KBKAST

In this episode, we sit down with Graeme Neilson, Founder and Chief Research Officer at Siege, as he unpacks why the security industry often ignores the halting problem—a foundational concept in computer science that explains why software will always contain bugs and vulnerabilities. Graeme challenges the efficacy of awareness training programs, arguing that fundamental flaws in protocols like email and the complexity of software itself, not user behaviour, are the real culprits behind persistent cyber risks. The discussion explores the ongoing frustrations around password management and multifactor authentication, the dangers of concentrating credentials in cloud-based password managers, and the risks introduced by abstracted and AI-generated code. Graeme also emphasises that the true security challenge lies in managing identity—both human and machine—as digital systems become more pervasive and embedded in our daily lives, advocating for a move towards treating cybersecurity issues more like safety concerns in other industries.

Graeme was born in Scotland, learnt cracking, reverse engineering and security from the Internet. Emigrated to NZ in early 2000’s and was one of the founders of Aura Information Security (pen testing company and RedShield (web defence company). He has presented original offensive security research at many international conferences including Blackhat, H2HC, Troopers, Ruxcon and Kiwicon. Now he is head of research for Siege Ltd, an NZ based company specialising in testing denial of service and bot mitigations.

In this episode, we sit down with Kavitha Mariappan, Chief Transformation Officer at Rubrik, as she unpacks data protection and the critical importance of cyber resilience. Kavitha challenges the industry’s tendency to hyper-focus on prevention and detection, advocating instead for a holistic approach that integrates resilience and recovery as boardroom imperatives. She shares insights from Rubrik Zero Labs on the real-world challenges organizations face when recovering from ransomware attacks, and highlights the often-overlooked need to make backup, recovery, and risk mitigation a core part of business continuity and security strategy. The conversation covers the business impact of breaches—including monetary loss, reputational risk, and regulatory implications—while emphasizing the growing complexity of identity management in the age of AI and the need for interoperability between security domains. Kavitha also stresses the role of executive leadership in driving change and the importance of public-private collaboration to shape standards and frameworks for a secure digital future.

Kavitha Mariappan, Chief Transformation Officer, Rubrik

Kavitha leads Rubrik’s efforts to accelerate enterprise transformation and deepen executive engagement, with a focus on expanding Rubrik’s footprint across the Global 2000 and public sector decision-makers. She partners across the GTM organization, shaping Rubrik’s CXO narrative, championing value economics, and unlocking new revenue streams. Prior to Rubrik, Kavitha was EVP of Customer Experience & Transformation at Zscaler, where she built and scaled the company’s CXO and Transformation Practice. She holds a B.Eng. in Communication Engineering from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Australia, and an M.S. in Cybersecurity Risk and Strategy from NYU School of Law and Tandon School of Engineering.

In this bonus episode, KB sits down with Sunny Rao, SVP, Asia Pacific at JFrog, Craig Wilson, Principal Cloud Platform Engineer at Iress, and Tal Zarfati, Architect Lead at JFrog Security. Together they discuss how to strengthen software supply chain security, modernising infrastructure through cloud migration to overcome legacy constraints, and the CISA-MITRE CVE funding scare.

Sunny Rao, SVP, Asia Pacific at JFrog

Sunny Rao is SVP, Asia Pacific at JFrog and brings almost three decades of business management experience in information technology and enterprise software. Rao has vast experience and deep expertise in the global expansion of emerging technologies and is passionate about helping customers and partners enhance, secure, and accelerate their entire software supply chain with JFrog.

Craig Wilson, Cloud Platform Principal Engineer at Iress

Craig Wilson is a Cloud Platform Principal Engineer at Iress, where he focuses on cloud architecture and developer tools, and champions ‘shift-left’ practices to implement secure software delivery platforms.

Tal Zarfati, Architect Lead, JFrog Security

Tal Zarfati is the Architect Lead at JFrog Security, bringing over 20 years of expertise in software engineering and cybersecurity. With a strong background in leading R&D teams focused on Supply Chain security, he has since spearheaded the development of core SCA and SBOM capabilities and owned the JFrog OSS Catalog product, leading multiple teams to bring it to life.

