4thGen
"The era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution calls for fourth-generation espionage. The digital era has profoundly changed our operating environment … We need to ensure that technology is on our side, not that of our opponents."
- MI6 Chief Alex Younger, 2018.
Need to protect your IP, your people, and your reputation?

Humans are your largest attack surface - and your largest risk.

Network tools only address a portion of your threats.

A whole person, whole threat approach is the strongest mitigation.
 

Evaluate your risk, objectively.

We provide holistic insider risk vulnerability assessments.
Our Assessments

Mitigate your risk, affordably.

We provide holistic fractional insider risk management services.
Our Programs

4thGen Value Proposition

  • We counter data theft, ransomware attacks, and workplace violence.
  • We preempt your most likely risk: negligence.
  • We preempt your most costly risk: recruited insiders.
  • We build a positive security culture.
  • We increase morale, retention, and performance.
  • We align to your privacy standards, culture, and budget.
  • You pay only for what you need.
  • You mitigate risk, reduce expenses, and increase revenue.

Featured Publications
Common Insider Characteristics

Examination of a growing body of insider cases have identified common personality characteristics, precipitating events, and indicators for each insider type. Armed with these insights, we can more effectively and efficiently preempt harmful acts.

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Red Flags Reimagined

It's always been a high-stakes game - even before the rise in ransomware, IP theft, and workplace violence. More so than ever, we need to practice proactive, holistic, positive, and compassionate human risk continuous evaluation and threat mitigation.

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We Meet the Challenges of Modern Human Risk Management
 
Preemption

We move you from reactive to proactive insider risk management.

Holistic Approach

We move you beyond network monitoring to a more effective whole person/whole threat approach.

Affordability

You pay only for what your need, avoiding the cost of extra employees.

Negligence

We help mitigate your greatest risk: negligent employees enabling malicious outside actors.

Culture

We help overcome workforce polarization to create a unified and positive security culture.

Equilibrium

We balance organizational protection and employee privacy.

Cost- to-Profit Transition

We redesign your risk management approach to save jobs, increase retention, improve morale, and boost productivity.

Remote Work Myopia

We help overcome the natural organizational tendency to treat remote and hybrid employees as 'out of sight, out of mind'.

Tool Management

We create decision advantage by using the right data and the right tools to provide the right insights.

Awareness

We help you stay ahead of emerging threats, advancing technology, and an increasingly risky environment.

Structured Bias

We help you avoid the boardroom (and courtroom) by removing subjectivity through standardization and anonymization.

Third Parties

We standardize risk management across all human attack vectors, including contractors and vendors.

4thGen

"The fourth industrial revolution will lead to a fusion of our physical, digital and biological identity"


Klaus Schwab

Chairman, World Economic Forum

"There are only two types of companies in the world: those who’ve been compromised by their employees and know it, and those who don't know it."


Val LeTellier

Founder, 4thGen LLC

"Amateurs hack systems. Professionals hack people."


Bruce Schneier

Security Technologist, Harvard Kennedy School

"AI is a game-changing double-edged sword for insider risk management. It's creating new malicious actors, strengthening existing ones, while concurrently offering ways to better protect against those very threats. If you're not intrigued and a little scared, you're not paying attention."


Val LeTellier

Founder, 4thGen LLC

"Companies spend millions on firewalls and secure access devices, and it's money wasted because none of it addresses the weakest link in the security chain: the people who use, administer and operate computer systems."


Kevin Mitnick

Security Technologist, Famed Computer Hacker

"With the digital age on the rise, the world of intelligence has been undergoing profound change. Technology and growing interconnectivity remain at the epicenter of this reshuffle. The game and its rules will never be the same."


Dr. Can Kasapoglu

Analyst, Economics and Foreign Policy Studies (EDAM)

"If you think technology can solve your security problems, then you don't understand the problems and you don't understand the technology."


Bruce Schneier

Security Technologist, Harvard Kennedy School

"Attackers think differently. They apply singular mission focus, determined patience, nonlinear thinking, backward reasoning and a ‘by any means necessary' conviction. Defenders must use the attacker mentality to counter their most costly threats."


Val LeTellier

Founder, 4thGen LLC

"If you want to know how evil thinks, go hire operators, not people in suits. They are out there, they have good hearts and souls, just really complex minds that border on scary."


John Gomez

CEO, Sensato

"The Fourth Industrial Revolution includes mobile devices, Internet of things (IoT) platforms, location detection technologies (electronic identification), advanced human-machine interfaces, authentication and fraud detection, smart sensors, big analytics and advanced processes, multilevel customer interaction and customer profiling”


Wikipedia

"Employees can either reinforce or degrade your security measures. It's your choice."


Val LeTellier

Founder, 4thGen LLC

"What is the biggest challenge faced by a CIO or CISO? My answer is always -- "they are good people." They are not criminals, spies or terrorists. They simply do not have the perspective of evil, and that leads to a failed and unrealistic understanding of the threat environment."


Dave Komendat

CSO, Boeing

" …when companies had an insider threat, they were much more costly than external incidents. This was largely because the insider that is smart has the skills to hide the crime, for months, for years, sometimes forever."


Larry Ponemon

Founder & Chairman, The Ponemon Institute

"People often represent the weakest link in the security chain and are chronically responsible for the failure of security systems."


Bruce Schneier

Security Technologist, Harvard Kennedy School

"Insider threats aren't an IT problem to solve, it's a business risk for business leaders to manage."


Val LeTellier

Founder, 4thGen LLC

"People often represent the weakest link in the security chain and are chronically responsible for the failure of security systems."


Bruce Schneier

Security Technologist, Harvard Kennedy School

"Don’t look at the stranger and jump to conclusions. Look at the stranger’s world."


Malcolm Gladwell

Talking to Strangers