In this episode, the hosts are joined by George Abraham, a seasoned cybersecurity leader whose journey began in the early days of firewalls and telecommunication security. From engineering roots at RMIT to pivotal roles in payments, financial services, and critical infrastructure, George reflects on how a career of technical foundations and governance responsibilities has shaped his role today as CISO at Influx, a global customer support services company.

George explains Influx’s model as “customer support as a service”—a scalable, on-demand operation that mirrors the elasticity of cloud platforms. He shares insights into managing a workforce of over 1,200 people across multiple time zones and varying levels of technical expertise, highlighting both the leadership challenges and the importance of people management in cybersecurity.

The discussion turns to the evolving role of the CISO. George’s “accidental” path—from firewall engineering to compliance, auditing, and leadership—has made him a rare hybrid: both technically adept and boardroom-ready. The hosts debate whether technical CISOs are inherently stronger leaders, with agreement that technical understanding paired with business acumen is increasingly essential, especially as boards begin to seek security expertise alongside traditional finance and legal backgrounds.

Career Origins in Cybersecurity – From firewall engineering to PCI DSS auditing, pen testing, and leadership.

Influx and Customer Support at Scale – How the company delivers flexible, global customer support services.

CISO Leadership Challenges – Balancing board-level communication, technical fluency, and people management.

The “Technical CISO” Debate – Why security leaders must bridge technical expertise and business strategy.

Boards and Security Accountability – Predictions that future boards will include dedicated security expertise.

Emerging Technologies & Security – Open-source tools like Fleet (OSQuery) and GoPhish, and the case for new phishing training models.

AI in Cybersecurity – Dual-use nature of AI in attack and defence, from WormGPT to CrowdStrike’s AI telemetry.

Health, Community, and Leadership – George’s “Run Club for CISOs” in Melbourne, building resilience and camaraderie through fitness and shared experiences.

Recommended Reading – High Output Management by Andrew Grove, a classic that still offers relevant lessons for today’s leaders.

The episode blends personal anecdotes, professional lessons, and predictions for the industry’s future. It is a conversation about leadership in cybersecurity that goes beyond technical mastery, touching on trust, board accountability, and the human side of sustaining a career in security.

Podcast Synopsis: Critical Infrastructure and Operational Technology Cybersecurity

This episode features Sam McKenzie and Karl Dawson, two seasoned professionals in cybersecurity and operational technology (OT), discussing the convergence of IT and OT in critical infrastructure, and the growing complexity facing asset operators.

Sam McKenzie, head of technology operations at the City of Stonnington, shares his early experiences growing up off-grid, which fostered a lifelong interest in protecting essential services. With a 25-year career across telecommunications, energy, and healthcare, Sam emphasises the vulnerability of modern society's reliance on critical infrastructure. His perspective blends physical asset protection and cybersecurity, drawing parallels between safeguarding farm resources and national infrastructure.

Karl Dawson, a consultant at Cordant with a background in electronics and networking, outlines his journey from technician to cybersecurity professional. With experience in water utilities, energy, and government sectors, he has moved through helpdesk, project management, and penetration testing roles—especially in smart metering systems. Karl highlights the blurred boundary between IT and OT and notes the administrative, rather than purely technical, distinction that often separates the two.

The discussion explores:

The definition of operational technology as an umbrella term covering industrial control systems (ICS), IoT, SCADA, and building management systems.

The contrast between IT and OT: IT prioritises confidentiality and data integrity, whereas OT focuses on availability, safety, and physical control.

The challenges introduced by the Security of Critical Infrastructure Act 2018 in Australia, which redefined the sectors deemed critical and added compliance complexity for operators.

Sam shares insights from his white paper on cyber-physical safety in Australia's critical infrastructure, based on interviews with over 50 industry leaders. He finds a persistent leadership gap in understanding and managing OT risks. This disconnect, he suggests, stems from legacy engineering assumptions being upended by the increasing interconnectivity of formerly isolated systems, often now exposed to insecure networks for operational efficiency.

Karl expands on this with practical considerations:

Many OT environments remain air-gapped, but increasing digital integration introduces vulnerabilities.

Legacy systems are often irreplaceable due to vendor constraints, budget limitations, and safety certifications, leaving infrastructure reliant on outdated software (e.g. Windows XP).

Contractual and operational boundaries often prevent upgrades or the addition of modern monitoring tools, risking security in the name of availability.

The conversation underscores a central tension: the imperative to modernise OT systems versus the practical and financial limitations that inhibit progress. It concludes with reflections on how leadership must evolve its view—shifting from purely technical risk management to safety-focused governance that recognises the physical consequences of cyber events.

This episode delivers a clear warning: many critical systems continue to operate on fragile, outdated infrastructure while the attack surface expands. The burden of modernisation falls not just on engineers but also on executives and regulators to align operational, financial, and safety objectives.

In this episode, Tom and Scotti take listeners behind the curtain at Cordant, revealing how the team collaboratively approaches designing IT solutions—from infrastructure to cybersecurity. Framed around a hypothetical greenfield deployment, the discussion is a rapid-fire breakdown of their go-to tools, platforms, and philosophies—covering everything from hypervisors and SIEM solutions to code repositories and discovery tools.

