Unspoken Security

In this episode of Unspoken Security, AJ Nash and Faith MacGregor tackle the private sector's sloppy relationship with the word "intelligence" — the gap between raw data, contextual information, and verified, actionable intelligence — and how vendors, circular reporting, and fragmented disciplines like "cyber threat intelligence" have eroded that discipline. From there the...

Social engineering has a reputation problem. Most people hear the term and think phishing, scams, and threat actors. AJ Nash and guest Ashley Stryker push back on that framing in this episode of Unspoken Security. The conversation opens by defining social engineering on its own terms: the act of understanding how people work and using that knowledge to get them to take a specific action. The techn...

In this episode of Unspoken Security, host AJ Nash sits down with Dan O'Day, Senior Consulting Director at Unit 42 by Palo Alto Networks. Dan shares key findings from the 2026 Global Incident Response Report, built from over 750 real-world cyber incidents, covering four major threat trends reshaping the security landscape. Dan breaks down how AI is compressing attack timelines at a dramatic r...

In this episode of Unspoken Security, host A.J. Nash sits down with Cynthia Kaiser, SVP at Halcyon’s Ransomware Research Center. They explore how ransomware grew from a niche crime into a business, and why security teams now face faster attacks, extortion, and a threat landscape that blurs crime and state activity. Cynthia traces the shift from early encryption schemes to double and triple extorti...

In this episode of Unspoken Security , host A.J. Nash sits down with Erin West, Founder at Operation Shamrock. They explore the “scamdemic” and the scams draining wealth at industrial scale. Erin explains why business email compromise, government impersonation, and romance scams work so well: they use fear, trust, urgency, and loneliness. She then breaks down pig butchering, a long con that starts...

In this episode of Unspoken Security, host AJ Nash sits down with Bob Fabien “BZ” Zinga, a cybersecurity executive and Naval Information Warfare Commander in the U.S. Navy Reserve. They explore how performative leadership shows up in security teams, and why values on a wall fail when pressure hits. BZ argues that optics without accountability kills trust. When leaders bend with politics or budgets...

In this episode of Unspoken Security, host AJ Nash sits down with Galya Westler, Co-Founder and CEO at HumanBeam. They explore how advances in AI, digital identity, and holographic technology are reshaping the way organizations interact with people—while raising tough questions about privacy, ownership, and trust. Galya shares how her work began in health technology, connecting patients to care du...

In this episode of Unspoken Security, host AJ Nash sits down with Eric Yunag, EVP of Product and Services at Convergint. They explore how security integration is changing as organizations face a fast-moving threat landscape and rising expectations from leaders and regulators. Eric explains why today’s environment demands a new approach—one that connects hardware, software, and services in a more d...

In this episode of Unspoken Security, host AJ Nash sits down with Danielle Jablanski from STV to break down the hard truths of operational technology (OT) security. Danielle explains why critical infrastructure - from water and transportation to manufacturing - remains vulnerable, tracing the challenge back to legacy systems, vendor complexity, and the lack of clear, industry-wide standards. She a...

In this encore presentation of Unspoken Security Episode 32 (originally published on 3 April 2025), host AJ Nash sits down with Chris Birch, an intelligence practitioner with nearly 30 years of experience, to discuss the ever-evolving landscape of social engineering. Chris's unique perspective comes from leading teams that actively engage with threat actors, turning the tables on those who ty...

In this episode of Unspoken Security, host AJ Nash sits down with Zoë Rose, SecOps Manager at Canon EMEA. They explore the real-world barriers to building effective incident response programs and discuss why so many organizations struggle to move beyond reactive firefighting. Zoë shares her perspective from both consulting and in-house roles, pointing out that most incident response teams are over...

In this episode of Unspoken Security, host AJ Nash sits down with Charlotte Guiney, Cyber Threat Intelligence Manager at Toyota Financial Services. They explore what it takes to build threat intelligence programs that work for both security teams and the wider business. Charlotte cuts through the noise, stressing that buy-in is step one—and that it’s often the hardest step. She shares how understa...

