

Defense in Depth
David Spark, Steve Zalewski, Geoff Belknap
Defense in Depth promises clear talk on cybersecurity’s most controversial and confusing debates. Once a week we choose one controversial and popular cybersecurity debate and use the InfoSec community’s insights to lead our discussion.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Nov 18, 2021 • 29min
How Do You Measure Cybersecurity Success?
All links and images for this episode can be found on CISO Series In most jobs there’s often a clear indicator if you’re doing a good job. In security, specifically security leadership, it’s not so easy to tell. “Nothing happening” is not an effective measurement. So how should security performance be graded? Check out this post for the basis for our conversation on this week’s episode which features me, David Spark (@dspark), producer of CISO Series, co-host Geoff Belknap (@geoffbelknap), CISO, LinkedIn, and our guest is Deneen DeFiore (@deneendefiore), CISO, United Airlines. Thanks to our podcast sponsor, Tessian In this episode: How should security performance be graded? Is "keeping it simple" the best option? What's the best measurement option?

Nov 11, 2021 • 27min
How Do We Turn Tables Against Adversaries?
All links and images for this episode can be found on CISO Series If we’re going to turn the tables against our adversaries, everything from our attitude to our action needs to change to a format where attacks and breaches are not normalized, and we know the what and how to respond to it quickly. Check out this post for the basis for our conversation on this week’s episode which features me, David Spark (@dspark), producer of CISO Series, co-host Geoff Belknap (@geoffbelknap), CISO, LinkedIn, and our sponsored guest Scott Scheferman (@transhackerism), principal strategist, Eclypsium. Thanks to our podcast sponsor, Eclypsium Eclypsium is the enterprise firmware security company. Our comprehensive, cloud-based platform identifies, verifies, and fortifies firmware and hardware in laptops, servers, network gear and devices. The Eclypsium platform secures against persistent and stealthy firmware attacks, provides continuous device integrity, delivers firmware patching at scale, and prevents ransomware and malicious implants. Moving from a reactive to a proactive attitude Accelerating teams' ability to respond before damage happens Stopping marketing informing your strategy Patching "fast enough to matter"

Nov 4, 2021 • 32min
Ageism in Cybersecurity
All links and images for this episode can be found on CISO Series Is it too much experience? Is it that they're difficult to work with? Do they want too much money? Will they not be motivated? Are cyber professionals over the age of 40 being discriminated in hiring practices? Check out this post for the discussion that is the basis of our conversation on this week’s episode co-hosted by me, David Spark (@dspark), the producer of CISO Series, and Steve Zalewski. Our guest is Ben Sapiro, head of technology risk and CISO at Canada Life. Thanks to our podcast sponsor, Qualys Qualys is a pioneer and leading provider of cloud-based security and compliance solutions. In this episode: Are cyber professionals over the age of 40 being discriminated in hiring practices? Is "older experience" a threat to younger managers? Do older professionals have too much attitude? What other work options exist for the 40+ expert?

Oct 28, 2021 • 33min
Proactive Vulnerability Management
All links and images for this episode can be found on CISO Series How do we turn the tide from reactive to proactive patch management? Does anyone feel good about where they are with their own patch management program? What would it take to get there? Check out this post and this post for the discussion that is the basis of our conversation on this week’s episode co-hosted by me, David Spark (@dspark), the producer of CISO Series, and Steve Zalewski. Our sponsored guest is Sumedh Thakar (@sumedhthakar), CEO, Qualys. Thanks to our podcast sponsor, Qualys Qualys is a pioneer and leading provider of cloud-based security and compliance solutions. In this episode: How do we turn the tide from reactive to proactive patch management? Do cultural differences make a difference? Do we need a new framework or template?

Oct 21, 2021 • 33min
Why Is Security Recruiting So Broken?
All links and images for this episode can be found on CISO Series Check out this post for the basis for our conversation on this week’s episode which features me, David Spark (@dspark), producer of CISO Series, co-host Geoff Belknap (@geoffbelknap), CISO, LinkedIn, and our guest Tony Sager (@sagercyber), svp, and chief evangelist, Center for Internet Security. Thanks to our podcast sponsor, Qualys In this episode: What role should HR play in the hiring process of cybersecurity candidates? What happens when HR's algorithms don't see the right keywords? What are some better ways to get noticed by a human decision maker?

