Podcasts about ciso

Send a textAgentic AI stops being “just software” the moment it can take actions across your systems and that's where leadership, cybersecurity, and trust collide. We sit down with Mark Lynd, a globally recognized cybersecurity and AI thought leader and former CIO, CTO, and CISO, to get specific about what enterprise teams misunderstand when they talk about autonomous AI agents. The promise is speed and cost savings; the reality is permissions, accountability, and a threat landscape that changes when agents have identities and privileges.We dig into why “identity is the new perimeter” in an AI-driven world and how attackers target the keys to the kingdom: access, escalated privileges, and the ability to work around security controls. Mark shares how common IAM problems like permission sprawl and forgotten access can become even more dangerous with agents, especially as organizations scale from a few pilots to hundreds or thousands of AI agents. We also talk governance frameworks like NIST and ISO, why frameworks alone don't equal evaluation criteria, and how boards push for innovation while regulators demand control.If you're a CIO, CISO, security leader, or board advisor trying to adopt agentic AI responsibly, this conversation offers a grounded approach: start with small, auditable use cases, keep a real human-in-the-loop model, align every agent to business goals, and build trust through repeatable wins. Listen, share this with a teammate, and subscribe plus leave a review with your answer: what's the first workflow you would trust an AI agent to run?Thanks for tuning in to this episode of Follow The Brand! We hope you enjoyed learning about the latest trends and strategies in Personal Branding, Business and Career Development, Financial Empowerment, Technology Innovation, and Executive Presence. To keep up with the latest insights and updates, visit 5starbdm.com. And don't miss Grant McGaugh's new book, First Light — a powerful guide to igniting your purpose and building a BRAVE brand that stands out in a changing world. - https://5starbdm.com/brave-masterclass/ See you next time on Follow The Brand!

Show Notes: As cybersecurity has matured, the field has become more formalized within businesses with CISOs leading the way. However, despite the value of the CISO and its widespread adoption, the role has continued to lose agency with other board members. In this episode of CISO Perspectives, host ⁠Kim Jones⁠ sits down with Patty Ryan, the CISO at QuidelOrtho, to assess the value of the role. Throughout the conversation, Patty and Kim will discuss the challenges facing CISOs, why the role has lost its agency, and what can be done to reverse the current trajectory. Want more CISO Perspectives?: Check out a companion ⁠⁠blog post⁠⁠ by our very own Ethan Cook, where he breaks down key insights, shares behind-the-scenes context, and highlights research that complements this episode. It's the perfect follow-up if you're curious about the cyber talent crunch and how we can reshape the ecosystem for future professionals. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Alexander Feick is the Vice President of eSentire Labs at eSentire. In this episode, he joins host Charlie Osborne to discuss AI and how the technology has redrawn the attack surface. eSentire is the Authority in Managed Detection and Response. eSentire's mission is to hunt, investigate and stop cyber threats before they become business disrupting events. To learn more about our sponsor, visit https://esentire.com

All links and images can be found on CISO Series. Check out this post by Caleb Sima for the discussion that is the basis of our conversation on this week's episode co-hosted by me, David Spark, the producer of CISO Series, and Edward Contreras, senior evp and CISO, Frost Bank. Joining us is Evan McHenry, CISO, Robinhood. In this episode: The information paradox Setting realistic expectations Prioritization over noise The cart before the horse Huge thanks to our sponsor, Endor Labs Discover how AI coding agents are reshaping software supply chain risk in the State of Dependency Management. Original research from Endor Labs shows 49% of dependency versions have known vulnerabilities (and that 34% don't actually exist). Get the report to see how "shadow AI" is reshaping attack surfaces.  

Alan Lucas always wanted to be an architect or a firefighter — as CISO of Worldstream and Greenhouse Datacenters, he has become both. In this episode, he joins host Steve Moore to explore leading cybersecurity at the intersection of design and crisis response.Alan traces his path from Fox-IT through a Dutch cryptocurrency exchange where he arrived post-breach to an organization under near-constant attack from nation-state threat actors. Leading a technically sophisticated but security-anxious leadership team, he learned the lasting power of transparency and directness — and his most memorable measure of success was not a technical control, but a CTO who finally slept through the night.The conversation goes deep into crisis communication. Alan and Steve discuss how the industry has matured from reflexive silence around breaches to embracing transparency as a trust-building tool, the danger of well-meaning legal edits that send customers chasing the wrong narrative, and why the CISO should hold final review over all public incident communications. He also shares his Security Champions Program, tabletop exercise design, and why knowing who to call in a crisis must be mapped out before that crisis arrives.Alan also covers his volunteer work with the DIVD, coaching ethical hackers and supporting responsible disclosure worldwide — an extension of his belief that security, done well, creates trust and enables growth for everyone.The episode closes on "bouncing forward" — the idea that true resilience means using every incident as a forcing function for improvement, not just a return to baseline. Alan frames lessons learned as the most important resilience KPI a security team can own. A masterclass in leading through both calm and chaos. Key Topics• The architect-and-firefighter mindset: building security programs while fighting live fires• Alan's career path from Fox-IT (MSSP) to post-breach CISO at a cryptocurrency exchange• Leading security post-breach — and what "sleeping well again" actually means• The unique threat landscape facing cryptocurrency companies, including nation-state adversaries• The Dutch Institute for Vulnerability Disclosure (DIVD): coordinated, ethical vulnerability disclosure worldwide• Mentoring young ethical hackers: communication, confidence, and responsible disclosure process• Crisis communication: balancing transparency with operational security during active incidents• Why legal edits to breach notifications can mislead customers and create dangerous distractions• The CISO's role as final reviewer of all incident communications• Security Champions Programs: bridging the gap between security and non-technical departments• Tabletop exercise design: running effective simulations in under an hour with non-technical staff• Writing the breach notification letter before the breach happens• Bouncing forward, not bouncing back: using lessons learned as a resilience KPI• Security as a business enabler: positioning the CISO role for organizational growth and confidenceGuest BioAlan Lucas is CISO at Worldstream and Greenhouse Datacenters, two of the Netherlands' leading cloud and data center infrastructure providers. With over a decade of cybersecurity experience, he leads security strategy for mission-critical IT and cloud environments. Prior roles include Fox-IT (MSSP) and LiteBit, a Dutch cryptocurrency exchange where he served as CISO post-breach. Alan also volunteers as a coach at the Dutch Institute for Vulnerability Disclosure (DIVD), mentoring ethical hackers and supporting responsible disclosure globally. He is passionate about security as a catalyst for innovation — and about building a safer digital society, one step at a time.LEARN MORE:

What does it really take to lead in cybersecurity today? In this episode of Life of a CISO, Dr. Eric Cole sits down with longtime cybersecurity executive and educator Mary Kotch for a sharp, honest conversation about the future of the industry. From breaking into the field to building a career that lasts, Mary shares why continuous learning, technical depth, and real-world experience matter more than ever. Together, they unpack the growing role of AI in both cyber defense and cyber attacks, why ethical hacking may be one of the most valuable skills professionals can develop, and what aspiring CISOs need to understand about the difference between technical work and executive leadership. If you want a real look at where cybersecurity is heading and how to stay ahead of it, this is an episode worth hearing.  

