Razorwire Cyber Security & InfoSec Insights

Can the cyber security community handle someone admitting what they don’t know, or has the pile-on become the new normal?

Welcome to Razorwire, where we bring you honest conversations with the people shaping our industry. I’m your host, Jim, and recording in our new studio, I sit down with three guests. Joe Tidy is the BBC’s Cyber Correspondent. Lisa Ventura is Chief Executive and Founder of the AI and Cyber Security Association and founder of Cyber Kindness. Gary Hibberd is founder of Consultants Like Us and co-founder of The Real Cyber Awards.

During the PHP emergency, Joe delivered around 30 live reports in 48 hours across BBC TV and radio. One candid on-air comment, that he hadn’t known PHP existed until the day before, set off a wave of criticism from parts of the cyber community. We hear Joe’s side of the story, look at why the industry is so quick to dogpile, and ask what that behaviour teaches the newcomers we keep saying we want to attract.

Gary argues that nobody can be an expert in every corner of security. Lisa explains why she launched the Cyber Kindness Pledge. And we all wrestle with where healthy debate ends and plain toxicity begins.

Key talking points:

• Why Communication Is a Security Skill Translating a technical story for millions of people takes real expertise. Mainstream reporting also raises awareness in places security teams struggle to reach.
• The Real Cost of the Pile-On Dogpiling hurts the people on the receiving end. It also risks scaring off students, apprentices and career-changers before they ever speak up.
• Kindness and Healthy Debate in InfoSec We cover the Cyber Kindness Pledge, Gary’s three-strikes approach to online disagreement, and why challenging ideas beats attacking people.

If you’ve ever hesitated to ask a question in public for fear of how the industry might react, this episode is for you.

Listen to this episode on your favourite podcasting platform: https://razorwire.captivate.fm/listen

• The PHP Emergency and the On-Air Admission Joe explains how the story broke, the 48-hour reporting frenzy, and the single comment that set off the backlash.
• Anatomy of an Online Pile-On Why social platforms, X in particular, have become a breeding ground for consequence-free attacks on individuals.
• No One Is an Expert in Everything Gary’s road-safety analogy: understanding the vehicle, the rules and the risks doesn’t require knowing every screw in the engine.
• Accessibility vs. Technical Depth The balancing act of reporting cyber for a mainstream audience without dumbing it down.
• How Journalists Rely on the Expert Community Joe thanks the researchers and practitioners who help him get complex stories right.
• The Three Bubbles a Journalist Serves The general public, the cyber community and industry peers, and why pleasing all three is rare.
• The Chilling Effect on Newcomers How public dogpiling discourages new voices from posting, asking questions or reporting mistakes.
• What Drives Keyboard Warriors A look at the ego and powerlessness that often sit behind online aggression.
• The Cyber Kindness Pledge Lisa sets out the pledge’s commitments, from explaining knowledge gaps instead of sneering to valuing non-technical contributors.
• Healthy Debate vs. Toxicity and the Man in the Arena Why respectful disagreement is essential, closing with Theodore Roosevelt’s 1910 speech on the people who actually do the work.

No One Is an Expert in Everything:

“If you tell me you’re an expert in everything to do with cybersecurity, then that’s like saying you’ve finished the internet… We all have stuff to learn.”

Gary Hibberd

The Human Cost of a Pile-On:

“These pile-ons, they do genuinely hurt. I’m not one of these journalists that is kind of arrogant and strong enough to sort of say, oh, sod it, I’ll carry on and I don’t care what people think, because I do genuinely care what people think.”

Joe Tidy

Choose Kindness:

“Think about how your words are going to land. Think about what that person might be going through at the time that you want to post. And for me, always choose kindness.”

Lisa Ventura

• BBC News
• PHP
• AI and Cyber Security Association
• Cyber Kindness
• Why I Stand with Joe Tidy (Cyber Kindness)
• Consultants Like Us
• The Real Cyber Awards
• Ctrl+Alt+Chaos by Joe Tidy
• ChatGPT
• X
• LinkedIn
• Citizenship in a Republic (“The Man in the Arena”)

Hello, I am James Rees, the host of the Razorwire podcast. This podcast brings you insights from leading cyber security professionals who dedicate their careers to making a hacker’s life that much more difficult.

Our guests bring you experience and expertise from a range of disciplines and from different career stages. We give you various viewpoints for improving your cyber security – from seasoned professionals with years of experience, triumphs and lessons learned under their belt, to those in relatively early stages of their careers offering fresh eyes and new insights.

With new episodes every other Wednesday, Razorwire is a podcast for cyber security enthusiasts and professionals providing insights, news and fresh ideas on protecting your organisation from hackers.

For more information about us or if you have any questions you would like us to discuss email [email protected].

If you need consultation, visit www.razorthorn.com, We give our clients a personalised, integrated approach to information security, driven by our belief in quality and discretion.

LinkedIn: Razorthorn Security

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All rights reserved. © Razorthorn Security LTD 2025

Awards you have to pay to win, events you have to pay to attend and conferences that expect speakers to work for free. When did recognition and expertise in cybersecurity become something you have to buy?

Welcome to Razorwire, the podcast where we share our take on the world of cybersecurity with direct, practical advice for professionals and business owners alike. I'm Jim and in this episode I'm joined by security consultant and regular community speaker James Bore and Gary Hibberd, co-founder of Consultants Like Us and the Real Cyber Awards and Conference.

Pay to play takes many forms in cybersecurity, from awards that come with entry fees and expensive tickets to events charging vendors thousands for access to decision makers. At the same time, large commercial conferences can expect experienced speakers to give up days of preparation, travel at their own expense and appear on stage in return for little more than exposure.

Jim, James and Gary look at where legitimate commercial arrangements end and questionable practices begin. They discuss what gives an award credibility, when paying for access to an event can be worthwhile and why the way cybersecurity treats its speakers could ultimately affect the quality of the events themselves.

