Cybersecurity Upside Down
The Mindset That Built CDR
Most cybersecurity professionals spend their careers perfecting detection. Benny Czarny built a company by proving detection isn't enough.
Join OPSWAT Academy for an exclusive fireside chat with Benny Czarny, Founder & CEO of OPSWAT and author of Cybersecurity Upside Down: Rethink Your Cybersecurity Strategy. In this intimate conversation, Benny shares the journey from discovering a fundamental flaw in antivirus technology to building a global cybersecurity company that now protects 98% of U.S. nuclear facilities.
- Free registration and attendance
- Moderated by the OPSWAT Academy team
- Live chat enabled for audience questions
- Earn CPE credits by attending the full session
- Request a free physical copy of the book during the webinar
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In this 60-minute fireside chat, Irfan Shakeel sits down with Benny Czarny to explore the ideas behind his book and the philosophy that shaped OPSWAT. From testing antivirus engines in a San Francisco apartment to scaling a company that protects the world's most critical infrastructure, Benny shares the insights, mistakes, and breakthroughs that challenged conventional thinking about cybersecurity.
This conversation will take you through Benny's personal journey—the moment he realized detection-based security was fundamentally flawed, the decision to build CDR (Content Disarm and Reconstruction) technology when no one understood it, and the lessons learned while growing OPSWAT to over 2,000 employees globally.
Whether you're a security professional, aspiring entrepreneur, or someone curious about how transformative ideas come to life, this session offers rare insight into the mindset behind one of cybersecurity's most important innovations.
What You'll Discover
In this fireside chat, Benny will share:
- The Origin Story
Discovering the antivirus detection gap and the moment of insight that led to CDR.
- The Death of Detection
Why Benny realized detection-based security was fundamentally flawed and how early experiments proved AV engines were missing critical threats.
- Mastering Deep CDRTM
A technical exploration of how "assuming every file is untrusted" works at scale without breaking functionality or user productivity.
- Scaling a Security Giant
Lessons from bootstrapping a one-person startup in a small apartment into a global organization with over 1,000 employees.
- The Future of Prevention
How Deep CDR counters AI-generated polymorphic malware and how it integrates with optical firewalls and data diodes in critical infrastructure.
- The Origin Story
Discovering the antivirus detection gap and the moment of insight that led to CDR.
- The Death of Detection
Why Benny realized detection-based security was fundamentally flawed and how early experiments proved AV engines were missing critical threats.
- Mastering Deep CDRTM
A technical exploration of how "assuming every file is untrusted" works at scale without breaking functionality or user productivity.
- Scaling a Security Giant
Lessons from bootstrapping a one-person startup in a small apartment into a global organization with over 1,000 employees.
- The Future of Prevention
How Deep CDR counters AI-generated polymorphic malware and how it integrates with optical firewalls and data diodes in critical infrastructure.
Special Offers
During the webinar, you’ll have the opportunity to request a complimentary physical copy of Cybersecurity Upside Down: Rethink Your Cybersecurity Strategy shipped directly to your address.
Featured Speakers
Benny Czarny is the Founder, CEO, and Chairman of the Board of OPSWAT, a global cybersecurity company securing the world's most critical infrastructure through a prevention-first philosophy: trust no file, trust no device.
Benny founded OPSWAT in 2002 from a small apartment in San Francisco with a bold vision—to reinvent cybersecurity by focusing on prevention instead of detection. With no outside investment, he bootstrapped OPSWAT from a one-person startup into a global organization with more than a thousand employees, serving thousands of enterprise and government customers in over 100 countries.
Under his leadership, OPSWAT has pioneered Deep CDR™ (Content Disarm and Reconstruction) technology and other breakthrough innovations, including Metascan™ multiscanning, secure file transfer, and advanced sandboxing. These technologies are now trusted to protect mission-critical systems across energy, defense, transportation, finance, and government sectors, helping prevent catastrophic breaches before they occur.
With over two decades of expertise in encryption, vulnerability management, and secure architecture, Benny is recognized as one of the world's leading advocates for Data Sanitization and Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP). His work has helped shift the global cybersecurity mindset from reactive detection to proactive prevention, positioning OPSWAT at the forefront of protecting the systems that power modern civilization.
As both CEO and Chairman, Benny continues to drive OPSWAT's long-term strategy, product innovation, and culture of execution. He remains deeply involved in the company's technology roadmap, guiding its evolution toward a world where every file and device entering a secure network is verifiably safe.
Benny's leadership style is grounded in curiosity, conviction, and hands-on innovation. From bootstrapping OPSWAT's first product to leading a global organization shaping cybersecurity policy and defense standards, he has built a company defined not by fear of threats but by confidence in prevention. His mission remains clear: to eliminate cyber threats before they can execute and make prevention the foundation of digital trust worldwide.
Irfan Shakeel leads global cybersecurity education programs at OPSWAT Academy that focus on protecting critical infrastructure, especially in ICS/OT environments. He is the former founder of eHacking, a platform that has helped thousands of people acquire cybersecurity skills through practical and easy-to-understand training.
He is also a published writer, with articles featured on platforms like HuffPost and IBM DeveloperWorks. With over 10 years of experience in the field, he continues to support the cybersecurity community by creating hands-on labs, sharing expert insights, and providing real-world training that prepares professionals to face today's evolving threats.