Send a textIn this episode of Joey Pinz Discipline Conversations, Joey Pinz sits down with Mark Hardy, a retired U.S. Navy Captain and longtime cybersecurity executive, for a powerful conversation on leadership, growth, and decision-making under pressure.Mark shares what it was like stepping into command on September 11th in Lower Manhattan, leading without resources, infrastructure, or certainty—and how those moments shaped his lifelong approach to people and leadership. From developing future leaders to creating environments where individuals can step up when it matters most, this conversation goes far beyond theory.They explore why logic alone rarely drives lasting change, why emotional triggers are often the real catalyst for transformation, and how high-performing professionals can unintentionally disconnect from the very feelings that help them grow. Mark also reflects on cybersecurity careers, executive credibility, and why protecting people—not breaking systems—is the real challenge.This episode blends real-world leadership, personal evolution, and hard-earned wisdom from decades in the Navy, consulting, and cybersecurity—making it a must-listen for leaders, builders, and anyone navigating high-stakes decisions. ⭐ Top 3 Highlights

AI has created a dilemma for security teams. Attackers are using AI to develop exploits to newly disclosed vulnerabilities faster than security teams can patch them. Security teams have not fully leveraged the capabilities of AI to autonomously prevent these attacks. Without a radical change in approach, organizations will be exposed to an exponentially increasing attack surface. How long can your organization tolerate being exploitable? Myke Lyons, CISO at Cribl, joins Business Security Weekly to discuss why organizations need to embrace AI to understand the behavior of attacks to effectively prevent them. For decades, we've focused on the Indicators of Compromise (IoCs) and have played whack-a-mole to try and patch them. Instead, we should focus on the Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures (TTPs) and leverage LLMs to understand the behavior of the attack. Once we understand the behaviors, we can implement preventative controls to minimize exposure. And yes, AI can also help us automate patching, when we're ready to trust it. In the leadership and communications segment, Your Risk Tolerance Has Changed. Does Your Leadership Team Know That? , The New Leadership Structures that Unblock Innovation, How CISOs can build a resilient workforce, and more! Visit https://www.securityweekly.com/bsw for all the latest episodes! Show Notes: https://securityweekly.com/bsw-438

Show DescriptionThe Zero Day Clock is ticking — and the numbers should make every security leader uncomfortable. In this episode, I sit down with Sergej Epp, CISO at a leading security firm, who built the Zero Day Clock after a weekend experiment using AI to discover vulnerabilities firsthand. What he found shocked him: with no professional vulnerability research background and just a few hours of work, he was successfully finding zero days across major security projects using AI models and basic scaffolding.Sergej breaks down his concept of the "Verifier's Law" — the idea that offense has the cheapest verifier in cybersecurity because feedback is binary and instant (you either popped a shell or you didn't), while defense operates in a space where validation is expensive, ambiguous, and slow. We dig into what this asymmetry means for the industry, why 20 years of warnings from Ross Anderson, Bruce Schneier, Halvar Flake, and others have gone unheeded, and whether coordinated disclosure models are broken now that AI can reverse engineer a patch into a working exploit in minutes.We also discuss the tension between regulation and deregulation playing out in the U.S. and EU, why the answer might be outcome-based accountability rather than prescriptive compliance, and what a realistic defensible posture actually looks like when the mean time to exploit for actively exploited vulnerabilities is under two days — while most organizations are still operating on 30-day patch cycles.Show NotesSergej shares how a weekend AI experiment led him to discover multiple zero days across major security projects with no professional vulnerability research experience — and why that should alarm the entire industryThe "Verifier's Law" explained: offense has cheap, deterministic validators (pop a shell, exfiltrate data, trigger an XSS) while defense faces expensive, ambiguous validation (parsing SIM alerts, measuring security posture), giving AI-accelerated offense a structural advantageThe Zero Day Clock synthesizes 3,500+ CVE-exploit pairs and shows the mean time to exploit for actively exploited vulnerabilities is now under two days — while organizations still operate on 14-to-30-day patch cycles20 years of ignored warnings: from Ross Anderson's 2001 economics paper through Bruce Schneier, Halvar Flake's "the patch is the advisory" insight, and DARPA's Cyber Grand Challenge — the industry has consistently failed to act on clear signalsAI can now reverse engineer patches to identify underlying flaws and generate working exploits in minutes, potentially breaking coordinated disclosure models and compressing the window between patch release and active exploitation to near zeroThe regulation paradox: the EU risks overregulating AI in ways that hamper defenders while attackers face no such constraints, while the U.S. is pushing deregulation that may remove the only forcing function for vendor accountability — Sergej and Chris discuss outcome-based regulation as a potential middle pathDefenders have a data advantage: by understanding their own environments, infrastructure, and processes, security teams can detect AI-driven attacks through behavioral anomalies like hallucinated API calls, non-existent user accounts, and other artifacts of AI-generated attack playbooksThe Zero Day Clock's real power is as a board-level communication tool — a single slide that translates the patching gap into a number executives and policymakers can't ignore, shifting the conversation from "are we compliant?" to "are we fast enough?"

AI has created a dilemma for security teams. Attackers are using AI to develop exploits to newly disclosed vulnerabilities faster than security teams can patch them. Security teams have not fully leveraged the capabilities of AI to autonomously prevent these attacks. Without a radical change in approach, organizations will be exposed to an exponentially increasing attack surface. How long can your organization tolerate being exploitable? Myke Lyons, CISO at Cribl, joins Business Security Weekly to discuss why organizations need to embrace AI to understand the behavior of attacks to effectively prevent them. For decades, we've focused on the Indicators of Compromise (IoCs) and have played whack-a-mole to try and patch them. Instead, we should focus on the Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures (TTPs) and leverage LLMs to understand the behavior of the attack. Once we understand the behaviors, we can implement preventative controls to minimize exposure. And yes, AI can also help us automate patching, when we're ready to trust it. In the leadership and communications segment, Your Risk Tolerance Has Changed. Does Your Leadership Team Know That? , The New Leadership Structures that Unblock Innovation, How CISOs can build a resilient workforce, and more! Show Notes: https://securityweekly.com/bsw-438

AI has created a dilemma for security teams. Attackers are using AI to develop exploits to newly disclosed vulnerabilities faster than security teams can patch them. Security teams have not fully leveraged the capabilities of AI to autonomously prevent these attacks. Without a radical change in approach, organizations will be exposed to an exponentially increasing attack surface. How long can your organization tolerate being exploitable? Myke Lyons, CISO at Cribl, joins Business Security Weekly to discuss why organizations need to embrace AI to understand the behavior of attacks to effectively prevent them. For decades, we've focused on the Indicators of Compromise (IoCs) and have played whack-a-mole to try and patch them. Instead, we should focus on the Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures (TTPs) and leverage LLMs to understand the behavior of the attack. Once we understand the behaviors, we can implement preventative controls to minimize exposure. And yes, AI can also help us automate patching, when we're ready to trust it. In the leadership and communications segment, Your Risk Tolerance Has Changed. Does Your Leadership Team Know That? , The New Leadership Structures that Unblock Innovation, How CISOs can build a resilient workforce, and more! Visit https://www.securityweekly.com/bsw for all the latest episodes! Show Notes: https://securityweekly.com/bsw-438

At CES in January, NVIDIA, AMD, Siemens and others spun elaborate tales of a world suffused with AI: AI in the cloud, AI at the desktop, AI in the factory, AI underneath enterprise software and as the UI for enterprise software and agentically accomplishing anything and everything in a world of embodied, physical AI. Johna... Read more »

All links and images can be found on CISO Series. This week's episode is hosted by me, David Spark, producer of CISO Series and Andy Ellis, principal of Duha. Joining us is our sponsored guest, Rob Allen, chief product officer, ThreatLocker. In this episode: Your best employee is your biggest risk Stop guessing the next attack AI is not a feature Stop blaming the user Huge thanks to our sponsor, ThreatLocker ThreatLocker makes Zero Trust practical. With Default Deny, Ringfencing, and Elevation Control, CISOs get real control that's easy to manage and built to scale. Stop threats before they execute and reduce operational noise without adding complexity. See how simple prevention can be at ThreatLocker.com/CISO.  

