Cyber Fusion Forum

Penetration testing is crowded with great brands and even greater illusions. In this episode, William Wright, CEO of Closed Door Security and UK Council member at CREST, breaks down the stark difference between real pen testing and glorified vulnerability scans. We get into how to vet providers, what a good report actually looks like, why references matter, and how threat-led testing changes the g...

Most transformations start with the tech and stall with the people. In this episode, Joe Mathewson (IAM Transformation Lead at HSBC) shares a refreshingly practical playbook for turning identity programs into business outcomes. We dig into how to lead change in complex environments: begin with the why (not the tool), tailor the message by audience, and bring operations in from day one so the final...

What does a modern SOC really look like? Craig Gilliver (Head of Cyber, Sector Alarm Group) joins me to unpack how to build a security operations function that fits the business you actually run. Coverage that matters, visibility you can act on, and costs you can defend! We get into: why every SOC should start with business risk (not “collect everything”); the coverage vs. storage trade-off and ho...

AI isn’t coming - it’s already in your business. In this episode, Matt Neal, Founder of Artificia1, reveals how businesses are unknowingly exposing themselves to risk through “Shadow AI” - and what they can do about it. From ChatGPT use in marketing teams to users buying AI tools on their own credit cards, Matt breaks down the uncomfortable truth: you can’t block AI adoption - but you can guide it...

In the Ministry of Defence, getting digital identity right isn’t just about access control, it’s about operational readiness. In this episode, I sit down with Richard Curtis , Program Manager for Digital Identity at the UK MOD, to explore what it takes to lead secure, agile identity programs across one of the most complex operating environments on the planet. Richard shares: Why he uses “Tiger Tea...

AI is already reshaping how product teams build, launch, and evolve digital experiences. But what happens when those experiences have security blind spots baked in from the start ? In this episode, I sit down with Kevin Magee , CTO of All Human , to explore how AI is accelerating product roadmaps—and the cybersecurity implications many teams are ignoring . Kevin explains: How AI is changing the wa...

How do companies keep buying Ferraris when all they need is a bike? I sit down with Daniel Álvarez García , Senior IAM Manager at PwC Spain and author of the widely followed Future of Digital Identity newsletter, to explore the 7 most common IAM mistakes companies make—and how to fix them. Daniel shares brutally honest lessons from the field: Why IAM tools are often underused (and overpriced) How...

In this episode of Cyber Fusion Forum , James Oakes sits down with Michael Dybek, Senior Solutions Consultant and identity evangelist, to unpack a growing challenge in modern cybersecurity: over-relying on traditional network security while neglecting identity. Michael shares candid insights on how too many organisations still treat cybersecurity as a tick-box exercise—securing just 40-50% of what...

In this episode of Cyber Fusion Forum, we down with Carl Pickering — a veteran Linux engineer and Lead Platform Engineer at MetDesk — to explore what secure software delivery really looks like at the coalface of DevOps and platform engineering.  Carl shares candid insights from nearly three decades in tech, reflecting on:  Building security into the dev cycle without slowing delivery  The human el...

In this episode, I sit down with Owen Jones — founder of Loopli and creator of the OSbD™ (Organisational Security by Design) framework — to unpack why traditional InfoSec often fails to scale, and how to build security into your business without burning out your teams or your budget. We talk about: What modular security looks like in practice — and why it reduces compliance overhead by up to 50% W...