Episodes

TechSpective Podcast Episode 085 The Winter Olympics are taking place right now in Beijing, China. It puts the teams and athletes in a sensitive and precarious situation because China is an economic and geopolitical adversary to most of the participating nations, and expectations are high that China will do everything it can to intercept communications and infiltrate devices to gather intelligence during the event. It is also a prime opportunity for cybercriminals. Any time you have a massive ev...

TechSpective Podcast Episode 084 The world has changed in dramatic ways over the past couple of years. The COVID-19 pandemic forced an overnight shift to a remote, work-from-home business model and accelerated digital transformation efforts. Those changes have cybersecurity consequences--making the attack surface more complex and introducing new risks for attackers to take advantage of. Prabath Karanth, Head of Security Assurance, Compliance, and Trust for TripActions joins me to talk about some...

The concept of zero trust is not new. John Kindervag popularized the term back around 2010 when he was a Forrester analyst, and organizations have been implementing and deploying variations on the idea ever since. However, the combination of the continued expansion of the attack surface and threat landscape, the shift to working remotely from home due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the dramatic rise in ransomware attacks has fueled renewed interest. Den Jones, Chief Security Officer at Banyan Sec...

TechSpective Podcast Episode 082 There is a steady evolution and progress of security in response to an ongoing game of cat and mouse with cyber attackers. As attackers adapt and innovate new tools and techniques, the way we approach cybersecurity has to change as well--both strategically and tactically. Extended Detection and Response--or XDR--seems to be the next thing. My guest for this episode is my friend Anton Chuvakin. I have known Anton for many, many years--dating back before our work t...

TechSpective Podcast Episode 081 The world of cybersecurity and technology loves acronyms. You have compliance mandates like SOX (Sarbanes-Oxley), HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act), and GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), certifications acronyms like CISSP (Certified Information Systems Security Professional) and CEH (Certified Ethical Hacker), and fun things like ACL (Access Control List), BGP (Border Gateway Protocol, and DNS (Domain Name System). The list is e...

TechSpective Podcast Episode 079 It isn't easy to maintain your security posture and be prepared to face the latest cyber attacks. Vulnerability management and threat research are two important elements that can help. Effective vulnerability management enables you to identify and mitigate weaknesses in your environment, and proactive threat research can provide you with valuable intelligence about what to look for. Bharat Jogi, Senior Manager of Vulnerability and Threat Research for Qualys, join...

TechSpective Podcast Episode 078 Wi-Fi security is plagued by some incorrect or outdated myths and misperceptions. Some stories refuse to die no matter how much time goes on or how verifiably false they are. For example, a significant percentage of people are positive that Stella Liebeck was just clumsy and trying to cash in--and that she got a payout of hundreds of millions of dollars from McDonald's after spilling coffee on herself. The reality is, almost none of that is true. When it comes to...

TechSpective Podcast Episode 077 In theory, the fact that the internet provides virtually instantaneous access to the sum total of all human knowledge should make us smarter as a society. Unfortunately, it seems to be having the opposite effect in a lot of cases. As much information as their is out there, there is also a ton of mis-information, both incidental and intentional, and people appear to be very bad at telling the difference. My guest for this episode of the TechSpective Podcast is Hel...

TechSpective Podcast Episode 076 Compliance frameworks and mandates are just a fact of life for anyone working in IT or cybersecurity. The PCI-DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) guidelines provided by the credit card industry has had a significant impact. When a compliance mandate includes penalties that might prevent a business from being allowed to accept or process credit card payments, executive management tends to pay more attention. Jeff Man joins me on this episode of the ...

TechSpective Podcast Episode 075 What is the job of a CISO? Malcolm Harkins, Chief Security and Trust Officer for Epiphany Systems, joins me to answer this question--among other things. We discuss the role of cybersecurity and the importance of contemplating risk. Malcolm stresses that organizations should not be caught completely off guard by things like the COVID-19 pandemic, and that if cybersecurity professionals do what they're supposed to do, something like a compromised password on a VPN ...

TechSpective Podcast Episode 074 It has been a wild year and a half since the world went into quarantine lockdown for the COVID pandemic in March of 2020. Organizations initially responded as if it were a short-term crisis -- like responding to an impending hurricane -- and quickly realized that this was different and they needed to shift gears for the long haul. Alan Shimel, founder, CEO, and editor-in-chief of MediaOps, the company behind DevOps.com, Container Journal, Security Boulevard and D...

TechSpective Podcast Episode 073 My guest for this episode is my friend Marcus Carey. Marcus is currently an Enterprise Architect at ReliaQuest. He was founder and CEO of ThreatCare--which was acquired by ReliaQuest--and he is the creator of the 'Tribe of Hackers' book series. He is also well known on social media for being a job opening matchmaker and his willingness to help out people who are trying to get into a career in tech or cybersecurity. The job market is always evolving. Sometimes it ...