At CES in January, NVIDIA, AMD, Siemens and others spun elaborate tales of a world suffused with AI: AI in the cloud, AI at the desktop, AI in the factory, AI underneath enterprise software and as the UI for enterprise software and agentically accomplishing anything and everything in a world of embodied, physical AI. Johna... Read more »

Privacy laws keep multiplying, regulations keep changing, and AI is making everything more complex. How do businesses build privacy compliance that actually sticks instead of just checking a box? Let's find out with our guest Jordan Fischer, Founder and Partner at Fischer Law and Cybersecurity Lecturer at UC Berkeley. Your hosts are Kip Boyle, CISO with Cyber Risk Opportunities, and Jake Bernstein, Partner with K&L Gates.   Jordan Fischer's website: https://jordanfischerlaw.com   Shoshana Zuboff's book: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Age_of_Surveillance_Capitalism

Israel claims a strike on Iran's cyber warfare headquarters. The Trump administration releases a new national cyber strategy.  DHS shakes up its IT and cybersecurity leadership. Velvet Tempest uses ClickFix to drop loaders and RATs. Researchers uncover a Linux cryptocurrency clipboard hijacker. The DOJ brings a Ghanaian romance scammer to justice. Online advertising enables government tracking. Monday business breakdown. Our guest is Jon France, CISO from ISC2, sharing some insights and findings from their 2025 ISC2 Cybersecurity Workforce Study. An Apple II app gets audited by AI.  Remember to leave us a 5-star rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Miss an episode? Sign-up for our daily intelligence roundup, Daily Briefing, and you'll never miss a beat. And be sure to follow CyberWire Daily on LinkedIn. CyberWire Guest Joining us today is Jon France, CISO from ISC2, sharing some insights and findings from their 2025 ISC2 Cybersecurity Workforce Study. For further detail, you can also check out ISC2's just released Women in Cybersecurity report. Selected Reading Iranian cyber warfare HQ allegedly hit by Israel | brief (SC Media) Iran internet blackout reaches 6th day as rights groups call for end to digital shutdown (The Record) The long-awaited Trump cyber strategy has arrived (CyberScoop) DHS CISO, deputy CISO exit amid reported IT leadership overhaul (FedScoop) Termite ransomware breaches linked to ClickFix CastleRAT attacks (Bleeping Computer) ClipXDaemon: Autonomous X11 Clipboard Hijacker Delivered Via Bincrypter-Based Loader (Cyble) Ghanaian Pleads Guilty to Role in $100m Romance Scam (Infosecurity Magazine) The Government Uses Targeted Advertising to Track Your Location. Here's What We Need to Do. (Electronic Frontier Foundation) Zurich Insurance Group intends to acquire UK cyber insurer Beazley for approximately $11 billion. (N2K Pro Business Briefing) Microsoft Azure CTO says Claude found vulns in Apple II code (The Register) Share your feedback. What do you think about CyberWire Daily? Please take a few minutes to share your thoughts with us by completing our brief listener survey. Thank you for helping us continue to improve our show.   Want to hear your company in the show? N2K CyberWire helps you reach the industry's most influential leaders and operators, while building visibility, authority, and connectivity across the cybersecurity community. Learn more at sponsor.thecyberwire.com. The CyberWire is a production of N2K Networks, your source for strategic workforce intelligence. © N2K Networks, Inc. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Guest: Allie Mellen, Principal Analyst @ Forrester, author of "Code War: How Nations Hack, Spy, and Shape the Digital Battlefield" Topics: Your book focuses on the US, China, and Russia. When you were planning the book did you also want to cover players like Israel, Iran, and North Korea? Most of our listeners are migrating to or operating heavily in the cloud. As nations refine their "digital battlefield" strategies, does the "shared responsibility model" actually hold up against a nation-state actor? How does a company's detection strategy need to change when the adversary isn't a teenager looking for a ransom, but a state-funded group whose goal might be long-term persistence or subtle data manipulation? How should people allocate their resources to defending against both of these threats?  How afraid are you of a "bad guy with AI" scenarios? Mild anxiety or apocalyptic fears?  Do you see AI primarily helping "Tier 2" nations close the capability gap with the "Big Three," or does it just further cement the dominance of the nations that own the underlying compute and models? You've spent a lot of time as an analyst looking at how enterprises buy and run security tech. For a CISO at (say) mid-tier logistics company, should 'nation-state cyberattacks' even be on their threat model? Or is worrying about the spies just a form of security theater when they haven't even solved basic credential theft yet? Resource: Video version "Code War: How Nations Hack, Spy, and Shape the Digital Battlefield" by Allie Mellen Allie Mellen substack The source for the original "air defense on the roof" argument (2008) EP255 Separating Hype from Hazard: The Truth About Autonomous AI Hacking EP256 Rewiring Democracy & Hacking Trust: Bruce Schneier on the AI Offense-Defense Balance EP156 Living Off the Land and Attacking Critical Infrastructure: Mandiant Incident Deep Dive "Disrupting the first reported AI-orchestrated cyber espionage campaign" report

Link to episode page This week's Department of Know is hosted by Sarah Lane with guests John Barrow, CISO, JB Poindexter & Co., and Derek Fisher, Director of the Cyber Defense and Information Assurance Program, Temple University Thanks to our show sponsor, Dropzone AI Here is a number worth knowing before RSAC. The average enterprise SOC sees tens of thousands of alerts a day. Most get triaged. A fraction get thoroughly investigated. The rest sit in the queue or get auto-closed.   Dropzone AI puts AI SOC agents on every one of those alerts. Every alert investigated, end to end, across your full tool stack, around the clock. Over 300 deployments in production today.   They are at RSAC this year. Booth 455. dropzone.ai/rsa-2026-ai-diner All links and the video of this episode can be found on CISO Series.com  

What if the device keeping you alive was also a cybersecurity vulnerability? That's not a hypothetical — it's Victor Barge's reality. In this episode of The Audit, IT Audit Labs' Global Delivery Director Victor Barge shares the story of his sudden cardiac event and the life-saving defibrillator now implanted in his chest and the eye-opening security questions that followed. Co-hosts Joshua Schmidt, Eric Brown, and Nick Mellum connect Victor's story to the real-world cyber risks organizations ignore every single day. What you'll learn in this episode: How modern pacemakers and defibrillators transmit biometric data 24/7 — and what happens if that data is compromised Why the 2017 Abbott pacemaker recall of 500,000 devices is a warning the industry hasn't fully heeded The parallel between reactive healthcare and reactive cybersecurity — and why waiting costs you more Why billion-dollar organizations are still storing passwords in spreadsheets in 2026 What continuous monitoring in IT security can learn from real-time cardiac telemetry Whether you're a CISO, IT auditor, or just someone wearing a smartwatch, this episode will make you rethink what "sensitive data" really means. 

How does a CISO turn cybersecurity from a technical conversation into a business conversation that boards actually care about? In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I sit down with Thom Langford, EMEA CTO at Rapid7 and a former CISO, to explore what he calls the second phase of cybersecurity leadership. For years, the industry worked hard to secure a seat at the boardroom table. In many organizations, that mission has largely succeeded. But as Thom explains, gaining access was only the first step. The real challenge now is communicating security in a way that drives meaningful business decisions. Thom shares why many CISOs still approach board conversations in the same way they did a decade ago, even though boardroom awareness of cybersecurity has changed dramatically. Today, many boards include members with cybersecurity knowledge or direct security experience. That means security leaders can no longer rely on technical jargon, complex frameworks, or compliance language to make their case. One of the most interesting insights from our conversation is the disconnect between how CISOs frame risk and what boards are actually focused on. While security teams often lead with risk reduction, boards tend to think in terms of revenue growth and operational costs. Thom argues that security leaders must learn to translate cybersecurity into the language of profit and loss if they want their message to resonate at the executive level. We also explore how traditional security tools such as risk frameworks, audits, and compliance standards can sometimes create distance rather than clarity in board discussions. Instead of helping executives understand security priorities, these models can obscure the real question boards are trying to answer. How secure are we, and what does that mean for the business? Another area we discuss is the growing role of tabletop exercises. Thom explains why these simulations are becoming one of the most effective ways for CISOs to demonstrate the real-world impact of security decisions. By walking executives through a realistic incident scenario, leaders can see how security, operations, legal teams, and business priorities intersect during a crisis. Looking ahead, Thom believes the most successful CISOs will increasingly need to think like business leaders rather than purely technical specialists. Communication skills, relationship building, and understanding the organization's financial priorities may prove just as important as deep technical expertise. So if cybersecurity leaders have already earned their place in the boardroom, the next question becomes much more interesting. Are they speaking the language the board actually understands, or are they still trying to solve business problems using only security vocabulary?

