Hacker Valley Studio

In this episode of the Hacker Valley Studio podcast, hosts Ron and Chris provide a very special episode as they interview Robin Black.  Robin is a martial arts practitioner and commentator, and he is arguably the best martial arts analyst in the world.  He believes secrets to the universe lie in the sacred moments of combat - and that couldn’t be any more true in cyber security.  So what does cyber security have to do with martial arts and analysis?  Ron and Chris invite listeners into the conversation to find out!

As the conversation begins, Robin shares about his background, emphasizing the fact that he has the privilege of doing what he loves.  Robin’s work involves taking events and crafting a story in real time; the task is in many ways similar to that of cyber security, but as a general rule,  it requires more speed.  And so, Ron and Chris wonder, what is Robin’s mindset as an analyst?  Robin explains how he developed his interest and skill as an analyst, slowly building skill, sharpening his ability with language, and consciously deciding to go back to the roots of martial arts in his analysis rather than approaching the work as a television announcer typically would.  He is an art curator of violence, so to speak, and is committed to “nutrient rich” commentary. 

Moving forward in the conversation, Ron and Chris wonder about what advice Robin would offer to the “little guy.”  Using the example of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Robin explains the value of knowing more, having more knowledge, being able to change, and being confident.  Such strengths help the apparent underdog in both fighting and cyber security.  Much like they considered unhackability with previous guests, Ron and Chris also raise the notion of an unbeatable fighter, and Robin details the reasons why such a fighter is a myth.  Listeners will learn about such things as the cracks and flaws in fighting (which are located in the root of fighting - within belief systems), the workings and danger of muscle memory, how Robin dissects fighters, and how Robin thinks about cyber security!

1:45 - This special episode features Robin Black!

3:19 - The conversation first turns to Robin’s background and what he’s doing today.

5:31 - What is Robin’s mindset as an analyst?

11:21 - Ron and Chris wonder what advice Robin would give to the “little guy.”

14:02 - Is there such a thing as an unbeatable fighter?

17:17 - The episode turns to the flaws and cracks within fighting.

20:54 - What is the component of muscle memory, and what role does it play?

24:31 - Ron and Chris want to know how Robin dissects fighters.

33:24 - Does Robin have any questions about cyber security?

Links:

Follow Robin on Twitter, Instagram.

Follow Bellator MMA on Youtube.

Learn more about Hacker Valley Studio.

Support Hacker Valley Studio on Patreon.

Follow Hacker Valley Studio on Twitter.

Follow hosts Ron Eddings and Chris Cochran on Twitter.

Learn more about ByteChek, and mention Hacker Valley Studio to receive a limited time offer!

In this episode, our guest is Kiersten Todd, a cybersecurity innovator for small and medium sized businesses. Kiersten is also behind creating the legislation for Department of Homeland security. There are very few subjects that Kiersten doesn't have experience on in cybersecurity. She's also the managing director of the cyber readiness Institute. Chris and Ron had a great time speaking to Kiersten and she comes with a wealth of knowledge. 

The Cyber Readiness Institute 

Kiersten's LinkedIn

Email: [email protected] 

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In this one-of-a-kind episode of the Hacker Valley Studio podcast, hosts Ron and Chris interview two amazing founders who are disrupting the industry and bringing in unique perspectives.  They are Corey White and Craig Goodwin, the founders of Cyvatar, a cybersecurity-as-a-service startup.  The conversation centers on the business itself, Corey and Craig’s journey as founders, and more!

The conversation starts with Craig and Corey sharing a bit about their respective backgrounds.  Craig has been a CISO for about 20 years, having moved into that line of work after spending the previous years working for the government of the UK and in security services.  Corey has been in his current industry for about 25 years, and he details his work with companies such as Foundstone and Cylance that eventually led him to his present work.  Craig and Corey share an entrepreneurial spirit that they’ve each had since childhood, but they have complementary backgrounds that help them to work well together, with Corey approaching the company from an industry perspective, and Craig from a CISO perspective.

Corey and Craig talk with their hosts about Cyvatar.  They share about their first seed round, the gaining of their first customers, and their aim to be cyber avatars for their customers - putting customer needs first and taking a background role to make the customers look good.  Further, Corey and Craig discuss the way they navigate dynamics of team synergy and collaboration when they live on different sides of the world, address their decision to include services with their startup, explain their slogan and the terminology they’ve developed, and finally share lessons they’ve learned from their journey.

