Vishaal Hariprasad, the chief executive and co-founder of a managing general agency specializing in cyber risk solutions, is known by the nickname “V8,” a nickname he got during his days in the Air Force. It was in the Air Force that he also learned that cyber risk defense needs to begin with an understanding of offensive minds—a key idea he applied to the MGA operation.
Executive Summary
This article is part of a three-part series on P/C insurance executives whose careers in the industry are "second act" careers. Here, Resilience Co-Founder Vishaal "V8" Hariprasad explains why his career journey to a role applying an insurance mindset to cybersecurity isn't "officially a second act." "Our job is to figure out how to shape the future of the digital world," he says, explaining why he and "other cyber nerds" are working in insurance today. Part 3 of a SeriesAmong the first class to enter the U.S. Air Force Academy after 9/11, V8 graduated with a degree in math and became a communications officer, focusing on large scale enterprise communications for military-use cases. His first assignment was in South Korea at an Army base. He eventually transferred to an Air Force base where units stood ready to assist if a conflict should arise overnight on the Korean Peninsula.
After a few years in Korea, V8 was reassigned to Fort Meade which houses the headquarters of the National Security Agency (NSA). “In Korea, I realized how important communication connections were to making a mission happen and succeed. I got to understand how that connective tissue on the backend works for IT and communications. When I came to the NSA, without going into too many details, I was involved with cybersecurity and cyber warfare. What stood out for me was the complexity of cyber from a technological standpoint and what that enables—e.g., business and military operations, whatever they might be. Today, we’re seeing digital and information become a key component of warfare.”