S1E11: Your Vendor's ‘AI' Might Be a Trojan Horse: A Hospital CISO's Reality Check On this episode, Steven Hajny talks with Jim Bowie, VP & CISO at Tampa General Hospital, about the real-world collision between AI hype and healthcare security reality. Jim shares what hospital teams are actually asking AI to do, how his health system evaluates and governs AI use cases (especially where regulations don't yet exist), the biggest red flags vendors raise, and why “good security hygiene” matters more than any new AI-specific silver bullet. To stream our Station live 24/7 visit www.HealthcareNOWRadio.com or ask your Smart Device to “….Play Healthcare NOW Radio”. Find all of our network podcasts on your favorite podcast platforms and be sure to subscribe and like us. Learn more at www.healthcarenowradio.com/listen

Quantum Threats, Zero Trust & the Future of Network Security | DailyCyber 286 with Andrew Gault ~ Watch Now ~  In this episode of DailyCyber, Brandon Krieger is joined by Andrew Gault, CEO of ZeroTier, to examine whether quantum computing represents a real cybersecurity threat today or remains theoretical. The conversation explores what quantum computing could break within current encryption standards, why infrastructure providers should be planning now, and how modern zero trust architecture must evolve in response. Topics include: • The realism of quantum cybersecurity risk • Vulnerabilities in today's cryptographic stack • Infrastructure planning for post-quantum security • CISO strategy for 2026 • Zero trust implications   Guest: Andrew Gault — CEO, ZeroTier https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewgault/ https://www.zerotier.com/   Host: Brandon Krieger — CEO & vCISO Advisor https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandonkrieger https://www.DailyCyber.ca   Watch: https://www.youtube.com/BrandonKrieger Listen: https://www.DailyCyber.ca

The CISO role isn't the finish line, it's a launchpad. 69% of security executives are eyeing the exit, and Anthony Johnson is proof that what comes next can be even bigger. Anthony Johnson, former Global CISO at JP Morgan and Fannie Mae, now founder and managing partner at Delve Risk, breaks down what really happens when a security leader stops buying tools and starts building companies. From the trap of unpaid advisory boards to why AI is eliminating the entry-level pipeline, Anthony delivers a no-nonsense look at career strategy, the future of fractional work, and why understanding how your company makes money is the most underrated skill in cybersecurity. If you're a security practitioner at any level, this episode will change how you think about your next move. Impactful Moments 00:00 - Introduction 01:00 - Meet Anthony Johnson 02:00 - 69% of CISOs want out 06:00 - Why Anthony left the CISO seat 09:00 - Revenue changes your security priorities 11:00 - Career paths after the CISO role 13:00 - The advisory board compensation trap 17:00 - AI's threat to the talent pipeline 22:00 - Hiring for aptitude over competency 24:00 - Soft skills win in the AI era 29:00 - Corporate loyalty is dead—now what 31:00 - Networking that actually lands roles 34:00 - Know how your company makes money 36:00 - Ron's personal reflection on freedom Links Connect with our guest, Anthony Johnson, on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthony-johnson-delverisk/ Check out our upcoming events: https://www.hackervalley.com/livestreams Join our creative mastermind and stand out as a cybersecurity professional: https://www.patreon.com/hackervalleystudio Love Hacker Valley Studio? Pick up some swag: https://store.hackervalley.com Continue the conversation by joining our Discord: https://hackervalley.com/discord Become a sponsor of the show to amplify your brand: https://hackervalley.com/work-with-us/  

The Zscaler Public Sector Summit, Robert Roser, CISO, CDO and director of cybersecurity at Idaho National Laboratory, discussed the rapidly evolving cyber threat landscape facing government and critical infrastructure. He joined GovCIO Media & Research at the event to explain how malicious actors are increasingly using AI to launch more sophisticated phishing campaigns and ransomware attacks while also lowering the barrier to entry for less-skilled hackers. He also shared how his team is strengthening defenses through zero trust principles, stronger identity protections and new guardrails for AI use. As cyber threats grow more complex, Roser emphasized that cybersecurity is not just an IT issue — it is a responsibility shared across the entire organization.

The Office of Personnel Management removed Claude and added Grok and Codex in an update to its public disclosure of AI use cases dated Wednesday. Removal of Claude comes after a disagreement between its maker, Anthropic, and the Department of Defense over the technology's guardrails culminated in President Donald Trump issuing a governmentwide ban on the company late last week. In the following days, numerous federal agencies have made moves to stop using Anthropic's services, including OPM. While the changes to the disclosure were made at the same time, Grok and Codex were not added as the result of Claude's removal, OPM spokeswoman McLaurine Pinover said in an emailed response to FedScoop. The human capital agency is “constantly working to provide the best tools to the OPM workforce. These initiatives were already underway,” Pinover said. According to the new inventory, the “first production use” for both tools is listed as the first quarter of 2026. Pinover confirmed that date references the calendar year rather than fiscal year. Grok, a product of Elon Musk's xAI, is listed as in production, and Codex, a coding specific AI tool from OpenAI, is being deployed in a sandbox phase — which generally describes a kind of controlled environment. OPM also added several other systems that deploy AI to its public disclosure, including Wiz, Zendesk, Waze, Google Maps, and the Apple iPhone. James “Aaron” Bishop has been tapped to serve as the Pentagon's chief information security officer and deputy CIO for cybersecurity, the department announced on social media Thursday. He assumed the role of CISO in an acting capacity on Feb. 27, according to a LinkedIn post from the Office of the Chief Information Officer. In his new position, he'll work under DOD CIO Kirsten Davies and be responsible for providing policy, technical, program and oversight support to the CIO on all cybersecurity matters. Bishop previously served as CISO for the Department of the Air Force, which includes the Air and Space Forces. According to his Air Force bio, his prior jobs in the private sector included CEO and founder of the Quantum Security Alliance, CEO and founder of Eigenspace, vice president and CISO for Science Applications International Corporation, and general manager of Microsoft's National Security Group, among other roles. David McKeown, who previously served as the department's CISO, deputy CIO for cybersecurity and special assistant for cybersecurity innovation, plans to leave government service for the private sector, according to the announcement. The Daily Scoop Podcast is available every Monday-Friday afternoon. If you want to hear more of the latest from Washington, subscribe to The Daily Scoop Podcast  on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify and YouTube.

Unit 42 is tracking more than 60 active hacktivist groups and Iran-linked threat actors right now. What are they actually doing, what should you believe, and what should you do about it? In this episode of Threat Vector, David Moulton sits down with Justin Moore, Senior Manager of Threat Intelligence Research at Unit 42, and Andy Piazza, Senior Director of Threat Intelligence at Unit 42, to walk through the Unit 42 Iran Threat Brief and what the observed activity means for defenders. You'll learn: - What Unit 42 is actually observing from groups like Handala Hack, FAD Team, and Dark Storm, and what claims remain unverified - Why Iran's reduced internet connectivity changes the threat picture in ways that aren't obvious - What dispersed operators and proxy groups mean for organizations far outside the Middle East - Which defensive actions matter most against the TTPs and IOCs Unit 42 has documented - How to handle hacktivist claims that may be exaggerated or false Justin Moore brings nine years of intelligence officer experience plus senior threat intel roles at Mandiant, Google, and TikTok before joining Unit 42. Andy Piazza has more than 20 years in security operations and threat intelligence, including leading IBM X-Force's global threat intel team. Read the threat brief from Unit 42:  - Escalation of Cyber Risk Related to Iran (March 2026) - Escalation of Cyber Risk Related to Iran (June 2025) This episode is essential listening if you're: a CISO assessing current exposure, a threat analyst tracking Iran-linked groups, or a security leader who needs to explain the actual observed risk to your board. Related Episodes: - Inside the Mind of State-Sponsored Cyberattackers - Frenemies With Benefits - From Policy to Cyber Interference #Cybersecurity #ThreatIntelligence About Threat Vector Threat Vector by Palo Alto Networks is your premier podcast for security thought leadership. Join us as we explore pressing cybersecurity threats, robust protection strategies, and the latest industry trends. The podcast features in-depth discussions with industry leaders, Palo Alto Networks experts, and customers, providing crucial insights for security decision-makers. Whether you're looking to stay ahead of the curve with innovative solutions or understand the evolving cybersecurity landscape, Threat Vector equips you with the knowledge needed to safeguard your organization. Palo Alto Networks Palo Alto Networks enables your team to prevent successful cyberattacks with an automated approach that delivers consistent security across the cloud, network, and mobile.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠http://paloaltonetworks.com.⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

