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Few leaders have successfully built companies across multiple international markets while maintaining deep technical expertise in emerging threat vectors. Yossi Appleboum, CEO and Co-Founder of Sepio, brings exactly this rare combination to DMV Rising 2025's "Vision for Global Leadership" panel—along with 25 years of experience that spans from intelligence work on critical infrastructure to pioneering hardware security solutions that protect Fortune 500 companies today.
As the DMV region seeks to strengthen its position as a global cybersecurity hub, Appleboum's journey offers uniquely relevant insights to this powerhouse panel. He's not just witnessed the evolution of international cyber markets—he's actively shaped them, from co-founding a successful Israeli security company to relocating to the U.S. to build Sepio's North American operations.
He's architected security at every scale. With over 25 years in security, networking, and control systems, Appleboum brings rare wide-angle vision to cybersecurity challenges. After beginning his career with Israel's Unit 8200 focusing on critical infrastructure network monitoring, he co-founded WebSilicon in 1998, where as VP of R&D, he designed and implemented over 250 systems for government agencies, integrators, and vendors—experience that culminated in the company's successful acquisition by Magal (NASDAQ: MAGS) in 2013.
He bridges international cyber markets seamlessly. After WebSilicon's acquisition and rebranding as CyberSeal, Appleboum relocated to the United States as CTO for Cyber Security at Senstar Inc. (Magal's North American division) to work directly with key customers and partners. This hands-on experience scaling companies from Israel to the U.S. market provides crucial perspective on what makes regional innovation hubs succeed and how technology transfer between markets actually works.
He identified and created a solution for hardware security's hidden crisis. In 2016, Appleboum co-founded Sepio to address a glaring gap: organizations had no real visibility into their hardware assets and the risks they posed. Today, Sepio's Asset Risk Management platform utilizes physical layer technology to provide what traditional security tools miss—complete visibility into all connected assets, including shadow IT and malicious hardware that bypasses conventional detection.
Sepio's approach holds particular relevance for the DMV region, where federal agencies, defense contractors, and critical infrastructure operators face sophisticated hardware-based threats. The company's platform delivers "actionable visibility, objective truth, and infinite scalability"—three pillars essential for organizations managing continuously expanding ecosystems of connected devices.
What sets Sepio apart is its focus on the physical layer, introducing an integrated Asset Risk Factor score that provides a new dimension in security. For IT departments drowning in hardware complexity, this means reduced clutter, optimized efficiency, and eliminated redundancy—tangible benefits that translate to decreased operational headaches and costs.
The panel will explore how successful international cyber models can inform the DMV's growth trajectory. Israel's cyber ecosystem has achieved remarkable success in global markets, and Appleboum's experience building companies across both ecosystems positions him to offer unique insights on technology transfer, commercialization pathways, and the cultural factors that enable innovation.
Appleboum will share the stage with Seth Spergel (Managing Partner, Merlin Ventures), Stephanie Cherrin (Partner, JP Morgan Technology Ventures), with John Funge (Venture Partner, Data Tribe) moderating. The conversation promises to address critical questions about leveraging the DMV's unique assets—federal proximity, academic institutions, and emerging tech sector—while fostering the entrepreneurial agility needed to compete globally.
Don't miss your opportunity to hear from a leader who's successfully navigated multiple cyber ecosystems and now brings that global perspective to strengthening the DMV's position in the cybersecurity landscape.