Thales Security Sessions

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have exploded in value—making them an ever-more attractive target for scammers and hackers. So is cryptocurrency secure? How can businesses and individuals make sure they protect their digital investments? And what are the key security measures that should be implemented to secure the cryptocurrency backend? In this episode, we’ll be exploring the current cryptocurrency landscape, and how we can make a trusted world for crypto payments.

Joining our regular host Neira Jones for this episode, we have Nitin Gaur, Director, IBM Financial Sciences and Digital Assets and Krishna Ksheerabdhi, VP Product Marketing, Thales.

Shared security, also known as shared responsibility, is a cloud security management model that describes the distribution of enterprise data security management and accountability between a company and its cloud service provider(s). The framework essentially enables improved productivity and unparalleled agility, so why isn't every organization adopting it?

In this episode, introduced by Neira Jones, Dr. Eric Cole, Founder and CEO of Secure Anchor Consulting,, explores adopting shared security as best practice. Dr. Eric speaks with Chris Martin, IAM Presales Solution Architect for EMEA at Thales. The podcast delves into the main areas of organizational risk concerning cloud migration and vendor native decisions before shedding light on the limitations of a single service provider. The guests then discuss the shared security model - its benefits and the implementation process. Final thoughts centre on what organizations need to understand about control over all users and effectively build a best practice shared security strategy

You can also learn more about this topic in our new whitepaper, Owning Your Own Access Security.

Dr Eric Cole

Dr. Eric Cole is an industry-recognized expert with over 20 years of hands-on experience, founder and an executive leader at Secure Anchor Consulting where he provides leading-edge cybersecurity consulting services, expert witness work, and R&D initiatives to advance our field.

Dr. Cole has experience in information technology with a focus on helping customers focus on the right areas of security by building out a dynamic defense. Dr. Cole has a master's degree in computer science from NYIT and a doctorate from Pace University with a concentration in information security. He served as CTO of McAfee and Chief Scientist for Lockheed Martin. Dr. Cole is the author of several books, including Advanced Persistent Threat, Hackers Beware, Hiding in Plain Sight, Network Security Bible 2nd Edition, and Insider Threat.

You can connect with Dr Cole on LinkedIn.

Chris Martin

Chris Martin is the lead EMEA Pre-Sales Solution Architect at Thales. With over 20 years expertise in the IAM space, Chris’ extensive background includes Enterprise SSO, PAM, IDaaS and Identity Governance that enables him to bring a holistic approach to enterprise IAM.

Within Thales, Chris works alongside our customers to help them define, develop and execute their IAM strategies, either aligning Thales solutions to an existing IAM architecture or building from the ground up. Prior to joining Thales, Chris honed his IAM skills with Sentillion, Centrify, OneLogin, Omada and MicroFocus.

You can connect with Chris on LinkedIn.

Dr. Cole has experience in information technology with a focus on helping customers focus on the right areas of security by building out a dynamic defense. Dr. Cole has a master's degree in computer science from NYIT and a doctorate from Pace University with a concentration in information security. He served as CTO of McAfee and Chief Scientist for Lockheed Martin. Dr. Cole is the author of several books, including Advanced Persistent Threat, Hackers Beware, Hiding in Plain Sight, Network Security Bible 2nd Edition, and Insider Threat.

Mike is the CTO and co-founder of ISARA Corporation. He is focused on the technical vision and direction for the company. The ISARA Corporation vision is a world where consumers, enterprises and governments can benefit from the power of quantum computing with protection against quantum attacks.

Previous to ISARA, Mike was the Vice President of Security Product Management and Research at BlackBerry where he co-founded the product security practice and was responsible for the vision and execution of security for all BlackBerry products. Mike has spoken at global security events including RSA, GTEC, Bloomberg, and InfoSec Europe.

He holds a Masters of Mathematics from the University of Waterloo, focusing on cryptography.

You can connect with Ellen on LinkedIn.

Michael Gardiner

You can connect with Michael on LinkedIn.

Ellen leads the product strategy and go to market approach for the Keyfactor Control platform, focusing around digital identity security solutions for the IoT device manufacturer market. Ellen is passionate about IoT and helping customers establish strong security implementations for the lifecycle of their overall IoT systems.

