In this podcast episode, Taz and Raj explore the strategies and tactics that successful businesses can use to drive innovation from within. With real-world examples of companies that have successfully implemented innovative solutions and examine the challenges that these companies faced in the process. We’ll delve into current tech trends and predictions for 2024, including but not limited to the rise of artificial intelligence, the growing complexity of security in a multi-cloud world, and...

On today's episode, Hazel is back to chat to Jeremy Maxwell, CISO of Veradigm. Veradigm is a healthcare IT company providing electronic health record systems and other solutions to a variety of medical organizations. These organizations range from small physician practices all the way up to some of the world’s largest insurance and pharmaceutical companies.  Serving roughly 10,000 customers in a highly regulated industry, security is critical for Veradigm’s success. Much is at stake when it...

Cybersecurity attacks continue to rise and become more pervasive and sophisticated. Depending on the size of an organization, there may be millions or even billions of data points and signals that need to be analyzed. AI has emerged as the top defense against threats because it can "keep up with the bad guys", combing through data and providing organizations with predictive analytics to pinpoint malicious activities, calculate risk, and surface threats before they can be exploited. These...

Listen to Taz dig into Cisco's Social Responsibility initiatives with Brian Tippens, Chief Social Impact Officer. In this episode, we explore the downstream impact of technology and the role that Cisco plays in creating a better world. We discuss the importance of social impact for Cisco and the responsibility they have to prioritize it in their operations and innovations. Taz and Brian delve into the challenges and opportunities for Cisco to create a positive impact, and the ways in which...

Aside from being entertained by friendly banter between the two, listen to  Chief Information Security Officer of the NFL, Tomas Maldanado and Taz take on the most common myths about cybersecurity and unpack the realities behind these bloated assumptions.

Taz  explores the importance of using simple language in the cybersecurity space and the critical role that departments outside of cybersecurity and engineering with Tom Gillis.  Everyday we are shown that communications and marketing  play in shaping messaging that reaches the market.  They discuss the essential role of translators in the cybersecurity industry and how they serve as a bridge between technical experts and non-technical stakeholders. Listen in to  learn how simplifying...

Technology has transformed our world in ways we couldn't have imagined just a few decades ago. But as we continue to rely on technology to connect, learn, and innovate, we must also consider the impact it has on our society. Taz and guest TK Keanini explore the intersection of digital sociology, responsible tech, ethics, and cybersecurity and how they shape the way we live, work, and interact with one another. From examining the social and ethical implications of new technological...

As Artificial Intelligence (AI) continues to advance and become more prevalent in various industries, the importance of ensuring responsible AI practices has become increasingly apparent. One crucial aspect of responsible AI is cybersecurity. Article mentioned at 23:26: https://futurism.com/delphi-ai-ethics-racist Background topics/articles and notes:  "Google's New AI Language Model Achieves Record-Breaking Performance on Language Tasks" - In this article, it's reported that Google has...

In this episode, Taz interviews Alex Wolf. Alex  is a business & tech thought-leader, investor and author; recognized as Fast Company’s Top 100 Most Creative People In Business. Alex’s effort to make big companies think critically about technology has been recognized by Apple, Snapchat, Stanford University, Fordham University, NYU and more. Her thought-leadership has been profiled in Forbes, Inc. Entrepreneur and in AfroTech as “The Woman Silicon Valley Is Too Afraid To Call A Genius”....

Trigger warning - {child abuse} content filtration is a sensitive topic that covers some of the harsh realities of our world that folks on trust and security teams have to deal with on a daily basis. In this episode, Taz speaks with Yasmin Abdi, CEO and Founder of NoHack and Security engineering manager at Snap. They cover a wide range of topics from Yasmin's career trajectory, her experience on a content filtration team and her transition into entrepreneurship as a new founder. Yasmin Abdi...

In today’s episode you’ll hear from Joe Toscano. Joe is an award winning designer, published author, and international keynote speaker who left his role consulting for Google because he felt the industry was misusing data and that the issues needed to be addressed through innovation rather than strict regulation. Since leaving, Joe has written a book, called Automating Humanity, and has started DataGrade, both focused on increasing technology literacy and purpose-driven innovation. You may...

In this episode, Taz interviews Jason Button, Information Security Director who manages our  Mergers & Acquisitions Cybersecurity efforts. This conversation is full of compassion, leadership insights, and brilliant gems that anyone can apply in their lives. In addition to chatting about imposter syndrome and Jason's career journey, you'll hear details about the M&A process and how to successfully go about it, no matter the size of your organization. Jason came to Cisco through the...

I’m interviewing Lena Olympio. Lena hosted a fantastic conversation about Women in Leadership. You all know how important that is to us here at Cisco and on this podcast so I wanted to share it with all of you.  Lena interviewed 3 incredible leaders here at Cisco Dana, Alex and Allison (a part of our Partners Organization) - they were rightfully recognized as this year’s Women of the Channel among many other incredible humans.  I was inspired by their story and inevitably became more curious...

