Your Cybersecurity is More Under Threat Than You Might Think

Welcome to the The Voice of Retail , I’m your host Michael LeBlanc, and this podcast is brought to you in conjunction with Retail Council of Canada, and this episode is brought to you by Fortinet,

 Fortinet secures the largest enterprise, service provider, and government organizations around the world. Fortinet empowers its customers with intelligent, seamless protection across the expanding attack surface and the power to take on ever-increasing performance requirements of the borderless network—today and into the future. Fortinet’s mission is to secure people, devices, and data everywhere.

Cyberattacks on businesses are more commonplace than we might think. And the pandemic might have made it worse.

As offices transitioned to work-from-home systems and many retailers either started or expanded their eCommerce practices, the Chief Information Security Officer for National Retail at Fortinet says that protecting your cybersecurity perimeter has never been so important (and complex).

In this episode of The Voice of Retail I sit down with Courtney Radke, Fortinet’s National Retail CISO, to talk about how retailers can better protect themselves - and their customers - in a rapidly changing digital landscape.

Courtney sheds light on the reality of identifying and reporting breaches in cybersecurity, we talk about the business of being a cybercriminal and I get to the bottom of how retailers can sustainably invest in their cyber safety.

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Courtney Radke, National Retail CISO, Fortinet

Courtney spent over 10 years leading retail technology strategy and securing distributed networks at multiple retail and restaurant organizations across North America. As the CISO for Retail at Fortinet, Courtney uses his skills and experience as a former retail customer and technology leader to provide real-world solutions for customers and partners in the retail vertical.

I’m your host Michael LeBlanc, President of M.E. LeBlanc & Company, and if you’re looking for more content, or want to chat  follow me on LinkedIn, or visit my website meleblanc.co!

Until next time, stay safe and have a great week!

Michael LeBlanc is the president and founder of M.E. LeBlanc & Company Inc, a senior retail advisor, keynote speaker and now, media entrepreneur.  He has been on the front lines of retail industry change for his entire career. 

Michael has delivered keynotes, hosted fire-side discussions and participated worldwide in thought leadership panels, most recently on the main stage in Toronto at Retail Council of Canada’s Retail Marketing conference with leaders from Walmart & Google.  He brings 25+ years of brand/retail/marketing & eCommerce leadership experience with Levi's, Black & Decker, Hudson's Bay, CanWest Media, Pandora Jewellery, The Shopping Channel and Retail Council of Canada to his advisory, speaking and media practice.

Michael produces and hosts a network of leading retail trade podcasts, including the award-winning No.1 independent retail industry podcast in America, Remarkable Retail with his partner, Dallas-based best-selling author Steve Dennis; Canada's top retail industry podcast The Voice of Retail and Canada's top food industry and one of the top Canadian-produced management independent podcasts in the country, The Food Professor with Dr. Sylvain Charlebois from Dalhousie University in Halifax.

Rethink Retail has recognized Michael as one of the top global retail experts for the fifth year in a row, the National Retail Federation has designated Michael as on their Top Retail Voices for 2025, Thinkers 360 has named him on of the Top 50 global thought leaders in retail, RTIH has named him a top 100 global though leader in retail technology and Coresight Research has named Michael a Retail AI Influencer.  If you are a BBQ fan, you can tune into Michael’s cooking show, Last Request BBQ, on YouTube, Instagram, X and yes, TikTok.

Michael is available for keynote presentations helping retailers, brands and retail industry insiders explaining the current state and future of the retail industry in North America and around the world.