0:56 - This is a one-of-a-kind episode!

2:05 - The conversation turns to Corey and Craig’s respective backgrounds.

5:18 - What is the background of the company?

8:45 - The focus shifts to Craig and Corey’s complementary skills.

13:19 - How did Corey and Craig realize they had an entrepreneurial spirit?

17:06 - A team needs synergy and collaboration.

20:40 - Corey and Craig decided to include services with their startup.

24:57 - The two founders introduced new technology.

27:21 - Corey and Craig are asked about lessons they’ve learned.

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Connect with Cyvatar on LinkedIn.

Follow Cyvatar on Twitter.

Connect with Corey White on LinkedIn.

Follow Corey White on Twitter.

Connect with Craig Goodwin on LinkedIn.

Follow Craig Goodwin on Twitter.

Email Corey at [email protected]

Email Craig at [email protected]

Learn about Cyvatar’s recent seed round and press release.

The Daniel Initiative was kind enough to involve us in a special event for CyberWeek. We produced a live podcast session called "Our Space". Ron and Chris, from the award-winning podcast Hacker Valley Studio, interviewed Congresswoman Yvette Clarke (NY-9th) and Laura Cathcart Robbins from "The Only One in the Room Podcast".

Both interviews focused on representation, people of color in technology leadership, and occupying our place in society.

Congresswoman Yvette Clarke's Social

https://www.instagram.com/repyvetteclarke/

Laura Robbins' Social

https://theonlyonepod.com/

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In this special 100th episode we dip into the Hacker Valley Studio vault to bring you never before heard content from some brilliant experts in their field. We will be releasing these episodes in their entirety on our Patreon page down below.

Travis McPeak

Rishi Bhargava

Simran S. Sakraney

Gary Berman

Josh Halbert

Nick Vigier

Davi Ottenheimer

Christina Morillo

Rafael Nunez

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In this special live recording of the Hacker Valley Studio podcast,  Chris and Ron are joined by Fredrick 'Flee' Lee, chief security officer at Gusto and an inspirational cybersecurity leader who is focused on making security "lovable" across the organization.

Securityweek’s CISO Forum is designed for senior level security leaders to discuss, share and learn innovative information security and risk management strategies. The forum addresses issues and challenges that are top of mind for today’s security leaders and what the future looks like as chief defenders of the enterprise.

The Hacker Valley Studio podcast explores the human element of cybersecurity programs and the inspirational stories and knowledge to elevate culture and quality of security programs.

Learn more about Securityweek’s CISO Forum

Follow Flee on Twitter

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This episode of the Hacker Valley Studio podcast concludes the Hacker Valley Red series.  In this finale, Ron and Chris interview their friend - and formerly their shared roommate - Marco Figueroa.  Marco is a security researcher and cybersecurity speaker, and he is also a bug bounty enthusiast.  He and the hosts constant improvement, bug bounty, and more, while also looking back at the conversations thus far in the season.

At the start of the conversation, Marco shares about his background and what he’s doing now.  He runs through the past 7-8 years of his career, ultimately arriving at his current transition to Sentinel.  Ron and Chris jump in to thank him for his contributions to their podcast, and to share with listeners about their friendship with Marco.  Moving forward, Marco talks about how he first got into the security community, and eventually found a niche in reverse-engineering malware.  He also involved himself in the bug bounty community, and in his various spheres of life, he is committed to building relationships and staying relevant.  Marco explains his system of scheduling calls, his practice of (and future plans for) content creation, and love of learning and feedback.

Throughout the conversation, Ron and Chris lead the conversation to cover a wide variety of topics.  They ask about the possibility of an unhackable device (which Marco denies), the mindset of a hacker, Marco’s philosophy in protection work, and the question of whether or not coding experience is needed for hacking.  The group looks back to former conversation about the hacker mindset (with Ted), about community (with Alex), and about social engineering (with Rachel).  In view of the whole season, the group considers two main takeaways: the value of mentorship and the need to put oneself out there and take a first shot.  Marco shares a lot from his own experience, and makes sure listeners know to press on and trust the process.

-The episode features Marco Figueroa, and listeners are introduced to the content ahead.

-What is Marco’s background, and what is he doing now?

-Is there such a thing as an unhackable device?

-The group talks about Marco’s philosophy in his protection work, the place of social engineering, and the value of building relationships.

