Last year, threat researchers all over the world got a sneak peek into the inner workings of the Russian defence contractor NTC Vulkan. 

The Vulkan files leak provided an interesting behind the scenes look at Russian cyber capabilities and scalability, and the ways state sponsored organisation work. 

Joe Slowik, managing threat intelligence at the cybersecurity company Huntress, joins Robby to talk about how he worked through the hundreds of pages of data from the leak, and what he learned from them.

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Cryptology is fundamental for the way the internet works today. But what exactly is modern cryptology, and what are the most common areas in which it’s being used?

To guide us through this complex area, Robby’s joined by Bor de Kock, PhD. in Cryptology and Assistant Professor at NTNU.

They talk about some of the main challenges to cryptology these days, encryption security and its limitations, and how Bor expects quantum computing to affect cryptology.

Bor also shares what makes him both optimistic and pessimistic when it comes to the future of internet security.

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Physical penetration testing | ISACA series

For this episode that is part of our ISACA series, we’re joined by Rob Shapland, Ethical Hacker/Head of Cyber Innovation at Falanx Cyber.

Rob talks about what he’s learned from his 15 years of testing physical and cyber security for his clients, including more than 200 building intrusions assignments. He explains how these kind of testing assignments work, what usually does work – and what happened the one time he actually didn’t get in.

Robby and Rob talk about the evolution of security testing, and how testing techniques have had to adapt and become more subtle especially the last five years. They also go into the importance of training after assignments like these.

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Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) models have already become incorporated into many facets of our lives. In this episode, we discuss what happens if these models are attacked.

How can the models that AI and ML are built upon be attacked? And how can we defend them?

Eoin Wickens, Senior Adversarial ML Researcher at HiddenLayer, an organisation doing security for AI and ML, joins Robby to talk about this often overlooked aspect of AI.

During the episode, they also discuss the power AI/ML has to augment how we work in security, and the amount of community collaboration within these fields. 

Eoin also shares what he spends the majority of his time talking to customers about today, and what he believes he will be using most of his time on in the future.

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How to succeed with bug bounties

Responsible disclosure and vulnerability reporting have come a long way in recent years, and have gone from being feared and even something you took legal action against, to something that is appreciated for its value.

Ioana Piroska, Bug Bounty Program Manager at Visma, joins Robby to share how Visma has succeeded with their bug bounty program. She talks about Vismas’ approach to these kind of programs, and the actual value they receive from them.

Ioana and Robby discuss the difference between penetration testing and a bug bounty program, and how they complement each other. And how Visma also uses their live hacking competitions and public responsible disclosure program to improve their vulnerability detection capabilities. 

Video version (with presentation) available on our YouTube channel!

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Influencing the board

What are some of the most effective methods of gaining a board’s support, and how do you maintain this trust and improve it over time?

Our guest today has worked with a lot of boards, and joins us to share his experiences providing boards with the tools to ask the right questions when it comes to cybersecurity, and conveying to them why cybersecurity is important for their organisation.

Roger Ison-Haug has worked in IT for close to 30 years and is now working as the CISO & DPO at the data science and weather intelligence provider StormGeo. He is also currently working on his PhD in cybersecurity and leadership.

Roger and Robby discuss the most common challenges that boards experience, and what kind of questions they usually ask. They also talk about what it’s actually like being a board member, Roger’s best advice to security people wanting to influence a board, and what kind of questions security people usually aren’t very good at answering – but should be.

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KraftCERT trusselvurdering 2023 | In Norwegian only

Our podcast guest this week is Espen Endal, previous mnemonic colleague and currently OT Security Analyst at the Norwegian energy sector CERT: KraftCERT/InfraCERT.

InfraCERT is an ISAC (Information Sharing and Analysis Center) and an IRT (Incident Response Team). Mainly working to update their members about relevant vulnerabilities and threats to make them able to better detect and respond to digital attacks. They are also part of the Norwegian national response organisation. 

During their conversation, Robby and Espen discuss KraftCERT/InfraCERT's annual threat report, what they consider the most serious threats for their member organisations, both long term and short term, and what techniques they often see being used against their members.

Espen also talks about the push to the cloud, the trade-off this entails particularly in these sectors, as well as the impact NIS and eventually NIS2 will have on their members.

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Avoiding overload and managing stress in cybersecurity

For today’s episode, Robby’s joined by Lisa Ventura, Cybersecurity Specialist, Author, and qualified Mental Health First Aider. After many years of experience from the industry, she’s become particularly interested in the human aspects of cybersecurity, especially when it comes to mental health issues, stress, and burnouts.

During their conversation, Lisa explains how common stress and burnouts are in InfoSec and cybersecurity, and discuss how the pandemic impacted these numbers. As well as what the main factors contributing to stress and burnout in our industry is, and how these symptoms manifest themselves.

She also shares some advice on how to combat overload and stress both on an individual and organisational level.

If you’d like to also see Lisa’s presentation, feel free to visit our YouTube channel to watch the full recording of the episode.

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Asset Intelligence

Imagine a scenario where your organisation discovers that a threat actor currently possesses more knowledge about your environments than you do. Let’s find a way to make sure we don’t end up there - but how?

For this episode, Robby is joined by a serial entrepreneur and serial guest at the mnemonic security podcast. For the fourth time, we’re welcoming Brian Contos. Today, to discuss his latest role as Chief Strategy Officer at Sevco, a company specialising in asset intelligence.

Brian talks about the importance of having an accurate and comprehensive understanding of your assets' security and compliance status, especially in the governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) landscape. As well as how asset intelligence is gaining renewed attention in the industry.

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