In this episode of Unspoken Security, host A.J. Nash sits down with Dr. J. Lugo Santiago, Chief Operating Officer at QBRIC, to dig into how organizations actually calculate cyber risk—and why most current models fall short. Lugo explains that understanding risk is much more than looking at past incidents or relying on static checklists. Instead, he argues that real foresight comes from blending hu...

In this episode of Unspoken Security, host A.J. Nash sits down with Dominic Vogel, founder of Vogel Leadership & Coaching, to discuss the importance of bringing humanity back into the cybersecurity field. Dominic shares his journey from corporate burnout to becoming an advocate for kindness and authenticity in an industry often focused on metrics and technology. Dominic explains how leading wi...

In this episode of Unspoken Security, host A.J. Nash sits down with Lauren Zabierek, Senior Vice President for the Future of Digital Security at the Institute for Security and Technology. Together, they examine how the traditional view of national security often overlooks the people it seeks to protect. Lauren shares why national security must move beyond military and government, and instead focus...

In this episode of Unspoken Security, host A.J. Nash sits down with Marley Salveter, Director of Marketing at Unspoken Security. They explore how digital privacy and security awareness look different for younger generations who have grown up in a world where sharing personal data is routine, not a choice. Marley shares her perspective on adapting to life online, where building a personal brand and...

In this episode of Unspoken Security, host AJ Nash welcomes Ivan Novikov, CEO of Wallarm, to discuss the fundamental shifts in API security. They explore how APIs have evolved from internal tools to the public-facing backbone of mobile apps, IoT, and AI. This change has dramatically expanded the threat surface, making traditional security methods obsolete. Ivan explains why older approaches, like...

Data alone does not persuade. For data-driven leaders, learning to translate numbers into a compelling narrative is a critical skill. In this episode of Unspoken Security, host AJ Nash speaks with Salvatore Manzi, a leadership communications coach, about the strategies technical leaders can use to create influence. Salvatore explains why leaders must learn to make meaning over metrics to connect w...

In this episode of Unspoken Security, host AJ Nash welcomes Mark Freedman, Principal and CEO of Rebel Global Security, to discuss a major shift in the global threat landscape. The primary national security concern has moved from counter-terrorism to interstate strategic competition. This change requires a new security model, especially for the private sector. Mark explains that companies are now p...

In this episode of Unspoken Security, host AJ Nash speaks with Dr. Peter Garraghan, CEO and CTO of Mindgard. They discuss the real-world security risks of artificial intelligence. Peter starts with a simple point: AI is just software, and software is easy to break. He urges businesses using AI to step back and truly understand its vulnerabilities. Peter draws parallels between the current AI boom...

Why does security awareness training so often fail? In this episode of Unspoken Security, host AJ Nash welcomes Living Security CEO Ashley M. Rose to discuss this common issue. They explore how compliance-driven, "check-the-box" training creates a false sense of security. This old model relies on vanity metrics and rituals instead of reducing actual human risk. Ashley presents a better w...

Cyber crime continues to grow each year, but should organizations give up fighting it? On this episode of Unspoken Security, host AJ Nash speaks with Robert Duncan from Netcraft, who argues the answer is absolutely not. Robert makes the case that fighting cyber crime is worth the effort, even when it feels like an endless battle. Robert challenges the common view that "whack-a-mole" tact...

In this episode of Unspoken Security, host AJ Nash sits down with Jennifer Leggio, Chief Strategy Officer of W2 Communications, to discuss the unspoken challenges impacting career fulfillment. Jennifer shares her personal experiences with toxic work environments, imposter syndrome, and the struggle to balance ego and self-awareness. She highlights the importance of advocating for yourself while re...

In this unfiltered episode of Unspoken Security, host A. J. Nash explores the looming threat quantum computing poses to our digital infrastructure with experts Robert Clyde, Managing Director of Clyde Consulting and Chair of crypto-security firm CryptoQuanti, and Jamie Norton, a Board Director at ISACA with extensive cybersecurity credentials. They cut through the technical jargon to explain how q...

In this eye-opening episode of Unspoken Security, host AJ Nash welcomes notorious hacker and security expert Jayson E. Street to discuss why traditional security awareness training falls short. Jayson explains that most corporate security training is merely policy-driven compliance, not actual security education. Instead of focusing on checkbox exercises once a year, Jayson advocates for building...