Rob Allen, Chief Product Officer at ThreatLocker, shares how their proactive, Zero Trust-driven approach is helping organizations around the world secure their environments—without unnecessary complexity. From region-specific regulations to universal security gaps, this episode explores what really drives meaningful conversations at events like InfoSecurity Europe.
As InfoSecurity Europe prepares to welcome cybersecurity professionals from across the globe, Rob Allen, Chief Product Officer at ThreatLocker, shares why this moment—and this location—matters. Allen doesn’t frame the conversation around hype or headlines. Instead, he focuses on a universal truth: organizations want to sleep better at night knowing their environments are secure.
ThreatLocker’s mission is grounded in achieving Zero Trust in a simple, operationally feasible way. But more than that, Allen emphasizes their value as enablers of peace of mind. Whether helping customers prevent ransomware attacks or meet regional regulatory requirements like GDPR or Australia’s Essential Eight, the company is working toward real-world solutions that reduce complexity without sacrificing security. Their presence at events like InfoSecurity Europe is key—not just for outreach, but to hear directly from customers and partners about what’s working and where they need help.
Why Being There Matters
Different regions have different pressures. In Australia, adoption surged without any local team initially on the ground—driven purely by alignment with the Essential Eight framework. In the UK, it’s conversations about Cyber Essentials that shape booth discussions. Regulations aren’t just compliance checklists; they’re also conversation starters that change how organizations prioritize security.
The ThreatLocker team doesn’t rely on generic demos or vague promises. They bring targeted examples to the booth—like asking attendees if they know what software can be run on their machines without alerting anyone. If tools like remote desktop applications or archive utilities can be freely executed, attackers can use them too. This is where ThreatLocker steps in: controlling what runs, identifying what’s necessary, and blocking what isn’t.
Booth D90 and Beyond
Rob Allen invites anyone—whether they’re new to ThreatLocker or longtime users—to visit booth D90. The team, built with a mix of technical skill and humor (ask about the “second-best beard” in the company), is there to listen and help. It’s not just about showcasing technology; it’s about building relationships and reinforcing a shared goal: practical, proactive cybersecurity that makes a measurable difference.
If you’re at InfoSecurity Europe, stop by. If you’re not, this episode offers a meaningful glimpse into why showing up—both physically and philosophically—matters in cybersecurity.
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Guest:
Rob Allen, Chief Product Officer, ThreatLocker | https://www.linkedin.com/in/threatlockerrob/
Resources
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Keywords:
sean martin, marco ciappelli, rob allen, cybersecurity, zero trust, infosec, compliance, ransomware, endpoint, regulation, brand story, brand marketing, marketing podcast, brand story podcast
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What Helps You Sleep Better at Night: A Practical Take on Zero Trust | A Brand Story with Rob Allen from ThreatLocker | An Infosecurity Europe 2025 Pre-Event Brand Story
Please note that this transcript was created using AI technology and may contain inaccuracies or deviations from the original audio file. The transcript is provided for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as a substitute for the original recording, as errors may exist. At this time, we provide it “as it is,” and we hope it can be helpful for our audience.
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Sean Martin: [00:00:00] Marco,
Marco Ciappelli: Sean,
Sean Martin: I'm, I'm way ahead of you,
Marco Ciappelli: I know we, we just talked about that in the other recording. You are already in Europe,
and, uh, I have to ask you all the time, where are you now? Where are you now? Can you hear me now?
Sean Martin: top secret. It's top secret where I am,
Marco Ciappelli: uh,
Sean Martin: I am,
I'm closer to London. I'll say that.
Marco Ciappelli: don't keep it a secret. Come on, tell me.
Sean Martin: I'm in Spain for another conference, an AppSec conference called, uh, OASP. And, uh, yeah, so I'm, I'm making my way to London for Info Security Europe, uh, the first week of June and we get to see our good friends, uh, from Threat Locker. Rob Allen again.
Marco Ciappelli: It's right here.