When recognition comes with a price tag

Not every paid award works the same way. From outright offers to buy recognition to free entries followed by expensive ceremony tickets, we look at the different forms pay to play can take and why credibility depends on what happens behind the award.

Should cybersecurity speakers be paid?

Community events and large commercial conferences operate very differently. We discuss when speaking for free makes sense and why expectations should change when an event is making significant money from exhibitors and attendees.

Good speaking takes work

A short conference talk can take days of preparation. James and Gary get into the work behind becoming a strong speaker, why experience and preparation matter and what happens when events prioritise sponsored slots over good content.

If you're deciding which awards and events deserve your time, or building a reputation as a cybersecurity speaker, this conversation is for you.

On what makes an award mean something:

"It's lovely to win an award, but you win it based on merit. You don't win it because you paid for it."

James Rees

Listen to this episode on your favourite podcasting platform: https://razorwire.captivate.fm/listen

The Pay to Play Awards Industry

Find out how paid recognition can range from blatant offers to buy an award to less obvious costs that only appear once you've been shortlisted.

What Makes an Award Credible?

An impressive trophy does not necessarily mean much. We discuss judging, verification and why the process behind an award determines whether the recognition carries any weight.

Paying for Access to Decision Makers

Vendors can spend significant sums for a seat in the room with CISOs and other senior buyers. Discover why some of these events deliver useful conversations while others fall far short of what was promised.

The Real Cost of Speaking for Free

Speaking is rarely just the time spent on stage. We get into preparation, travel and accommodation and why the economics look very different for community events and commercial conferences.

Community Events vs Commercial Conferences

James regularly speaks at community events without charging. Explore why contributing to an event built around the community is different from providing free content to a profitable conference.

The Problem With 'Exposure'

Exposure can be valuable early in a speaking career, but it has limits. We discuss why established speakers are increasingly willing to turn down events that expect expertise for nothing.

Why Conference Content Suffers

When experienced speakers walk away and sponsored slots fill the gaps, audiences notice. Find out how decisions about speaker budgets can affect the quality and value of an event.

Learning to Become a Better Speaker

Public speaking is a skill rather than something that simply happens when someone walks onto a stage. James and Gary discuss preparation, practice and learning the craft.

Knowing When to Say No

Not every award, event or speaking opportunity deserves your time. We explore why knowing what you want from an opportunity matters before agreeing to take part.

The Real Cyber Awards and Conference

Security BSides

Cyber OSPAs

Hello, I am James Rees, the host of the Razorwire podcast. This podcast brings you insights from leading cyber security professionals who dedicate their careers to making a hacker’s life that much more difficult.

Our guests bring you experience and expertise from a range of disciplines and from different career stages. We give you various viewpoints for improving your cyber security – from seasoned professionals with years of experience, triumphs and lessons learned under their belt, to those in relatively early stages of their careers offering fresh eyes and new insights.

With new episodes every other Wednesday, Razorwire is a podcast for cyber security enthusiasts and professionals providing insights, news and fresh ideas on protecting your organisation from hackers.

For more information about us or if you have any questions you would like us to discuss email [email protected].

If you need consultation, visit www.razorthorn.com, We give our clients a personalised, integrated approach to information security, driven by our belief in quality and discretion.

LinkedIn: Razorthorn Security

YouTube: Razorthorn Security

TikTok: Razorwire Podcast

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Twitter: @RazorThornLTD

Website: www.razorthorn.com

All rights reserved. © Razorthorn Security LTD 2025

If most of your applications no longer run on the endpoint, why are you still managing and securing it as though they do?

Welcome to Razorwire, the podcast where we share our take on the world of cybersecurity with direct, practical advice for professionals and business owners alike. I'm Jim and in this Spotlight on Technology episode I'm joined by James Millington, Healthcare Field CTO for EMEA at IGEL, with more than 25 years' experience across virtual desktops, endpoint security and healthcare technology.

The way we use endpoints has changed repeatedly. Computing moved from centralised mainframes to PCs, back towards virtual desktops and then into SaaS and cloud services. Hybrid working accelerated that shift again, while rising hardware costs, Windows upgrades and increasingly distributed workforces are forcing organisations to reconsider what they actually need sitting on a user's device.

Jim and James look at why the endpoint may be due another rethink. They discuss the security and cost implications of maintaining traditional operating systems, how immutable endpoints change the approach to endpoint protection and what happens as AI creates another generation of applications and risks for security teams to control.

Three key talking points:

• Do we still need Windows at the endpoint? As applications move into SaaS, VDI and the cloud, the role of the endpoint is changing. We look at whether organisations still need a full traditional operating system on every device and what alternatives become possible when workloads run somewhere else.
• Moving from detection to prevention Endpoint security has traditionally relied heavily on detecting problems and responding to them. Discover how reducing what can run or change on an endpoint alters that model and removes attack surfaces before they need to be monitored.
• The endpoint problem AI could make worse Shadow AI gives employees another way to introduce software and move information beyond organisational controls. We discuss how controlling what can execute locally could become increasingly important as AI workloads start moving from centralised services onto endpoints.

If you're reviewing your endpoint strategy, facing another expensive hardware refresh or considering how AI changes what employees should be allowed to run locally, this conversation is for you.

On rethinking the endpoint:

“Really, what are my users accessing and where are they accessing it? And is it time to rethink that endpoint?”