National Cybersecurity Awareness Month continues and in honor of it we interview global and industry recognized thought leader, Confidence Staveley.  To name a few of her incredible accomplishments, Confidence has been recognized as Cybersecurity Woman of the Year in 2021 and 2022, she is a part of the U.S. State Department’s International Visitors Leadership Program. Not to mention she has single handedly changed the future of so many young girls as it relates to their access to technology,...

Happy National Cyber Security Awareness Month! Today's guest is Cathy Pedrayes: Author, television host and bilingual social media influencer, Cathy Pedrayes is best known as TikTok's 'Mom Friend.' She developed the reputation after sharing safety content that ranges from items she keeps in her first aid kit to how to maintain your security and privacy online. With millions of followers on TikTok, Cathy is on a mission to help her audience see themselves in cyber.  Our chat covers Cathy's...

On today's show our guest is one of our very own - Ashlee Benge, Strategic Intelligence Lead on the Cisco Talos team.  After a very informative presentation at Blackhat on "Opsec in a Post-Roe World' we wanted to dive deeper with her to learn about the impact and implications on the security industry, practitioners and the world at large.  The episode covers a vast range of discussion, with the fundamental hope to inspire people to take charge of their privacy and develop agency around big...

Today's episode features a recording from a live event that we hosted on 24 August, aka Independence Day for Ukraine.  Six months since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Dmytro Korzhevin, a senior threat intelligence researcher, JJ Cummings, Talos' national intelligence principal, and Ashlee Benge, a strategic intelligence lead, provided insights into their past few months of work in the region. The discussion primarily focused on the resiliency of Ukrainians, who have worked tirelessly over the...

Security Stories faces off, once again, against the Beers with Talos crew, to see if we can regain some dignity after our close defeat in the first game of "Would I lie to you?"  This second round contains stories of betrayal, donkeys, embarrassing situations, and antics so dangerous, Hazel feels compelled to issue a "Don't try this at home kids" warning at the start. Speaking of Hazel, where is she, and why does she suddenly have a much deeper, more Americanized voice? This episode also...

Martin Lee, who leads Strategic Planning and Communications for Cisco Talos in EMEA, joins Hazel for a quick chat about the current status of hiring in cybersecurity.  We discuss the industry needs are in terms of bringing more threat analysts in, what is getting in the way of hiring, and the potential solutions that we as an industry should consider. We also talk about the skills need to be nurtured within the security workforce, and how we can improve knowledge transfer. For more stories...

Today’s episode, recorded live at RSA 2022, features a great conversation with Tomás Maldonado, NFL Chief Information Security Officer, and Brad Garnett, Director of Cisco Talos Incident Response. The dialogue is led by none other than the brilliant Tazin Khan. Taz talks to Tomás about his early life and career (“I didn’t want to be another statistic”) and how he approaches new opportunities. He talks about how he communicates his vision for a cybersecurity strategy, as well as how he ‘blends...

All rise, all rise, for the inaugural episode of Infosec Court, brought to you live from RSA Conference.  Judge Wendy Nather presides, and three infosec experts (Helen Patton, Dave Lewis and Dennis Fisher) all have a ‘hot take’ that they want to be more widely accepted in the infosec industry. Their task as plaintiffs is to try to persuade Judge Wendy and a jury of their peers that their hot take deserves to become infosec canon.  Come for the chance to hear Wendy in her element. Stay for...

For our 50th episode, we invited our friends from Cisco Talos to join us for an authentic, truthful conversation about mental health and burnout. Amy Henderson, Ashlee Benge, Matt Olney, and Mitch Neff, joined Hazel and Taz to share  some experiences. We start by talking about the work that Talos has been doing in Ukraine and the mental health effects of that work. That also includes that weird, disconnected feeling that can develop when we're doing as much as we can to help, but we also go...

Today's episode features a chat between Hazel and three security leaders - Accidental CISO (yes, the anonymity intrigues us too!), Liz Waddell, Incident Response Practice Lead for Cisco Talos, and Christos Syngelakis, CISO and Data Privacy Officer at Motor Oil Group. They talk about their experiences of building security resilience – so we got into the key elements of an Incident Response plan, how to achieve company wide buy in, the best ways to go about training your people and trying to...

Today we're going full steam into the metaverse and Web 3.0.  Joining us to discuss his research on this topic is Jaeson Schultz, Technical Leader for Cisco Talos Security Intelligence & Research Group. Taz and Hazel have a great conversation with Jason about the evolution of the metaverse, as well as the security implications, such as rising numbers of scams going after people’s cryptowallets, and the ethical concerns that are potentially popping up. For more on this topic, have a...