CyberTech Top Voice: Interview with Fenix24’s Heath Renfrow

Hello, CyberTech community. Welcome to part #14 of the CyberTech Top Voice interview series with Heath Renfrow, CISO and Founder at Fenix24.

The latest CyberTech Top Voice Interview features an insightful conversation with Heath Renfrow, the founder of Fenix24. In this engaging discussion, Heath takes us through his remarkable career journey, from nearly two decades of service with the Department of Defense to becoming a thought leader in the field of cybersecurity. He shares the story behind Fenix24’s creation, driven by a pressing need for specialized disaster recovery services in the face of rising ransomware threats. As the only pure-play disaster restoration firm globally, Fenix24 is revolutionizing how organizations recover and rebuild after cyberattacks, ensuring minimal downtime and maximum operational continuity.

Join us as Heath Renfrow delves deeper into how Fenix24 is transforming the landscape of disaster recovery and what sets it apart from traditional incident response firms.

Hi Heath, welcome to CyberTech Top Voice Interview. Please tell us a little bit about your journey. How did you start at Fenix24 Certainly! 

Heath Renfrow: My journey to Fenix24 has been an incredible adventure shaped by nearly 20 years with the Department of Defense (DoD). I started as an Active Duty sailor, serving for nine years, before transitioning to a civilian role where I held several high-level CISO positions. My last role was particularly impactful as the CISO for Army Healthcare, where I oversaw critical cybersecurity operations for one of the largest healthcare systems in the world.

The idea for Fenix24 arose from a real need we observed during ransomware recovery efforts. Our sister company, Conversant Group, was called into several ransomware incidents to assist with recovery, even though it wasn’t their primary focus. These experiences revealed a significant gap in the industry: a dedicated, specialized company solely focused on disaster recovery and response.

Recognizing this unmet need, we founded Fenix24 in April 2022. Our mission is to provide organizations across the globe with unmatched expertise in ransomware recovery, ensuring they can rise stronger after a crisis—just like a phoenix.

What sets Fenix24 apart from other market incident response and disaster recovery providers?

Heath: Fenix24 stands out as a true innovator in the cyber resilience space because of its singular focus: disaster restoration. Unlike traditional incident response firms, which primarily handle forensic investigations to identify the root cause of a cyber incident, Fenix24 is not in the business of forensics. Instead, we specialize in restoring operational capabilities swiftly and effectively, ensuring organizations can resume normal business operations with minimal downtime.

What truly differentiates us is that Fenix24 is the only pure-play disaster restoration firm globally. While many providers blend forensic incident response, discovery, and recovery under one umbrella, we dedicate 100% of our expertise and resources to the recovery and restoration phase. This laser focus allows us to perfect the art and science of disaster restoration, enabling us to deliver predictable recovery timelines and unparalleled speed—two elements that are critical during high-pressure ransomware or cyberattack scenarios.

Additionally, we approach recovery with a level of precision and reliability that is unmatched. Our proprietary tools, such as the 5-4-3-2-1 immutable backup strategy from our Grypho5 battalion, combined with the infrastructure hardening expertise of our Athena7 battalion, ensure that clients receive a recovery solution that not only gets them operational again but also fortifies them against future threats.

Our global track record speaks volumes. Fenix24 has worked on major cyber incidents in 96 countries, providing expertise that bridges cultural, technical, and regulatory nuances seamlessly. This global presence, combined with our pure-play restoration focus, uniquely positions us as the trusted partner for organizations facing the worst cyber crises imaginable.

In short, what sets Fenix24 apart is our unwavering commitment to doing one thing exceptionally well: helping organizations rise stronger after disaster strikes. While others may dilute their efforts across multiple functions, we deliver unmatched restoration speed, precision, and resilience to businesses worldwide.

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How do you stay updated with the latest cybersecurity threats and mitigation strategies?

Heath: Staying ahead of the latest cybersecurity threats and mitigation strategies is intrinsic to what we do at Fenix24. As a company that works on ransomware recovery daily across every known industry and organization size, we are on the front lines of the ever-evolving cyber threat landscape. Unlike relying solely on compliance frameworks or outdated best practices—both of which lag significantly behind the tactics of threat actors—we gain real-time insights from the trenches.