Ellen has 15+ years experience leading new product development with a focus on IoT and connected products in Lighting controls, Smart Cities, Connected buildings and Smart Home technology. Ellen has held leadership roles in Product & Engineering at General Electric and Sky Technologies over her career.

You can connect with Ellen on LinkedIn.

Paul Hampton

Paul spent over a decade working in the banking industry launching and securing online banking and early fintech initiatives. He joined SafeNet in 2011 (later acquired by Gemalto) and led the fast growing payment cryptography product business for eight years. Following the acquisition of Gemalto by Thales, Paul has taken on the management of Thales’ cloud cryptography services platform.

Businesses are increasingly confronted by the cost and complexity of protecting data across disparate IT infrastructure and hybrid cloud environments, a scenario made worse by a growing shortage of skilled security personnel. Paul can speak directly to these challenges, bringing broad cloud-related domain knowledge on topics such as cloud security and specific cloud service provider issues. He also brings deep business level expertise on the role of Hardware Security Modules (HSMs), in the context of these security challenges; he believes strongly that HSMs act as trust anchors that protect encryption and the cryptographic infrastructure of the most security-conscious organisations in the world, by securely managing, processing, and storing cryptographic keys.

Paul is a highly capable and knowledgeable security practitioner with an excellent grasp on information security both as a technical and management discipline. He has over twenty years’ experience in the industry and hold a number of certifications including CISSP and CISM. Paul’s specialties include information security management, cryptography, software engineering and authentication.

You can connect with Paul on LinkedIn.

The shift to remote work and the acceleration of the shift to cloud-based infrastructure have profoundly impacted security teams. With the security risks and threats that these changes pose, most organizations have some work to do to improve their security posture, according to the new 2021 Thales Data Threat Report. Many organizations were unprepared for the unexpected security challenges they faced in 2020. In fact, according to the report only 20% of IT professionals said their security infrastructure was very prepared for the effects of the pandemic

In this episode, Neira Jones is joined by Todd Moore, VP Encryption Products at Thales, to talk through the key findings of the report. They’ll take a look back at the key trends seen in 2020 and the impacts of the pandemic that have carried over into 2021.

Todd Moore

Todd Moore is a respected cybersecurity professional, with over 28 years' experience in helping organizations protect their most sensitive data.

In his role as Vice President of Encryption Solutions, Todd drives strategy for the company's data encryption portfolio – bringing together a set of well-known security brands (SafeNet, Vormetric and Thales eSecurity) together, into a single data protection business line that addresses existing and new customer needs.

Todd joined Thales through a series of acquisitions from his prior roles; these predominantly entailed product leadership positions for both SafeNet and then Gemalto. He had already gained deep understanding of security challenges and technologies within the defence industry, having spent almost two decades with Harris Corporation. Over his career, Todd has a proven track record of developing business cases and market analysis for new security products and delivering them to market. He routinely develops strategies for new product development and execution, as well as negotiating strategic relationships and alliances.

With a rich combination of technology, product and customer understanding, Todd has frequently offered insights and commentary to media on topics such as hybrid cloud, encryption and cryptographic agility. Recent media contributions include the likes of IoT Now, Finextra and BankInfo Security.

You can connect with Todd on LinkedIn.

Passwordless and FIDO authentication is one of the hottest topics on the radar of identity and access management professionals. While passwordless authentication offers convenience for end users, not all methods offer the same level of protection.

In this special bonus edition podcast, Garrett Bekker, principal cybersecurity analyst at from 451 Research and Asaf Lerner, Director of Product Management at Thales discuss the merits and various angles of moving to passwordless.

Garrett Bekker

Garrett Bekker is a Senior Research Analyst in the Information Security Channel at 451 Research, a part of S&P Global Market Intelligence. He has viewed enterprise security from a variety of perspectives over the past 20 years. Garrett started his career in security as an equity research analyst at several investment banking firms, most recently Merrill Lynch, where he covered information security, infrastructure software and networking companies. Garrett has also worked with early stage enterprise security vendors in sales and marketing role, including Bat Blue (acquired by OPAQ Networks). Prior to joining 451 Research, he also worked at a boutique investment bank focused on M&A and fundraising for small-to-midsized technology companies.