James Millington

Listen to this episode on your favourite podcasting platform: https://razorwire.captivate.fm/listen

• The Cycle of Centralised Computing From mainframes and PCs to VDI, SaaS and cloud services, computing keeps moving between the endpoint and the data centre. Explore why that cycle matters to today's endpoint strategy.
• Why VDI Never Really Went Away VDI has moved in and out of fashion for decades. Find out why healthcare remained a strong use case and how remote and hybrid working changed the conversation again.
• Rethinking the Windows Endpoint If applications and data increasingly live elsewhere, does every employee still need a conventional Windows environment? We discuss what organisations should consider.
• The Cost of Hardware Refreshes Rising hardware costs and Windows upgrade requirements are putting endpoint budgets under pressure. Discover why extending device life is becoming more attractive.
• Security by Design Explore how an immutable operating system changes endpoint security by restricting what can be altered or installed rather than relying solely on detecting problems afterwards.
• Protecting Data in Distributed Healthcare Healthcare is moving closer to patients, creating more distributed endpoints. We discuss why keeping sensitive information off those devices can reduce the consequences of loss or theft.
• Moving Beyond BYOD Some organisations are reconsidering bring your own device programmes. Find out why greater control and standardisation are coming back into the conversation.
• Controlling Shadow AI As employees experiment with AI applications, organisations need to decide what can run locally. We explore how endpoint controls can limit unauthorised workloads.
• AI Comes Back to the Endpoint AI started heavily centralised but cost and performance are driving some workloads towards local devices. Discover what this latest shift could mean for endpoint security.

IGEL

Citrix

VMware

Microsoft Windows 365

Microsoft Azure Virtual Desktop

Zscaler

Gartner: Use Immutable Endpoints to Defeat Ransomware, Stop Configuration Drift, and Guarantee Rapid Recovery

PCI DSS

HIPAA and Cloud Computing Guidance

Ollama

Hello, I am James Rees, the host of the Razorwire podcast. This podcast brings you insights from leading cyber security professionals who dedicate their careers to making a hacker’s life that much more difficult.

Our guests bring you experience and expertise from a range of disciplines and from different career stages. We give you various viewpoints for improving your cyber security – from seasoned professionals with years of experience, triumphs and lessons learned under their belt, to those in relatively early stages of their careers offering fresh eyes and new insights.

With new episodes every other Wednesday, Razorwire is a podcast for cyber security enthusiasts and professionals providing insights, news and fresh ideas on protecting your organisation from hackers.

For more information about us or if you have any questions you would like us to discuss email [email protected].

If you need consultation, visit www.razorthorn.com, We give our clients a personalised, integrated approach to information security, driven by our belief in quality and discretion.

LinkedIn: Razorthorn Security

YouTube: Razorthorn Security

TikTok: Razorwire Podcast

Instagram: Razorwire Podcast

Twitter: @RazorThornLTD

Website: www.razorthorn.com

All rights reserved. © Razorthorn Security LTD 2025

Are cybersecurity events still giving people a reason to turn up, or have too many become expensive sales floors with the same conversations on repeat?

Welcome to Razorwire, the podcast where we share our take on the world of cybersecurity with direct, practical advice for professionals and business owners alike. I'm Jim and in this episode I'm joined by James Bore, Chartered Security Professional, Gary Hibberd, co-founder of Consultants Like Us and Lisa Ventura, founder of the AI and Cybersecurity Association and Unity Group Solutions.

Cybersecurity events have changed. What were once places to discover new technology, catch up with people across the industry and exchange ideas have become a packed calendar of conferences, roundtables, dinners and vendor events competing for people's time. With InfoSec Europe introducing a £50 ticket charge, it raises a bigger question about whether the traditional conference model is still delivering enough value.

We look at why experienced security professionals are increasingly choosing community and fringe events, why the same conference conversations keep coming back and what actually makes an event worth attending. From vendor pitches and expensive exhibition stands to better speakers, smaller audiences and conversations in the pub next door, we discuss where cybersecurity events have gone wrong and what could make them useful again.

Three key talking points:

• When a conference stops being worth it
• A ticket might be free or cost £50, but the bigger investment is your time. We look at why established cybersecurity events are struggling to give experienced professionals a compelling reason to walk through the doors.
• Why smaller events feel different
• Community and fringe events come up repeatedly throughout the conversation. Discover why smaller audiences, more focused subjects and speakers who genuinely know their field can create something the biggest conferences struggle to replicate.
• People don't go to events to be sold to
• Expensive stands and polished sales pitches do not necessarily build relationships. We discuss why attendees increasingly value access to practitioners, useful conversations and genuine connections over another lap of an exhibition hall.

If you're choosing which cybersecurity events deserve a place in your calendar, or organising one and wondering what will actually make people turn up, this conversation is for you.

On why smaller events work:

" You actually make it small and targeted and tailored. And that's how you engage."

James Bore

Listen to this episode on your favourite podcasting platform: https://razorwire.captivate.fm/listen

• How Cybersecurity Events Have Changed
• Explore how major industry events have moved from places to discover technology and meet the community towards a much more commercial model.
• Is InfoSec Europe Still Worth Attending?
• A new £50 ticket charge sparks a wider discussion about what attendees actually get from one of cybersecurity's biggest events.
• The Rise of Community Events
• Discover why BSides and other smaller events are becoming the preferred choice for security professionals looking for different conversations and ideas.
• Too Many Cybersecurity Events
• The calendar is packed with conferences, dinners and roundtables. We discuss why more choice is making people increasingly selective about where they spend their time.
• Escaping the Vendor Pitch
• Learn why exhibition floors dominated by sales conversations can struggle to engage the CISOs and security professionals vendors most want to meet.
• Why Relationships Matter
• People still buy from people. We explore why informal conversations and genuine relationships can offer more value than another product demonstration.
• What Makes a Good Conference Speaker
• Interesting events need people with something meaningful to contribute. Find out why practitioners, specialists and different perspectives matter.
• Having a Reason to Attend
• Going to an event simply because it is there is not enough. We discuss why attendees need a clear idea of what they want from their day.
• Can Big Conferences Be Fixed?
• Bigger does not necessarily mean better. Explore whether smaller, targeted events built around particular audiences could offer a better model for cybersecurity.

James Bore on LinkedIn

Infosecurity Europe

Black Hat

Security BSides

Hack Glasgow

SteelCon

The Real Cyber Awards and Conference

Hello, I am James Rees, the host of the Razorwire podcast. This podcast brings you insights from leading cyber security professionals who dedicate their careers to making a hacker’s life that much more difficult.

