Hack the Plant

In this bonus episode, Bryson Bort sits down with Andrea Haddad, a leader in technology and infrastructure architecture. Andrea has almost two decades of global experience across infrastructure, including network operations, enterprise architecture, cybersecurity, and cloud strategy. After beginning her career on the IT side, Andrea now specializes in building secure, scalable, and resilient digit...

For the last episode of season 5, host Bryson Bort sat down with Andrew Ohrt, Resilience Director at West Yost Associates. A civil engineer specializing in water infrastructure, Andrew bridges the gap between traditional engineering and digital risk. Andrew walks us through the "invisible" nature of water systems, the impact of data centers on utility resilience, and how Cyber-Informed Engineering...

Our host Bryson Bort welcomes Dr. Natalie Sullivan, Medical Director of the Emergency Response Medical Group and an emergency medicine physician at a D.C. area hospital. Trained in EMS and disaster and operational medicine, Natalie turned her attention to the critical intersection of clinical medicine, patient safety, and cybersecurity resilience after experiencing a prolonged ransomware attack on...

Bryson Bort is joined by Dd Budiharto, Microsoft’s Customer Security Officer for the Oil, Gas, and Energy sectors, to share her experience bridging the IT/OT divide in the energy sector. Drawing on her background as a former CISO and industry veteran with decades of experience starting security programs at giants like Halliburton and Marathon Oil, Dd breaks down IT vs OT auditing, the cultural div...

In this episode, host Bryson Bort sits down with Gary Kessler, retired cybersecurity professor and co-founder and director of the Maritime Hacking Village. As a maritime cybersecurity researcher, consultant, and practitioner with nearly fifty years of experience, Gary walks us through the ins and outs of cybersecurity at sea, automated identification systems (AIS), and AI’s current and future role...

Deputy Managing Director at the Cyber Readiness Institute Lessie Skiba joins host Bryson Bort to discuss the CRI’s new program connecting small- and medium-sized water utilities with cyber coaches to strengthen their resilience. What if the most effective cybersecurity solution isn't a new piece of technology, but a human connection? How can we empower small businesses to tackle cyber threats, eve...

Our host Bryson sits down with Colin Ahern and Kirk Herath, two of the only cybersecurity experts working in Governors’ offices in the United States. Colin was appointed Chief Cyber Officer of the State of New York by Governor Kathy Hochul in June 2022, and Kirk stepped into his role as Cybersecurity Strategic Advisor to Ohio Governor Mike DeWine and Lt. Governor Jon Husted the same year. In their...

Bryson Bort is joined by Jim Montgomery, Director, Industrial Cybersecurity Solutions at TXOne Networks. TXOne provides network-based and endpoint-based products to tackle security vulnerabilities across industrial environments. With decades of IT security experience, Jim now leads TXOne’s work protecting Operational Technology environments across critical sectors like automotive, oil and gas, pha...

Bryson Bort sits down with Adam Robbie, Head of OT Threat Research at Palo Alto Networks, to pull back the curtain on OT threat research. With a background in electrical engineering, Adam’s first job in cybersecurity was at an IT help desk. He now leads a team dedicated to identifying, analyzing, and mitigating cyber threats targeting Operational Technology (OT) environments. What are the top thre...

Bryson Bort welcomes Sarah Powazek, Program Director of Public Interest Cybersecurity at the UC Berkeley Center for Long-Term Cybersecurity, to discuss the organization’s work providing cybersecurity resources for the public, and CyberCAN, a project to connect cities and nonprofits providing critical services.   How can cities play a larger role in protecting their communities? What are the bigges...

Welcome to season 5! Our host Bryson Bort sits down with Institute for Security and Technology (IST) Executive in Residence for Public Safety & Security Josh Corman. Josh previously joined us on season 1, episode 2 to discuss his experience founding I Am The Cavalry, a grassroots organization focused on the intersection of digital security, public safety, and human life.  Today, Josh walks us thro...

For the final episode of the season, our host Bryson Bort reflects on four years and forty episodes of Hack the Plan[e]t, and picks a few favorites.  Episode 8, DoD and Critical Infrastructure: https://hack-the-plant.simplecast.com/episodes/dod-and-critical-infrastructure Episode 10, The Congressman, The Commission and Our Critical Infrastructure: https://hack-the-plant.simplecast.com/episodes/the...