Our partnerships with the leading data forensic incident response (DFIR) firms globally are a key part of this process. Together, we tackle cyber incidents hand in hand, with our partners uncovering the forensic findings while we focus on operational recovery. This collaboration not only helps organizations recover faster but also equips us with cutting-edge intelligence about emerging threat actor behaviors, tools, and techniques. Through this synergy, we continuously learn and adapt, integrating the latest insights into effective mitigation and restoration strategies.

Our internal battalions further exemplify this commitment to staying ahead:

• Athena7 specializes in adapting to the latest threat actor behaviors. By analyzing current attack patterns, Athena7 focuses on infrastructure hardening to ensure our clients are better protected after an incident.
• Grypho5 offers a proprietary 5-4-3-2-1 immutable backup strategy, ensuring organizations have a robust and reliable recovery point with guaranteed recovery time objectives (RTOs).

What truly sets us apart is that we’re not simply observing cyber threats from a distance or studying them theoretically. We’re in the trenches daily, working directly with organizations to combat ransomware and restore operations. This “hand-to-hand combat” with threat actors gives us unparalleled visibility into the latest attack methods and trends. It’s through these real-world experiences, not static frameworks, that we develop the next generation of mitigation techniques.

At Fenix24, our approach is shaped by necessity, innovation, and a relentless drive to protect organizations against an ever-changing adversary. When you’re fighting the fight every day, you don’t just keep up—you stay ahead.

Given that Argos99 enhances cyber resilience by mapping dependencies and providing visibility into IT assets, how would you integrate such a tool into your cybersecurity framework? Please describe the processes you would prioritize to improve pre-incident readiness and post-incident recovery.

Heath: At Fenix24, we don’t operate within a rigid “cyber framework” because our singular focus is disaster restoration and recovery. However, we recognize that asset management is a foundational component of any effective cybersecurity strategy. A clear, comprehensive understanding of IT assets is critical for both pre-incident readiness and post-incident recovery.

Unfortunately, in our experience, no client has ever come to us with complete visibility into their IT assets—whether it’s the number of endpoints, network dependencies, or business-critical systems. This lack of visibility creates significant challenges. Without a full inventory of IT assets, organizations cannot effectively protect their infrastructure, nor can they prioritize recovery efforts when disaster strikes. It also makes it impossible to understand the true business impact of a cyber incident or identify which systems should take precedence during recovery.

This is where Argos99 becomes invaluable in our recovery efforts. When we engage with a client post-incident, Argos99 allows us to rapidly scale through their compromised infrastructure to locate, map, and catalog all assets within the environment. This real-time visibility is crucial for several reasons:

1. Mapping Dependencies: Argos99 helps us uncover the interdependencies between systems, applications, and endpoints, enabling us to identify critical bottlenecks and vulnerabilities that must be addressed immediately.
   
2. Prioritizing Recovery: By working with the client, we use the insights provided by Argos99 to build a prioritized recovery roadmap. This ensures that the most critical systems—those that have the greatest impact on business operations—are restored first.
   
3. Reducing Business Interruption Costs: The faster we can identify and recover high-priority systems, the more we can minimize downtime and the financial repercussions of the incident.
   

From a broader perspective, Argos99 also lays the groundwork for improving pre-incident readiness. By using the tool proactively, organizations can gain visibility into their IT assets, understand their dependencies, and identify potential vulnerabilities. This insight allows them to enhance their overall resilience by addressing gaps before they’re exploited by attackers.

In summary, while Fenix24 is laser-focused on recovery rather than prevention, tools like Argos99 are indispensable for bridging the gaps caused by a lack of asset visibility. They allow us to tackle incidents methodically, reduce business impact, and set clients on a path toward stronger resilience moving forward.

How does Fenix24 ensure rapid recovery while maintaining data integrity and compliance?

Heath: Here’s a concise and professional response:

At Fenix24, our focus is on delivering rapid and reliable recovery for organizations experiencing ransomware or other cyberattacks. While compliance often comes up in discussions of cybersecurity, it’s important to clarify that compliance is not relevant to recovery efforts. Compliance frameworks are primarily checkbox exercises that do not equate to security or operational resilience, particularly in high-pressure recovery scenarios.

When it comes to data integrity, we work closely with our data forensic partners to ensure that any malicious code or activity is identified and completely eradicated before systems are brought back online. This collaboration is critical for ensuring that restored environments are clean, secure, and safe to return to production.