-What is the hacker mindset, and do you need coding experience to be a good hacker?

-If interested in the red side of the field, what should someone do first?

-Marco shares about what he sees on the horizon.

-The group considers two major season takeaways: the value of mentorship and the need to put yourself out there and take the first shot.

-Where is Marco planning to take his contact creation from here?

Links:

Connect with Marco Figueroa on Twitter

Connect with Marco on LinkedIn

Follow Marco’s Livestream

Learn more about Hacker Valley Studio

Support Hacker Valley Studio on Patreon

Follow Hacker Valley Studio on Twitter

Follow Ronald Eddings on Twitter

Follow Chris Cochran on Twitter

Learn more about the season sponsor, RiskIQ

This episode of Hacker Valley Studio podcast’s Hacker Valley Red Series features guest Maurice Ashley, a chess grandmaster and author of Chess for Success. Maurice is a chess guru and has been playing it ever since his high school years. He is currently involved in commentating for chess events, teaching chess, and training national chess champions. In this episode, Maurice and the hosts talk about Maurice’s chess journey along with some parallels between chess and cyber security.

The hosts, Ron and Chris, start off the interview by pointing out one parallel between chess and cybersecurity: the art of training. Maurice responds by sharing about the rigorous training of chess, and of the different strategies and techniques that must be learned. He also takes some time to explain his own journey with training in chess and how it progressed through the years. In high school, he started playing with his brother, and then moved to playing in more formal settings with more challenging opponents. This eventually led to earning the title of chess grandmaster. Being the first black male to receive the Chess Grandmaster title, Maurice speaks on how this accomplishment inspired others to reach for their goals.

Circling back to the parallels between chess and cyber security, Maurice touches on the importance of practicing for performance. This means knowing your opponent, studying their strategies, and using their energy against them. Chris and Ron highlight how this parallels with cyber security in knowing how to approach the opponent. They then ask Maurice about his thoughts on an unbeatable chess player and how it relates to an unhackable system. Maurice responds by explaining that in the game if chess with its millions of possible outcomes, having an unbeatable player is impossible. Additionally, He emphasizes how this truth relates to cyber security. Rather than focusing on being unbeatable, Maurice encourages focus to be spent on readiness which is acquired through practice. In cyber security, Chris and Ron explain how readiness means having the ability to respond automatically to situations. They ask Maurice about blitz and bullet chess and how it relates to this kind of practice. According to Maurice, blitz and bullet chess rely heavily on instinct and experience.

The conversation ends as the hosts ask Maurice to share some tips for people interested in learning chess. Maurice encourages people interested in chess to download his new app, Learn Chess with Maurice Ashley, where he provides lessons on chess. He closes by encouraging others to reach for the greatness inside them. According to Maurice, greatness is defined as having the right mindset, doing the hard work, making the sacrifices, and learning through the process. This is the greatness that will be reflected in the end goal.

2:49 - Maurice introduces himself

6:46 - Maurice’s journey of becoming a grandmaster

9:20 - The impact of Exposure

11:07 - Maurice tells of the significance of being the first black male to earn the title of Chess Grandmaster.

15:00 - Maurice tells of the influence of his family in earning the title of Chess Grandmaster.

17:58 - Maurice speaks on practicing for performance and how it relates to cyber security.

22:00 -The parallels between an unbeatable chess player and an unhackable system

25:18 - Maurice explains blitz and bullet chess and how it relates to cyber security.

33:25 - Maurice gives some tips on how to get started playing chess.

37:04 - Maurice gives advice on how to reach greatness.

Links:

To learn more about Maurice Ashley, visit https://mauriceashley.com

Follow Maurice Ashley on Twitter and Instagram

Learn more about Maurice Ashley’s book Chess for Success and his app Learn Chess with Maurice Ashley

Learn more about Hacker Valley Studio

Support Hacker Valley Studio on Patreon

Follow Hacker Valley Studio on Twitter

Follow Ronald Eddings on Twitter

Follow Chris Cochran on Twitter

Learn more about the season sponsor, RiskIQ

On this episode of Hacker Valley Studio, hosts Ron and Chris speak with Lisa Jiggetts, founder of Women’s Society of Cyberjutsu. Their conversation covers Lisa’s background, her current work and her involvement as a penetration tester.

