Salt Lake City — It may sound counterintuitive, but new Whistic Security & Compliance VP Jake Bernardes says the best way for a company to have robust cybersecurity is to increase trust, drive transparency and shift it earlier in the sales cycle. Whistic, the vendor security network for both buyers and sellers, makes it possible for companies to assess, publish and share their security information more effectively and build real trust in the supply chain.

“I am a big advocate for transparency and trust,” says Bernardes. “I believe we should share all of our security data in its entirety, warts and all. If you look at the work we’ve been doing with the Security First Initiative, that’s exactly the culture we’re trying to build across the industry.”

Bernardes will be sharing his views in an upcoming webinar from Whistic and RiskRecon on August 24, 2022, “Maximizing Your Spend in Vendor Risk Management.” Readers can register for the webinar (or gain access to the post-event recording) here.

Bernardes believes a company’s security posture should be publicly available like a LinkedIn profile, and he is excited to help turn that belief into a reality with Whistic. The company allows vendors to create a Whistic Profile by self-assessing against industry-standard frameworks, adding supporting documentation, audits, and certifications, and publishing that Profile to the Whistic Trust Catalog, publicly on a website, or sharing it directly with customers.

The Whistic platform enables customers to conduct Zero-Touch Assessments ™ of the vendor’s security posture. “Imagine being able to complete assessments of your vendors on-demand, with no chasing or data collection. That’s where we are heading,” says Bernardes.

“We can automate much of the currently very manual processes, and it’s going save businesses a lot of time and money. My goal is to unite with my peers across the globe that believe in transparency and trust, and work together to drive change in the industry. We all know you can’t fix everything, and you don’t know what you don’t know. We already have a strong community that is coalescing around this movement, and I can’t wait to help accelerate that growth.”

Bernardes has been working in cybersecurity for more than a decade with significant experience in helping companies scale, delivering security transformation and building best-in-class security functions.

“Whistic is fortunate to have Jake because he’s not afraid to be a disrupter or to take a contrarian viewpoint in the cybersecurity field,” says Whistic CEO Nick Sorensen. “Together, we are building an ecosystem where everything stays in sight–a future where transparency helps drive greater trust across supply chains globally.”

Bernardes has been a global consultant and worked for SingleStore, NCC Group, Baringa Partners, KPMG, and IBM. He became interested in joining Whistic because he believes strongly in Whistic’s network-based vision for the future of vendor security and because Sorensen is such a respected thought leader in cybersecurity.

Whistic’s Vendor Security Network already has more than 45,000 profiles that organizations can access on-demand, which increases trust and transparency. The company recently received $35 million in Series B funding and launched Basic Profile, a free, limited version of its popular proactive vendor security solution.

About Whistic

Located in the heart of Silicon Slopes in Utah, Whistic is the network for assessing, publishing, and sharing vendor security information. The Whistic Vendor Security Network accelerates the vendor assessment process by enabling businesses to access and evaluate a vendor’s Whistic Profile and create trusted connections that last well beyond the initial assessment. Make security your competitive advantage and join businesses like Airbnb, Okta, Zendesk, Asana, Atlassian, Snap, Notion, TripActions, and G2 that are leveraging Whistic to modernize their vendor security programs. For more information, visit https://www.whistic.com/.