Key Topics Covered:

Key Takeaways:

In this byte-sized episode of DevSecOops, Tom and Scotti dive into recent developments from the Cordant office. Tom and Scotti unpack the power and pitfalls of modern tech trends, from Kubernetes to GenAI, and cloud resilience.

Kubernetes in Focus
Tom questions the complexity of Kubernetes, while Scotti defends its scalability and abstraction benefits. Drawing from both home labs and enterprise deployments, they highlight how managed services reduce friction, enabling cloud-agnostic architecture and better DevOps alignment.

OCI Incident & Lessons in Trust
Reflecting on a real-world project from Oracle, Scotti describes auditing IAM permissions at scale using Kubernetes. They dive into cultural lessons from a major Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) incident, advocating for transparency, not blame. Tom stresses that resilience comes from what we learn, not whom we blame.

AI: Game-Changer or Crutch?
AI adoption is accelerating, with tools like ChatGPT and Claude now embedded in workflows. Tom recounts a colleague building a mobile app with zero prior experience using AI alone. Scotti sees AI as a thought partner; great for learning, risky if misused.

⚠️ Ethics & Risk
AI’s potential is massive, but so are the dangers. Open-source LLMs trained on exploits pose real threats. As Scotti warns: “Like any security tool, it can be used for good or bad.”

️ Key Takeaway
Balance innovation with governance. Transparency, culture, and intent define how we build secure, resilient systems.

This episode explores Wiz’s platform-driven approach to cloud security, emphasising its usability across multiple organizational roles — from developers to executives. Matt, a Principal Solution Engineer at Wiz, explains how the company provides comprehensive, real-time visibility into cloud environments (including multi-cloud and hybrid architectures), helping organisations identify high-risk vulnerabilities early in the software lifecycle — even before deployment.

Key Discussion Points

In this episode of DevSecOops from the guys at Cordant, the crew dives headfirst into one of the juiciest debates in tech: which cloud reigns supreme? Dubbed 'The War of The Clouds', this episode pits the big players (and some honerable mentions) against each other in a lighthearted skirmish over developer love, enterprise muscle, and long-term value.

Tom dons the blue armour for Microsoft Azure, bringing 25 years of Wintel loyalty to the table (though he’s got some thoughts on recent commercial antics from Redmond).

James rides the mighty AWS beast, championing the original developer darling turned enterprise juggernaut—boasting revenue figures that dwarf even the biggest names on the ASX.

Scotti takes the underdog position with a passionate defence of Oracle Cloud. With boots-on-the-ground experience and a developer’s heart, he makes a surprisingly compelling case for Oracle's open standards and Java-rich legacy (despite a few barbs about Delphi, Java, and Visual Basic 6 along the way).

Together, the trio spar over:

Developer experience: From Azure’s tight-knit integration with Visual Studio and GitHub, to AWS’s shiny toybox of SDKs, to OCI’s Kafka-powered streaming services.

Tooling and automation: Why Terraform is winning hearts where native tools stumble, and how scripting your infra is now half the cloud battle.

Strategic cloud adoption: Whether clients should go all-in with one vendor or play the multi-cloud field—and what truly drives those choices (hint: it’s not just tech, it’s business context).

Security and identity: Expect a bit of heat here - especially around PIM roles, privileged access management, and how well (or not) each provider integrates identity services.

This episode is as much a tech showdown as it is a masterclass in real-world cloud strategy, with the team drawing on their direct client experiences across all three platforms. While there’s plenty of banter, the insights are razor-sharp, and whether you're team AWS, Azure, or Oracle, you’ll leave with a clearer view of where each platform shines (and where it needs work).

In this episode of the DevSecOps podcast, hosts Tom, Scotty, and James from Cordant are joined by experienced project manager Natalie Haslam to explore the complexities of delivering cybersecurity projects. Natalie highlights the crucial role of human factors in security, emphasising the need for awareness and adherence to protocols. The discussion covers the importance of involving operational teams early, managing cybersecurity incidents during project delivery, and balancing governance with agility. The team also examines project management methodologies, debating agile versus waterfall approaches and the benefits of a hybrid mode, and the value of stakeholder engagement, advocating for clear communication to secure buy-in and drive successful cyber initiatives.

This podcast episode features Tom and Scotti discussing the often-unspoken truths of cybersecurity and IT modernisation. They emphasise that security is a mindset, not just a set of tools, and advocate for a holistic approach where everyone in an organisation is involved. They also stress the importance of getting the fundamentals right before diving into complex technologies like microservices and cloud migrations, warning against the pitfalls of "lift and shift" approaches. The hosts discuss the challenges of change management, the inevitability of security incidents, and the need for better communication and understanding of cybersecurity risks at the executive level. They also touch on the shortage of skilled cybersecurity professionals and the complexities of outsourcing IT services, advocating for a balanced approach that includes internal expertise and careful vendor selection.

Tying back how threats are inseparable - and inescapable - from modern ICT. That means everything from cybersecurity threats, BCDR needs, data management, operational issues, etc.

Deep dive into specific ICT challenges organisations may face, addressing questions focus on current ICT challenges, offering insights into prioritisation, risk management, and strategic planning.