All links and images can be found on CISO Series. Check out this post, CISO, Upwind Security, for the discussion that is the basis of our conversation on this week's episode co-hosted by me, David Spark, the producer of CISO Series, and Geoff Belknap, CISO, LinkedIn. Joining us is Octavia Howell, vp and CISO, Equifax Canada. In this episode: Beyond the quota The hard truth beats the polished bluff Paying for someone else's mistakes Reducing friction, increasing trust Huge thanks to our sponsor, ThreatLocker ThreatLocker takes a deny-by-default approach to endpoint security — controlling what applications can run, what can access data, and what can elevate privileges. Used by organizations that want to reduce attack surface without relying on detection alone. Learn more at threatlocker.com/ciso.

Attackers are moving in 72 minutes. One CISO has already eliminated the entire SOC team. And the industry is spending a quarter of a trillion dollars while struggling to define what "resilience" even means. In this edition of Lens Four, Sean Martin looks at the cybersecurity landscape through three lenses — programs, innovation, and messaging — to connect the signals that matter.

What separates an average CISO from a world-class cybersecurity leader? In this episode of Life of a CISO, Dr. Eric Cole explains why the most influential security leaders don't just manage technology—they become the trusted authority executives rely on to make critical business decisions. Dr. Cole shares how CISOs can gain influence with the board, communicate cyber risk in business terms, and guide organizations through major decisions around AI, data security, and emerging cyber threats. If you want executives to listen to cybersecurity—not ignore it—this episode shows you how.

The Unsecurity Podcast returns with a truly joyful conversation with FRecure's own Jo Moldenhauer.Jo, an Associate Information Security Consultant, is famous around the FRSecure office for her weekly security news reviews, where she meticulously compiles articles and talking points for a company-wide discussion around industry trends and snapshots.And this couldn't have been easy to do. Jo's path to InfoSec is a recent and unique one—transitioning from dealing blackjack at casinos after most of them ceased operations during the COVID-19 pandemic. You can see how being tasked with leading a discussion to 75+ industry pros like this as a relative newcomer could be challenging—but Jo simply crushes it.In this episode, learn about:Non-traditional information security career pathsWhat makes "good" InfoSec newsWhy talking about industry news is important to FRSecure (and beyond)How vCISO engagements and risk assessments guide talking pointsThe Gaming (casino) and InfoSec industry Venn Diagram (and what they can learn from each other)User and security awareness training, culture, and incentive ideasLike, subscribe, and share with your network to stay informed about the latest in cyber and information security!We want to hear from you! Reach out at unsecurity@frsecure.com and follow us for more:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/frsecure/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/frsecureofficial/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/frsecure/BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/frsecure.bsky.socialAbout FRSecure:https://frsecure.com/FRSecure is a mission-driven information security consultancy headquartered in Minneapolis, MN. Our team of experts is constantly developing solutions and training to assist clients in improving the measurable fundamentals of their information security programs. These fundamentals are lacking in our industry, and while progress is being made, we can't do it alone. Whether you're wondering where to start or looking for a team of experts to collaborate with you, we are ready to serve.

Attackers are moving in 72 minutes. One CISO has already eliminated the entire SOC team. And the industry is spending a quarter of a trillion dollars while struggling to define what "resilience" even means. In this edition of Lens Four, Sean Martin looks at the cybersecurity landscape through three lenses — programs, innovation, and messaging — to connect the signals that matter.

⬥EPISODE NOTES⬥ The security operations center has always been a battleground of volume, velocity, and human endurance. Analysts have long faced the impossible math of too many alerts, too few hours, and too much at stake. For years, the industry promised automation would change that equation -- but the technology was never quite ready to deliver. That moment, according to Richard Stiennon, has now arrived. Stiennon, Chief Research Analyst at IT-Harvest, has spent two decades tracking every corner of the cybersecurity vendor landscape. His data now shows more than 61 net-new SOC automation vendors -- companies that did not exist a few years ago -- built from the ground up to replace the work of tier-one, tier-two, and tier-three analysts. Some of these vendors launched in January 2024 and reached $1 million in ARR by April. By the end of 2025, several were reporting $3 million ARR. These are not incremental improvements. They represent a structural shift in how security operations can be run. What makes this generation of SOC automation different from earlier SIEM and SOAR tooling is scope and autonomy. The value proposition is blunt: 100% alert triage, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week -- with automated case building, threat investigation, and response actions including machine isolation and reimaging. Stiennon points to a CISO he met, speaking under Chatham House rules, who disclosed that a large enterprise had already eliminated its entire human SOC team. He predicts that disclosure will go public before long. The conversation also explores the business context question that security leaders frequently wrestle with: are these AI-driven SOC tools operating with a narrow cyber mandate, potentially optimizing for security metrics at the expense of business continuity? Stiennon pushes back on that concern, arguing that large language models are already trained on the full breadth of human knowledge -- they understand business context at a level that exceeds most organizations' internal documentation. The more pressing risk, he suggests, is not that AI will act outside business intent, but that organizations will move too slowly to benefit. Waiting six months for a proof-of-concept report while spending a million dollars on human SOC operations is not due diligence -- it is opportunity cost. The conversation also touches on data privacy in AI-driven security, the role of federated learning and fully homomorphic encryption for compliance-sensitive environments, and what security leaders can do today to evaluate and accelerate their own adoption timeline. Stiennon will be at RSA Conference 2026 with his new book, Guardians of the Machine Age: Why AI Security Will Define Digital Defense, continuing to make the case for a field that is moving faster than most organizations are prepared to acknowledge. ⬥GUEST⬥ Richard Stiennon, Chief Research Analyst at IT-Harvest | Website: https://it-harvest.com/ On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stiennon/ ⬥HOST⬥ Sean Martin, Co-Founder at ITSPmagazine, Studio C60, and Host of Redefining CyberSecurity Podcast & Music Evolves Podcast | Website: https://www.seanmartin.com/ ⬥RESOURCES⬥ IT-Harvest | https://it-harvest.com/ Richard Stiennon on LinkedIn | https://www.linkedin.com/in/stiennon/ Guardians of the Machine Age: Why AI Security Will Define Digital Defense (Richard Stiennon) | Available via IT-Harvest and major booksellers RSAC Conference 2026 Coverage on ITSPmagazine | https://www.itspmagazine.com/rsac-2026-conference-san-francisco-usa-cybersecurity-event-infosec-conference-coverage The Future of Cybersecurity Newsletter | https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/7108625890296614912/ More Redefining CyberSecurity Podcast episodes | https://www.seanmartin.com/redefining-cybersecurity-podcast Redefining CyberSecurity Podcast on YouTube | https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLnYu0psdcllS9aVGdiakVss9u7xgYDKYq ⬥ADDITIONAL INFORMATION⬥ On Podcast: https://www.seanmartin.com/redefining-cybersecurity-podcast On YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLnYu0psdcllS9aVGdiakVss9u7xgYDKYq Newsletter: https://itspm.ag/future-of-cybersecurity Contact Sean: https://www.seanmartin.com/ ⬥KEYWORDS⬥ richard stiennon, it-harvest, sean martin, soc automation, ai security, security operations center, threat detection, autonomous response, alert triage, security operations, cybersecurity vendors, ai agents, large language models, federated learning, siem, soar, redefining cybersecurity, cybersecurity podcast, redefining cybersecurity podcast Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Send a textMaking Data Simple dives into the world of data security with Josh Scott, CISO and VP of Security at Hydrolix — a real-time data platform built for massive scale. Josh unpacks critical challenges like AI adoption, cybersecurity priorities, and how organizations can harness data to stay ahead, all while keeping performance high and costs down.01:02 Investing 04:25 Meet Josh Scott 10:54 Adopting AI Safely 14:42 What IS a CISO? 17:14 What Keeps a CISO Up at Night? 19:11 Using AI for Security 20:47 Two Phones? 21:36 Password Sharing 23:03 CISO Prioritization 27:39 Signal From Noise 29:29 Leadership Style 32:27 The Crystal BallLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuascott/ Website: https://www.hydrolix.io/#MakingDataSimple #DataSecurity #Cybersecurity #CISO #AIAdoption #AIAndSecurity #Hydrolix #RealTimeData #DataPlatform #InfoSec #CyberLeadership #TechPodcast #Leadership #BigData #AI #DataPrivacy #CloudSecurity #SignalVsNoiseWant to be featured as a guest on Making Data Simple? Reach out to us at almartintalksdata@gmail.com and tell us why you should be next. The Making Data Simple Podcast is hosted by Al Martin, WW VP Technical Sales, IBM, where we explore trending technologies, business innovation, and leadership ... while keeping it simple & fun.

