Have you ever gotten a random WhatsApp message? You think to yourself, "This is a scam." You'd be right, but you probably have no idea the scale of human suffering behind that text. We talk with journalist Cezary Podkul, on his recent bombshell reporting for ProPublica on the roles organized crime and human trafficking play in mass cyberscam operations.

Today’s guest is Nicole Hoffman, aka Threat Hunter Girl. She’s a Senior Cybersecurity Threat Intelligence Analyst and children’s book author. As an infosecurity professional, Nicole is the creator of the Cognitive Stairways of Analysis Framework, and has spoken at a number of conferences. As an author, she published The Mighty Threat Intelligence Warrior earlier this year, and has a sequel on the way slated for later this year.

Today, we have another episode from our Spotlight series, where we shine a light on newcomers to cybersecurity. Some are right out of school, and some are entering from a different field. Our goal is to show there’s no singular path into the industry, and hopefully highlight some ways more people can enter the field.

In the last of our series recorded live at Black Hat, I wanted to dig into the hacker mindset. What can defenders learn and how can they apply those insights to practice? Today my guest is Dr. Louis DeWeaver, Principal Consultant for Cybersecurity at ACA Group. He offers a perspective informed by years in the military, in the university classroom, and from the frontlines of client risk assessments.  He’s a regular pilgrim to hacker summer camp, and that’s where I had the chance to sit down...

Cybersecurity is a landscape constantly in motion. Threats change, frameworks evolve, new technologies emerge. How do leaders keep up? And how do they take that learning into the job to keep pace with business needs? Today my guest is Gary Hayslip, industry veteran and Global CISO for Softbank Investment Advisers. He offers a perspective based on decades of experience. I had the chance to sit down with Gary during Black Hat this year to record this conversation live. This episode is the...

Deepfakes, synthetic humans, manipulating humans beyond email and into trusted cloud communication channels. These are just some of the trends highlighted in VMware’s Global Threat Incident Response Report, which was released early last week, just before Black Hat 2022. Today my guest is Rick McElroy, Principal Cybersecurity Strategist at VMware. I had the chance to sit down with Rick during Black Hat last week to record this live. This episode is the first of three interviews from Black Hat,...

Today, we’re launching a new series for the podcast called Spotlight, where we shine a light on newcomers to cybersecurity. Our first guest is Candace Respress, a SOC analyst. During the pandemic, Candace transitioned from her career as a special education math teacher to SOC analyst. She's about 7 months into her cyber career! Check out her journey!

In the last episode of our RSA Live series, I look to the next generation! I got to sit down with Ryan René Rosado, an Air Force veteran, who reflects on her journey into cyber and overcoming others' expectations. Ryan talks about her first RSA experience and her gratitude for the cybersecurity profession. In a refreshing moment of self-reflection, Ryan got in touch a week after the conference to revisit one of our questions.

In the third episode of our RSA Live series, I talk to Russell Eubanks, founder of Security Ever After, and former CISO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. We talk through his fascinating journey from factory floor worker to security leader, how to cultivate talent, and leadership takeaways for CISOs in the aftermath of the last two years. It was an honor to finally meet up with Russell in person!

In the second episode of our RSA Live series, I talk to Katie Hanahan, VP of Cybersecurity Strategy at ITsavvy. I first met Katie through Clubhouse, so it was incredible to finally meet in person. With the benefit of hindsight, we talk about advice she'd give people trying to enter cyber and how leaders can continue their education. Let cooler heads prevail: We talk about how she helps clients translate alarming breach headlines into actionable cyber defense strategies for their organizations.

In the first of our RSA Live series, we talk to the legendary Karen Worstell. Karen is a senior cybersecurity advisor at VMware Carbon Black, a perennial RSA speaker, and a decades-long veteran. I'm so thankful that she could spare time out of her incredibly busy RSA schedule to sit down with First Watch. We talked about how the RSA theme of "Transform" applies now to both security operations and the role of the CISO. We also get into burnout, and how security leaders can help overtaxed teams...

Today we speak with Carlota Sage, vCISO Principal at Fractional CISO about her expertise in leveling up security in smaller organizations. Carlota speaks to the role that CISOs play in building meaningful cybersecurity infrastructure for smaller companies, including the use of automation and cybersecurity platforms that mitigate risk. She also delves into the importance of avoiding burnout and the significance of providing support and investment into the work of security teams.