Garrett has focused on a wide variety of subsectors within enterprise security during his career, and is now focusing primarily on identity and access management (IAM), cloud security and data security. Garrett is also a member of 451 Research's Center of Excellence for Quantum Technologies.

You can connect with Garrett on LinkedIn.

Asaf Lerner

Asaf Lerner brings with him over 20 years of swimming in the high IAM seas, serving in different positions in the industry, from R&D management to PKI and Authentication Product Management and various market-facing roles. Located in Austin, TX, Asaf is in charge of the IAM solutions market for the Americas at Thales. Under his responsibility is creating market awareness of Thales’s IAM solutions, enhancing market partnerships, and creating healthy channel workstreams.

You can connect with Asaf on LinkedIn.

5G connectivity promises to break traditional paradigms of data delivery by providing network connectivity virtually everywhere. To accommodate this new paradigm in diverse data delivery, the building out of 5G infrastructures is underway. It is expected that in two years’ time 5G will reach 25 billion connected devices globally and this number will triple to 75 Billion by 2025. For enterprises and subscribers, it will enable exciting new low latency, high performance and reliable connectivity that will create new business opportunities. For mobile network operators it will unlock significant new revenue-generating opportunities. 5G poised to change how digital technology-based solutions delivered and consumed across different industry verticals by connecting people and devices using high quality services whenever wherever. Our economy, and our national security had so many participants, each reliant on the other and none of which have the final responsibility for enterprise /subscriber data security. Some believe that consumers should be given the tools which can make informed decisions. The concept of shared responsibility model between cloud service providers and enterprises will be extended to these Telco edge and cloud edge sites.

In this episode Neira is joined by Prashant Deo, Senior Information Security Consultant at Tata Consultancy Services and Chen Arbel, Vice President Business Development, 5G & Cloud Security and Thales.

Prashant Deo

Prashant is currently Senior Information Security Consultant at Tata Consultancy Services, a global leader in IT services, consulting & business solutions with a large network of innovation & delivery centers. He has over 20 years experience in lead roles in Cyber Security Consulting and Cyber Defense Operations.

Prashant is currently Service Delivery Lead for Security Solutions and Services at TCS, managing end to end project delivery for Infrastructure Security Solutions and Identity & Access Management Solutions, Security Operations Management and Management of Information Security for all client deliverables.

You can connect with Prashant on LinkedIn.

Chen Arbel

With over 20 years of information security, Chen has served in key development roles leading to uniquely powerful innovations that effectively align data security technology with real-life business objectives. Playing a leading role in the implementation of security solutions within some of the world’s largest organizations, Chen has worked in all major industries on strategic initiatives that deliver clear business advantages through unmatched technology. Chen held a government classified technology position in North America and served as Captain for the Defense Force where he gained extensive information security experience.

You can connect with Chen on LinkedIn.

More digital will mean more cloud. Now in the second year, the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic has prompted an acceleration in the adoption of cloud technologies by IT leaders worldwide, which looks set to continue for the foreseeable future. Previously organisations have primarily looked at new application development and deployment for cloud, taking a ‘cloud first’ approach. However many have now pivoted towards a ‘cloud now’ approach. In this two-part episode Neira talks to Chris Harris, EMEA Technical Director at Thales and Vaughn Stewart, VP of Technology Alliance Partners, Pure Storage.

Vaughn Stewart, VP of Technology Alliance Partners, Pure Storage

Vaughn helps organisations capitalise on what’s possible when pairing memory-based storage technologies with tradiditional and next-generation applications. Prior to joining Pure, he spent 13 years in various leadership roles at NetAPll and has been awarded a U.S. patent.

Vaughn strives to simplify the technically complex and advocates thinking outside the box. You can find his perspective online at vaughnstewart.com and in print; he has co-authored multiple books including “Virtualisation Changes Everything: Storage Strategies for VMware vSphere & Cloud Computing.