Our guests bring you experience and expertise from a range of disciplines and from different career stages. We give you various viewpoints for improving your cyber security – from seasoned professionals with years of experience, triumphs and lessons learned under their belt, to those in relatively early stages of their careers offering fresh eyes and new insights.

With new episodes every other Wednesday, Razorwire is a podcast for cyber security enthusiasts and professionals providing insights, news and fresh ideas on protecting your organisation from hackers.

For more information about us or if you have any questions you would like us to discuss email [email protected].

If you need consultation, visit www.razorthorn.com, We give our clients a personalised, integrated approach to information security, driven by our belief in quality and discretion.

LinkedIn: Razorthorn Security

YouTube: Razorthorn Security

TikTok: Razorwire Podcast

Instagram: Razorwire Podcast

Twitter: @RazorThornLTD

Website: www.razorthorn.com

All rights reserved. © Razorthorn Security LTD 2025

What does it actually look like to break into InfoSec from the outside, with no technical background, no industry contacts and no idea what half the acronyms mean?

Welcome to Razorwire, the podcast where we share our take on the world of cybersecurity with direct, practical advice for professionals and business owners alike. I'm Jim and in this interview episode, I'm joined by Irina Sordiya, a GRC and compliance professional based in Montreal who came into information security from a finance background.

Not everyone who works in information security started out in IT. Irina's route in began at a career fair where she stumbled into a fintech startup looking for someone who could translate financial regulation into language a dev team could understand. From there she moved into auditing at KPMG and eventually crossed to the other side, leading security posture and compliance in-house.

This is a conversation for anyone considering a career in InfoSec or in the early stages of one. Irina talks openly about feeling like an outsider, not understanding the acronyms and slowly realising that GRC isn't about technical knowledge, it's about understanding risk, building trust and communicating with people. She and Jim also get into the growing problem of grifters in GRC, where Canadian regulation is heading and why the InfoSec community is one of the most welcoming places to build a career.

Three key talking points:

• You don't need a technical background
• Irina came from a finance degree with no IT experience and a job interview where she was asked if she knew what an auditor does. She got the job. This episode is proof that soft skills, empathy and a risk mindset can take you further than most people expect.
• G is for grifter in GRC
• As regulatory pressure has increased, so has the number of people selling shortcuts. Overpriced courses, AI-generated templates, agents claiming to replace the CISO. Irina and Jim discuss why this preys on people trying to break in and why there's no substitute for doing the work.
• The risk mindset as a North Star
• The best advice Irina received early on was to develop a risk mindset. It's what helps you step back from hundred-page policies and ask what you're actually trying to protect, and why it matters more than technical knowledge for anyone in GRC.

If you're thinking about getting into InfoSec or wondering whether you belong, this conversation is for you.

On what she'd tell herself on day one:

"I would have told myself not to be scared going into this and that there will be always helpers along the way who care about what they do and put ego on the side."

Irina Sordiya

Listen to this episode on your favourite podcasting platform: https://razorwire.captivate.fm/listen

• From Finance to InfoSec
• Irina's journey started at a career fair with no IT knowledge. Find out how a finance background opened the door to a career in information security.
• Auditor to In-House
• As an auditor, an exception means "see you next year." In-house, it means "see you next week." We discuss what changes when you cross to the other side.
• Building Trust as a GRC Professional
• Discover why empathy and relationship building matter more than policy enforcement.
• AI Governance Is Still Anyone's Guess
• No country has got AI governance right yet. We discuss why most organisations are working it out as they go, why ISO 42001 is becoming a starting point and what that means for anyone working in GRC.
• AI as a Tool for InfoSec Professionals
• We discuss where AI can genuinely help with the grunt work of GRC without replacing the thinking that makes the role valuable.
• G Is for Grifter in GRC
• With overpriced courses, AI-generated templates and agents claiming to replace the CISO, we get into why the noise is making it harder for genuine newcomers.
• The Risk Mindset
• The best advice Irina received: develop a risk mindset. We discuss why it matters more than technical knowledge.
• Why the InfoSec Community Is Worth Joining
• Irina's experience has been overwhelmingly positive. We talk about why InfoSec professionals tend to share and support rather than gatekeep.
• The Future of Entry-Level Roles
• If AI takes over the grunt work that junior professionals learn from, how does the next generation develop?

Irina Sordiya on LinkedIn

KPMG

ISO 27001

ISO 42001 (AI governance)

SOC 1 / SOC 2

EU AI Act

CISM certification

PCI DSS

Hello, I am James Rees, the host of the Razorwire podcast. This podcast brings you insights from leading cyber security professionals who dedicate their careers to making a hacker’s life that much more difficult.

Our guests bring you experience and expertise from a range of disciplines and from different career stages. We give you various viewpoints for improving your cyber security – from seasoned professionals with years of experience, triumphs and lessons learned under their belt, to those in relatively early stages of their careers offering fresh eyes and new insights.

With new episodes every other Wednesday, Razorwire is a podcast for cyber security enthusiasts and professionals providing insights, news and fresh ideas on protecting your organisation from hackers.

For more information about us or if you have any questions you would like us to discuss email [email protected].

If you need consultation, visit www.razorthorn.com, We give our clients a personalised, integrated approach to information security, driven by our belief in quality and discretion.

LinkedIn: Razorthorn Security

YouTube: Razorthorn Security

TikTok: Razorwire Podcast

Instagram: Razorwire Podcast

Twitter: @RazorThornLTD

Website: www.razorthorn.com

All rights reserved. © Razorthorn Security LTD 2025

Social engineering has been around since humans started talking to each other. The psychology hasn't changed, but AI has made the execution almost unrecognisable.

Welcome to Razorwire, the podcast where we share our take on the world of cybersecurity with direct, practical advice for professionals and business owners alike. I'm Jim and in this episode, I'm joined by Richard Cassidy, Field CISO at Rubrik, and Bec McKeown, a chartered psychologist specialising in human performance under pressure.

