Tech layoffs and banking failures have made the headlines recently. In this episode we cover how people in Silicon Valley and beyond can stay resilient in the face of stress. The episode first explores the human perspective of resilience on the ground with Vivian Lee, a guest from Airiam located in the Silicon Valley area.

The perspective of the discussion then expands, and we give tips for how companies around the country can best respond to the ripple effects of the turmoil. Topics covered includes:

"Trust but verify" is a well-known proverb, but in today's cybersecurity world, we recommend just verifying. That concept is the underlying theme for our latest episode featuring Alex Diaz. Alex is the Customer Success Lead at Horizon3.ai. He has extensive experience in intelligence roles with the US Military and Government. Horizon3.ai's mission is to help you find and fix your attack vectors before criminals exploit them.

We go over what penetration testing entails and how it helps organizations test and improve their cybersecurity. Then we go into what new technology advances are happening to revolutionize the whole process. NodeZero is Horizon3.ai's automated penetration testing solution that enables organizations to continuously assess the security posture of their enterprise.

Alex also shares what Horizon3.ai has learned from over 7,000 penetration tests last year. The top areas of weakness Horizon3.ai saw were:

Read Horizon3.ai's 2022 Year in Review Report to read more about their findings. To kickstart your organization's cybersecurity journey, request a free penetration test offered by Airiam.

The impact of ransomware on organizations is well-known. Companies can be coerced into making ransom payments. Sensitive customer data can be leaked onto the Dark Web. An impacted organization's IT environment may have to be rebuilt from scratch. The business itself could be forced to close. 

The impact of ransomware to the employees of the impacted organization is not as well known or discussed.

Tony Kirtley is the Director of Cyber Risk Partnerships at SecureWorks. He joins the episode to discuss what it is like on the ground when ransomware strikes and employees attempt to recover the environment. Airiam Field CISO/CIO Art Ocain also shares his first-hand experience in the episode. They both recall the extreme emotions that accompany ransomware response. Responsible people at the victim organization endure not just mental stress, but also suffer physical impacts. 

Tony and Art share advice for how to get the best outcome from a disaster recovery engagement and avoid ransomware in the first place in the episode.

Learn more at www.airiam.com.

MITRE’s Shane Steiger, Esq., CISSP is our guest again in this week's episode. The episode is a continuation from the previous episode that covered what MITRE is. Shane covers more about cyber resiliency and how it relates to cybersecurity. He also shares his advice for small-to-medium sized businesses to become more resilient by conducting tabletop exercises and taking other steps. The underlying elements of his advice are the four pillars of their Cyber Resiliency Engineering Framework (CREF): Anticipate, Withstand, Recover, and Adapt.

For more information on the content discussed, visit the links below.

Airiam talks with Shane Steiger, Esq, CISSP in this episode. Shane does research on cybersecurity, cyber resilience and innovation for MITRE. We discuss how MITRE came to be and how the frameworks they maintain help companies around the world. The four pillars of their Cyber Resiliency Engineering Framework (CREF) framework are Anticipate, Withstand, Recover, and Adapt. Shane also shares his personal journey to join MITRE and how he works to make the organization great.

For more information on the content discussed, visit the links below.

People often make resolutions and set goals for the new year. In our first episode of 2023, we sat down with 13 IT and cybersecurity experts from Airiam, Secureworks, and Corvus Insurance. We wanted to know what their resolutions are for the year and what they would like to see companies do in 2023 to become more cyber resilient.

Listen to the episode for tips on MFA, immutable backups, penetration testing, and other ways to build resilience.

Learn more at www.airiam.com.

Cyber resilience is an evolution in mindset for the world of information security. It has been happening for years. Relying on firewalls, anti-virus, and other preventive manners at the expense of planning for what if can mean that a successful attack can take an organization down. Cyber resilience is the acknowledgement that threat actors have the ability to get past defenses, often with something as simple as stolen credentials. Airiam Field CIO and CISO Art Ocain discusses the topic in our latest podcast.

Learn more at www.airiam.com.

Since Russia attacked Ukraine in February 2022, the war has upended the lives of millions and resulted in the tragic loss of many lives. Amidst the chaos and destruction, there are stories of resilience and goodness. Airiam's Alex Zelenskiy discusses how he brought his family out of the conflict to safety after the invasion began in the podcast. He shares the lessons learned along the way and advice for people going through hard times.

Alex does not request any donations for himself, but rather he encourages people to donate to organizations run by people he personally knows on-the-ground in Ukraine. The Kharkiv Peace NGO is a voluntary non-governmental organization established to provide humanitarian assistance to Kharkiv residents.

Bonus Puzzle

At the end of the episode, Alex discusses his love of puzzles and riddles. One puzzle shared in the episode is outlined below. Tune in to the next podcast episode for the answer.

A cable of 80 meters is hanging from the top of two poles that are both 50 meters from the ground. What is the distance between the two poles, to one decimal place, if the center of the cable is: 10 meters above the ground? Hint: No math calculations are required. You have three minutes to think.

The first person to email [email protected] with the correct answer wins a $50 gift card.

Learn more at www.airiam.com.

In this first trailer episode of the Airiam Podcast, we preview what topics the podcast will cover, and share why the show was created. The mission of the podcast is to inform and inspire listeners with stories of cyber resilience and human resilience. The content will go beyond the IT jargon focus on what matters most for leaders.

The hosts of the podcast are Airiam CEO Conor Quinlan and Airiam Marketing Director Bill Bowman. They will be bringing stories from the front-lines of ransomware response and cybersecurity to inform business owners, CEOs, and other leaders at organizations. Episodes will typically be released every other Wednesday.

Learn more about Airiam at www.airiam.com.