TechSpective Podcast

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 Massachuse...

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...

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...

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 Tech...

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 invest...

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 Re...

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...

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 peop...

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...

TechSpective Podcast Episode 060 Jack Danahy joined me for this episode of the TechSpective Podcast. I had the opportunity to work with and for Jack during our time together at Alert Logic, which acquired Barkly, a company he had co-founded. Prior to Barkly, Jack had been involved in launching other successful cybersecurity startups. Currently, he is using his years of experience and wisdom gained...

TechSpective Podcast Episode 059 If you have worked in or near cybersecurity in the last 20 years or so, there's a good chance you're familiar with Richard Stiennon. Richard is a former Gartner analyst who has established himself as a leading independent analyst--as well as an author and speaker in the field. His breadth of knowledge about cybersecurity is challenged only by the size of the Rolode...

TechSpective Podcast Episode 058 What does it take to be a good leader? Well, if anyone should know, it would be my guest for this week's episode, Andy Ellis. Andy Ellis is known throughout the cybersecurity industry as a Hall of Fame CSO, former CSO of Akamai, and a diehard New England Patriots fan. As a lifelong Detroit Lions fan, though, I have to say it's easy to be a loyal fan of a team that...

TechSpective Podcast Episode 057 We frequently see data referred to as the "new oil" or the "lifeblood of business." Hyperbolic catch phrases aside, though, data is everywhere. All of the things are data. As the rate of data creation skyrockets exponentially, we are struggling as a global community with how to store it, or protect it, and what are the moral and ethical contracts we make related to...

TechSpective Podcast Episode 056 MITRE ATT&CK has quickly become an invaluable, third-party assessment that the cybersecurity industry and customers can reference as an objective demonstration of how the tools and platforms perform in real-world conditions. MITRE just released the results of the third MITRE ATT&CK Evaluation. 29 vendors participated in the exhaustive exercise to validate the capab...

TechSpective Podcast Episode 055 People tend to think of the world as much more binary--more black and white than it really is. In most cases, though, reality lies in the vast gray area between the extremes. When it comes to cybersecurity and digital privacy, the lines between the extremes are getting more blurred as time goes on--expanding the ambiguous gray area where the real risks lie. David M...

TechSpective Podcast Episode 055 One of the hot trends right now is the NFT. NFT--pronounced by some as "nifty" because it is catchier than saying N-F-T--stands for "non-fungible token". NFTs exist in a world that few truly understand (and I don't claim to be one of them)--a mix of trendy technology buzzwords including blockchain and cryptocurrency. At face value, they seem to make little sense, a...

TechSpective Podcast Episode 054 Navigating the web of regulatory compliance mandates and mitigating risk from a constantly evolving and expanding threat landscape is challenging. For a company like Adobe--a large enterprise with a global footprint that was also an early adopter of cloud technologies--managing governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) is even more complex. A leader from the Adobe Tec...

TechSpective Podcast Episode 053 March is Women's History Month, and also the month we celebrate International Women's Day. That also makes it the month that media outlets highlight the challenges and triumphs of women in society. My guest on this episode of the TechSpective Podcast is Sheela Sarva, a Senior Application Security Manager with Qualys, to talk about her experiences as a woman working...

TechSpective Podcast Episode 052 Companies depend on technology. It really doesn't matter what a company actually does today--even companies that are not "tech" companies rely on technology in some way, shape, or form for day-to-day communications, operations, accounting, and other functions. With so much riding on technology, businesses need access to relevant details and information about the re...

TechSpective Podcast Episode 051 Every year around this time, tech and cybersecurity media take a look back at the year that is winding down, and experts and pundits make predictions about the year ahead. It is a holiday tradition. From a cybersecurity perspective, it generally feels like the holiday we are celebrating is Ground Hog's Day, though. You could take the recap articles and prognosticat...

TechSpective Podcast Episode 050 "Every company is a software company." That is the quote that kicks off the Executive Summary page of the latest State of Software Security Report from Veracode. This is Volume 11 of the report, with a focus on looking ahead to identify how developers can continue to make applications better and more secure. Obviously, some companies produce microwave ovens, and so...

TechSpective Podcast Episode 049 Malware is a massive problem that costs businesses around the world billions of dollars every year. Much of the effort to fight malware is a simple game of cat and mouse where attackers find a weakness and develop an exploit, security vendors and application developers implement solutions to prevent that exploit, and attackers come up with a new way to circumvent p...

TechSpective Podcast Episode 048 Hello. It's been a while. In my defense, time is just a construct and it seems to have mostly lost meaning--at least for me--during the COVID-19 pandemic quarantine. Days, weeks, and months have little value when the routine is mostly the same regardless. To say that 2020 has been rough would be a wild understatement. It seems like each month we say "Man. It can't...

Inner Circle Podcast Episode 047 My guest for this episode is Fabian Wosar, CTO of Emsisoft. Emsisoft is a New Zealand-based maker of antimalware and endpoint security solutions that has established itself as a leader in the fight against ransomware. This is a really awesome conversation--so much so that we got off topic very quickly and never really got back to it. I promise to have Fabian back a...

Inner Circle Podcast Episode 046 My guest for this episode is Mike Beckley--co-founder and CTO of Appian. Appian has established itself as a leader in intelligent business process management systmes (iBPMS), dynamic case management (DCM), digital process automation (DPA), and low-code development. With the recent acquisition of Jidoka, Appian is now also in the business or robotic process automati...