You can connect with Vaughn on Linked in or Twitter

Chris Harris, EMEA Technical Director at Thales

Chris has over twenty-five years' experience in IT Security with a strong track record providing expert consultancy, pre-sales support and technical assistance to customers across EMEA, in addition to developing and leading a large pan-EMEA team of Pre-Sales Consultants and Sales Engineers. With a strong technical focus on data and information protection solutions, Chris can talk very knowledgably on a vast range of Cybersecurity, Identity Management, Cloud Encryption & Security as well as Cloud Security and Security-as-a-Service offerings. He plays a key role in managing customer and partner relationships across the region, as well as scaling the team, ensuring it has the structure and skills in place to solve problems for customers and respond to market needs.

Having joined Thales through its recent acquisition of Gemalto, Chris previously managed the cyber-security pre-sales organisation across EMEA. He has over 20 years’ experience in the group through various company acquisitions that has seen his EMEA Pre-Sales role evolve as the product portfolio grew significantly. With a passion for technology, he keeps acquainting himself with the technical detail, often feeding back the field experience to product management to help advance offerings. He has been pivotal in developing a strong pre-sales technical team across EMEA all equally as passionate for customer excellence. He brings with him a wealth of experience spanning: Hardware Security Modules (HSM), PKI & Digital Certificates, Smart Cards, Tokens, Network Encryption, Database Encryption, Storage Security/Encryption, Cryptographic Hardware and Software.

Chris holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Herfordshire.

You can connect with Chris on LinkedIn and Twitter.

More digital will mean more cloud. Now in the second year, the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic has prompted an acceleration in the adoption of cloud technologies by IT leaders worldwide, which looks set to continue for the foreseeable future. Previously organisations have primarily looked at new application development and deployment for cloud, taking a ‘cloud first’ approach. However many have now pivoted towards a ‘cloud now’ approach. In this two-part episode Neira talks to Chris Harris, EMEA Technical Director at Thales and Vaughn Stewart, VP of Technology Alliance Partners, Pure Storage.

Vaughn Stewart, VP of Technology Alliance Partners, Pure Storage

Vaughn helps organisations capitalise on what’s possible when pairing memory-based storage technologies with tradiditional and next-generation applications. Prior to joining Pure, he spent 13 years in various leadership roles at NetAPll and has been awarded a U.S. patent.

Vaughn strives to simplify the technically complex and advocates thinking outside the box. You can find his perspective online at vaughnstewart.com and in print; he has co-authored multiple books including “Virtualisation Changes Everything: Storage Strategies for VMware vSphere & Cloud Computing.

You can connect with Vaughn on Linked in or Twitter

Chris Harris, EMEA Technical Director at Thales

Chris has over twenty-five years' experience in IT Security with a strong track record providing expert consultancy, pre-sales support and technical assistance to customers across EMEA, in addition to developing and leading a large pan-EMEA team of Pre-Sales Consultants and Sales Engineers. With a strong technical focus on data and information protection solutions, Chris can talk very knowledgably on a vast range of Cybersecurity, Identity Management, Cloud Encryption & Security as well as Cloud Security and Security-as-a-Service offerings. He plays a key role in managing customer and partner relationships across the region, as well as scaling the team, ensuring it has the structure and skills in place to solve problems for customers and respond to market needs.

Having joined Thales through its recent acquisition of Gemalto, Chris previously managed the cyber-security pre-sales organisation across EMEA. He has over 20 years’ experience in the group through various company acquisitions that has seen his EMEA Pre-Sales role evolve as the product portfolio grew significantly. With a passion for technology, he keeps acquainting himself with the technical detail, often feeding back the field experience to product management to help advance offerings. He has been pivotal in developing a strong pre-sales technical team across EMEA all equally as passionate for customer excellence. He brings with him a wealth of experience spanning: Hardware Security Modules (HSM), PKI & Digital Certificates, Smart Cards, Tokens, Network Encryption, Database Encryption, Storage Security/Encryption, Cryptographic Hardware and Software.

Chris holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Herfordshire.

You can connect with Chris on LinkedIn and Twitter.