Cybersecurity has become a national security priority, thanks in no small part to the tidal wave of cyberattacks on companies large and small, and against critical infrastructure. And yet, a recent study found that despite being listed as a top business priority, cybersecurity continues to suffer from under investment. We got in touch with one of the authors, Prof. Chris Maurer of the University of Virginia’s McIntire School of Commerce to find out why. You can find his original article...

Today’s guest is Angela Brown, a cyber threat team manager who took an interesting route into cyber. I first met Ang on Clubhouse, in the Fireside Chat series led by Tomas Maldonado and many other senior cybersecurity leaders. Then we had the great fortune of meeting up in real life at Black Hat. Ang’s journey into cyber is both interesting and, I hope, inspiring for others looking to start in the field.

Hospitals. Oil and gas pipelines. Farming cooperatives. The definition of what constitutes “Critical Infrastructure” seems to change with every ransomware attack or data breach. Even with existing technological solutions our special guest Todd Beebe, an information security leader at an energy company, knows something deeper is required. Having started out as a red-teamer, he believes strongly in the need to think like the adversary. Beebe’s methodology will teach you how to think like the...

We talk to Chris Hetner, former Sr. Cybersecurity Advisor to the SEC chair and former Global CISO of GE Capital. With his deep experience in both the public and private sectors, we discuss the implications of new cybersecurity enforcement actions, and how to balance productivity with security controls in an industry that transforming rapidly against the backdrop of two pandemics: COVID-19 and Ransomware.

We’ve spoken to a lot of cybersecurity leaders about representation, access, gatekeeping, and the so-called jobs shortage in the industry -- which may or may not be of our own devising. But we haven’t spoken to a lot of people who are breaking into cyber for the first time. So when I ran across Ciera Stroman’s post on LinkedIn celebrating her first day as a Security Analyst, I reached out to learn more: about her journey, how she got through, and her hopes for the rest of her cyber journey.

Live from Black Hat 2021! We talk with David Cass, VP of Cyber & IT Risk at Federal Reserve Bank of New York. This interview doesn't touch on his responsibilities at the Fed, but draws on his decades long experience working with cloud security and across the financial sector.

As women consider pursuing careers in cybersecurity, they often don’t see the industry as a viable option. Low representation, lack of female role models, stereotyping, and pay gaps all contribute to the perception, and reality, that the cybersecurity playing field is far from balanced. On June 30th, SafeGuard Cyber hosted a leadership panel called, "Vision & Voice: Removing Barriers for Women in Cybersecurity." It was so well attended, we wanted to make it available to a wider...

The tug of war between revenue teams and security teams is a common business conflict. But what happens when your IT or security services are outsourced to a Managed Service Provider? The dynamic changes. MSPs are growing, as companies large and small struggle with capacity and skill shortages. We talk with Frank Smith of Ntiva about how MSPs are helping customers meet today's cybersecurity challenges.

Something is happening in cybersecurity, and Naomi Buckwalter is speaking her mind. A decades-long industry veteran, she has built up a massive community on LinkedIn. There, she's speaking to and generating much needed conversation around some of the thorniest issues in cybersecurity: how to break in, issues with representation, how we win the war on cybercrime, and more. Do yourself a favor and join her conversations.

Cyberninjas, Representation, and the Next Generation by SafeGuard Cyber

SOMETHING NEW IS COMING! We’ve been on a bit of a break since early March...but for good reasons. We have some exciting new things coming your way, starting with a new name, and some new formats. Stay tuned for our relaunch in the coming weeks, it’s going to be amazing!

How does dis/misinformation on social media divide societies? Samantha North dives into the linguistic triggers that promote and exacerbate tribalistic tendencies. We also dive into disinfo for profit services and the role of conspiracy theories in propagating distrust in civil institutions.

Microsoft Teams, Slack, Zoom, WebEx — all of these cloud based platforms have helped companies manage distributed workforces, but they have also been driving business success. Today we talk with Irwin Lazar, president and principal analyst at Metrigy Research, about his new study into workplace collaboration. We spoke with Irwin on this topic last year, in May 2020, and the amount of change since then has been tremendous and the data is very telling!