In this episode, we sit down with Paul O’Rourke, Chief Risk Officer at TabCorp, as he explores the evolving function of the Chief Risk Officer (CRO) and what it means for organizations today. Paul highlights the growing necessity for CROs to possess deep technology and cyber risk skills, emphasizing that these competencies are rapidly becoming non-negotiable in tech-reliant industries. He reflects on the historical divide between business and tech risk functions, the importance of alignment and integrated approaches such as fusion centers, and how risk professionals must now balance traditional domains with new challenges like cybercrime, AI, and rapidly emerging threats.

Paul O’Rourke commenced as Chief Risk Officer in June 2024.

Paul brings a great depth of experience in risk management, including with respect to cybersecurity and technology risk management.

Prior to joining Tabcorp, Paul was Managing Director and Partner of Boston Consulting Group where he led their Global Cyber and Digital Risk practice, and was also the Australian Risk Leader.

He was previously the Global and Asia Pacific Cybersecurity Leader at PwC, and was Chief Information Security Officer of ANZ Bank Limited.

Paul holds a Bachelor of Commerce (Economics) and is a Graduate Member of AICD.

In this episode, we sit down with Chuck Herrin, Field CISO and Customer Advocate at F5, as he unpacks the evolving threat landscape around APIs and AI in today’s organizations. Chuck explores how APIs have transformed from simple plumbing into the primary attack surface, often outpacing defenders due to historic silos between security and development teams. He highlights the acceleration of vulnerabilities and the widening gap created by tech debt, skill shortages, and the relentless push for innovation. Chuck also discusses the enormous pressure businesses face to adopt AI rapidly, often at the expense of security, and emphasizes the importance of leadership, board-level engagement, and foundational policy shifts to balance speed and safety.

Chuck Herrin is the Field CISO of F5. Prior to F5, Chuck was the CTO of Wib, an API security firm that created the second generation of API security solutions designed from the ground up to provide end to end visibility, testing, and context to discover, test, and secure all APIs across a customer ecosystem. Prior to Wib, Chuck spent 19+ years as a CISO in financial services and banking, including SVP and Head of IT Security, Risk, and Compliance for all of AIG’s consumer-facing divisions and EVP and CISO of Texas Capital Bank prior to being named “Most Trusted Bank in America” by Newsweek in 2022.

A lifelong learner, Chuck holds a litany of industry certifications gathered over the last 25 years, as well as a bachelor’s degree in biology from Lenoir Rhyne University. When not traveling to events and customer locations, Chuck is based out of his ranch in North Dallas.

In this episode, we sit down with Norbert Kiss, Senior Vice President, Asia Pacific, from Delinea, as he unpacks the critical role of securing machine identities within a modern cybersecurity strategy. Norbert explores the immense growth of non-human identities—such as bots, AI agents, and APIs—that now vastly outnumber human identities, and the major risks this brings for organizations. He underscores the importance of starting with visibility and least privilege, noting that many companies lack awareness of just how many machine identities exist in their networks. Norbert discusses the need for parity between human and machine identity governance, the challenges posed by rapid AI adoption, and the importance of balancing robust controls with organizational productivity.

Norbert Kiss has been Senior Vice President for Asia Pacific (APAC) at Delinea since January 2024, bringing over 30 years of experience in scaling and leading technology businesses across the region. A seasoned executive, he has a proven track record of driving growth, expanding market presence, and building strategic partnerships in the cybersecurity and technology sectors.

Before joining Delinea, Norbert was Vice President, APAC at Grafana Labs, where he significantly expanded the company’s footprint, driving growth and spearheading entry into new geographic markets. Prior to that, as Vice President, APAC at NGINX, he played a pivotal role in establishing the company’s presence in the region, leading its expansion across key markets and overseeing its integration into F5 Networks following its acquisition.

Throughout his career, Norbert has held leadership roles at Kemp, WatchGuard, and other prominent technology and cybersecurity firms, consistently demonstrating his expertise in market expansion, business transformation, and navigating the complexities of the APAC region.

Martin Creighan (“Martin”) is Vice President, Asia Pacific at Commvault. He is responsible for organisational leadership, change management, business development and human resources for Commvault’s dynamic team in APAC.   

Martin is a highly experienced professional with a stellar record of achievement in senior leadership roles across the Australian technology sector. Having begun his professional life with the United States Navy, he applied his skills to the cyber security and cloud storage landscape across a range of roles, consistently finding success in sales growth and business development.  

