logo
Upwind names Rinki Sethi Chief Security Officer amid growth

Upwind names Rinki Sethi Chief Security Officer amid growth

Techday NZ12-06-2025
Upwind has appointed Rinki Sethi as Chief Security Officer, where she will lead the company's global Information Security and Technology functions, as well as contribute to strategy across marketing, go-to-market, and customer engagement.
Sethi brings more than twenty years of experience in cybersecurity, having held senior roles at Twitter, BILL, Rubrik, Walmart, IBM, Palo Alto Networks, and eBay/PayPal. She has served on the boards of Vaultree and ForgeRock and is a founding partner at Lockstep Ventures.
Upwind reports significant business momentum, citing a 4,000% year-on-year revenue increase in 2024, 40% growth in its customer base, and over 30 product updates in the first quarter of 2025. The company positions itself as an alternative to traditional CNAPP vendors, focusing on real-time, runtime-first detection and protection across cloud environments.
Leadership perspective
"Rinki is one of the most respected CISOs in the world, and her decision to join Upwind is a major signal of where the future of cloud security is headed," said Amiram Shachar, CEO and co-founder of Upwind. "She was one of the first to recognise that runtime context transforms how we secure the cloud. Now, she'll help scale that vision globally with the technical depth, customer empathy, and executive horsepower to match."
As an early customer of Upwind, Sethi brings both practitioner and boardroom experience to the new role. Upwind's approach integrates CSPM, CWPP, CDR, vulnerability management, and identity security, anchored in live runtime activity. According to the company, this results in up to 95% fewer alerts and faster incident remediation for customers.
Sethi's experience
"As a CISO, I lived the pain of chasing dashboards while incidents unfolded in real-time," said Rinki Sethi, Chief Security Officer of Upwind. "Upwind is the first platform I've seen that flips the model, from reactive noise to real-time decisions. As an early customer, I experienced how powerful it is to operate with full runtime context. That's why I'm joining Upwind, to help build the future I always wanted as a practitioner."
Sethi holds a bachelor's degree in Computer Science Engineering from UC Davis and a master's degree in Information Security from Capella University. She is recognised as an industry voice and advocate for women in security. Outside of work, Sethi is a mother of two, fitness enthusiast, and active supporter of early-stage cybersecurity startups.
Follow us on:
Share on:
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Rural minister on ‘listening tour'
Rural minister on ‘listening tour'

Otago Daily Times

time29 minutes ago

  • Otago Daily Times

Rural minister on ‘listening tour'

Minister of Rural Communities Mark Patterson speaks at an open forum in Gore, joined by NZ First outreach adviser Kym McDonald. PHOTO: ELLA SCOTT-FLEMING Industry, energy, genetic engineering and artificial intelligence were the hot topics at an NZ First minister's open forum in Gore yesterday. Minister of Rural Communities Mark Patterson held a public meeting at the Gore Town & Country Club on Friday afternoon to connect with the issues of Southland. The minister said, though it sounded a bit "namby pamby", he was on a "listening tour" to gather feedback for his party to use to build policy for the next election. In his opening speech, he spoke of the similarities — and differences — of the coalition government, its endeavour to get rid of the "red and green tape" and the last government's mistakes. The three parties agreed "pretty much" on the bigger picture, but NZ First were more at the "interventionist" end, making things happen, he said. Interventions included the $1.2billion Regional Infrastructure Fund developed by himself and Shane Jones. The economy, inflation and cost-of-living crisis were the fault of the previous Labour Party government, he said. "[It] is a sort of direct impact of some really, really bad-quality spending towards the tail end of the last government." Southland had been going "gangbusters" in terms of industry growth, Mr Patterson said. Datagrid NZ's proposed data centre in Makarewa would be a "massive opportunity" for Southland. But he received pushback from the crowd, one member of the community expressing concerns about the "enormous" amounts of power such centres needed. Data centres generated a lot of heat which took power to cool down, and had surges needing random bursts of power, which all cost, the man said. He did not want to see that cost subsidised by the general public. Mr Patterson said he was apprehensive at first about the centres too, but he had come around. There was potential for 500-600 jobs, as the project sized up, 10ha of greenhouses using the industrial heat and up to 3500 jobs in auxiliary surrounding businesses. "That's the modelling they've put to us." Concerns around the proposed deregulation of genetic engineering and modification were also brought up, as were Mr Jones' recent comments denouncing the proposal. Mr Patterson said Mr Jones had made comments on the proposed deregulation of genetic engineering at a meeting in Hutt Valley last week, but the crowd's applause had drowned out some of his qualifying remarks. The Gene Technology Bill, which passed its first reading in Parliament last December, remains a contentious issue. Mr Patterson said NZ First supporters remained sceptical and that the party had received significant public feedback on the matter. Dr William Rolleston, a strong supporter of the Bill who was attending the meeting in Gore, recalled Mr Jones' warning about not allowing "Frankenstein" into the environment. Addressing public concerns about consumer and health authority reactions to GMO use in farming, Dr Rolleston assured that no genetic modifications had faced health authority objections and emphasised that farmers grew GM crops only where there was market demand. "Farmers wouldn't grow GM crops if they didn't think there was a market for it," the doctor said. Mr Patterson declined to comment further, citing the Bill's current status before the parliamentary committee.

