Episode 22: Matt Holland, CEO of Field Effect

In this episode of Code and Country, Ian L. Paterson speaks with Matt Holland, founder and CEO of Field Effect, about protecting small to medium businesses from cyber threats at scale. Matt shares his journey from Canada's Communication Security Establishment to founding Field Effect, and challenges the biggest misconception: that small businesses aren't targets. He explains how AI enables attackers to scale customized phishing and reconnaissance campaigns, while Field Effect's federated architecture achieves 11-minute mean time to detect (versus 30+ minutes industry average) by running real-time analytics at the edge rather than in the cloud. The discussion covers data sovereignty, why cloud-first architectures create latency penalties, and Matt's key advice: outsource cybersecurity like you would physical security. This episode gives business leaders and security decision-makers a roadmap for protecting organizations in an AI-driven threat environment.