Secure Talk Podcast

Without the ability to keep secrets, our internet would fail. Without effective cryptography the internet would never have graduated from the hobbyist interest. And we have great examples of networks without effective encryption like the worldwide HAM radio operators. I’ve been utilizing cryptography in the development of web applications since my first professional web application development wor...

Eldon Spickerhoff founded eSentire in 2001. He had been a Senior Information Security Engineer for ING Prime after completing his academic work at Waterloo University. At the time the cybersecurity solutions marketplace was primarily a services offering, focusing on vulnerability scanning. The team at eSentire realized that the tools deployed in vulnerability scanning to internal systems could be...

In this episode of Secure Talk, Justin welcomes Stephen Ferrell, a cybersecurity expert and Chief Strategy Officer of Strike Graph, to discuss the significant changes in the compliance landscape brought about by the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC). They explore the recent finalization of the CMMC rule, its implications for the defense industrial base, and the phased compliance re...

Privacy laws in our modern computing era have been around for well over twenty years. The conversation around appropriate privacy measures and effective governance of data has matured quite nicely since the early days of the Internet. While breaches do continue to happen, laws like GDPR, HIPAA and CCPA have helped set expectations for ethical and effective privacy practices. But we are in the mids...

In this episode of Secure Talk, host Justin Beals, CEO and founder of Strike Graph, discusses cybersecurity awareness training with Craig Taylor, CEO and co-founder of CyberHoot. They explore the evolution and significance of security training, particularly in light of the rising number of phishing attacks. Taylor shares insights from his extensive background, including being a senior risk analyst...

In this episode of Secure Talk we discuss the evolution of identity management with Eric Olden, co-founder and CEO of Strata Identity. Identity Management is at the heart of secure computing practices. And the requirements placed on it are ever-growing. Get it wrong, and you will expose the ‘crown jewels’ of your business. Today, many solutions rely on cloud-based Identity Management solutions for...

Cybersecurity is complicated; weird acronyms, massive risks and arcane skills. How do we teach or learn about cybersecurity in human ways? In this episode of SecureTalk, host Justin Beals is joined by cybersecurity researcher Luca Viganò to discuss his innovative approach to demystifying cybersecurity concepts using fairy tales. Luca shares his passion for making cybersecurity accessible to both e...

In this episode of SecureTalk, host Justin Beals speaks with Idan Plotnik, co-founder and CEO of Apiiro, about the complexities of application security and innovation. They discuss Idan's career, which began with his early interest in secure computing as an engineer for the Israeli Defence Force. Later, while at Microsoft, Idan was frustrated by the inefficiencies in current application security r...

It’s easy to consider privacy as a technology issue, or a legal challenge. But our concepts of privacy have a lot to do with what type of community we would all like to live in. What happens when we consider privacy a right as opposed to a commodity? Join us on Secure Talk for an in-depth exploration of the complex world of privacy with esteemed sociologist and author James B. Rule. In this episod...

Have you ever felt like tech fandom was turning into a cult? A tech founder ‘preached’ that they heralded a new paradigm for humanity? AI will change everything, Cryptocurrency will make you rich, the ‘Singularity’ is coming! Elon Musk, Sam Altman, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, etc are raised up as the new messiah by thousands of worshipers. Is it really so difficult to see the tendency of the billionai...

My first SOC 2 audit as a Chief Technology Officer felt like performance art. Here we were, dancing to the tune of an auditor that had never built a web application, let alone a business. So many of their playbooks were repeated from other businesses and didn’t make us more secure. When we were done I was certainly glad to show off our new ‘certification’ but I wondered how I could implement great...

In the never-ending vortex of Silicon Valley's hype cycle, it's easy to get lost in the sea of superficial success stories and forget that true innovation often requires patience, persistence, and a willingness to disrupt the status quo – not just a fancy logo or a tweet from a billionaire CEO. Inside of the froth however, there are investors and venture capitalists that think carefully about who...

"If you torture the data long enough, it will confess to anything" said Ronald Coase. Certainly the advent of AI has created some spectacular progress and failures. In the realm of patient care AI tools can have a powerful impact and there is little room for error. How do professionals in the Medical Device and Medical Software space prepare their solutions for the market? In the latest episode of...

