From school dropout to cybersecurity start-up founder: Meet Benjamin Harris, CEO of watchTowr
The founder & CEO of Singapore-based start-up watchTowr aims to make cybersecurity more effective and accessible.
by Karen Tee /
May 1, 2023
An original poster of Hackers, the 1995 movie about a scrappy group of teenage cyberpunks hangs prominently in Benjamin Harris’ apartment. It is not surprising that the 28-year-old CEO of watchTowr, an Attack Surface Management platform, identifies with it.
In the same way as the young main characters, he also became fascinated with technology and security systems at a young age, learning about application codes and how they worked on his own. At 17, Harris was asked to leave school. “It wasn’t really a friendly conversation. My father put it best when he said education was not really for me,” he deadpans.
From school dropout to cybersecurity start-up founder: Meet Benjamin Harris, CEO of watchTowr
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Similar to the movie, where the protagonists eventually defeat the bad guy’s nefarious plan to unleash a dangerous virus, Harris is focused on protecting organisations against cyberattacks.
Two weeks after leaving school with just two GCSE O Levels, he secured a job at Portcullis Computer Security, which was later acquired by Cisco. Since then, the computer wunderkind has been consistently involved in building and leading high-performing offensive cybersecurity teams across the globe.
“I have a genuine interest in cybersecurity and computers, and want to make a positive impact in the world through a career in these fields,” he says.
Named a Forbes 30 under 30 business leader in the Enterprise Technology category last year, Harris moved to Singapore eight years ago to build teams for companies like Cisco and F-Secure, working with large organisations, including banks, insurers, and governments to develop effective cybersecurity strategies.
In November 2021, he launched watchTowr to demonstrate a more efficient and faster approach to cybersecurity. “Over the last couple of years, the landscape has changed significantly to the point where the aggression and persistence of adversaries have outpaced anything available in the current market to help organisations protect themselves,” he says.
“The reality is we need to build technology that will help us defend organisations at scale from a constantly evolving threat.”
Founder and CEO of watchTowr, Benjamin Harris. (Photo: Lawrence Teo)
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In the Asia-Pacific region, watchTowr serves some of the world’s leading banks, financial services, and insurance companies (BFSI), as well as e-commerce and technology brands.
In Harris’ view, its unique technology makes it possible to identify vulnerabilities quickly. “The answer to this ever-changing threat lies in continually simulating attacks — and that’s what we built into the technology. We are uniquely positioned to act like a well-resourced group to provide organisations with a continuous understanding of their vulnerabilities,” he says.
The Singapore-based start-up, which has a team of 23, most recently announced that it has secured US$8 million (S$10.7 million) in a pre-Series A investment round, co-led by Prosus Ventures and Vulcan Capital with repeat participation from Wavemaker Partners. Its total funding now stands at US$10.25 million.
Using these funds, watchTowr will further enhance the technology of its proprietary platform and expand outside South-east Asia. “The benefit of cybersecurity is that it is a global challenge, and what we’ve created is a global solution to the problems we see,” Harris explains, noting that the business has grown organically through word-of-mouth and marketing.
“Hopefully, you will see a rather aggressive expansion into the Western market this year. In terms of growth, there is a global opportunity here,” he says.
With such exciting prospects up ahead, it is not surprising that his schedule is packed — sometimes even cutting into his vacation time, such as during a recent trip to Europe with his partner. With a laugh, he says, “I took my partner’s trip as an excuse to see clients and visit family, but I must admit that as much as I wanted it to be a two-and-a-half week holiday, I think I got just two days to breathe and rest.”