Our rapid recovery process involves several key steps:

1. Infrastructure Analysis: Using tools like Argos99, we map and analyze the compromised environment to understand asset dependencies and prioritize recovery efforts.
2. Containment and Verification: In coordination with our forensic partners, we ensure all malicious artifacts are flushed out of the systems.
3. System Restoration: We restore operations methodically, prioritizing the most critical systems to minimize downtime and business disruption.

By maintaining this rigorous approach, we not only recover operations swiftly but also ensure the restored environment is resilient, secure, and free from threats. Our clients can move forward with confidence, knowing their data integrity is intact and their systems are ready for production.

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How has the threat landscape evolved during your tenure in cybersecurity, and what emerging threats concern you the most?

Heath: Over the course of my 27-year career in the information security industry, the evolution of the threat landscape has been nothing short of extraordinary. In the late 1990s, threats were relatively simplistic—viruses like Melissa and the ILOVEYOU worm caused disruption, but their primary motive was nuisance or notoriety. Over time, cyber threats have grown exponentially in complexity and severity, moving from simple exploits to highly sophisticated attacks such as state-sponsored espionage, advanced persistent threats (APTs), and devastating ransomware campaigns.

In just the last five years, ransomware has emerged as the most pervasive and damaging cyber threat. The combination of encryption-based extortion, data exfiltration, and the targeting of critical infrastructure has elevated ransomware to the forefront of cybersecurity concerns. These attacks don’t just affect individual organizations—they disrupt entire supply chains, compromise sensitive data, and impact public safety.

This shift has fundamentally changed my professional outlook on what constitutes the most important cybersecurity control. Historically, we focused on traditional defenses: firewalls, endpoint detection, intrusion prevention systems, and the like. While these remain critical, my perspective has shifted to emphasize a control that isn’t even widely recognized as a security measure today: truly tested and immutable backups.

Why backups? Because ransomware doesn’t just exploit vulnerabilities in systems—it exploits vulnerabilities in recovery. If an organization’s backups are incomplete, vulnerable to tampering, or inaccessible during an attack, recovery becomes exponentially harder, prolonging downtime and amplifying costs. Immutable backups—those that cannot be modified or deleted—serve as a last line of defense, ensuring that an organization can recover quickly and securely even in the face of the worst-case scenario.

This realization was a driving force behind the creation of Grypho5 at Fenix24. Grypho5 incorporates a proprietary 5-4-3-2-1 immutable backup strategy that guarantees exact recovery time objectives (RTOs) while protecting against the threat of ransomware altering or destroying backup data. This approach not only ensures rapid recovery but also reinforces resilience, giving organizations the confidence that they can restore operations no matter how severe the attack.

The threat landscape will undoubtedly continue to evolve, but one lesson is clear: resilience isn’t just about prevention—it’s about preparation. Tested, immutable backups are no longer optional; they’re a necessity in today’s cyber threat landscape.

What advice do you have for aspiring CISOs who want to build innovative solutions in cybersecurity?

Heath: My advice to aspiring CISOs is rooted in addressing a fundamental issue in many organizations today: the disconnect between cybersecurity and IT. Over time, these two critical fields have diverged into separate career paths, often resulting in professionals who lack a comprehensive understanding of each other’s domains. This divide can create significant gaps in an organization’s security posture.

For example, how can a CISO effectively recommend controls to secure an environment without a thorough understanding of network configurations, IT technology, business requirements, engineering constraints, or the challenges posed by an understaffed IT team? Similarly, a CIO focused solely on delivering business solutions without understanding the security implications of their network designs can inadvertently undermine the very controls the CISO believes are in place. This disconnect can leave organizations vulnerable and executives frustrated by the misalignment.

For aspiring CISOs looking to lead effectively and drive innovation in cybersecurity, I offer two key recommendations:

1. Master IT Inside and Out

Heath: To bridge the gap between cybersecurity and IT, you need to understand IT operations at a deep level. This means becoming proficient in areas such as:

• Networking: Know how networks are designed, configured, and maintained.
• Active Directory (AD) Management: Understand the intricacies of identity and access management, one of the most targeted areas in cyberattacks.
• Hosting Environments: Gain insight into cloud infrastructure, on-premises solutions, and hybrid models.
• Endpoint Solutions: Familiarize yourself with tools for endpoint protection and management.