Much of the United States' progress since World War II on the global stage is due to a powerful partnership between private industry and the US government. The internet itself was a DARPA research project now turned into an economic juggernaut. How do we feed and support this powerful partnership? In this episode of SecureTalk, host Justin Beals welcomes Jason Healey, a senior research scholar at...

I’ve participated or led technology product teams for 25 years. And engaging in effective security practices was three simple activities: least privileges, change management and network/server configurations. But in an ever-changing security environment, how do security leaders engage product teams in effective practices? Join us on Secure Talk with Naomi Buckwalter, the Senior Director of Product...

The state of networked computing systems today relies heavily on a networking architecture designed and implemented by people like David Hotlzman, our guest on Secure Talk. But what if our current “world wide web” was just the progenitor of an n-dimension “internet stack”? Does Web 3 offer the opportunity to evolve a seemingly monolithic internet? In this episode of SecureTalk, host Justin Beals i...

It is election season in the United States and there continues to be a lot of FUD around the security of our elections. We decided to sit down with an expert to discuss election security and how citizens here in the United States should consider this civic event. Join host Justin Beals and guest Mark Listes as they delve into the critical topic of election security. Mark, CEO of Pendulum and forme...

In this episode of Secure Talk, host Justin Beals sits down with Danny Goodwin and Ed Schwarzschild, the authors of the book 'Job / Security: A Composite Portrait of the Expanding American Security Industry'. They delve into the multifaceted world of security work, bridging personal experiences and professional insights. Goodwin, a professor and chair of the Department of Art and Art History, and...

How do we predict the future? In our respective technology and security fields we are often asked to prognosticate on “what’s next?”. Understanding current trends is certainly helpful but what if you could reach far into the future and describe humanity and our relative progress? In this week's episode of SecureTalk we host an Associate Professor of Digital Media at Brock University, to discuss th...

In this episode of Secure Talk, Justin Beals, founder and CEO of Strike Graph, hosts Bruce Schneier, a renowned security technologist, author, and lecturer at the Harvard Kennedy School. Schneier discusses his book 'A Hacker's Mind,' sharing insights into the psychology of security, societal impacts of cybersecurity, and how businesses can better align security practices with human psychology. He...

Have you ever wondered how secure your browser extensions really are? On our latest Secure Talk episode join us for a discussion with Sheryl Hsu, a researcher from Stanford Empirical Security Research Group. We discuss their recent paper “What is in the Chrome Web Store? Investigating Security-Noteworthy Browser Extensions.” Sheryl and the team at the Stanford Empirical Security Research Group sho...

In this episode of SecureTalk, host Justin Beals, CEO of StrikeGraph, discusses the complexities of HIPAA, data privacy, and healthcare security with expert Ileana Peters, a shareholder at Polsinelli. Once a leader in regulatory enforcement for US Health and Human Services she talks with Justin on how to manage compliance. Peters shares insights from her extensive experience at the Department of H...

In December 2023 the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reported that the medical data of more than 88 million people was exposed in the first ten months of 2023. A 2018 Trustwave Global Security Reported that a single healthcare record would receive an average of $250.15 when sold, 50 times more valuable than a stolen credit card. 92% of stolen patient records were criminally acquired....

It seems a new security crisis is emerging at a weekly pace. The emergence of critical security breaches, data exposures and digital infrastructure failures has vastly accelerated in the last 5 years. What happens when your job is to operate in a crisis? Join us for the next episode of Secure Talk where we sit down with Vice Admiral Mike LeFevre (ret.) the CEO of Concentric Security and Roderic Jo...

What software do radical techno-libertarians, the CIA, Privacy Advocates, the US State Department and Cyber Criminals use every day? The TOR Browser. In this compelling episode of SecureTalk, Justin Beals, the Founder and CEO of Strike Graph, discusses the book ‘Tor: From the Dark Web to the Future of Privacy’ with its author, Ben Collier, a Lecturer in Digital Methods at the University of Edinbur...