Devo Expands SciSec Team with Data Science Leaders to Accelerate Delivery of Autonomous SOC

New hires bring extensive experience in data science and machine learning to advance Devo’s leadership in driving next generation AI-powered security solutions

Devo Technology, the cloud-native logging and security analytics company, announced the expansion of its SciSec threat research team with the addition of two data science experts. Dr. Kevin Zhou will serve as Vice President of Data Science and is joined by Dr. Chaz Lever, Senior Director of Security Research. Drs. Zhou and Lever bring extensive experience in data science, machine learning and AI in both academia and industry to their new roles at Devo. Their combined expertise and leadership will be central to Devo’s vision to deliver what the company calls the autonomous security operations center (SOC) – complete visibility, automation, augmented analytics, and open access to community expertise and content.

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In his role, Dr. Kevin Zhou will lead Devo’s global data science team, spearheading machine learning and AI initiatives for the company. He previously worked as Director of Machine Learning and Chief Data Scientist for the global risk science organization at PayPal where he led and built numerous data driven intelligence and machine learning solutions to enhance the organization’s fraud detection and risk management capabilities. Prior to PayPal, he worked as Senior Research Scientist for Trust and Safety at eBay. Dr. Zhou holds a PhD in computer science from DePaul University in Chicago with a research background in data mining and machine learning. He is one of the pioneering researchers publishing in the field of Web mining, recommender algorithms, and mobile e-commerce.

“Security’s biggest challenge is the shortage of skilled talent. There simply aren’t enough people to adequately analyze and remediate every threat. Data science is the equalizer,” said Dr. Kevin Zhou, vice president of data science at Devo. “It’s a privilege to contribute my experience in data science to the advancement of security analytics at Devo and to change the way threat research is done.”

Dr. Chaz Lever is a security researcher with over a decade of experience. His research has focused on large scale measurements and data analysis with a focus on network security applications. Dr. Lever also has industry experience developing scalable, data-centric applications in the business intelligence, financial services, and government spaces. Prior to Devo, Dr. Lever was a senior research scientist at Censys. Before joining Censys, he served as research faculty and Research Director of the Center for Cyber Operations Enquiry and Unconventional Sensing (COEUS) at Georgia Institute of Technology where he was technical lead on numerous DARPA grants that were tasked with building out next generation security technologies for government networks. Dr. Lever received his B.S. in computer science from Duke University, M.S. in computer science from Wake Forest University, and PhD in computer science from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

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“The security challenges facing organizations today are vast and complex. Data research holds the key to solving these challenges,” said Dr. Chaz Lever, senior director of security research at Devo. “My prior experience using big data to solve real world security problems will support Devo’s goal to create the autonomous SOC.”

Devo first introduced the concept of the autonomous SOC in May with the acquisition of Kognos. Since then, the company has established Devo SciSec, a fusion of threat researchers, data scientists, and machine learning experts to provide customers with collective intelligence, insightful security content, and expert-led threat detection. SciSec’s work is driving innovation in security analytics, moving beyond signatures and heuristics to behavioral models and AI-driven attack stories which are central to the autonomous SOC. By achieving the autonomous SOC, analysts can shift from the role of risk commentators to business risk experts, with unfettered access to the greater security community. This “augmented analyst” is elevated by automation and AI, giving them the opportunity to focus on true value and the threats that matter most to the business.

“With several decades of academic and industry experience in data, analytics, machine learning, security and fraud detection, Kevin and Chaz bring tremendous expertise and value to Devo and our customers,” commented Gunter Ollmann, CTO at Devo. “Together with our full SciSec team, they will help solidify and advance Devo’s leadership in driving next generation AI-powered security solutions to safeguard enterprises at any scale,” commented Gunter Ollmann, CTO at Devo.

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