Member Article

Wetherby ethical hacking firm ranked in the Deloitte Fast 500 EMEA

Having already been ranked 21st in the UK top 50, and in the top 5 in Yorkshire, Wetherby based RandomStorm, has been listed on the Deloitte Fast 500 European companies at 130th place.

Companies are ranked based on their percentage revenue increases over the preceding five years. Accounts submitted by RandomStorm for 2009 – 2013 showed a revenue growth of 1062%.

The brainchild of Andrew Mason and Robin Hill, the company is engaged in digital security and “ethical hacking”, to ensure the protection of an organisation’s data.

A team of 55 hacks logically into the systems of their clients to ensure their systems have no holes which could be exploited by less well-intentioned hackers.

The company also hacks physically into buildings, accessing systems from the inside, such as getting into a premiership game on match day to locate weaknesses that would allow infiltration and exploitation.

Clients of RandomStorm include Premiership football teams, hospitals, major financial institutions and retailers, and Robin estimates a 50% penetration of local authorities. Effectively any company that holds data is affected by government legislation is under the scope of RandomStorms expertise.

Robin Hill co-founder of RandomStorm said that despite setting up mid-recession in 2007, government legislation security and confidentiality of data meant that RandomStorm’s services were and are in high demand. He said: “It’s a real hot potato for organisations. It’s a growing problem, if you’re holding peoples data, companies have to implement security despite recession. We’re a young and agile organisation with a depth of talent.”

They were able to set up a government loan which Robin describes was “critical” in their early stages of growth.

Robin also said “Networks are now a critical component of a business, and it is imperative that security controls are robust. The secret of our success on the back of the growth within the security space is our solid business focus, we’ve always been focussed on sales, we’ve always understood that you need the sale before you do anything. “

In their spare time the employees of RandomStorm take part in “responsible disclosure schemes” operated by leading websites including PayPal, eBay, Facebook, and Twitter, exposing security flaws before they can be exploited by criminals.

Scott Glossop, an apprentice member of the RandomStorm team gained acknowledgement on eBay’s latest Hall of Fame here for his contributions to the sites security.

He was mentored by other penetration testers or “ethical hackers” including Ryan Dewhurst who was named by Secure Computing Europe as the Rising Star of the information security industry. Andrew Mason read Ryan’s blog and was so impressed that he offered him a secondment at RandomStorm.

On bringing new talent into the business Robin said: “It’s important to bring apprenticeships in, it helps our organisation deliver, provides the company with a cost effective asset which we can train up. You can’t always bring in the van Percies straight away, you have to bring the Beckhams through the training academy too.”

They also ensure RandomStorm’s originality, compared to other ethical hacking companies who use third party systems, all the companies systems are original and developed onsite.

Upcoming for RandomStorm is expansion abroad, after cracking London next year, and the Deloitte 500 nod is a stepping stone to this.

Robin said: “What the Deloitte 500 badge means to us is that it gives clients confidence in the business, they know they’re working with a company thats on the up, that they know is going to be around tomorrow. You can’t argue with that”

“We’re very proud to be in the Deloitte top 500, gives us some recognition for the hard work we’ve done, Its a proud moment.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Clare Burnett .