Rob Allen: indeed. Yes, indeed. That's a very long-winded way of getting to, uh, to London, Sean,
Sean Martin: I know it was a
slight detour, slight detour, bit, bit of a
holiday. I, I like to make Marco jealous, so I, I, I head off on the, on the trips that he doesn't get to go to.[00:01:00]
Marco Ciappelli: There you go. There you go. Well, I'm gonna get straight to London from LA and I'm excited for this. The last time I hang out with Rob was actually in San Francisco, and uh, that's, uh, that's kind of like our tour, right? ITSP magazine own tour, which is our SA InfoSec and a Wasp. Of course you are there, but doesn't count because I'm not there, so it's not that cool.
Right, right. Rob, you know what I'm talking about?
Rob Allen: definitely not. Doesn't at all. I mean, I, I dunno why they don't just cancel it to be honest, Marco.
Marco Ciappelli: Well, you know, that's, that's Sean's passion right there. It's is the OPSEC world. And, uh, he's, he's weird like that. So I let him have fun with it.
Sean Martin: like that and many other ways too.
Marco Ciappelli: Yeah. And then, and then we'll get back to, to Las Vegas for black ad Word. I'm sure we'll talk to you guys again, but why we're here today is to talk about, uh, Infosecurity in London and there is definitely excitement.
It's one of the major event in Europe [00:02:00] and Threat Locker is gonna be there. It doesn't matter how you pronounce it. You guys are gonna be there. And, uh, we are excited to get to talk to you now and then get to talk with the folks on the. On the floor, uh, at your booth, and really Rob, um, you, you've been with us a few times, so we, we know who you are, uh, pretty well.
Um, there may be people right now that don't know who you are listening, so who is Rob?
Sean Martin: It's not possible.
Rob Allen: Who's Rob? So Rob is the Chief Product Officer, uh, at Threat Locker. Uh, also occasional chief podcast officer, as we can now see sometimes Chief Pineapple Officer. Um, don't even go there. Please don't ask about that because it's a very long and sad story. But, um. Yeah, I, I basically make, well help make the cool things happen.
Marco Ciappelli: And that's important. You're the fixer, right?
Rob Allen: Mm-hmm.
Marco Ciappelli: love that.
Rob Allen: wouldn't go so far as to say creator. Now there [00:03:00] are others who may take that particular title, but yeah, I try and turn dreams into reality.
Marco Ciappelli: All good.
Sean Martin: And, and the dream is to, uh, to make zero trust possible in the, uh, most simplest way possible. Right.
Rob Allen: Absolutely a good way to describe it. I mean, uh, the other way to describe it is to help people sleep at night. Um, that, that is probably the biggest and best feedback that I get from speaking to customers at events like InfoSec is when somebody says to me, you help me sleep better at night, they, there is no greater compliment that we could get. Um, so yeah, another way of looking at it.
Sean Martin: to help others
Rob Allen: Making zero trust possible, but yeah, well, absolutely. Yes. Uh, it, it, it involves making zero trust possible. And attainable and achievable. But as I said, fundamentally, it's about helping people sleep at night knowing their environments are secured. I.
Marco Ciappelli: Yeah. So I wanna take this opportunity 'cause we, we kind of start touching on that when we were sitting on those [00:04:00] comfortable couch at, uh, in, in San Francisco. About how do you approach different geographic market? Is the conversation different depending on where you are in the world? And, and how is, uh, let's just put it there.
Why is important for Threat Locker and you guys to be on location as much as you can all over the world, in particular, in this case, Europe.
Rob Allen: Well, I suppose in general, the problem is the same everywhere. The problem, problem is universal. It's no different for organizations in the EU or EA than it is for organizations in the us. Um, conversations somewhere sometimes are slightly different. I mean, there's different concerns, things like, uh, you know, GDPR. Sort of stuff in the, in Europe isn't really so much of a thing here. Um, but I mean, specific examples like I would imagine uh, companies in [00:05:00] the UK for example, at the moment are paying quite a lot of attention to the problem of ransomware because three massive organizations, retail organizations, have been hit over the last couple of weeks.