TechSpective Podcast Episode 072 How many passwords do you have? Honestly, I am not really sure at this point. I've lost track. I do recall that Bill Gates declared that the password was going to die like 20 years ago, and yet somehow I seem to have 70 or 80 of them at any given time. The mission to end passwords continues, though, and Transmit Security is trying to lead the way. My guest for this episode of the TechSpective Podcast is Mickey Boodaei, co-founder and CEO of Transmit Security. We ...

TechSpective Podcast Episode 071 It almost seems cliché to talk about visibility when discussing cybersecurity. Many vendors repeat the mantra of "You can't protect what you can't see." Whether you're trying to do vulnerability management, patch management, or just monitor the network for suspicious or malicious activity, it is a simple fact that doing it effectively requires a foundation of comprehensive visibility. My guest this week is Jake Kouns, co-founder and CEO of Risk Based Security. He...

TechSpective Podcast Episode 070 How do you know where the weak spots are in your cybersecurity defenses? One of the best ways is to engage a third-party--an external set of eyes and skills--to conduct a penetration test and try to find them. John Sawyer, Director of Services, Red Team at IOActive, joins me on this episode of the TechSpective Podcast to talk about what red, blue, and purple team engagements are and why they're invaluable for companies to help improve cybersecurity. Just as it is...

TechSpective Podcast Episode 068 I've always been a huge fan of fighter jets and space exploration--so it was a huge privilege to have Jack Fischer join me for this podcast. Jack “2fish” Fischer (Colonel, U.S. Air Force, Retired) is a combat fighter pilot, test pilot, astronaut, and military space operations leader. Fischer is a distinguished graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy and a Massachusetts Institute of Technology Draper Fellow. He flew two combat tours in the F-15E as part of Operatio...

TechSpective Podcast Episode 068 Adam Philpott, Senior VP, EMEA for McAfee, is my guest for this episode of the TechSpective Podcast. With decades of experience in networking and cybersecurity, Adam brings tremendous insight to the table when it comes to zero trust and ZTNA (zero trust network access). Zero trust is pretty mainstream at this point--an evolution or extension of the concept of least privileged access, but taking things to another level for improved security against today's advance...

TechSpective Podcast Episode 067 Vulnerabilities are everywhere and they will not be going away. That means they need to be researched and discovered and addressed. But, what is the right way to go about that process? Katie Moussouris, founder and CEO of Luta Security, is my guest for this episode of the TechSpective Podcast and she is uniquely qualified to discuss this topic since she essentially pioneered it and has had significant influence and input on the standards and practices being follo...

TechSpective Podcast Episode 066 It has been a rough year and a half since COVID-19 hit at the beginning of 2020. Thankfully, we are rolling out vaccines at a blistering pace and it seems like there is light at the end of the tunnel and that things will begin to open back up. That includes offices, and business travel, and industry events. My friend Jack Daniel joins me on this episode of the TechSpective Podcast to talk about apprehension and anxiety about the "new normal" and the challenges wi...

TechSpective Podcast Episode 065 Cybersecurity is constantly evolving. The threat landscape continues to expand and new technologies shift and extend the attack surface--both of which require new and innovative tools and practices to address. Ron Gula, co-founder and President of Gula Tech Adventures, joins me for this episode of the TechSpective Podcast to talk about the companies they are investing in and working with today, and the emerging trends he sees in cybersecurity in general. Gula str...

TechSpective Podcast Episode 064 It wasn't that long ago--at least in human years--that developing an application was a tedious process with a beginning and an end. A process where modifications or updates took months to craft and had to wait for the next scheduled release. I realize that concept may be as foreign to developers today as floppy disks, corded landline telephones, or a functioning Republican Party that cares what their constituents want or what is good for the country--but I promis...

TechSpective Podcast Episode 063 What is a hacker? This is a question that has been debated for decades in the cybersecurity arena. Media conflated hacker and cybercriminal very early on, and it has been challenging to correct that error and separate the terms. I even wrote as far back as 2005 that the debate was lost and the word "hacker" had already been co-opted, and that we should give up and stop having that fight. Not everyone agreed--or agrees today. Jayson Street--my guest for this episo...

TechSpective Podcast Episode 062 My guest for this episode is my friend Wolf Goerlich. He is an advisory CISO with Duo Security and a respected cybersecurity strategist and speaker. He is also someone with a range of interests and hobbies that enlighten and inform his views on the world of cybersecurity. People who work in technology and cybersecurity are often viewed as a stereotype--both by people outside of the industry and even by some in the industry. They are geeks and nerds and technology...

TechSpective Podcast Episode 061 My guest for this episode of the TechSpective Podcast is Dr. Eric Cole, author and founder and CEO of Secure Anchor. His latest book, 'Cyber Crisis: Protecting Your Business from Real Threats in the Virtual World', comes out June 1. It has been a long, long time, but this is not the first time I have spoken with Dr. Cole. I actually interviewed him back around 2003 as well for his book 'Hiding In Plain Sight: Steganography and the Art of Covert Communication'. A ...