Oct 14, 2021 • 30min
How to Be a Vendor that CISOs Love
All links and images for this episode can be found on CISO Series Check out this post for the basis for our conversation on this week’s episode which features me, David Spark (@dspark), producer of CISO Series, co-host Geoff Belknap (@geoffbelknap), CISO, LinkedIn, and our guest Andy Ellis (@csoandy), operating partner, YL Ventures. Thanks to our podcast sponsor, Varonis What is your ransomware blast radius? The average user can access 17 million files. Varonis reduces your blast radius in days, not years. Combined with advanced detection that monitors every file touch, ransomware doesn’t stand a chance. Get a free risk assessment. In this episode: What are some "positive vendor engagement" characteristics? What tips can we share with vendors who want to build a lasting good impression? How can a vendor go about building trust?

Oct 7, 2021 • 29min
The "Are We Secure?" Question
All links and images for this episode can be found on CISO Series When a senior person at your company asks you, "Are we secure?" how should you respond? Check out this post for the basis for our conversation on this week’s episode which features me, David Spark (@dspark), producer of CISO Series, co-host Steve Zalewski, and our guest Paul Truitt, principal US cyber practice leader, Mazars. Thanks to our podcast sponsor, Varonis Still in the news is REvil’s ransomware attack on Kaseya VSA servers. Varonis is here to help mitigate the blast radius of such attacks. Want a step-by-step guide on what you should be looking for? Learn more about how to prevent ransomware. In this episode: When a senior, non-technical person asks, "Are we secure?" how do you respond?" What does this question say about an executive's engagement level? Why are they asking this now? How relevant/accurate is this question anyway?

Sep 30, 2021 • 31min
Ransomware Kill Chain
What are the tell tale signs you've got ransomware before you receive the actual ransomware threat? Check out this post and this post for the basis for our conversation on this week’s episode which features me, David Spark (@dspark), producer of CISO Series, co-host Geoff Belknap (@geoffbelknap), CISO, LinkedIn, and our sponsored guest Brian Vecci (@BrianTheVecci), field CTO, Varonis. Thanks to our podcast sponsor, Varonis What is your ransomware blast radius? The average user can access 17 million files. Varonis reduces your blast radius in days, not years. Combined with advanced detection that monitors every file touch, ransomware doesn’t stand a chance. Get a free risk assessment. In this episode: How to catch the ransomware threat earlier The individual capabilities needed in a full anti-ransomware stack Honeypots and anomalous behavior Back to basics: look at how ransomware works

Sep 23, 2021 • 31min
Can Technology Solve Phishing?
All links and images for this episode can be found on CISO Series Check out this post for the basis for our conversation on this week’s episode which features me, David Spark (@dspark), producer of CISO Series, co-host Geoff Belknap (@geoffbelknap), CISO, LinkedIn, and our guest Robert Wood (@holycyberbatman), CISO at Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Thanks to our podcast sponsor, Living Security Traditional approaches to security communication are limited to one-off training sessions that fail to take customers, regulators, and other external stakeholders into account and rarely affect long-term behavioral change. This report lays out a four-step plan that CISOs should follow to manage the human risk. It provides design principles for creating transformational security awareness initiatives which will win the hearts and minds of senior executives, employees, the technology organization, and customers. In this episode: Will there be a day that phishing can be solved by technology? Does more training lower risk? Is it enough just to protect "inside" the environment? What can we do to change the culture?

Sep 16, 2021 • 27min
Convergence of SIEM and SOAR
All links and images for this episode can be found on CISO Series SIEM tools that ingest and analyze data are ubiquitous in security operations centers. But just knowing what's happening in your environment is not enough. For competitive reasons, must SIEM tools expand and offer more automation, intelligence, and the ability to act on that intelligence? Check out this post for the basis for our conversation on this week’s episode which features me, David Spark (@dspark), producer of CISO Series, co-host Geoff Belknap (@geoffbelknap), CISO, LinkedIn, and our guest Chris Grundemann (@ChrisGrundemann), category lead, security, GigaOm. Thanks to our podcast sponsor, Keyavi Cyber criminals who attack healthcare systems know medical record information has tremendous value for stealing identities. If you infuse personally identifiable information with geographical awareness and intelligence, you dramatically reduce the risk of patient identity theft. Join a live demo session on www.keyavi.com/sessions to learn more. In this episode: Will products from these two categories just merge as one product? Or will they NEED to merge? Are there advantages for them to stay separate? Where does “trust” fit into this merger?