I mean, I saw an article today that one of them was going to cost over $400 million to the organization in question. Now that's, if, if that isn't something that,
Sean Martin: one that that claimed human error?
Rob Allen: NN again, I, I, on the one hand I do wanna get into specifics, 'cause 400, $2 million is a really big number and it gets attention. But on the other hand, um, yeah, I, I don't really want get into specifics 'cause I don't. I, I don't think they know what happened specifically yet. But the, the, the fact of the matter is events like that, and it, it is a sad fact of cybersecurity life is that organizations realistically in a lot of cases don't pay attention unless something bad has happened and it. Very often take [00:06:00] something really big, like these recent attacks to basically get people's attention and have them realize, hang on, if the, if a massive organization like this can be brought to their knees by a ransomware attack, what can I do to my organization? Um, I mean, I, I had an interesting conversation with a, a, a, an organization here in the US recently, and they basically said, look, we don't have any money. But realistically, what's gonna have to happen is we're going to have an incident, we're going to get hit, and then all of a sudden people will pay attention and spend the. Required money. now as I said, the ideal scenario in your ideal situation is that doesn't need to be the case. Um, and that's part of the reason why we attend events like InfoSec to talk to people to say, well, look, there are ways you can protect yourself. There are other, you know, potentially better ways you can protect yourself. So you don't have to be an example or a bad example of what you shouldn't do. You could be a very good [00:07:00] example of what you can and should do.
Marco Ciappelli: Yeah, to be a little bit more proactive than reactive, which again, we always go there like, you know, first lock everything and then decide what, what, what wind, what window you wanna, you are actually using and you want to keep open. Right? I.
Rob Allen: It, it's, it's just, it's different approaches to the same problem. As I said, the problem is universal. The solutions are not necessarily universal. if everybody did the same thing and realistic, a lot of products do do the same thing in slightly different ways. Um, but the beauty about the approach that we take is it is very different.
It is very unique. It is proactive rather than reactive. and I know
Marco Ciappelli: Let me let, let me ask you something. I mean, I like, I like to talk a very like global level when it comes to like cyber war, cyber attack and how it affect the relationship between states and so forth. And actually at infosecurity. There is gonna be a, a, a good deal of conversation on [00:08:00] geopolitics and, and how cybersecurity affect that.
So I'm really looking forward to that. Um, but regulation in, in, in your case, do you, do you see that sometimes there is stronger drivers to be. Proactive because you actually have a market that force you to do that, or certain regulation, I don't know. I'm thinking maybe Australia and Europe being a little bit more pushy, not saying that in that direction instead of waiting for stuff to happen.
Rob Allen: I, interesting fact. Our second biggest, and it, it kind of varies between the UK and Australia. Australia's our second biggest market
Marco Ciappelli: Mm.
Rob Allen: We never really had a presence in a, in Australia. Now we do have an office there. We've got staff, we've got, you know, boots on the ground. But for probably four or five years, it was still our second biggest market, despite the fact that we didn't at that stage have any infrastructure or [00:09:00] staff or anything else. In the country. reason for that was primarily down to Australia, having a piece of, uh, I dunno if it's legislation per se, but a, a set of rules, which is called the Essential Aid. the Essential Aid. Basically if, if we'd have drafted a document to say, this is all the things that you should do, because we could do all the things in Threat Locker, it probably would've come out pretty similarly to the Essential eight.
So things like, you know, blocking on trusted applications, all that kind of stuff is there in the essential eight. Um, now. As I said, I, I would pretty much that, that is the reason that that is our second biggest market at this stage. So from our perspective. It's absolutely fantastic that have strong legislation that basically tells people exactly what they should be doing and if they get breached, finds them appropriately if they don't do the things that legislation said they should do. So there's lots of different examples like that. I mean, in fairness, even here in the US it was a, um, an executive order, I think [00:10:00] it was back in 2021. Um, mandating zero trust for anything to do with the federal. Government. Um, again, that was great because it got attention on zero trust. It basically, well, hang on a second.
