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Founder & CEO — Vijilan Security

Kevin Nejad

CISSP

ISO 27001

25+ Years in Cybersecurity

Former CISO — White & Case LLP

CrowdStrike Partner

Kevin Nejad is the Founder and CEO of Vijilan Security — a CrowdStrike-powered managed security provider delivering enterprise-grade XDR and SIEM services exclusively through MSP and VAR partners. His 25-year career spans Fortune 500 incident response, global CISO leadership, and the founding of two managed security companies built on a single conviction: that security without compromise should not be reserved for organizations that can afford a private SOC.

Certifications

Education

Vijilan — Organizational Certifications

Areas of Expertise

Managed XDR

CrowdStrike Falcon

Next-Gen SIEM

SIEM Migration

Active Remediation

White-Label SOC

Incident Response

ISO 27001

LogScale

Cribl

The Beginning

A Foundation Built From Adversity

Kevin Nejad’s story begins well before cybersecurity — in Sunnyvale, California, during one of history’s most turbulent moments. His family had come from Iran, settling in the heart of Silicon Valley with his mother, his brother, and his uncle, who was studying computer science. When the Iranian Revolution took hold and the country’s currency collapsed virtually overnight, his father — still in Iran — could no longer send money abroad. What had seemed like a new beginning was suddenly cut short.

The family was forced to return to Iran. But Kevin’s story didn’t end there. They escaped through Turkey and eventually immigrated to Canada, where Kevin was adopted by a French-Canadian family. It was there, in a new country and a new home, that his story truly began.

"Coming from a place where everything could be taken from you — your country, your stability, your future — taught me that security isn't a luxury. It's a foundation. Without it, nothing else holds. That has been the underlying principle behind everything I've built at Vijilan."

Kevin studied Chemistry at York University in Toronto, going on to NYU for Information Security and Carnegie Mellon for Information Systems and Computer Software Engineering — and decades later, completing The Wharton School’s Business Analytics program as his focus shifted from technical operations to strategic leadership.

The Career

25 Years on the Front Lines

Kevin’s professional career began in 1996 at Rogers Communications, working in network security and fraud — in an era when most organizations didn’t yet have a formal word for what he was doing. By 2001 he was at Philip Morris International, conducting digital forensics and incident response across more than 180 countries. He moved through Altria, then Hewlett Packard Enterprise as Global Computer Security Incident Response Manager, before becoming Chief Information Security Officer at White & Case LLP — one of the world’s largest global law firms.

1996 – 2000

Rogers Communications

Network Security & Fraud Analyst

2001 – 2004

Philip Morris International

Incident Response & Digital Forensics

180+ countries

2004 – 2006

Altria

Security Operations Manager

2006 – 2008

Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Global Computer Security Incident Response Manager

2008 – 2011

White & Case LLP

Chief Information Security Officer (CISO)

2011 – 2014

Cyber Incident

Co-Founder

early managed security for SMBs

2014 – Present

Vijilan Security

Founder & CEO

The Turning Point

The Call That Changed Everything

It was at White & Case, in August 2011, that the event occurred that defined the rest of Kevin’s career. The FBI called. A Chinese cyber espionage group had been inside the firm’s network. Kevin had spent three years recommending a $1.5 million SIEM and SOC investment — a recommendation that had been declined, year after year, as too expensive. The breach that followed cost multiples of that figure.

"'Oh — it's just a security breach.' That was my first reaction when the FBI called. Not because I was cavalier about it. Because I had seen it before, warned about it, and knew exactly what it meant. That moment convinced me the problem wasn't technical. It was structural. Organizations couldn't afford enterprise-grade security, so they went without it. That was the problem I decided to solve."

In October 2011, Kevin co-founded Cyber Incident — an early managed security service built to bring enterprise-level threat detection to organizations that couldn’t staff or fund a SOC in-house. Three years later, the company was acquired. The same month — October 2014 — Kevin founded Vijilan Security and personally signed the company’s first MSP contract with Rory Sanchez, CEO of SLPowers, in West Palm Beach, Florida.

Building Vijilan

A Decade of Building the Vision

Over the decade that followed, Kevin built Vijilan into a fully managed extended detection and response platform — powered by CrowdStrike Falcon, enhanced with Cribl data optimization, and anchored by a 24/7 US-based SOC. He brought in co-founder and Managing Partner Luciana Furtado in 2016, and Head of Product and Technology Luis Medici in 2017. By 2020 he had acquired full ownership of the company. Vijilan earned its ISO 27001 certification — a milestone that reflected the operational discipline Kevin had demanded from the beginning.

Today Vijilan operates a SOC 2 Type 2 and ISO 27001 certified Security Operations Center, delivering managed XDR and SIEM services through MSP and VAR partners across the United States and globally. Kevin also founded the Cyber Yacht Club, a professional community for growth-minded managed service providers, and is a recognized voice in the CrowdStrike partner ecosystem.

Published by Kevin