Social engineering isn't a technology problem, it's a human one that cybersecurity has inherited. The psychology behind it hasn't changed since Cleopatra was using it to outmanoeuvre empires, but AI has transformed the speed, scale and sophistication of every stage, from automated reconnaissance that builds a complete profile in 30 minutes to real-time voice cloning that references your actual projects and travel schedule.

Bec and Richard bring two very different perspectives to the same problem. Bec explains how attackers engineer the conditions in which people make decisions rather than just crafting a convincing message, and why "people are the weakest link" misses the point. Richard shares what he's seeing as a practising CISO, from family members being targeted through gaming platforms to why measuring phishing click rates gives organisations a dangerous false sense of security.

Three key talking points:

• They're not hacking people, they're shaping decisions: Social engineering works because attackers engineer the conditions under which decisions get made, not because people are careless. Bec explains why most security awareness training is solving the wrong problem by focusing on the message rather than the environment in which people are operating.
• AI has turned social engineering into an automated pipeline: What used to take weeks of manual reconnaissance now takes 30 minutes. AI-powered OSINT can build a complete profile of a target and generate a tailored attack that references their projects, travel and communication style. Combined with real-time voice cloning, these layered attacks are becoming almost impossible to distinguish from a legitimate request.
• Your family is now part of the attack surface: If the executive is too well protected, attackers go to the people around them. Children on gaming platforms are being cultivated to unknowingly share information about their parents' work and routines, and a compromised family device on a shared home network becomes a route into the corporate environment.

The psychology behind social engineering hasn't changed in thousands of years, but the tools to exploit it have. If your defences are still built around phishing simulations and click rate metrics, this episode will make you rethink.

On why social engineering isn't about fooling people:

"They're not hacking people, they're shaping the conditions in which people make decisions."

Bec McKeown

Listen to this episode on your favourite podcasting platform: https://razorwire.captivate.fm/listen

• The History of Social Engineering From Cleopatra to Cold War intelligence operations, social engineering has worked for as long as humans have communicated. We discuss why the psychology behind it hasn't moved an inch.
• Influence vs Manipulation Bec explains the difference between making someone do something they don't want to do and making them want to do it, and why that distinction matters for how we build defences.
• AI-Powered Reconnaissance Find out how AI has turned open source intelligence into a fully automated pipeline that can build tailored attack scenarios from public data in under 30 minutes.
• Deepfake Voice and Video Attacks We get into why real-time voice cloning combined with genuine project data and manufactured urgency makes modern social engineering attacks almost impossible to spot.
• Layered Context Attacks Discover why the most dangerous attacks don't rely on a single trick but layer urgency, authority, familiarity and isolation together until there's no reason to doubt what you're seeing.
• Family as an Attack Surface Children on gaming platforms are being cultivated to share information about their parents' work and routines. We discuss why the family network is now a recognised route into executive environments.
• Gut Feeling and When to Trust It Bec and Richard explain why intuition is often the first signal that something is wrong and why corporate culture has trained people to ignore it.
• Confirmation Bias in Action A group of colleagues all received the same phishing email, checked with each other and decided it must be legitimate because they'd all got it. We discuss why that instinct is exactly what attackers rely on.
• Why Security Awareness Training Measures the Wrong Thing Phishing click rates going down doesn't mean your organisation is safer. We discuss why this metric wouldn't have prevented any of the major social engineering incidents of the last few years.

Bec McKeown

Mind Science Ltd

Richard Cassidy

The Psychology of the Machines

Rubrik

Cialdini's Six Principles of Influence

Gary Klein / Recognition-Primed Decision Making

Trend Micro AI-powered OSINT research

Deepfake fraud - regulatory warning

Hello, I am James Rees, the host of the Razorwire podcast. This podcast brings you insights from leading cyber security professionals who dedicate their careers to making a hacker’s life that much more difficult.

Our guests bring you experience and expertise from a range of disciplines and from different career stages. We give you various viewpoints for improving your cyber security – from seasoned professionals with years of experience, triumphs and lessons learned under their belt, to those in relatively early stages of their careers offering fresh eyes and new insights.

With new episodes every other Wednesday, Razorwire is a podcast for cyber security enthusiasts and professionals providing insights, news and fresh ideas on protecting your organisation from hackers.

For more information about us or if you have any questions you would like us to discuss email [email protected].

If you need consultation, visit www.razorthorn.com, We give our clients a personalised, integrated approach to information security, driven by our belief in quality and discretion.

LinkedIn: Razorthorn Security

YouTube: Razorthorn Security

TikTok: Razorwire Podcast

Instagram: Razorwire Podcast

Twitter: @RazorThornLTD

Website: www.razorthorn.com

All rights reserved. © Razorthorn Security LTD 2025

The EU just pushed back its AI Act enforcement by 16 months. The US is deregulating. China is governing through infrastructure. And the UK is doing nothing and hoping for the best.

Welcome to Razorwire, the podcast where we share our take on the world of cybersecurity with direct, practical advice for professionals and business owners alike. I'm Jim and in this episode, I'm joined by Richard Cassidy, Field CISO at Rubrik, and Jonathan Care, Head of the AI Practice at KuppingerCole.

We're not in an AI revolution. We're in an AI accountability crisis with the most incredible marketing budget the technology industry has ever seen. That's how Richard Cassidy frames it, and it sets the tone for a conversation that goes well beyond the usual AI hype into the governance, sovereignty and regulation questions that nobody has convincingly answered.

The US, EU, China and the UK have each taken fundamentally different approaches to AI governance and they're diverging, not converging. Meanwhile, the companies building the most powerful models are increasingly the ones defining how they should be used, because governments simply can't keep pace. The conversation also gets into why AI's ability to solve complex mathematical problems is starting to worry the people responsible for the cryptography that underpins modern banking, payments and secure communications.

