HUNTSVILLE — PhishFirewall, a cybersecurity awareness, threat emulation, and analytics solution firm, has hired Gregory Sims as its chief operating officer. Sims is a former intelligence officer with the Central Intelligence Agency.

He will heighten PhishFirewall’s focus on the human element in cybersecurity, support product development, and help scale its operations, according to the company.

In his position with the CIA, Sims managed technical operations against countries such as Russia, China and Iran.

“Greg’s background is fascinating, and it fits right in line with the problems PhishFirewall intends to solve,” said founder and CEO Joshua Crumbaugh. “Cybersecurity is a human problem, not a technology problem, and we believe that technology alone cannot solve the phishing threat without first addressing the human issue.

“Greg’s experience mastering the human element will be extremely valuable to our efforts moving forward.”

The human factor has been behind some of the biggest data breaches in recent memory.

“What PhishFirewall is doing, addressing the human dimension of cyber security via individualized, AI-enabled education is innovative and sorely needed,” said Sims. “The human factor is a key vulnerability that is grossly underserviced by the cybersecurity industry, and we’re going to change that.

“The opportunity to combine my passions for organizational learning, the human element in intelligence and security, and pushing disruptive innovation here at PhishFirewall is irresistible.”

Huntsville-based PhishFirewall specializes in protecting enterprises in high-profile critical infrastructure sectors.