Tide turning against clubs, codes fear
Tide turning against clubs, codes fear

Otago Daily Times

time29 minutes ago

  • Otago Daily Times

Tide turning against clubs, codes fear

The country's sports clubs are battling mounting costs, funding issues and volunteer burnout. Reporter Adrian Seconi checks the pulse of the club scene in Otago. Sport Otago chief executive James Nation wonders whether we have reached a tipping point as sports clubs battle with rising costs and volunteer fatigue. Southern Football boss Dougal McGowan reached for the word catastrophic when describing the impact the Online Casino Gambling Bill will have if it goes ahead as proposed. Otago Rugby Football Association chief executive Richard Kinley is concerned that if the clubs cannot access adequate funding, they will have to pass on the extra costs and that could have a chilling effect on participation rates. Hockey Otago general manager Andy McLean said anything that made "funding harder to obtain was worrying". A report commissioned by the New Zealand Amateur Sport Association found national volunteer numbers had dropped 28% between 2018 and 2024. It also highlighted funding as a key issue, noting 72% of clubs were concerned about their long-term financial sustainability. Bill seen as threat The proposed Online Casino Gambling Bill looms as a major threat. If it goes ahead in its current guise, it will potentially undermine the funds available through class-4 gambling, which has propped up community sport since tobacco sponsorship was outlawed in New Zealand in the 1990s. Increased user charges for Dunedin City Council grounds and facilities have piled more pressure on clubs. It all paints a grim picture for community sport, Nation acknowledged. And neither do there appear to be many options. "Clubs are really loathe to put up their membership fees any more than they have, and so that's having an impact because all the costs for the clubs have certainly gone up," Nation said. The Dunedin City Council's sinking lid policy on class-4 gambling was starting to bite, McGowan added. "If you have a look at the types of organisations that get support from the class-4 gaming industry, it's such a broad spectrum of the community. "They help us with rent. They help us with insurance. They help us with staff salaries so that we can get staff out into the schools to support kids being active." "Without that, I think it will have such a significant effect on what it means to be a community in New Zealand." The proposed Online Casino Gambling Bill threatens to further chip away at the available pool of funds. The licensed online casinos would not be compelled to make community funding grants as the Bill stands. Former New Zealand Cricket boss Martin Snedden is leading the charge to get into the ear of the decision-makers. Submissions close on August 17 and McGowan encouraged sports organisations to engage in the process. "The flow-on effects for this could be catastrophic for community activity and sport," McGowan said. Kinley said it was important to impress upon the government the challenges "sport will face across the sector if this should be approved in its current form". "If clubs and sports can't access other forms of funding to support the community game, it'll be passed back to participants," he said. "So potentially the cost of participating in sport will increase, which is something that none of us want to see. "If we have less people participating in all sports because of financial difficulties, that could be potentially quite detrimental to society as a whole." McLean said hockey was in the same boat. "Class-4 gaming funding is really important in terms of supporting what we can deliver to the community," he said. "We want hockey to be as accessible as possible. "Anything that risks reducing the amount of class-4 funding that's available is obviously of concern ." Costs rising The other half of the battle to keep the books in balance is the rising expenses. Everything has gone up from the halftime oranges to the user charges for Dunedin City Council grounds and facilities. The latter has been quite a hike. McGowan said user charges have more than doubled since 2018. He has seen Southern Football's bill grow from $42,202 to $98,119 in 2025. It has been reluctant to pass that extra cost on to members and has instead opted to reduce the number of fields it uses to bring down the cost. Southern Football has budgeted a loss of $58,000 this financial period but that may double, McGowan said. The association cannot keep absorbing the costs. McGowan said he was going to have to have an awkward conversation with one club about its ongoing financial viability. It could lead to the club closing. He declined to say which one. Nation said the problem was widespread. "I think clubs are really having to have those conversations about their financials and how do we make sure that we are viable." Fewer volunteers The burden of helping bridge the gap between rising expenses and revenue often falls to volunteers, who are in dwindling supply. "They're there for the love of the sport and helping people out and not for the rewrite of their constitution and chasing up funding all the time," Nation said. "It's not a recipe for a great future. "I think there's a really core pool of volunteers that most clubs have. They may be ageing. "They may be struggling to bring people in. But I think the good clubs out there have got good structures in place, and they look after their volunteers, and they're doing well. "So it seems like for the level of people that are playing, it is pretty healthy across the board in Otago. "But I think there is a bit of a tipping point there ... and it's not going to take much to turn it to being a bit of an exodus." It is a gloomy assessment that Nation walked back a little by adding he does not believe the volunteer base has thinned as much in Otago as in other parts of the country. McGowan had similar thoughts. "We've got a very strong group of volunteers, some of them with considerable experience, who do an amazing job. And it's a big job now. "It's not like it used to be, where you'd just turn up on a Saturday and put the nets up. "They are running large organisations which have large cash flows. "We know our volunteers are required to do more and more, and it almost becomes like a second job for many of them. "I think it's got harder and harder, so I think we will start to see an impact on that pretty soon." Kinley said referee and coaching numbers were holding, but they did not keep statistics on overall volunteer numbers. "I would say that what I've found over the years, and this is a general comment, is that we tend to follow the things that happen in other areas of the country. "While we're holding OK, it's certainly an area that we need to focus on. I don't want us to see us following what the rest of the country has done."