Three key talking points:

• Four governance models, zero compatibility
• The US over-innovates, the EU over-regulates, China governs through infrastructure and the UK has principles without law. None of these models is compatible with the others, and the largest organisations in the world operate at the intersection of all of them.
• When companies define the rules because governments can't
• Anthropic publicly refused to provide certain capabilities over concerns about surveillance and military use. That exposed the governance vacuum that exists when legislation can't keep pace with innovation. The companies building the most powerful models are now the ones deciding how they should be used.
• Cryptography is on borrowed time
• AI is solving mathematical problems that have never been solved before. The cryptography that underpins banking, payments and the digital economy is based on the assumption that certain problems are too hard to solve. If AI and quantum computing change that assumption, those foundations look fragile.

This isn't about what AI can do. It's about who gets to decide what it should do.

On what's really driving the AI narrative:

"We're not in an AI revolution, we're in an AI accountability crisis that appears to have the most incredible marketing budgets we've ever seen in the history of investment in companies."

Richard Cassidy

Listen to this episode on your favourite podcasting platform: https://razorwire.captivate.fm/listen

• The EU AI Act and Why It's Already Behind
• The deadline got pushed back 16 months. We discuss what that tells us about the gap between regulatory intent and enforcement.
• US Deregulation and Innovation at Speed
• The US is betting that innovation matters more than regulation. We get into what that means for everyone else.
• China's Infrastructure-First Approach
• China isn't writing big laws. It's governing through 50-plus technical standards and sector-specific measures. We discuss why that model is fundamentally different.
• The UK's Principles Without Law
• Five non-statutory principles, enforcement delegated to existing regulators. We explore why that creates the lowest compliance burden but the highest uncertainty.
• AI Sovereignty
• Everyone says they want it. Almost nobody can explain what it means. We get into why the conversation matters.
• When the Model Builders Make the Rules
• Anthropic drew a public line on what it would and wouldn't provide. We discuss what happens when companies, not governments, define how AI is used.
• AI and the Threat to Cryptography
• AI is solving problems that have never been solved before. Find out why that has implications for the mathematics that underpins modern encryption.
• Post-Quantum Cryptography
• Discover why the convergence of AI and quantum computing could undermine the foundations the entire digital economy is built on.
• The AI Jobs Debate
• Industries predicted to be at high risk haven't seen the job losses forecast. We discuss why the "AI will take all the jobs" argument is too blunt.
• Europe's Innovation Problem
• Investment in Europe is so hard to get that you need a working company before anyone will fund you. We discuss what that means for competitiveness.

Hello, I am James Rees, the host of the Razorwire podcast. This podcast brings you insights from leading cyber security professionals who dedicate their careers to making a hacker’s life that much more difficult.

Our guests bring you experience and expertise from a range of disciplines and from different career stages. We give you various viewpoints for improving your cyber security – from seasoned professionals with years of experience, triumphs and lessons learned under their belt, to those in relatively early stages of their careers offering fresh eyes and new insights.

With new episodes every other Wednesday, Razorwire is a podcast for cyber security enthusiasts and professionals providing insights, news and fresh ideas on protecting your organisation from hackers.

For more information about us or if you have any questions you would like us to discuss email [email protected].

If you need consultation, visit www.razorthorn.com, We give our clients a personalised, integrated approach to information security, driven by our belief in quality and discretion.

LinkedIn: Razorthorn Security

YouTube: Razorthorn Security

TikTok: Razorwire Podcast

Instagram: Razorwire Podcast

Twitter: @RazorThornLTD

Website: www.razorthorn.com

All rights reserved. © Razorthorn Security LTD 2025

Defence in depth has evolved every time the technology landscape has shifted. The internet, virtualisation, cloud, SaaS. AI is the next shift, and the old model isn't keeping up.

Welcome to Razorwire, the podcast where we share our take on the world of cybersecurity with direct, practical advice for professionals and business owners alike. I'm Jim and in this episode, I'm joined once again by Martin Voelk, co-founder of SpartanX and an ethical hacker with nearly 26 years in cybersecurity.

Every major technology shift has forced security teams to rethink how they protect their organisations. The internet moved data outside the building. Virtualisation and cloud meant infrastructure was no longer yours to control. Each time, defence in depth had to evolve. AI is the latest shift, and it may be the one that breaks the model entirely.

We trace the journey from on-prem data centres and ISDN routers through to a world where AI agents act autonomously, supply chains are built on unverified code and the offensive side of AI is outpacing the defensive side at a rate security teams can't match. They get into why every AI agent needs its own identity, why shadow AI is a problem most organisations haven't begun to address and why the only realistic answer to AI-powered attacks is AI-powered defence.

Three key talking points:

Defence in depth has always evolved, but this time it's different:

Every previous technology shift gave security teams time to catch up. AI isn't offering that. The pace of change is faster than most organisations can respond to, and the defensive tooling hasn't kept pace with what the offensive side can already do.

AI agents need to be treated like people:

Every AI agent needs its own identity, authentication and authorisation policies. Without that, a compromised agent can act under a human user's name with no way to tell the difference. The legal and forensic implications are enormous and largely unsolved.

The offensive side is winning:

AI is finding vulnerabilities faster than teams can fix them. Alert volumes are overwhelming SOCs, attackers are using AI-generated noise to mask real attacks and human in the loop is becoming unworkable at scale. The only realistic counter is defensive AI, but it isn't mature yet.

Defence in depth has survived every technology shift so far. AI is testing it in ways we haven't seen before. If you're responsible for securing an organisation that's adopting AI, this is the conversation to listen to.

On why security teams are always one step behind:

"We don't have the ability to figure out what's going on until it's already happened. We don't have that technology yet."