Send a textMaking Data Simple dives into the world of data security with Josh Scott, CISO and VP of Security at Hydrolix — a real-time data platform built for massive scale. Josh unpacks critical challenges like AI adoption, cybersecurity priorities, and how organizations can harness data to stay ahead, all while keeping performance high and costs down.01:02 Investing 04:25 Meet Josh Scott 10:54 Adopting AI Safely 14:42 What IS a CISO? 17:14 What Keeps a CISO Up at Night? 19:11 Using AI for Security 20:47 Two Phones? 21:36 Password Sharing 23:03 CISO Prioritization 27:39 Signal From Noise 29:29 Leadership Style 32:27 The Crystal BallLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuascott/ Website: https://www.hydrolix.io/#MakingDataSimple #DataSecurity #Cybersecurity #CISO #AIAdoption #AIAndSecurity #Hydrolix #RealTimeData #DataPlatform #InfoSec #CyberLeadership #TechPodcast #Leadership #BigData #AI #DataPrivacy #CloudSecurity #SignalVsNoiseWant to be featured as a guest on Making Data Simple? Reach out to us at almartintalksdata@gmail.com and tell us why you should be next. The Making Data Simple Podcast is hosted by Al Martin, WW VP Technical Sales, IBM, where we explore trending technologies, business innovation, and leadership ... while keeping it simple & fun.

Deneen DeFiore is the Vice President & Chief Information Security Officer at United Airlines. In this episode, she joins host Charlie Osborne and Bobby Ford, Bobby Ford, Chief Strategy and Experience Officer at Doppel, to discuss AI's mark on the cybersecurity world. This episode of CISO Confidential is brought to you by Doppel. Learn more about our sponsor at https://doppel.com.

Cyberattacks that used to take months now take minutes. And your defenders still can't keep up.Rob T. Lee, Chief AI Officer of the SANS Institute, and David A. Bray, Chair of the Accelerator at the Stimson Center, explain why AI gives attackers a structural advantage. Attackers don't care if their AI breaks something. Your security team can't take that risk. That asymmetry changes everything.✅ You'll discover:✅ Why attackers will always remove the human in the loop faster than defenders can, and the risk calculus that creates✅ How "death by 1,000 cuts" works: $300 per person times 10,000 targets via SIM farms equals a single ransomware payout✅ The federated learning approach that lets organizations share threat intelligence without exposing their own data or vulnerabilities✅ Why hackers are exploiting AI hallucinations by writing real code libraries for packages that models reliably hallucinate✅ How to identify the right cybersecurity talent: hire for learning velocity and the "fiddling mindset," not static AI credentials✅ Why boards must stop treating cybersecurity as prevention and start rewarding rapid detection and response✅ The pre-compute vs. post-compute distinction for AI agent safety that most executives are missing entirely✅ When autonomous cyber defense will actually be viable (hint: think pilotless planes and robotic surgeons)⏱️ TIMESTAMPS0:00 AI has made "death by 1,000 cuts" attacks scalable0:39 Why the AI security lifecycle matters now2:27 Military history lessons for cyber defense strategy5:00 Federated learning: sharing threat intelligence without exposing data6:48 How incident response must evolve for AI-speed attacks8:05 The human-in-the-loop dilemma: defenders vs. attackers11:37 Distraction attacks: coordinated multi-target campaigns15:37 Autonomous agents as a new attack surface19:44 Hackers weaponizing AI hallucinations against developers22:23 Development velocity as the real "swarm" capability24:20 Perverse incentives: why stopping an attack still counts as failure27:09 Your personal attack surface grew from 3 devices to 5031:22 Protecting AI tool chains from becoming prime targets34:25 Hackathons as the future of cybersecurity hiring36:53 Patterns of life: instrumenting your enterprise for anomaly detection38:18 When will we trust AI defenders without human oversight?41:09 Pre-compute vs. post-compute: where AI agent safety rules must live46:45 AI trust, hallucinations, and prompt injection as information warfare51:42 Building security culture: leadership, not blame

Link to episode page This week's Department of Know is hosted by Rich Stroffolino with guests Dan Holden, CISO, Commerce, and Mark Eggleston, CISO, CSC Thanks to our show sponsor, Adaptive Security This episode is brought to you by Adaptive Security, the first security awareness platform built to stop AI-powered social engineering. AI is rewriting the cybersecurity rulebook, because attackers can now scale persuasion as easily as they scale code. The real target isn't just your systems anymore; it's human trust. If you aren't actively testing your organization against AI-driven phishing, vishing, and deepfakes, you're leaving a gap criminals will exploit. Adaptive runs realistic simulations and delivers tailored, engaging training so teams respond correctly when it counts. Learn more at adaptivesecurity.com. All links and the video of this episode can be found on CISO Series.com      

Jeff and Jim sit down with David Llorens, principal at RSM, to break down the RSM 2026 Attack Vectors Report. Drawing from real-world offensive security engagements, David explains why identity continues to be the primary attack surface, how AI chatbots are creating new vulnerabilities through prompt injection, and what separates organizations that get breached from those that don't. The conversation covers MFA gaps, the explosion of non-human identities, why PAM is the top investment priority for 2026, and how CISOs can align security spending with business objectives. Plus, the episode wraps up with soccer stories and some quality trash talk.Connect with David: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-llorens-009a3310/Review RSM's 2026 Attack Vectors Report: https://rsmus.com/insights/services/risk-fraud-cybersecurity/rsm-attack-vector-report.htmlConnect with us on LinkedIn:Jim McDonald: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimmcdonaldpmp/Jeff Steadman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffsteadman/Visit the show on the web at http://idacpodcast.comTIMESTAMPS0:00 - Intro and Jim's big personal news4:51 - Main topic intro: RSM 2026 Attack Vectors Report5:55 - David's origin story and how he got into cybersecurity9:53 - What a principal is at RSM and David's current role11:16 - What the Attack Vectors Report is and how it is created14:40 - Why identity security is a dominant theme in this year's report17:19 - What separates organizations that get breached from those that don't18:18 - MFA as the first line of defense18:45 - Privileged access management as a growing priority19:40 - Detecting lateral movement through identity anomalies21:00 - Credential rotation as an advanced defensive technique22:26 - Non-human identities and service account risks24:37 - Middle market challenges and budget constraints25:17 - Is it the size of the budget or how you spend it?28:29 - Using internal audit and cross-department collaboration for security wins30:15 - Cybersecurity as a business enabler, not a deterrent32:45 - Non-human identities and agentic AI creating new attack surfaces35:51 - Prompt injection attacks and AI chatbot vulnerabilities39:42 - Actionable recommendations for practitioners42:41 - MFA implementation gaps and session hijacking45:02 - The case for FIDO2 and layered conditional access46:35 - Is identity security a board-level issue?49:47 - Three things CISOs should focus on through 202650:52 - PAM as the top investment priority51:28 - Removing unnecessary privileges from users56:11 - Redefining what privilege means in your organization57:43 - Social media accounts as privileged access58:42 - Credentials stored in SharePoint and OneDrive59:38 - Wrap up and where to find the report59:58 - Lighter topic: David's soccer background and playing semi-pro1:05:06 - Best trash talk stories1:07:03 - Jim's trash talk philosophy: scoreboard1:08:00 - Jeff's basketball trash talk and calling his shots1:10:00 - Final thoughts and sign offKEYWORDSIDAC, Identity at the Center, Jeff Steadman, Jim McDonald, David Llorens, RSM, attack vectors report, offensive security, penetration testing, identity security, MFA, multifactor authentication, privileged access management, PAM, non-human identities, service accounts, agentic AI, AI security, prompt injection, lateral movement, credential rotation, FIDO2, conditional access, session hijacking, middle market, CISO, board-level security, certificate-based authentication, active directory, configuration management, shadow AI