If the federal government is, you know, mandated to implement zero trust, maybe we should too. Um, so, uh, absolutely it, it, it greatly helps and as I said, there's different variations on it. In the eu, for example, with things like Dora, um, obviously mentioned GDPR, I mean there, there, there's legislation pretty much everywhere that. In various shapes and guise, guises does suggest to people that they should be doing it as something else and something different.
Marco Ciappelli: So by, by, by reflecting on that, does, does it even change the conversation that you do have at the booth when, when you're on location, the way that you talk to people, but not, not just because you drive the conversation a different way, but because it's [00:11:00] driven by the question that you get from your customers.
Gimme some example there maybe, or what you expect in London.
Rob Allen: A great example in London will be cyber essentials.
Marco Ciappelli: Hmm.
Rob Allen: so the UK have a set of, you know, what you should do, which is cyber essentials. Now again, it's, it's not dissimilar to the essential aid in the US and so, or sorry, in, in Australia. And so far as they've tried to narrow it down, they've tried to give people actionable steps.
These are the things that you should do basically businesses and organizations can get. Cyber essential certified. Um, it's a good thing to be if you're a business. So again, that kind of thing will drive a lot of the conversations that we'll have at the likes of InfoSec. So it'll be, well, look, how can you guys help us get cyber essentials? so yeah, it, it, it is, the conversations are slightly different from region to region, but fundamentally, they're basically the same. Thrust is the same, which is, how do I do this better?
Sean Martin: Do, do you find Rob that, um, I [00:12:00] don't know. Different markets have higher numbers of. Analysts and endpoint managers looking after security versus, MSPs stepping in to kind of support a wider group of organizations, maybe more SMEs and small medium enterprise versus large enterprise and different markets. Anything there that also shifts how the conversation looks when you're, you're
Rob Allen: Uh,
Sean Martin: at
Rob Allen: not, not really. I mean, the, the typical size I mean, some of our, our biggest customers are in the, um, EMEA region, um, similarly Australia actually. So again, I, I can think of two or three off the top of my head that are, are. Quite frankly, enormous in that part of the world. So the type of customer realistically doesn't change.
I mean, it's, it's not as if we. So to deal with a particular vertical, or it's just one particular type of organization? I mean, we have everything from, you know, banking to, you know, [00:13:00] tourism to, to schools, to hospitals. Uh, I mean, again, you could probably say that certain, verticals may be more targeted in different parts of the world.
I mean, hospitals seem to be particularly, um. Uh, particularly targeted, um, vertical in this part of the world. Um, maybe less so in others, although the attack in the Irish Health Service back in 2021 would probably suggest otherwise that they would basically go after hospitals wherever they can. so no, I don't think there's anything specific from that perspective.
I mean, look, we deal with large enterprises all over the world. We deal with. businesses through MSPs all over the world. I mean, the model realistically doesn't change because as I said, the problem doesn't change.
Marco Ciappelli: Yeah. And, and talking about that, you know, getting to meet you guys in person, either, you know, you, you have the, your big event, uh, every year, which is growing like crazy. And, uh, we were, we were [00:14:00] there. Glad, uh, glad, glad that we were, um, I. People are now listening because they're gonna follow our coverage of Infosecurity Europe and they say, Hey, you know what?
I'm gonna be there. I'm gonna be outta Excel. I'm gonna go talk to these guys. Never, you know, never heard of them. I'm sure somebody hasn't. What, what, how do they, how would you suggest them to come to the booth and, and interact with the team and get the best out of it?
Rob Allen: So first of all, I suppose we should really tell them where to go, which is the booth D 90. So, um, come to Booth D 90, we have a team of our guys will be there headed, I believe by Mantis, uh, owner of the second best beard and threat locker. And I wanna be very clear about this, the second best beard in Threat Locker is owned by Mantis.
So yeah, come talk to Mantis and the rest of the threat locker
Marco Ciappelli: Well we, we will actually talk to Mantis on location.
Rob Allen: make sure you [00:15:00] tell him that is a really good beard, but it is not the best beard in threat locker.
Marco Ciappelli: I'm make,
I'm make,
I'm taking a note right here. That's how I'm gonna start the conversation for sure.