Lisa says she’s always been a techie who loved gadgets, breaking things and trying to understand how they fit together. She knew she wanted to work with computers, but wasn’t sure what that meant, exactly. Out of high school she joined the military working in IT, but knew she wanted to be a hacker. Eventually, she made her way to pentesting apps and systems in the cloud. Lisa loves the game aspect of pentesting and the red team. She says she enjoys the challenge of trying to get into the box and “level up,” trying more and more ways in before reaching out for help.

In between jobs a few years ago, Lisa began dreaming of a hands on training group for women like herself. It began as a meet-up group, which grew into the Women’s Society of Cyberjutsu, (WSC). She wanted hands-on workshops and an opportunity for networking and building a network of mentors and mentees. The first workshops and members were women in IT and even outside of tech, who were looking for a change and challenge in their career. Now the organization is in a state of growth with chapters across the country. To anyone interested, she says WSC gives the opportunity for hands-on training and a network of support.

As the episode ends, Lisa shares her advice to anyone interested in the red team or the world of cyber security in general. Her number one piece of advice is networking, because that’s the way she’s found a lot of her work in the past. She also encourages listeners, regardless of where they’re starting, to get their skills up any way they can. The field is always changing, Lisa says, so the initiative to work and show up is invaluable.

2:12 - The episode and guest are introduced.

3:50 - Lisa gives an overview of her background.

10:00 - Lisa explains her breaker mentality.

15:57 - What made Lisa commit to pentesting and the red team?

20:34 - Lisa discusses the founding of the Women’s Society of Cyberjutsu.

29:44 - Lisa’s advice for listeners interested in the red team and cyber security.

Links:

Learn more about Hacker Valley Studio

Support Hacker Valley Studio on Patreon

Follow Hacker Valley Studio on Twitter

Follow Ronald Eddings on Twitter

Follow Chris Cochran on Twitter

Learn more about WSC

Follow Lisa Jiggetts on Twitter

In this episode of the Hacker Valley Studio podcast’s Hacker Valley Red series, this time featuring guest Ted Harrington.  Ted is an Executive Partner at ISE Security, an author, and a professional speaker. Hosts Ron and Chris speak with Ted about the concept of unhackability, his experience in the security field, an interesting story of an attack in real time, and more!

To start off the interview, Ted shares about his background.  He currently works for a consulting firm that focuses on ethical hacking and aims to help companies solve their security problems, and his interest in the work of hacking goes back to a car-hacking experience in which he and his colleagues were inspired by a claim of unhackability and disproved the claim.  Ted clarifies that there is effectively no such thing as an unhackable device or application, but that his work centers on closing attack vectors and making security systems stronger.  In fact, he wants his legacy in the field to center on making things better.  He shares about his own energy and motivation, and also explains the mindset of a hacker, which involves creativity and a certain way of thinking about and solving problems.

Ted has learned a great deal in his years in the hacking field, and Ron and Chris are eager to draw lessons out for listeners.  Ted explains misconceptions about the red side of security before providing an extended example of hacking in real time: an example of cryptocurrency wallets that involved Ted and his team happening upon a real thief at work.  Ted explains that people should not have a laissez-faire attitude about security, and that they should foster a right mindset and right partnerships.  He clarifies that he sees many breakers start as builders, explains the utility of thinking from the perspective of a buyer, and offers advice for listeners looking to enter the field.  This advice centers on mindset and hands-on activity; there are lots of opportunities to get involved with DEF CON, talks, contests, and even internships (including some at Ted’s company). 

1:50 - The episode features Ted Harrington; listeners are introduced to him and the episode ahead.

3:05 - The conversation begins with Ted’s background.

7:21 - The group considers the term “unhackable,” closing attack vectors, and breakers starting as builders.

14:02 - “Think like a hacker.”

20:02 - Ted explains some lessons from real-life work, focusing on a cryptocurrency wallet example.

25:13 - What should people learn and do?

30:38 - Where do Ted’s energy and motivation come from, and what is the most interesting part of his work?

34:32 - Ted offers advice and shares what he hopes his legacy in the field will be.

Links:

Connect with Ted on LinkedIn or email him at [email protected]

Learn about Ted’s book, Hackable

Learn more about Hacker Valley Studio

Support Hacker Valley Studio on Patreon

Follow Hacker Valley Studio on Twitter

Follow Ronald Eddings on Twitter

Follow Chris Cochran on Twitter

Learn more about the season sponsor, RiskIQ