Guest: Alastair Paterson, CEO and co-founder @ Harmonic Security Topics: Harmonic Security focuses on securing generative AI in use. Can you walk us through a real, anonymized example of a data leak caused by employee AI usage that your platform has identified? AI governance gets thrown around a lot. What does this mean in the context of Shadow AI? How should organizations be thinking about governing AI in light of upcoming AI regulations in the US and in the EU? If we generally agree that employees are using AI tools before they are sanctioned, how can organizations control this? Network, API, endpoint? Many organizations struggle with the "ban vs. embrace" debate for generative AI. Based on your experience, what's a compelling argument for moving from a blanket ban to a managed, secure adoption model? Can you share a success story where this approach demonstrably reduced risk? The term "shadow AI" is often used interchangeably with "shadow IT" (but for AI-powered applications)  but you've highlighted that AI is a different beast. What is the single biggest distinction between managing the risk of unsanctioned AI tools versus unsanctioned IT applications? Looking forward, where do you see the biggest risks in the evolution of shadow AI? For instance, will the next threat be from highly specialized AI agents trained on proprietary data, or from the rapid proliferation of new, unmonitored open-source models? Given the speed of change in this space, what's one piece of advice you'd give to a CISO today who is just beginning to get a handle on their organization's shadow AI problem? Resources: Video version Harmonic Security research Shadow AI Strikes Back: Enterprise AI Absent Oversight in the Age of Gen AI blog Shadow Agents: A New Era of Shadow AI Risk in the Enterprise blog (RSA 2026 presentation coming!) Spotlighting 'shadow AI': How to protect against risky AI practices blog EP171 GenAI in the Wrong Hands: Unmasking the Threat of Malicious AI and Defending Against the Dark Side (aka "dirty bomb episode") A Conversation with Alastair Paterson from Harmonic Security video

Aleksandr Yampolskiy was doing everything right. He had the tools, the budget, the processes - the full security stack humming along at the e-commerce company where he served as CISO. Then one routine vendor integration blew the whole thing open. Unencrypted credit card data from other customers, just sitting there, inside a platform that had been rubber-stamped by a Big Four firm. In that moment, he realized something most security leaders spend their careers trying not to think about: you can do everything right and still lose your job because someone else didn't.That scar became SecurityScorecard.But here's where the story gets interesting. When Aleksandr, or AY - as he introduced himself when joining me in my studio, started telling people in 2013 that he wanted to quantify cyber risk the same way credit scores quantify financial risk, nobody was excited. The reactions ranged from "that's impossible" to a polite shrug. Most founders would have taken that as a signal to pivot. Alex took it as proof he was early enough to matter.In this episode, we go deep. We talk about why the status quo, not a named competitor, is the most dangerous thing your sales team will ever face. AY tells the story of twenty buyers who all said "I love it, I'll buy it" and then every single one of them disappeared when he came back with the finished product. (Oh, how I resonate deeply with this pain.)He explains how a pediatrician named Dr. Virginia Apgar, who saved tens of thousands of newborns with a simple scoring system, became the intellectual blueprint for how Security Scorecard thinks about risk. And he gets honest about hiring decisions that went wrong because he ignored a gut feeling he couldn't quite articulate at the time.We also get into territory that most cybersecurity podcasts don't touch. AY talks about boards adopting AI to impress Wall Street while CISOs scramble to secure shadow deployments nobody authorized. He walks through why 150 companies control ninety percent of the global attack surface and what that means for everyone else. He makes the case that quantum computing will be a Y2K-scale migration problem much sooner than the industry wants to admit. And he shares a question from his company advisor that I think every GTM leader needs to sit with: Who do you want your customers to become?This is a conversation about how a scientist thinks about risk, why the language gap between the SOC and the boardroom is an actual vulnerability, and what it really takes to build something that changes how an industry operates.Listen in and enjoy.A special thanks to our friends at SecurityScorecard for partnering with us to tell this story. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit audience1st.substack.com

Send a textCameron and Gabe sit down with Girish Redekar, co-founder and CEO of Sprinto, to pull back the curtain on one of the most misunderstood areas of security: compliance.Girish built his first startup, RecruiterBox, to 3,500 customers before selling it, and it was the painful, expensive, duct-taped compliance process he experienced firsthand that sparked the idea for Sprinto. Today, Sprinto helps companies move beyond point-in-time audits into something far more valuable: continuous, autonomous trust.In this episode, we dig into:Why passing a SOC 2 or ISO 27001 audit doesn't mean you're actually secureThe three stages of compliance maturity — and how to climb themWhat "compliance debt" is and why it's quietly eating your businessHow smart CISOs use their security posture as a revenue driver, not a back-office cost centerThe "$100/month" challenge: what actually moves the needle for startupsHow AI is reshaping compliance programs — for better or worseWhy Girish spent over a year talking to customers before writing a single line of codePlus: the "sell more jeans" framework every CISO should know, Rich Hickey, The Mom Test, and the toilet paper question.

Alexis and Kevin sit down with Mike Miller to discuss what brought him from the back of a garbage truck to his current position as a Virtual Chief Information Security Officer (VCISO). He breaks down how a VCISO differs from a CISO, and discusses the two types of clients looking for VCISO services: those looking... Read more »

Alexis and Kevin sit down with Mike Miller to discuss what brought him from the back of a garbage truck to his current position as a Virtual Chief Information Security Officer (VCISO). He breaks down how a VCISO differs from a CISO, and discusses the two types of clients looking for VCISO services: those looking... Read more »

All links and images can be found on CISO Series. This week's episode is co-hosted by me, David Spark, the producer of CISO Series, and Edward Contreras, senior evp and CISO, Frost Bank. Joining us is Mark Eggleston, CISO, CSC. In this episode: Breaking trust to test it Technical controls over testing The measurement imperative Fire drills, not gotchas Huge thanks to our sponsor, Scanner All your security logs end up in cloud storage like AWS S3. Scanner makes them searchable in seconds and runs real-time detections directly on that data. No pipelines, no re-ingestion. 100x faster than traditional data lakes, 10x cheaper than SIEMs. Loved by analysts. Built for AI agents. Learn more at scanner.dev.