Rob Allen: Excellent. But yeah, no, come talk to the guys. They are, uh, a fantastic team, um, in emea. Um. Humble brag built largely by yours, truly when I was, um, based in that part of the world. Um, but yeah, come talk to the guys. They're more than open. They're, they're, uh, very willing to have conversations. They wanna listen.
They want to hear problems. They want to existing customers come talk to us as well. I mean, that is one of the biggest benefits of these events from our perspective, is not only to spread the word to new. Prospects or customers. It's also our, uh, new prospects. It's also to speak to existing customers, get their feedback. How has their experience been? Is there anything we can do any better? You know, is everything okay? So whether it's customers, prospects, if you've heard of us, if you've never heard of us, if you can't get us outta your head, way, come talk to the team and, um, [00:16:00] they will be delighted to have a conversation.
Sean Martin: So I, I can, I'll note that the, the team is really fun and really cool and knowledgeable. uh, yeah, Marco mentioned, uh, your
Rob Allen: Uh, sorry that Sean, that that's me. What about the rest of the team?
Sean Martin: Exactly. No other humble brag there. There we go. Well, you are definitely
Marco Ciappelli: There this. And
best in being that.
Rob Allen: No,
Sean Martin: Uh,
Rob Allen: absolutely they are. Absolutely, they are.
Sean Martin: but so, and I, I was also gonna say that when we, when we a chance to speak to a lot of customers at your event. Um, the, the feedback from them was, was overwhelmingly positive and complimentary as well. So my, my question or to you is, in, in response or regards to new, new folks who wanna connect with the threat locker team, is there one or two things that they might be experiencing in their environment now that says [00:17:00] you're right for a, a threat locker conversation. Any signs in their logs or
Rob Allen: There's, there's,
Sean Martin: feeling
Rob Allen: so many, there's so many different things. I mean, it, it's, it's, it's difficult to give one, it's difficult to give 10 different examples. I mean, if you're sitting at a computer right now and you can run any desk on that computer, that's a problem. at a computer and you can run an IP scanner. Nobody picks up the phone to ring you to say, Hey, why are you trying to run an IP scanner? That's a problem. You clear the event logs in your machine and nobody's on top of that immediately, or, and these are just obvious things that you know about. What about all the things that you don't know about that are happening in the background?
You know what I mean? Oh, you're in a coffee shop and there's been a connection on port 3, 3 8, 9. Did you know about that? Probably not. Is it a problem? Probably. Um, so there's a, there's a million different things, but as I said, the very basics are things like, as [00:18:00] I said, being able to run software like any desks or any, the other dozens of remote access tools or data exfiltration tools, or can you run WinZip and ra? I, I mean, again, these are not bad applications. These are not things that your typical AV or EDR is going to. Stop. It's, I mean, it's just WIN R, but can it be used for data exfiltration? Can it be used for data encryption? A hundred percent. Can it delete data? Yes, it can. Uh, I mean, putty is another great example.
Putty is a great tool. Lots of people use it. It's really cool, but it can also be used for data exfiltration. We've seen it used for data exfiltration. So again, if you can run all of these things in your machines, then realistically an attacker can run all of these things in your machines as well. And that's a problem. So there's. You know, there's the things you can see. There's the things you can, you can't see, but again, showing you or giving you visibility to the things that you can't see as part of what Threadlocker does. So, well
Marco Ciappelli: And when you say potty, you mean potty?
Rob Allen: say
Marco Ciappelli: The
Rob Allen: Marco. Say it properly.
Marco Ciappelli: Poti.
Rob Allen: No[00:19:00]
Marco Ciappelli: What was that?
Rob Allen: bootie.
Marco Ciappelli: Puti. Now that, that's your Italian. Not me.
Rob Allen: Well, technically it's Christiano's Italian who's another, uh, member of our team over there, but.
Marco Ciappelli: Well, I before or later, as we said, sometimes for fun, we'll have to do a podcast with them.
Rob Allen: do.
Marco Ciappelli: Italian style
for real.
