Venky Venkateswaran works on client security and roadmap planning at Intel Corp. On this episode of the podcast, Venky joins Ryan to talk about a reported surge in firmware attacks, Intel's ongoing investments in cybersecurity, the importance of transparency and open documentation, and the company's push to fight ransomware with its flagship TDT (Threat Detection Technology).

Security Conversations

Intel's Venky Venkateswaran on hardware-enabled security

Episode sponsored by SecurityWeek.com JupiterOne CISO Sounil Yu joins the show to sift through the noise and explain the value of SBOMs (software bill of materials), the U.S. government's response to software supply chain security gaps, and what every buyer and seller should be doing to prepare for major changes in the ecosystem.

Sounil Yu on SBOMs, software supply chain security

Episode sponsored by MongoDB.com. Algirde Pipikaite, the project lead of the Governance and Policy team at the Center for Cybersecurity at the World Economic Forum, joins the podcast to discuss her work to bridge the gap between cybersecurity experts and decision makers. We chat about communicating risk to different audiences, cybersecurity as a business enabler, and the need for more global private-public collaboration.

Algirde Pipikaite, Centre for Cybersecurity, World Economic Forum

Josh Schwartz, aka FuzzyNop, oversees offensive security, product engineering, and security engagement functions at Verizon Media (soon to be Yahoo). He shares insights on red-teaming, overcoming the adversarial relationship between red/blue teams. chasing the "feeling" of being secure, and why there's a need for more empathy in cybersecurity. (Episode sponsored by Eclypsium (https://eclypsium.com))

Josh Schwartz on red-teaming and proactive security engineering

Netflix threat detection and response practitioner Michael Laventure joins the show to talk about a simple goal to "do security better." We discuss a transition from .gov security work to the fast pace of Silicon Valley, the culture clashes that can make life difficult, the value of threat-intelligence to a modern security program, and why we should all be optimistic about the future of cybersecurity.

Michael Laventure, threat detection and response, Netflix

Founding-member of the Google security team Heather Adkins joins the conversation to stress the importance of defenders playing the "long-game," the need for meaningful culture-change among security leaders, the expansion of zero-trust beyond identities and devices, and some thoughts on the future of electronic voting. Sponsored by Eclypsium: Eclypsium ships an enterprise device platform that provides visibility and mitigation for malicious activity all the way down to the firmware and hardware level. Think of it as one platform to discover, inventory, assess risk, patch, and detect compromises and supply chain breaches across your entire fleet of devices. Request a demo at Eclypsium.com (https://eclypsium.com).

Google's Heather Adkins on defenders playing the long game

Facebook product security leader Collin Greene joins the show to discuss philosophies around securing code at scale, the pros and cons of relying on bug-bounty programs, the humbling lessons from being on the wrong side of a malicious hack, and why "shift-left" should be the priority for every defender.

Collin Greene, head of product security, Facebook

Former head of offensive securitry resarch at NVIDIA Alex Matrosov joins the show to talk about the state of security at the firmware layer, the need for specialized reverse engineering skills, the limits of bug-bounty programs for hardware research, and the future of advanced malware analysis.

Alex Matrosov on the state of security at the firmware layer

Charles Nwatu is an engineering manager in Netflix's Security, Technology Assurance & Risk organization. He joins Ryan on the show to talk about a career pivot from U.S. gov service into cybersecurity in Silicon Valley, the exciting parts of compliance and risk management, and why newcomers should consider jobs in SOCs to kickstart security careers.

Charles Nwatu, Security Technology & Risk, Netflix

Director of Internet Analyis at Kentik, Doug Madory, joins the podcast to shed light on the mysterious appearance of unused IPv4 space belonging to the US Department of Defense: the strange connection to a Florida company now managing the world's largest honeypot; the odd Inauguration Day timing of this discovery;, and why enterprise network defenders should pay very close attention.

Doug Madory on the mysterious AS8003 global routing story

Sponsored by Eclypsium (https://eclypsium.com) Chris Castaldo has a fascinating career in cybersecurity. A U.S. army veteran who dabbled in tech during the early 2000s dot-com boom before settling on security, Castaldo is now CISO at Crossbeam and a decision-maker with a bird's eye view into how the should be protected. Castaldo joins Ryan on the show to talk about his new book on securing the startup, why he's the rare CISO that loves security vendor briefings and demos, and his vision of the CISO's top priorities.

Crossbeam CISO Chris Castaldo on securing the start-up

Shubham Shah is a brilliant hacker who quit his pen-testing job to hack for cash in bug-bounty programs. He quickly mastered the game of automating automating pre-breach reconnaissance and zero in on common webapp programming and configuration errors. Shubs, now co-founder at Assetnote, joined Ryan on the show to talk about the stressful life of a fulltime bug-bounty hunter, advancements in web app security defense, and how automation is completely rewriting the bug-discovery business.

Shubs Shah on finding riches (and lessons) from bug bounty hacking

Newly appointed Executive Editor at VentureBeat Fahmida Rashid joins the show to talk about her introduction to computer networking in school, her winding path into cybersecurity journalism, the security stories worth telling, the venture capital ecosystem, and the surge in unicorn cybersecurity startups.

Fahmida Rashid, Executive Editor, VentureBeat

Microsoft's David Weston joins Ryan on the show to discuss a new report that shows 83% of organizations have been hit by a firmware attack in the last two years. As businesses continue to under-invest in resources to prevent firmware attacks, Weston warns about the inevitability of advanced attacks at the 'invisible' layer, the absence of skills and tools to find malicious activity in firmware, the nightmare of navigating the patching treadmill, and exciting tech innovation in the space.

Microsoft's David Weston on the surge in firmware attacks

At age 16, Lena Smart finished high school and went into the workforce. At the time, a university degree and advanced education were not available to her in a single-parent household in Scotland. Today, she is CISO of MongoDB, a $16 billion company with thousands of employees around the world and she is a leading voice on education and talent-identification in cybersecurity. Lena joins Ryan on the show to tell stories from her childhood, the decisions that carved a path for a successful career in security, the anguish of imposter syndrome, the joys of building a modern security program, and impressive tech innovation moving the security needle.

Lena Smart, CISO, MongoDB

Security Conversations is a cybersecurity podcast series curated by award-winning journalist and security strategist Ryan Naraine. These in-depth interviews cover a wide range of top-of-mind issues, including threat intelligence, zero trust, securing cloud deployments, penetration testing, bug bounties, advancements in offensive research and targeted threat activity.

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Security Conversations

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