Washington, DC — Retail and Hospitality Information Sharing and Analysis Center (RH-ISAC), home of the Retail ISAC, today announced the addition of seasoned security professionals to its intelligence team. Tommy McDowell will lead the Retail ISAC as senior director, Harpreet Kalra and Muktar Kelati will join as senior analysts and Ryan Smith will be intelligence support manager.
“Growing the Retail ISAC team is critical to providing valuable, actionable intelligence for our members and the community. This team has extensive experience and will help bring our intelligence analysis and sharing to the next level,” said Suzie Squier, executive director of the Retail ISAC.
Bad actors are continually expanding their resources and increasing their attacks on retail companies, especially as more companies adopt new technologies in the digital age. The Retail ISAC formulates intelligence-driven analysis, research, and daily reporting and threat intelligence summaries, trends, and reports curated by RH-ISAC analysts. The organization includes companies of all sizes in the retail and other customer-facing industries.
“Cybersecurity is a high-priority business risk, not only a technology risk,” McDowell said. “Cyber attacks impact all aspects of a company and industry. The Retail ISAC provides a crucial function for industry, helping to collectively strengthen our defenses against the bad actors who are working together against us.”
In his role as senior director, McDowell will lead the Retail ISAC, and continue to improve the organization’s intelligence and information sharing capabilities, focusing on the primary issues facing the industry. As senior analyst, Harpreet Kalra will focus on the production of the RH-ISAC’s intelligence products. Senior Cyber Threat Analyst Muktar Kelati will focus on intelligence operations. Both will play a critical role in enhancing the intelligence products of the Retail ISAC. Ryan Smith, intelligence support manager, will be responsible for member success and support.
The RH-ISAC is the trusted cybersecurity community for retailers and customer-facing companies
The organization is continually adding consumer-facing companies to its membership and increasing its capabilities, most recently announcing the Gaming and Hospitality Cybersecurity Alliance.
Tommy McDowell
McDowell comes to the Retail ISAC from Booz Allen Hamilton and has worked in cyber security and risk management for more than 15 years. Previously, he was the senior director of cyber threat intelligence at FireEye where he delivered executive consultation services with Mandiant, designed and directed intelligence service delivery capabilities with iSIGHT and aligned internal global operations for the combined organizations.
Harpreet Kalra
Kalra has over nine years of industry in both the government and private sectors, most recently working as part of the intelligence unit at the United States Postal Service (USPS) and has previously worked at Morgan Stanley and consulted for Booz Allen Hamilton and Cyveillance.
Muktar Kelati
Kelati joins the Retail ISAC from Booz Allen Hamilton. Kelati is a senior cyber security professional with 10 years of experience working with, mentoring and leading nationally and globally-dispersed teams delivering actionable cyberthreat intelligence across multiple industries.
Ryan Smith
Ryan is a security analyst and comes to the Retail ISAC from Atius Technology Institute where he served as a network analyst.