Rob Allen: I am, I, I have to admit, I am worried because the world might just end from the absolute coolness, but having you and Christiano, um, do your thing together,
Marco Ciappelli: Uh,
Rob Allen: the, the, the hands alone would just be
Marco Ciappelli: we'll need a bigger, a bigger screen like, you know, to
Yeah.
No, they're not gonna,
Rob Allen: to go wide
Marco Ciappelli: they,
Rob Allen: Everything everywhere. Yeah,
Marco Ciappelli: yeah. Or, or in person. That will be even, even better. And talk.
Rob Allen: will be even better.
Marco Ciappelli: Talking about that. Um, I am, honestly, I'm always excited to go to London. I heard some people are not that crazy about that town, but I do like it quite a bit.
I don't know. Never.
Rob Allen: about London?[00:20:00]
Marco Ciappelli: I don't know. I'm just saying I'm sure there's people, you know, you never know,
but, but I am excited. I know Sean is excited. We're gonna film all over the places.
Sean Martin: There's a pub under the bridge I want to go to.
Rob Allen: So
Sean Martin: I'm
Rob Allen: fun fact by the way. Um, I don't know if it was it, so it wasn't last year's InfoSec, but I think it was two years ago's InfoSec when, um, as I said, I was over that side of the pond. Um, we were looking for somewhere to stay. I. And there is a hotel boat out front of the XL where I believe the event is on.
It's on the left hand side. I can't remember what it was called. Um, but we stayed in the hotel boat just outside of the XL For
Marco Ciappelli: Oh, I know what you're talking about. Yeah. Yeah.
Rob Allen: It's a big gaudy looking.
Marco Ciappelli: restaurants, I believe do, yeah. Yeah.
Rob Allen: if you, if you happen to stay in it. Now I, I'm gonna be very careful about how to describe it here, but it's basically [00:21:00] mostly on the inside.
Marco Ciappelli: Wow. Shiny.
Rob Allen: It, yeah. I, I, look, I don't wanna put too fine a point in it, but it's what I would imagine Donald, Donald Trump's toilet would look like. It's. Gold everywhere. I mean the shower gel. This is not a joke. This is not an exaggeration. This is true. The shower gel was gold
Marco Ciappelli: Wow.
Rob Allen: in the boat hotel,
Marco Ciappelli: Wow.
Rob Allen: so it's probably a bit late for anybody.
Now if they did want to stay in the boat
Marco Ciappelli: Probably.
Rob Allen: well booked up. But if you do get a chance to do it in the future, it is a experience.
Marco Ciappelli: All right. Well that's.
Sean Martin: I'm holding my tongue for some of the words you're using here. Well, I'll wait for the recording to finish.
Marco Ciappelli: Okay. Okay. You do, let me, let me wrap the recording and then we keep talking. So either you're staying in a gold, uh, covered hotel or you're just gonna be in a regular place like me. Probably. Uh, it's always exciting to be there. There's a great [00:22:00] community. Uh, I think we are expecting 14,000 people to come to the Excel.
You can get lost. There is a lot going on there. But you'll find where infosecurity Europe is. We will be there. We'll be covering, we'll be talking to keynotes and speakers, and of course we'll be talked to the Threadlocker team on the on location. The booth is, uh, D 90, D 90. See, I already memorized that. I, I'm gonna tell the guy Montes that he has the best second beard.
Rob Allen: No second best
Marco Ciappelli: Second best beard.
Rob Allen: beard, Marco.
Sean Martin: Yeah, if he
Marco Ciappelli: I'll make a better note for that
Sean Martin: that's a,
Marco Ciappelli: second beard. It has, it has two beard, one on one side, one on the other. All right, you guys, I'm gonna close this 'cause you, you guys are too funny. You're too silly, too funny.
Sean Martin: we'll say Everybody in, in London. Uh, excited to see the Threat Locker team. Appreciate you guys, uh, joining us for this and being part of our coverage.
Marco Ciappelli: All right,
see you there [00:23:00] Rob. Thank you so much.
Rob Allen: travels.