Trump tells diplomats to fight digital sovereignty. DeepSeek allegedly trains on banned Nvidia chips. Google knocks out Gallium. Hackers tamper with patient records in New Zealand. Popular mental health apps leak risk. Wynn confirms a ShinyHunters breach. Telecoms dodge New York cyber rules. Russia targets Telegram's founder. And a defense insider heads to prison for selling cyber weapons to Moscow. Andrew Dunbar, CISO of Shopify, discusses how identity and trust become the new perimeter and how commerce needs both. Barking backlash brews beneath big-game broadcast. Remember to leave us a 5-star rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Miss an episode? Sign-up for our daily intelligence roundup, Daily Briefing, and you'll never miss a beat. And be sure to follow CyberWire Daily on LinkedIn. CyberWire Guest Today we are joined by Andrew Dunbar, CISO of Shopify, to discuss how identity and trust become the new perimeter and how commerce needs both to be engineered into the platform. Selected Reading Exclusive: US orders diplomats to fight data sovereignty initiatives (Reuters) Exclusive: China's DeepSeek trained AI model on Nvidia's best chip despite US ban, official says (Reuters) Google disrupts Chinese-linked hackers that attacked 53 groups globally (Reuters) Patient data changed as major NZ health app MediMap hacked (RNZ News) Android mental health apps with 14.7M installs filled with security flaws (Bleeping Computer) Wynn Resorts Confirms Cyberattack & Extortion Threat, Claims Data Deleted (Casino.org) Verizon successfully dodged data security rules from state regulators (Times Union) Russia opens probe of Telegram chief, claiming app has been used for terrorism (Washington Post)  Former Defense Contractor Sentenced to 87 Months in Prison for Selling Secrets to Russia: Peter Williams Trade Secrets Case Concludes (TechNadu) $10,000 bounty offered if you can hack Ring cameras to stop them sharing your data with Amazon (Bitdefender) Share your feedback. What do you think about CyberWire Daily? Please take a few minutes to share your thoughts with us by completing our brief listener survey. Thank you for helping us continue to improve our show. Want to hear your company in the show? N2K CyberWire helps you reach the industry's most influential leaders and operators, while building visibility, authority, and connectivity across the cybersecurity community. Learn more at sponsor.thecyberwire.com. The CyberWire is a production of N2K Networks, your source for strategic workforce intelligence. © N2K Networks, Inc. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What does autonomous IT really look like when you move beyond the slideware and start wiring systems together in the real world? At Dynatrace Perform in Las Vegas, I sat down with Pablo Stern, EVP and GM of Technology Workflow Products at ServiceNow, to unpack exactly that. Pablo leads the teams focused on CIOs and CISOs, building the workflows and security products that sit at the heart of modern IT organizations. From service desks and command centers to risk and asset management, his remit is clear: enable AI to work for people, not the other way around. We began with ServiceNow's deepening multi-year partnership with Dynatrace. While the announcement made headlines, Pablo was quick to point out that the real story starts with customers. This collaboration is rooted in a shared goal of helping joint customers reduce outages, improve SLA adherence, and shrink mean time to resolution. The vision of autonomous IT operations is not about hype. It is about connecting observability data with deterministic workflows so that insight can evolve into coordinated, system-level action. Pablo walked me through the maturity curve he sees emerging. First came AI-powered insight, summarizing data and surfacing signals from noise. Then came task automation, drafting knowledge articles, paging teams, triggering predefined playbooks. The next step, and the one that excites him most, is orchestrated autonomy. That means stitching together skills, agents, and workflows into systems that can drive end-to-end outcomes. It is a journey measured in years, not months, and it depends as much on digitizing process and building trust as it does on technology. We also explored root cause analysis, still one of the biggest time drains in IT. By combining Dynatrace's AI-driven observability with ServiceNow's workflow engine, enterprises can automate forensic steps, correlate events faster, and shorten the time spent on major incident bridges where teams debate ownership. Even incremental improvements in accuracy can save hours when incidents strike. Trust, of course, remains central. Pablo was candid that full self-healing systems are still some distance away. What we will see first is relief automation, controlled failovers, scripted actions suggested by machines but approved by humans. Over time, as confidence grows and processes become fully digitized, the balance will shift. Beyond the technology, a consistent theme ran through our conversation. Outcomes have not changed. Enterprises still want higher availability, faster resolution, better employee experiences. What is changing is the how. ServiceNow is reimagining its platform to deliver those outcomes at a much higher standard, not through incremental tweaks, but through rethinking workflows for an AI-first world. From design partnerships with banks building pre-flight change checks, to internal teams acting as the toughest customers, this was a grounded, practical conversation about where autonomous operations are headed and what it will take to get there. If you are a CIO, CISO, or IT leader wondering how to move from theory to execution, this episode offers a clear-eyed look behind the curtain.      

Most organizations view security as a cost center, a "check-the-box" expense rather than a strategic investment. This mindset leads to chronic underfunding, reactive, panic-driven decision-making, and high staff turnover. It also hampers innovation, strategic initiatives, and customer trust. What if security was viewed as a business enabler, not a cost center? Elyse Gunn, CISO at Nasuni, joins Business Security Weekly to discuss how to make security a business enabler, turning security from a cost center into a profit center. Elyse discusses why aligning security initiatives to business drivers is the key to addressing trust, both internally and externally, and how it solves the biggest security priorities for organizations, including: Data Privacy AI Security, and Nth Party Risk In the leadership and communications segment, With CISOs stretched thin, re-envisioning enterprise risk may be the only fix, To Lead Through Uncertainty, Unlearn Your Assumptions, Leaders, Consider Pausing Before Acting on Employee Feedback, and more! Visit https://www.securityweekly.com/bsw for all the latest episodes! Show Notes: https://securityweekly.com/bsw-436

Every employer knows to conduct background checks. However, conducting background checks on IT professionals requires an extra layer of verification, given the privileged access they typically have to IT systems and tools. Moreover, in this AI era, background checks need to be deeper and more effective than before–in the past we didn't need to verify... Read more »

All links and images can be found on CISO Series. This week's episode is hosted by David Spark, producer of CISO Series and Andy Ellis, principal of Duha. Joining them is Vikas Mahajan, vp and CISO, American Red Cross. In this episode: Questionnaires aren't risk management The good old days were worse Buying or building your SOC Start the conversation, not the checklist Huge thanks to our sponsor, Adaptive Security Sponsored by Adaptive Security—the first cybersecurity company backed by OpenAI. AI impersonation and deepfakes have made trust the new attack surface. Adaptive runs realistic social-engineering simulations and instantly turns threats, policies, and compliance needs into interactive, multilingual training. Trusted by Fortune 500s. Learn more at adaptivesecurity.com.

Nik Seetharaman is a special operations–trained cyber leader turned founder, known for bringing an operator's mindset to some of the most sensitive security programs in American industry. A former JSOC advance‑force operator attached to an East Coast Naval Special Warfare squadron, he ran advanced cyber warfare and close‑range reconnaissance missions before crossing over into the world of high‑stakes defense technology and enterprise security. In industry, Nik helped build and lead security at three of the most influential defense‑tech companies of the last decade. He served as head of cybersecurity operations at SpaceX and later led international cyber defense programs at Palantir, giving him a front‑row seat to how software, data, and security shape modern national power. He then became CIO and CISO at Anduril Industries, where he built the company's cybersecurity and weapons‑system security programs from the ground up while Anduril was racing to field autonomous systems for the Pentagon. Today, Nik is the founder and CEO of Wraithwatch, a cyber defense company born from his frustration that defenders are almost always forced to react second. At Wraithwatch, he is focused on “weaponizing” AI for defense at scale—using advanced models to help blue teams pre‑empt and out-iterate attackers instead of learning only from breaches and red‑team reports. Across each chapter of his career, he has carried forward the same core idea: apply special operations discipline, speed, and clarity of mission to how software, security teams, and AI‑driven defenses are built and run. Join the Waitlist - https://theglacierapp.com/waitlist Shawn Ryan Show Sponsors: Get started with Claude today at https://Claude.ai/srs Visit https://mauinuivenison.com/srs for a special deal for listeners of this show only. Go to https://helixsleep.com/SRS for 27% Off Sitewide. Go to https://shopbeam.com/SRS and use code SRS to get up to 50% off Beam Dream Nighttime Cocoa—grab it for just $32.50 and improve your sleep today. Try Rho Nutrition today and experience the difference of Liposomal Technology. Use code SRS for 20% OFF everything at https://www.rhonutrition.com/discount/SRS Nik Seetharaman Links: LI - https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikseetharaman Wraithwatch - https://www.wraithwatch.com X - https://x.com/nikseeth Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices