The Defender's Advantage Podcast

Have you ever wondered what a breach is really like from a CISO's perspective? Fred Thiele, CISO at Interactive, joins host Kerry Matre to discuss managing data breaches from his personal experiences. Fred dives into examples from his past, pointing out the depth and long tail of a breach. He explains all of the bits of a breach that go beyond incident response including working with insuranc...

Kimberly Goody and Jeremy Kennelly from Mandiant’s Financial Crime Analysis team join host Luke McNamara to discuss trends in the cyber crime landscape. Kimberly and Jeremy dive into the ongoing nature of banking malware repurposed for other types of financially-motivated crime, SIM swapping, experimentation with file types and post-compromise exploitation frameworks, and more. Of course, the disc...

In this week’s episode of The Defender’s Advantage Podcast, Threat Trends host Luke McNamara is joined by Mandiant analysts Tyler McLellan and John Wolfram for a discussion on the usage of USB as an infection vector as described in two recent Mandiant blog posts. Tyler details the activity outlined in the most recent blog on a new cyber espionage operation attributed to Turla Team (UNC4210), distr...

Our latest episode in The Defender’s Advantage Podcast Skills Gap series features Mandiant EVP and Chief of Business Operations Barbara Massa and Director of HR for Google Cloud Margaret Clarke who joined host Kevin Bordlemay to discuss the initiatives from Mandiant and Google Cloud to address the cyber mobilization crisis we are facing.  Recent data shows that there are over 700,000 cybersecurity...

We are kicking off a new year of The Defender’s Advantage Podcast with a new episode of the Frontline Stories series. This week, host Kerry Matre is joined by Mary Writz, SVP of Product for fraud prevention platform Sift for a discussion on fraud. Mary discusses the ins and outs of fraud, including the types of fraud, the industries typically impacted and how fraud connects with cyber security and...

This week’s episode of the Threat Trends series is the final episode of 2022 for The Defender’s Advantage Podcast. To wrap up our year and provide a glimpse into what we can expect from 2023, Sandra Joyce, VP of Mandiant Intelligence, joins host Luke McNamara for a discussion on some of the highlights from the past year. Sandra chats through aspects of the Russian invasion on Ukraine, activity fro...

This week’s episode of The Defender’s Advantage Podcast features British American Tobacco CISO, Dawn-Marie Hutchinson joins Frontline Stories host Kerry Matre for a discussion on third-party risk management. Over the course of the conversation, Dawn-Marie discusses the approach that she takes in third-party risk management and the process of conducting risk assessments. She also shares how she enc...

This week’s episode of The Defender’s Advantage Podcast features four members of Team Mandiant who previously served in the United States military and transitioned into careers in the cyber security industry. Skills Gap host Kevin Bordlemay was joined by Paul Shaver, Thomas Worthington, Lauren Krukar, and Brian Timberlake for a discussion on what the transition out of service looks like and the re...

This week’s episode of The Defender’s Advantage Podcast features Mandiant analysts Gabby Roncone, John Wolfram and Tyler McLellan who joined Threat Trends host Luke McNamara for a discussion on Russian cyber operations over the last year. The group discusses the Russia linked threat groups and activity Mandiant has been tracking related to the conflict in Ukraine, including UNC2589 and APT29. They...

This week’s episode of The Defender’s Advantage Podcast features Davis Hake, co-founder of cyber insurance company Resilience, who joined Frontline Stories host Kerry Matre for a discussion on the role of cyber insurance.  During the conversation, Davis explains the model for how cyber insurance is sold, the application process and how insurance companies work with clients to determine their risks...

This week’s episode of The Defender’s Advantage Podcast features Mandiant’s Michael Barnhart and Joe Dobson who joined Threat Trends host Luke McNamara for a discussion on recent cyber activity out of North Korea, including the targeting of cryptocurrency.  Michael and Joe discuss some of the North Korean threat groups Mandiant is following and a view of the threat landscape in the region. They al...

On this week’s episode of The Defender’s Advantage Podcast, Mandiant’s Nader Zaveri and Simran Sakraney join Skills Gap host Chris Campbell for a discussion on how the cyber security industry and the companies within it can attract candidates from underrepresented groups and foster diversity. Nader and Simran share their individual journeys into the industry and their perspectives on how organizat...

This week’s episode of The Defender’s Advantage Podcast features Stan Trepetin, Technical Product Manager at Google Cloud, who joined Threat Trends host Luke McNamara to discuss the Threat Horizon’s Report produced by the Google Cybersecurity Action Team.  Stan highlights several articles from the latest report in the quarterly series, including a piece on the importance of sharing information on...

On this week’s episode of The Defender’s Advantage Podcast, Skills Gap series host Chris Campbell is joined by Mandiant’s Fernando Tomlinson and Matt Boyle for a discussion on the value of hiring individuals from diverse professional backgrounds and ensuring accessibility to certifications and tools for those interested in transitioning to the cyber security field.  Fernando and Matt share their t...

This week’s episode of The Defender’s Advantage Podcast, Mandiant’s Yihao Lim joins the Threat Trends series to chat with host Luke McNamara about the threat landscape in the Asia-Pacific region.  Yihao discusses recent IO campaigns in the region, particularly DragonBridge and HaiEnergy, and how these attacks influence how organizations view disinformation campaigns in APJ. He also discusses the i...

The latest episode of The Defender’s Advantage Podcast Frontline Stories series features Uplight CISO Alex Wood joining host Kerry Matre to discuss how his role has evolved over the course of his career, for example, changes in the CISO reporting structure and the role’s shift to encompass a business focus as opposed to being exclusively technical.   He also discusses his own unique journey from m...

The latest episode of The Defender’s Advantage Podcast features SentinelOne researchers Tom Hegel and Juan Andres Guerrero-Saade who joined host Luke McNamara to discuss some of the latest research they presented at LABScon, September 20-24.   Juan shares details around his team’s findings on Metador, a threat actor that primarily targets telecommunications and internet services providers, as well...

The latest episode in The Defender’s Advantage Podcast Threat Trends series features Todd Boppell, COO of the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), who joined host Luke McNamara to discuss cyber security in the manufacturing landscape. During the conversation Todd shares the top concerns for NAM’s member organizations, how the industry approaches cyber security, and the challenges and oppor...

In this week’s episode of The Defender’s Advantage Podcast, Skills Gap series host Chris Campbell is joined by Dawn Hagen and Kevin Bordlemay for a discussion on diversity, inclusion, and belonging initiatives.  The group discusses Mandiant’s internal focus on diversity, including employee resource groups, as well as efforts to build awareness of career paths in cyber security via middle school, h...

This week’s episode of The Defender’s Advantage Podcast features Emiel Haeghebaert and Ashley Zaya who joined Threat Trends series host Luke McNamara to discuss Mandiant’s most recently graduated APT group, APT42.   Mandiant has identified APT42 as an Iranian-sponsored cyber espionage group tasked with conducting information collection and surveillance operations against individuals and organizati...

This latest installment of the Frontline Stories series, part of The Defender’s Advantage Podcast, features Nucleus Security Co-Founder and CEO Stephen Carter, who joined our host Kerry Matre for a conversation on CISA KEV. CISA’s Known Exploited Vulnerabilities list prioritizes vulnerabilities the agency has determined to be exploited in the wild and mandates that specified U.S. civilian agencies...

The latest episode of the Skills Gap series, part of The Defender’s Advantage Podcast, features Mandiant Managed Defense team members Robert Parker and David Lindquist, who joined host Chris Campbell to discuss what they look for when hiring for their team. They detail the skills they look for most as they interview candidates and their tips for those looking to enhance their marketability in the...

In the latest Threat Trends episode of The Defender’s Advantage Podcast, host Luke McNamara is joined by Teresa Walsh, Global Head of Intelligence at the Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center (FS-ISAC), for a deep dive on the financial services industry. Teresa discusses her journey from roles in government and how her experience has shaped her view of financial services. She...

In this week’s episode of The Defender’s Advantage Podcast, Kerry Matre, host of the Frontline Stories series, is joined by Mandiant’s Tim Crothers and Matt Shelton who discuss their role in protecting the company from attackers. Both share their professional journeys, how changes at the company have impacted their responsibilities, and some standout moments they’ve experienced while safeguarding...

In the latest Threat Trends episode of The Defender’s Advantage Podcast, Mandiant’s Jon Ford and Stacy O’Mara join host Luke McNamara for a conversation on election security. They discuss how organizations involved in the process of elections should think of cyber security in the lead up to these events, preparedness steps they have seen states take, and the evolution of the federal approach in th...