Martin worked at AT&T for 16 years, rising from the Business Development team to become Vice President and Managing Director for the A/NZ region. He moved from there to a similar leadership position at Citrix, before joining Commvault as the Vice President for Sales in A/NZ.  

Martin was quickly elevated to the Asia Pacific Vice President role, having gained immense success at elevating the Commvault brand and developing the business at a critical juncture in the company’s evolution. 

In this episode, we sit down with Matt Watts, Global Data Expert, as he explores the journey from storage to intelligent data infrastructure. Matt walks us through the four major technology waves that have shaped the industry: modular technologies, virtualization, cloud computing, and the dawn of intelligent data infrastructure driven by AI. He shares insights from his book, reflecting on how each wave brought greater flexibility, innovation, and technical complexity, while also introducing new challenges around data management and technical debt. Matt unpacks the persistent struggle organizations face in managing legacy data, the evolving role of storage in cybersecurity with autonomous ransomware protection, and the impact of regulations like GDPR. He concludes with forward-looking perspectives on quantum computing as the potential fifth wave, detailing its implications for security, networking, and computational power, and emphasizing both the opportunities and responsibilities that come with rapid technological advancement.

Matt Watts

In this episode, we sit down with Imran Husain, Chief Information Security Officer at MillerKnoll, as he discusses the evolving landscape of cybersecurity threats in the manufacturing sector. Imran explores the challenges that arise as manufacturing increasingly integrates with online technologies and IoT, highlighting the unique vulnerabilities posed by legacy systems and operational technology (OT). He shares insights on high-profile incidents like the Norsk Hydro ransomware attack, emphasizing the importance of cyber resilience, data backup, and incident recovery. Imran also offers a candid look at why critical tasks like backing up data are often neglected, the complexities of securing aging infrastructure, and the need for creative solutions such as network segmentation and IT/OT convergence.

A dedicated and trusted senior Cyber security professional, Imran Husain has over 22 years of Fortune 1000 experience that covers a broad array of domains which includes risk management, cloud security, SecDevOps, AI Security and OT Cyber practices. A critical, action-oriented leader Imran brings strategic and technical expertise with a proven ability to build cyber program to be proactive in their threat detection, identifying and engaging in critical areas to the business while upholding their security posture. He specializes in Manufacturing and Supply Chain Distribution focusing on how to best use security controls and processes to maximize coverage and reduce risk in a complex multi-faceted environment. A skilled communicator and change agent with bias to action who cultivates an environment of learning and creative thinking, Imran champions open communication and collaboration to empower and inspire teams to exceed in their respective cyber commitments. He is currently the Global Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) at MillerKnoll, a publicly traded American company that produces office furniture, equipment, and home furnishings.

In this episode, we sit down with Rose Alvarado, Regional Sales Manager, and Jenna Eagle, Solutions Engineer Lead, from Cribl as they unpack the evolving role of the security data pipeline and the future of the SOC. Rose and Jenna discuss the increasing demand for flexibility and control over data management, highlighting how organizations are moving away from vendor lock-in to gain better cost efficiencies and visibility. They examine the challenges of managing explosive data growth, the shift from traditional SIEM solutions to data pipelines for pre-processing, and the importance of routing high-value data to appropriate platforms.

Rose Alvarado is an accomplished security specialist with more than eleven years of experience in the Australian Enterprise IT industry who partners with CISOs, CIOs and IT Managers to provide them with the best IT security and data solutions that meet their needs. Currently, she is the Regional Sales Manager for NSW at Cribl, helping organisations adopt a better data management strategy, improving their security and observability operations while reducing their cost of ownership. She is passionate about cybersecurity and data management, she constantly seeks to expand her professional skills and learn from industry experts.

Jenna’s cyber journey began at Accenture Federal Services, where she collaborated with U.S. federal agencies on mission-critical projects. She then transitioned to Splunk as a Public Sector Solutions Engineer, specializing in compliance, automation, and IT and security modernisation. Now, as a Solutions Engineering Manager for ANZ at Cribl, she helps organisations take control of data growth through optimisation, data tiering, and breaking vendor lock-in. When she’s not “Cribbling,” you’ll find her exploring her new home in Australia or spending time with her American Bulldog.