James Rees

Listen to this episode on your favourite podcasting platform: https://razorwire.captivate.fm/listen

• The Evolution of Defence in Depth
• From ISDN and on-prem data centres to cloud and SaaS, we trace how defence in depth has evolved with every major technology shift.
• Why AI Is Different
• Previous shifts gave security teams time to adapt. We discuss why AI isn't offering that luxury.
• Supply Chain Risk and Unverified Code
• Open source code from GitHub, AI skills downloaded from the web, integrations nobody has reviewed. Discover why the modern supply chain is built on foundations most organisations haven't verified.
• Third Party Risk Management Is Broken
• AI fills in vendor questionnaires and AI reviews the answers. We get into why the current TPRM process is fundamentally flawed.
• Shadow AI
• Learn why unapproved AI usage is one of the hardest risks to detect and why most organisations have no way of monitoring it.
• Continuous Authentication
• Single sign-on isn't enough anymore. We discuss why continuous authentication is becoming essential in environments where AI agents operate alongside human users.
• AI Agent Identity and Accountability
• Find out why every AI agent needs its own identity and access controls, and what happens when a compromised agent acts under a human user's name.
• Alert Fatigue as an Attack Vector
• Flooding a SOC with noise to mask a real attack isn't new, but AI makes it possible at a scale that's almost impossible to manage.
• Prompt Injection via Log Files
• Find out how a prompt injection hidden in a standard HTTP header was used to trick a summarisation agent into exfiltrating data.
• The Case for Defensive AI
• Offensive AI is outpacing the defensive side. We discuss why AI-powered defence is the only realistic answer and why it isn't mature yet.

SpartanX

Martin Voelk - LinkedIn

Kali Linux

Docker

Ollama

Hugging Face

DeepSeek

CrowdStrike

GitHub

Hello, I am James Rees, the host of the Razorwire podcast. This podcast brings you insights from leading cyber security professionals who dedicate their careers to making a hacker’s life that much more difficult.

Our guests bring you experience and expertise from a range of disciplines and from different career stages. We give you various viewpoints for improving your cyber security – from seasoned professionals with years of experience, triumphs and lessons learned under their belt, to those in relatively early stages of their careers offering fresh eyes and new insights.

With new episodes every other Wednesday, Razorwire is a podcast for cyber security enthusiasts and professionals providing insights, news and fresh ideas on protecting your organisation from hackers.

For more information about us or if you have any questions you would like us to discuss email [email protected].

If you need consultation, visit www.razorthorn.com, We give our clients a personalised, integrated approach to information security, driven by our belief in quality and discretion.

LinkedIn: Razorthorn Security

YouTube: Razorthorn Security

TikTok: Razorwire Podcast

Instagram: Razorwire Podcast

Twitter: @RazorThornLTD

Website: www.razorthorn.com

All rights reserved. © Razorthorn Security LTD 2025

AI used to be something security vendors built into their own products. Now OpenAI is going direct, positioning itself as the layer that security runs on. What does that mean for the rest of the industry?

Welcome to Razorwire, the podcast where we share our take on the world of cybersecurity with direct, practical advice for professionals and business owners alike. I'm Jim and in this episode, I'm joined again by Jon Care, Head of the AI Practice at KuppingerCole, to unpack OpenAI's launch of Daybreak.

OpenAI launched Daybreak on 11 May 2026. It's not a security product, it's a platform play designed to embed AI-driven security directly into the development lifecycle, with a three-tier access model and a partner programme that includes Cisco, CrowdStrike, Palo Alto and a dozen other major vendors. This is OpenAI's bid to become the infrastructure that security runs on.

But the governance questions are enormous. Who counts as a "verified defender"? Who decides? What happens when someone with access changes jobs or gets laid off? And when the same model families sit on both sides of the equation, how do you govern dual use? Jim and Jonathan argue the industry urgently needs an independent regulatory body to oversee access to these capabilities. The conversation also gets into China's response to Western chip restrictions and why the idea that any one country can control AI capability is already looking outdated.

Three key talking points:

• Daybreak isn't a product, it's a platform land grab: OpenAI isn't selling to security vendors the way AI has traditionally been integrated into the market. It's going direct to CISOs and development teams, bypassing the existing vendor layer entirely. This episode gets into what that means for the security market and why the major vendor partnerships may not be enough to mask the disruption.
• The governance gap nobody has answered: Daybreak gates access based on "verified defender" status, but there's no public specification of what that means, no independent auditing and no appeals process. This episode raises the uncomfortable questions about who qualifies, what happens when access follows a person rather than an organisation and what model could end up benefitting the industry the most.
• You can't contain capability: China's response to Western chip restrictions has been to develop its own hardware at pace, certifying nine domestically designed AI processors for state procurement. The assumption that any single country can control access to frontier AI capability is already looking outdated and that has serious implications for everything from dual use governance to the future of the AI arms race.

Daybreak launched on the same day Google confirmed the first AI-built zero day. If you care about where the security market is heading, this is the conversation to listen to.

On who controls access to AI security capability:

“OpenAI sets the criteria, OpenAI approves or denies and OpenAI monitors usage. For those of you who noticed, I said OpenAI three times in that past sentence. That was deliberate.”

Jon Care

Listen to this episode on your favourite podcasting platform: https://razorwire.captivate.fm/listen

• What Daybreak Actually Is Find out what OpenAI's Daybreak initiative involves and why it's being positioned as infrastructure rather than a product.
• A Platform Land Grab Explore why Daybreak is OpenAI's bid to own the security developer toolchain and what that means for the existing vendor ecosystem.
• Partner Asymmetry Major vendors get early and deeper access. We discuss what that means for everyone else.
• Who Counts as a "Verified Defender"? There's no public specification, no independent auditing and no appeals process. We get into why that's a problem.
• Dual Use Governance The same models are being used for offence and defence. Discover why that raises questions nobody has answered yet.
• Credential Portability What happens when someone with access to the most permissive tier gets laid off or changes jobs?
• The Case for Independent Regulation We discuss why the industry needs an equivalent of PCI DSS for AI security access, independent of any single government or vendor.
• AI vs AI Daybreak launched the same day Google confirmed the first AI-built zero day. We discuss what that signals about where the arms race is heading.
• China's Hardware Response Huawei unveiled Logic Folding and China certified nine domestically designed AI processors. The assumption that any country can gate AI capability is already outdated.
• Human in the Loop Is Dying The speed of AI development is outpacing human decision-making. We discuss why this concept may already be obsolete.

