AI can actually be applied to real problems like detecting threats on a network.

BRW: What discussions do you look forward to having with the audience?

I’m much looking forward to discuss what the audience thinks about the application of ML & AI to cyber-security. Since we have a lot of veterans and very experienced people joining, it’d be good to understand what their biggest challenges and issues are. I personally talk to our customers on a daily basis and have a good overview of what is going on in our customer base, but it is excellent to reach out to the wider industry and understand what people & organisations are struggling with and how to best help them.

BRW: What do you enjoy most about your role?

Wow, there are so many things! The first thing that comes to my mind is the great people I have the pleasure to work with in my team and at Darktrace as a whole. It is an incredible feeling when one of my junior analyst identifies their first active attacker or botnet in a live environment. There are a lot of very smart people at Darktrace, working with them is stimulating and keeps things interesting.

There is also a lot of diversity in my role – I conduct threat hunts on new live networks every day, so I’m very fortunate to see vastly different attacks, threat and offensive techniques.

BRW: How did you get into the industry?

I was fascinated by computer from an early age on. I started playing computer games when I was a child – it usually involves a lot of puzzle-solving and challenging exercises if you boil most computer games down to their core. Naturally, I started being fascinated by game design and how computer games work. This lead me to look into game hacking, multiplayer games and networking. Growing up with these technologies and the ability to research whatever your heart desires – combined with a constant curiosity – has ultimately led me to get deeply involved with the cyber-security industry.

BRW: Where is your favourite place in the world and why?

I have many favourite places, but I certainly like Cambridge a lot. It provides the opportunities of a major city but does not come across as hectic as a major metropolitan area like London or Berlin. Thanks to the strong university presence, it is also a very culturally diverse place to live in. The ability to reach 3 major airports close to London is another perk of the greater Cambridge area.

Join Max Heinemeyer on a webinar entitled ‘AI For Cyber Defence in the Financial Sector’ by Darktrace on 17th January at 3PM London/10AM New York.

Register Here!