Bryson is joined by Carter Manucy, Director of Cybersecurity at the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association to discuss rural electric cooperatives, the importance of collaboration, and the state of cybersecurity in the energy sector. With over two decades of experience in the sector, Carter was recently awarded E-ISAC’s prestigious Michael J. Assante Award for his leadership on initiatives...

Bryson is joined by Sara Patrick, President and CEO at the Midwest Reliability Organization (MRO) to discuss cyber threats, mitigation strategies, and the United States energy infrastructure system. A lawyer by training, Sara led MRO’s enforcement group and compliance monitoring team for 16 years before stepping into her position as CEO.  What risks does AI pose to maintaining a reliable grid? How...

In this episode, Bryson sits down with MITRE EMB3D co-founder Niyo Little Thunder Pearson. For nearly 20 years, Niyo has been at the forefront of protecting critical infrastructure systems. He previously led incident response for American Express, directing the company’s Security Operations Center during the LulzSec and Anonymous attacks, and worked to develop an adversarial cyber defense program...

In this episode, Bryson sits down with Mark Montgomery, Senior Director at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. For three years, Mark served as Executive Director of the Cyberspace Solarium Commission, created by congressional mandate to develop strategic approaches to defending against cyber attacks. Now, he directs CSC 2.0, an initiative that works to implement the recommendations of the C...

Joe Marshall is a Senior IoT Security Strategist at Cisco Talos Intelligence Group. When Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, Joe helped coordinate a multinational, multi-company coalition of volunteers and experts to find a technological solution.  Bryson and Joe sat down to discuss his efforts in Ukraine, how he got the go-ahead from Cisco leadership, and more.  “They were like, yeah, we can't even g...

In this episode, Bryson Bort is joined by Paul Shaver, Global OT Security Practice Lead at Mandiant / Google Cloud to discuss the cyber threat landscape. How did Paul’s military background play a role in his decision to start working with control systems? What is the difference between an advanced persistent threat and a regular threat? What does Paul think is the best way to protect against docum...

Claroty is a cybersecurity company that helps organizations to secure cyber-physical systems across industrial (OT), healthcare (IoMT), and enterprise (IoT) environments: the Extended Internet of Things (XIoT).  In this episode, Bryson Bort sits down with Claroty director of research and industrial control system (ICS) vulnerability expert Sharon Brizinov to discuss everything ICS. What are the mo...

Psymetis creates Operational Technology (OT) security solutions that quickly and prevent electric grid outages and catastrophic infrastructure failures. Psymetis’ Werewolf system provides condition monitoring and threat mitigation for the power grid, detecting cyberattacks, equipment failures, and physical damage in real-time.  In this episode of Hack the Plant, Bryson sits down with Psymetis CEO...

As America’s Cyber Defense Agency and the National Coordinator for Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) leads the national effort to understand, manage, and reduce risk to the cyber and physical infrastructure that Americans rely on every day.  In this episode of Hack the Plant, Bryson sits down with CISA Director Jen Easterly...

I’m joined by Jesse Whaley, the Chief Information Security Officer at Amtrak, for this episode of Hack the Plant.  Amtrak is  the nation's largest passenger rail service provider and one of the most complex and critical transportation systems in the world.  We discuss what it takes to oversee Amtrak’s digital assets and infrastructure, and what it takes to keep them secure.  “The company had a saf...

I’m joined by Dan Ricci, founder of the ICS Advisory Project , for this episode of Hack the Plant. The ICS Advisory Project is a free, open-source platform that helps asset owners across 16 critical infrastructure sectors stay secure by identifying threats in their environments. “I saw a gap in the community. There's good data that's coming at us…but no one did anything to take and make that data...

I’m joined by Jason Healey, a Senior Research Scholar at Columbia University’s School for International and Public Affairs, for this episode of Hack the Plant. Jason is a pioneer of cyber threat intelligence, with experience spanning fifteen years across the public and private sectors.  Today, we discuss a recent article Jason published at Lawfare, looking at 25 years of White House cyber policies...

I’m joined by David Patrick Emmerich, the Principal Cyber-Physical Range Architect at the University of Illinois, for this episode of Hack the Plant.  We’re here today to talk about RADICS, a DARPA project. RADICS stands for Rapid Attack Detection, Isolation and Characterization Systems.  We discuss David’s role in building automated data collection and set up simulations and testing, and how the...