OpenAI Daybreak

Anthropic Mythos / Project Glasswing

Microsoft MDASH

CyberGym benchmark

Google first AI-built zero day

Huawei LogicFolding / Tau Scaling Law

PCI DSS / PCI Security Standards Council

KuppingerCole

Bank of Dave (film)

Snyk

Socket

Endor Labs

GitHub Advanced Security

Hello, I am James Rees, the host of the Razorwire podcast. This podcast brings you insights from leading cyber security professionals who dedicate their careers to making a hacker’s life that much more difficult.

Our guests bring you experience and expertise from a range of disciplines and from different career stages. We give you various viewpoints for improving your cyber security – from seasoned professionals with years of experience, triumphs and lessons learned under their belt, to those in relatively early stages of their careers offering fresh eyes and new insights.

With new episodes every other Wednesday, Razorwire is a podcast for cyber security enthusiasts and professionals providing insights, news and fresh ideas on protecting your organisation from hackers.

For more information about us or if you have any questions you would like us to discuss email [email protected].

If you need consultation, visit www.razorthorn.com, We give our clients a personalised, integrated approach to information security, driven by our belief in quality and discretion.

LinkedIn: Razorthorn Security

YouTube: Razorthorn Security

TikTok: Razorwire Podcast

Instagram: Razorwire Podcast

Twitter: @RazorThornLTD

Website: www.razorthorn.com

All rights reserved. © Razorthorn Security LTD 2025

Your vendors are adopting AI faster than you can assess them. What does that mean for your third party risk?

Welcome to Razorwire, the podcast where we share our take on the world of cybersecurity with direct, practical advice for professionals and business owners alike. I'm Jim and in this Spotlight on Technology episode, I'm joined by Jeffrey Wheatman, Senior Vice President and Cyber Risk Strategist at Black Kite. Jeffrey previously spent over a decade as an analyst VP at Gartner where he launched their third party cyber risk management coverage.

Third party risk management used to be fairly straightforward. If finance was happy and legal had done their redlining, you signed the contract and moved on. That world is gone. Organisations are now dependent on layers of vendors, suppliers and service providers, and the chain goes deeper than most security teams can see. When a logistics company can go from operational to out of business in five months after a ransomware attack, and one incident at Jaguar Land Rover can measurably affect UK GDP, the question isn't whether third party risk matters. It's whether your programme can keep up.

This episode covers how the old model of spreadsheets and questionnaires is giving way to intelligence-led continuous monitoring, why AI has made the problem exponentially harder and how Black Kite is helping organisations cut through the complexity, from mapping supply chain connectivity and scoring ransomware susceptibility to cutting a 500-question vendor questionnaire down to 30.

Three key talking points:

• You can't protect what you can't see: Most organisations know who their biggest vendors are. Beyond that, it gets murky fast. This episode gets into why even mature organisations still struggle to see past the first or second layer of their supply chain, why figuring out which vendors actually matter is harder than it sounds and why Jeffrey always tells people to solve their third party problem before worrying about their fourth.
• AI just made your third party programme ten times harder: Your vendors are already using AI, whether they've told you or not. The person you're speaking to may not even know, because it could be embedded two or three layers down. Meanwhile the market is flooded with AI solution claims and attackers are using it to move faster than ever. This episode covers the three ways AI is complicating third party risk and why most organisations haven't even begun to get their AI governance right.
• From questionnaires to continuous intelligence: The old model of sending out hundreds of questions, hoping for honest answers and filing the results is finished. This episode covers how the industry is moving from periodic assessment to continuous monitoring, why real data beats self-reported questionnaires and how platforms like Black Kite are helping organisations focus on the vendors that actually pose a risk.

If your third party risk programme is still running on spreadsheets and annual reviews, this episode will make you uncomfortable. And it should.

On why most organisations don't know which vendors matter most:

“I always badly paraphrase Animal Farm by George Orwell. All your vendors are equal, but some vendors are more equal than others. And most people don't really know how to figure that out.”

Jeffrey Wheatman

Listen to this episode on your favourite podcasting platform: https://razorwire.captivate.fm/listen

When a Vendor Goes Down, You Go Down With Them We discuss why the conversation has shifted from data protection to operational resilience.

The Nth Party Problem Most organisations can't see past the first or second layer of their supply chain. The web of interconnected vendors is far more complex than it looks – we talk about where to start if you haven't solved your third party basics yet.

Concentration Risk and Single Points of Failure Heavy reliance on a handful of major cloud providers creates risks that can't easily be mitigated. We explore what you can realistically do about it.

Three Ways AI Is Complicating Third Party Risk Discover why AI isn't just changing the threat landscape for your own organisation but fundamentally altering how you need to think about every vendor in your supply chain.

Shadow AI in Your Supply Chain Learn why shadow AI in your vendor ecosystem is a growing risk when most organisations' AI governance isn't anywhere near ready to deal with it.

The AI Vendor Bubble Find out why many AI companies are currently selling their services at a loss, and what this means for organisations that have built critical processes around vendors that might not survive when the economics catch up.

Moving Beyond Spreadsheets and Questionnaires Find out why self-reported questionnaires and periodic assessments can't keep up anymore, and what's replacing them.

How Black Kite Approaches Third Party Risk Explore what an intelligence-led approach to third party risk actually looks like in practice and why it's a fundamentally different model to what most organisations are used to.

The Ownership Problem No two organisations agree on who owns third party risk. Find out why this inconsistency creates serious governance gaps and why it matters more than ever as the scope of the problem grows.

Black Kite

Jeffrey Wheatman on LinkedIn

Black Kite's Third Party Risk podcast

K&P Logistics / Knights of the Old (ransomware case study)

Jaguar Land Rover (supply chain breach impact)

DORA (EU banking regulation)

MITRE ATT&CK

OpenFair (cyber risk quantification)

GA3 framework (Black Kite's AI governance add-on)

Threat Tracev (Black Kite's NetFlow-based offering)

RSA Conference

Project Glasswing / Mythos (Anthropic)

OpenAI Daybreak

All rights reserved. © Razorthorn Security LTD 2025