A successful CISO isn’t just a cybersecurity expert—they’re also an IT generalist who can speak the same language as IT teams, identify realistic solutions, and collaborate effectively to secure the environment.

2. Quantify and Communicate Risk to Executive Leadership

Heath: CISOs often fall into the trap of trying to “own” cyber risk management when, in reality, it’s not their responsibility. Cyber risk is a business risk, and it’s ultimately the role of executive leadership to manage it. The CISO’s job is to quantify that risk in a way that business leaders can understand and act upon.

For example:

• Instead of saying, “We have a vulnerability in our system,” quantify it by explaining the potential financial, operational, and reputational impacts of not addressing the issue.
• Present clear scenarios and recovery costs, allowing executives to make informed decisions about the level of risk they’re willing to accept.

By combining technical expertise with the ability to frame cybersecurity as a business enabler, you’ll be better positioned to secure buy-in from leadership and build innovative solutions that align with organizational goals.

In summary, an aspiring CISO needs to be both a technical expert and a business translator. The ability to bridge the divide between cybersecurity and IT, and to communicate risk effectively to executive leadership, is what will set you apart and drive meaningful change in today’s complex threat landscape.

What are your predictions for the future of CyberTech in 2025?

Heath: By 2025, the CyberTech landscape will continue to evolve at an unprecedented pace, driven by increasingly sophisticated threat actors, rapid technological advancements, and heightened awareness of the need for resilience. Based on current trends, here are my key predictions for the future of CyberTech in 2025:

1. Ransomware Will Evolve Further

Ransomware will continue to dominate the threat landscape, with attackers leveraging new tactics like double and triple extortion, where they demand ransoms not only for decrypting data but also for preventing its public release or selling it to competitors. Threat actors will also increasingly target critical infrastructure and supply chains, aiming for maximum disruption and higher payouts.

2. Automation and AI Will Be a Double-Edged Sword

While AI and automation will significantly enhance cybersecurity defenses—enabling faster threat detection, response, and remediation—attackers will also weaponize these technologies. AI-driven attacks could allow adversaries to automate phishing campaigns, create undetectable malware, and bypass traditional security controls with greater efficiency. Organizations will need to invest heavily in AI-driven defenses to keep up with these threats.

3. Focus on Cyber Resilience Will Surpass Prevention

By 2025, the conversation will shift from “How do we prevent attacks?” to “How do we recover quickly and effectively after an attack?” This change in focus is already underway as organizations realize that even the most robust defenses can be breached. Solutions like immutable backups, disaster recovery planning, and incident response playbooks will become essential components of every cybersecurity strategy. At Fenix24, this shift is already a reality—we’ve built our entire mission around rapid recovery to minimize downtime and business impact.

4. Regulatory Pressure Will Increase

Governments worldwide will impose stricter regulations on cybersecurity, particularly in sectors like healthcare, finance, and critical infrastructure. While compliance frameworks often lag behind actual threats, these regulations will push organizations to adopt baseline security practices, such as mandatory reporting of breaches and minimum standards for data protection.

5. Cloud Security Will Take Center Stage

As more businesses migrate their operations to the cloud, securing cloud environments will become a top priority. Multi-cloud and hybrid-cloud setups will introduce new challenges in maintaining visibility, ensuring compliance, and preventing misconfigurations—still one of the leading causes of breaches. Tools that provide end-to-end cloud security will become indispensable.

6. Cyber Insurance Will Evolve

The cyber insurance market will undergo significant changes as insurers adapt to the increasing volume and severity of claims. Policies will include stricter requirements for obtaining coverage, such as proof of advanced security controls and disaster recovery plans. Insurers may even partner with cybersecurity firms to provide pre-incident readiness assessments as a condition of coverage.

7. Talent Shortages Will Drive Outsourcing and Automation

The global shortage of skilled cybersecurity professionals will persist, forcing organizations to rely more heavily on managed services, outsourcing, and automated solutions to bridge the gap. CyberTech firms offering specialized recovery and restoration services—like Fenix24—will play a critical role in addressing this talent gap during high-pressure incidents.

In summary, the CyberTech landscape in 2025 will be shaped by the growing complexity of threats, the rise of resilience-focused strategies, and the integration of advanced technologies. Organizations that prioritize agility, preparedness, and innovation will be best positioned to thrive in this evolving environment.

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