Cybersecurity Leadership & Building a Winning Tech Team with F-Secure CTO Toby White
Toby’s career began in academia in the UK, where he spent nearly a decade working on data platforms. But after realising that research alone wouldn’t offer long-term financial security, he pivoted, launching a startup with friends and stepping into the CTO role. After a successful exit, Toby joined the acquiring company, where he grew from leading a three-person team to overseeing a tech organisation of over 120 people.
He then relocated to Finland, joining Wärtsilä to shape the company’s software strategy. This was also where he first began working more deeply with cybersecurity.
That experience ultimately set the stage for his next big role: CTO of F-Secure, a company focused on consumer cybersecurity. He played a pivotal role in their post demerger from WithSecure, and today, Toby leads a tech organisation of nearly 300 people spread across multiple countries, steering the company through a fast-moving landscape of online threats, rapid AI transformation, and cross-platform innovation.
From Antivirus to Scam Prevention: The Evolution of Consumer Cybersecurity
For decades, cybersecurity was largely about blocking viruses. But today’s threats are different. “The risk isn’t just getting a virus anymore,” Toby says. “It’s about getting scammed.”
Scams today come via SMS, WhatsApp, email, any channel a bad actor can use to reach a target. Recognising this shift, F-Secure refocused its entire business after a 2022 demerger, spinning off its enterprise arm into WithSecure and becoming a standalone company, dedicated solely to protecting consumers.
This clarity of focus has allowed F-Secure to build smarter, faster defences. Their flagship product, Total, goes beyond antivirus to integrate protection directly into browser and mobile experiences. Safari and Chrome plugins alert users to potential threats before they click. Apps for iOS and Android safeguard users while respecting platform-specific constraints.
Each ecosystem comes with its own complexity; different architecture, strict app store policies, fragmented device manufacturers, and OS limitations. On iOS, for example, security apps cannot perform deep system-wide scans in the same way they can on Android, requiring more creative approaches to threat detection. F-Secure’s ability to deliver seamless security across them is a feat of engineering and coordination.
A Tech Team Built for Speed, Threat Response, and Innovation
Toby’s organisational design reflects the fast pace of modern threats. “You can’t have a multi-week roadmap when SMS scams are flooding the country this week,” he explains.
At F-Secure, the tech organisation is built around specialised teams:
Dedicated research unit tracks real-time threats and explores new scam tactics.
Product engineering teams build user-facing cybersecurity solutions.
Platform engineering teams ensure infrastructure stability enabling smooth operations.
Architecture teams oversee long-term technology strategy and designs for scale and system coherence.
Meanwhile, Product and Customer Experience (CX) teams, though separate, are deeply integrated into our operation process. “They keep us honest and customer-first,” Toby says. Insights from these teams help translate real-world user needs into technical priorities.
Aligning talent to this model is an ongoing effort. F-Secure’s Talent Acquisition Lead works closely with engineering VPs and directors to challenge hiring assumptions and ensure fit.
The Role of AI in Cybersecurity and Development
F-Secure is leveraging AI in multiple ways to stay ahead of emerging threats and improve efficiency across teams.
In cybersecurity:
AI models scan massive datasets to detect and predict scam behaviour in real time.
Adaptive threat protection by analysing evolving scams, malware, and phishing techniques to develop proactive countermeasures.
Automated security systems patch vulnerabilities and analyse network behaviours.
In development:
AI helps developers generate cross-domain code (e.g. a mobile developer can generate useful code snippets for backend logic)
It accelerates legacy code migration from languages like Scala or Ruby to Python or Java.
Developers use AI to unblock tasks that would otherwise require long handoffs.
“AI isn’t replacing developers,” Toby clarifies. "It’s about freeing them from grunt work so they can focus on innovation. Cybersecurity threats evolve daily, and AI allows us to adapt at a speed that manual processes never could."
While AI accelerates coding, “writing code is only 20% of what developers do,” Toby emphasises. The real value lies in conversations, discovery, and solving the right problems.
Lessons from Leading Through a Major Acquisition
Following the demerger, F-Secure acquired a company with teams in the US, India, and Slovakia. The integration was anything but simple. The process presented several challenges, from merging different technical infrastructures to bridging gaps in company culture and working styles.
“Mergers aren’t just technical. They’re emotional,” Toby says. “You’re combining cultures, assumptions, and ways of working.”
To smooth the transition, Toby travelled to meet with different teams in person, focused on transparency, and together with other leaders created a unified vision and aligned strategic objectives. F-Secure prioritised embedding the new teams from day one rather than slowly introducing them to the organisation.
Eighteen months later, the global teams are fully integrated under a single technology strategy. "It was painful, especially in the first six months," Toby admits. "But ultimately, worth it. We now have stronger capabilities, more diverse expertise, and a team that’s operating as one."
Balancing Innovation with the Reality of Legacy
While F-Secure is future-focused, it also must deal with legacy tech, especially when working with the telco industry, which operates on long procurement cycles and strict regulatory frameworks. These legacy systems present a major challenge. It drags on resources, introduces technical debt, and most importantly, “keeps people looking backwards,” Toby says.
F-Secure’s "No More Legacy" initiative aims to systematically phase out outdated technologies. They actively work with customers to upgrade systems, emphasising the benefits of modern, more efficient solutions. By continuously highlighting the risks and inefficiencies of outdated technology, the company pushes for a more agile, forward-thinking cybersecurity landscape.
The Key Skillset: Ambition, Curiosity, Adaptability
For Toby, building a winning tech team starts with mindset, not just technical skills. When hiring senior experts, VPs, and directors, he looks beyond the resume to find people with “curiosity and ambition”, leaders who stay motivated by change and who continuously want to improve.
“The best leaders in our organisation aren’t just great at tech,” he says. “They’re motivated to keep learning and helping others grow, especially in a field that’s evolving as fast as cybersecurity.” Toby focuses on making sure people have the space and tools to succeed. He encourages his teams to use AI to unblock and remove bottlenecks, while reminding them to focus on future opportunities rather than past constraints.
Great leadership, he says, is about more than creating comfort, it’s about creating challenges. “It’s not only about keeping people happy. It’s about helping them grow.”
Copy Toby’s formula for building a winning team:
Foster curiosity and ambition
Empower employees to grow through challenge
Use AI to remove blockers and accelerate learning
Encourage the team to be future-focused
Hire for mindset, not just skillset
If there’s one takeaway for aspiring CTOs, it’s this: “It’s much more about people than you ever expected.”
Many tech leaders step into the role because they love technology. However, it’s not just technical leadership, it’s people leadership. With the rapid transformation driven by AI, CTOs must stay curious and adaptable, ensuring that innovation remains at the core while also helping teams adapt to new workflows and responsibilities.
F-Secure’s future is about smarter scam detection, faster protection, and broader reach.
With the fast evolving cybersecurity landscape and heightened unpredictability, staying curious, leveraging AI, and keeping one eye on the horizon will be critical to success.
What’s your take on the future of cybersecurity? Let’s keep the discussion going, connect with Toby White on LinkedIn and tag us!