Cork Readies for Next Phase of Growth, Appoints AWS Alum Dan Candee as CEO
18 Julio 2024 - 8:35AM
Cork Protection, Inc., the leader in smart warranty solutions for
MSPs serving small businesses (SMBs) and the ISV solutions they
manage, today announced its next phase of growth and innovation
with the launch of Cork 2.0 and appointment of Dan Candee as CEO.
Carlson Choi, who has served as Cork’s Founding CEO since its
inception in 2022, will return to his digital roots and lead the
innovation arm as the company’s Chief Product and Technology
Officer.
Cork 2.0 introduces advanced features to boost its
cyber intelligence and smart cyber warranty solutions. These
enhancements empower MSPs to safeguard their clients against
ever-changing threats while also expanding their business
opportunities. By leveraging Cork 2.0, MSPs can enhance their
security offerings and create new revenue streams, promoting both
protection and profitability. Cork has been laser-focused on its
mission to protect SMBs from financial losses stemming from
cybercrime since coming out of stealth in 2023. The company
partners with MSPs to ensure that cyber-attack prevention and cyber
warranty become foundational parts of their customers’
cybersecurity solution stacks. Through its purpose-built security
monitoring platform, Cork is managing more than 250,000 endpoints,
with millions of compliance events checked daily and hundreds
detected and mitigated.
Candee joins the company to lead the charge as it
implements the Cork 2.0 strategy. Dan, an entrepreneur at heart,
started his first business in 1997 and spent most of the next three
decades growing small and medium-sized organizations. Most
recently, Dan served as Chief Business Officer at Todyl, a company
focused on transforming cybersecurity with a comprehensive security
platform. Prior to Todyl, Dan led strategy, channel, go-to-market
and operations at two exceptional enterprises Amazon Web Services
(AWS) and DELL.
“My vision for Cork is to ensure our MSP partners
can deliver as business continuity and security champions for their
SMB customers,” said Candee. “I admire how Cork
empowers MSPs by enabling them to deliver instant value to their
SMB clients. By embracing MSPs existing cyber stack, Cork mitigates
both the risk and cost associated with an attack. As we move into
year two, we are making significant platform investments to build
upon the phenomenal success the team has already experienced. Our
Board, which includes channel and customer champions like Austin
McChord and Jon McNeill, is deeply invested and active in Cork’s
success. In the coming months, MSPs can expect to see an
acceleration of our technology alliances and product development
initiatives while we simultaneously expand our partner-first
culture.”
“I’m especially proud of the incredible innovation
and ingenuity our team has demonstrated to bring to life a leading
cybersecurity platform, and I am excited to partner with Dan, whose
expertise in channel sales, business strategy, and operations will
take Cork to the next level,” said Choi.
"MSPs need reliable, user-friendly financial
solutions to protect against cyber risks and Cork addresses this
through its monitoring and warranty platform that seamlessly
integrates into their existing technology stack, enhances the value
of their services, and provides immediate peace of mind to the SMB
customers they support," said Austin McChord, Managing
Director at Outsiders Fund. “I’m thrilled to see Dan take
the helm as Cork enters a new phase and look forward to continuing
to work closely with their team to further accelerate their growth
and success.”
“Dan is a fantastic leader who blends culture,
vision, and technical expertise together to drive Cork’s mission.
As Cork’s CEO, he understands the challenges businesses of all
sizes face in protecting themselves against evolving cyber threats
and mitigating the risk of a cyberattack, and Cork’s proprietary
inside/out risk assessment is an essential tool for MSPs,” said
Jon McNeill, founder at Cork and CEO and co-founder at DVx
Ventures. “Cyberattacks aren't a matter of 'if' but
'when.' Small businesses are especially vulnerable since they lack
the resources of larger companies and rely on their MSPs, who in
turn count on partners like Cork for the protection SMBs need.”
Expanded Capabilities for Enhanced
Cybersecurity Protection
With the launch of Cork 2.0, Cork is extending the
capabilities of its cyber intelligence and smart cyber warranty
offerings with new features designed to help MSPs protect their
clients from evolving threats while growing their businesses and
driving profitability through new revenue streams.
These new features include:
- BEC compliance
reporting. Business Email Compromise (BEC) attacks have
become more challenging to detect and prevent due to the growing
use of cloud-based infrastructure. In 2023, businesses in the
United States lost $2.9 billion in BEC scams, according to the
FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3). This number has risen
more than 50% since 2020, when losses from BEC attacks were
estimated at $1.86 billion. Cork’s innovations in BEC compliance
will enable MSPs to optimize their email security application
configuration and strengthen their security practices to prevent
threat actors from gaining unauthorized access to a legitimate
email account and redirecting funds or information to a malicious
entity.
- Endpoint-based
pricing. Cork has updated its pricing model to better suit
the way MSPs implement cybersecurity solutions for their SMB
clients. The new pricing, which is based on endpoints, is designed
to help MSPs increase their margins and overall profitability when
using the Cork platform.
- A one-stop shop for cyber
assurance. Cork is teaming with DataStream, a leading
technology-enabled online digital broker, to deliver end-to-end
cyber warranty and cyber insurance protection to MSPs and the small
businesses (SMBs) they serve. Effective immediately, MSPs can now
use Cork’s cyber intelligence and active loss prevention platform
to underwrite DataStream’s cyber insurance offering, which provides
comprehensive coverage and risk analysis tools for first-party and
third-party losses, including breaches, ransomware, cybercrime, and
cyberterrorism. Leveraging the SMB’s existing security stack
investment, Cork now provides both cyber warranty and cyber
insurance underwriting services to eligible customers, including
estimates and quoting.
“Cork is committed to the success of the MSSP and
the MSP community and continues to increase our ability to prevent
and counter cyber-attacks with its security-first platform approach
and immediate access to financial support for our customers in the
event of an attack,” said Jason Makevich, CEO of Greenlight
Information Services. “The developments in Cork’s BEC
compliance monitoring and the inclusion of cyber insurance
underwriting are all factors that will contribute to the health of
our customers, as well as the success and growth of our
business.”
About Dan Candee
Dan Candee was named CEO of Cork Cyber Protection
in July 2024. An energetic and results-minded leader, Dan listens
intently and takes action to deliver a superior experience to
employees and customers. His decades of experience range from
entrepreneur to enterprise leader. His experience includes serving
as the Global Sales and Strategy Leader at Amazon Web Services
(AWS) and, most recently, Chief Business Officer at Todyl
Cybersecurity. Dan worked with his team and customers in these
roles to drive greater revenues, generate more business value, and
achieve operational success.
About Cork
Cork is a purpose-built cyber warranty company for
managed service providers (MSPs) serving small businesses (SMBs)
and the software solutions they manage. Its purpose-built platform
is driven by an AI-enhanced cyber risk engine designed to offer
MSPs and their clients peace of mind with near-instant coverage and
settlements in the aftermath of security incidents. Cork’s
revolutionary Protection from the Inside Out™ approach to
actionable insights, flexible premiums, and claims management puts
control in the hands of MSPs and SMBs to protect the digital assets
they value most. Cork is backed by DVx Ventures, Outsiders Fund,
and Vestigo Ventures. For more information,
visit corkinc.com and follow Cork on LinkedIn.
A photo accompanying this announcement is available
at
https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/790fb588-9c2a-40a8-8eab-c461e0f2b0c3
Press Contact:
Suzanne Collier
714-469-0149