Upwind named CNADR company of the year & praised by analysts
Upwind named CNADR company of the year & praised by analysts

Techday NZ

time15 hours ago

  • Techday NZ

Upwind named CNADR company of the year & praised by analysts

Upwind has been recognised by Frost & Sullivan and Gartner in 2025, including being named Company of the Year in the CNADR sector and cited across several analyst reports. Frost & Sullivan awarded Upwind the 2025 Company of the Year title in the Global Cloud-Native Application Detection & Response (CNADR) market, highlighting the company's growth and approach to cloud-native security. At the same time, Upwind featured in Gartner's 2025 Market Guide for Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP) and was listed as a sample vendor on three of Gartner's 2025 Hype Cycles related to workload and network security, container technologies, and platform engineering. Analyst assessments Upwind was featured in the Hype Cycle for Workload and Network Security, the Hype Cycle for Container Technologies, and the Hype Cycle for Platform Engineering for 2025, all under the CNAPP category. In these reports, CNAPP is identified by Gartner as a technology with a "High Benefit Rating" expected to reach mainstream adoption within two to five years, citing rising demand for consolidated cloud-native security solutions across Kubernetes and multicloud environments. Gartner's 2025 Market Guide for CNAPP includes Upwind among the representative vendors in a sector that, according to the guide, is consolidating security capabilities to provide full-lifecycle protection, from development to runtime in modern multicloud landscapes. The guide notes that CNAPPs are geared to deliver integrated protection across dynamic, container-based application environments. "Upwind's real-time insights and support have enhanced our cloud security operations," said Sardorbek Pulatov, VP Engineering & Security at Vestiaire Collective. "Upwind saves us a significant amount of time, helping our team focus on the truly critical alerts while disregarding low-priority findings. With Upwind, we are able to identify any vulnerabilities and can prioritise them for remediation - helping us operate more efficiently and securely." Gartner also noted in its Market Guide for CNAPP that, "by 2029, 40% of enterprises that successfully implement zero trust within cloud service provider environments will rely on the advanced visibility and control capabilities offered by CNAPP solutions". Additionally, Upwind reports a customer rating of 4.9 out of 5 on Gartner Peer Insights for CNAPP, based on verified reviews. Frost & Sullivan's report flagged Upwind's rapid annual growth of over 4,000 percent year-on-year and its success in integrating previously disparate tools into a single platform, noting its efforts in runtime intelligence in particular. Technical approach and platform features Upwind's cloud security platform is designed using a Runtime-first approach. The company states that its architecture, which incorporates a lightweight eBPF-based sensor, enables full-stack visibility and real-time threat response without adding operational overhead for development teams. A key feature of the Upwind platform is the "Threat Stories" capability, which connects runtime signals, configuration data, audit logs, and identity information in a unified dashboard. This allows security teams to trace threats directly to the source code or deployment pipeline responsible for introducing vulnerabilities. "Security can't be bolted on after deployment. It has to be built in continuously, contextually, and with developers at the center," said Amiram Shachar, CEO and Co-Founder of Upwind. "To us, this wave of analyst recognition validates the strength of our vision, our product, and most importantly, our team. Upwind's momentum is driven by real customer adoption, technical innovation, and word-of-mouth from the people who use and love our platform. We're not building for the exit; we're building for impact. We're focused on solving real, complex problems for the teams building and securing the cloud. That's why engineers, platform teams, and SOCs are choosing Upwind to simplify, scale, and unify cloud-native security at the speed of modern development." Market context and future trends With the rising adoption of cloud-native technologies, industry analysts have pointed to a shift among organisations from fragmented toolchains toward more integrated platforms that offer visibility throughout the application lifecycle. Gartner's reports state that CNAPP platforms are becoming a preferred model for managing the security of dynamic cloud environments, particularly as companies increase their investments in DevSecOps, platform engineering, and generative AI systems. Frost & Sullivan described Upwind as impactful for its capability to merge detection, response, and protection services into a singular platform. The report credits Upwind with consolidating functions such as ADR (Application Detection and Response), CDR (Cloud Detection and Response), CWPP (Cloud Workload Protection Platforms), and CSPM (Cloud Security Posture Management), thereby supporting operational efficiency for customers.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store