Savvy CEO: Identity Security Should ‘Fit Where Modern Work And IT’ Are Going

Guy Guzner, a cybersecurity vet and CEO of SaaS identity security startup Savvy, tells CRN that adopting better security practices can also make life easier for workers.

While few workers have ever enjoyed needing to interact with their cybersecurity team over a minor issue, the feeling is often mutual.

The reality is that most security teams “don't like to deal with end users,” said Guy Guzner, a cybersecurity veteran who previously co-founded Fireglass, which Symantec acquired for $250 million.

Likewise, “a lot of time [workers] would prefer not to talk with a human — with someone from a security team telling them, ‘You made a security violation,’” he said. “They actually prefer something automated — especially as we go to the younger generation.”

Guzner’s current role is as co-founder and CEO of Savvy, a startup that’s looking to bolster SaaS identity security while at the same time removing the friction within organizations over routine security matters. Savvy is doing this through greater automation that, through the company’s browser extension, provides direct guidance to the users for resolving password and other account issues.

“We can drive that remediation for them in real time,” Guzner said.

Three of the biggest areas where Savvy focuses on improving security are around detection of password reuse, access to applications without MFA (multifactor authentication) and rogue administrator privileges, he said.

At one solution provider partner of Savvy, BlackLake Security, CEO Mark Jones said that the startup’s offering addresses a massive gap in the realm of identity security for organizations.

Time and time again, organizations invest in a variety of technologies for locking down their identity and access systems, “and they're still getting breached,” said Jones, who is also the founder of Austin, Texas-based BlackLake Security, No. 221 on CRN’s Solution Provider 500 for 2024.

Savvy’s ability to detect previously unknown issues with identity and access has facilitated a “jaw-dropping moment” for many customers, he said.

“They're quite shocked at how many applications that these users are using,” Jones said. Meanwhile, a huge number of SaaS applications used by workers are found to be “bypassing the traditional IT department altogether.”

Working with Savvy has generated major opportunities for BlackLake to perform audit assessments of customer environments, which includes identifying the identity and access issues that the customers are unaware of, he said.

“It’s very quick. And it gives you so much visibility into your identity and the gaps that are there,” Jones said.

Ultimately, in cybersecurity, it always boils down to the end user, he said. “That's where the majority of the breaches that we're seeing are coming in.”

And Savvy provides a unique new way of getting the end user to a better place in terms of identity and access issues, according to Jones.

One major differentiator for the startup is also that its architecture is completely based in the cloud, Guzner said.

“In order for us to get the visibility, we don't need to steer traffic to our solution,” he said, and Savvy doesn’t require the installation of an endpoint agent.

That means that “we can start to get visibility within a few minutes,” Guzner said. “That's a big difference from other solutions that are either putting something on the endpoint or steering traffic.”

Guzner previously spent more than a decade at Check Point Software Technologies, including as its head of security products, prior to co-founding and serving as CEO of Fireglass. He co-founded Savvy in 2021, and the startup has raised nearly $30 million in funding including from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Cyberstarts and Canaan Partners.

All in all, Guzner believes the key for Savvy is that it is making life better for all the various stakeholders — security, IT and end user — while improving cybersecurity posture at the same time.

“I think it really fits with where we see modern work and modern IT going,” he said.