The SafeHouse

What happens when the electricity powering your business disappears?

In today's interconnected digital economy, electricity is more than a utility—it's the foundation of nearly every business operation. Yet despite significant investments in cybersecurity, cloud services, and disaster recovery, many organizations overlook one of their most fundamental vulnerabilities: reliable access to power.

In this episode of the Safe House Initiative Podcast, host Jeff Edwards speaks with Nick Vandenbrekel, electrical engineer and CEO of Inflection and FTG Energy, about the challenges facing our aging electrical infrastructure and the growing demand for electricity driven by artificial intelligence, data centers, and modern technology.

Nick explores why centralized electrical grids represent a significant dependency, how decentralized power generation could improve operational resilience, and why conventional backup systems may be insufficient during prolonged outages.

The conversation also introduces emerging approaches to energy generation, storage, and ownership, including technologies being developed by Inflection and FTG Energy.

Key discussion topics include the vulnerability of aging power grids, AI's impact on energy demand, decentralized electrical generation, long-term business continuity, and the importance of recognizing electricity as a critical business dependency.

The central question: Your organization may have a disaster recovery plan, cybersecurity protection, and cloud backups—but do you have a realistic plan for operating without electricity?

Discover why understanding this hidden dependency is essential to closing the Failure Gap.

Learn more at https://safehouseinitiative.org.

#SafeHouseInitiative #BusinessResilience #EnergySecurity #PowerGrid #BusinessContinuity #CriticalInfrastructure #ArtificialIntelligence #EnergyInnovation #TheSafeHousePodcast

Where should a small business actually start with AI?Not with the newest tool. Not with the hype. And not by trying to automate everything.The SafeHouse host Jeff Edwards talks with Mikaela Myers, Co-Founder and CEO of Navi Solutions and former AWS Responsible AI product manager, about a practical approach to AI adoption for small and midsize businesses.Mikaela breaks down Responsible AI in plain English, including security, privacy, fairness, safety, governance and transparency. She explains the concept of baking, blocking and steering AI safeguards and why the intended use of an AI system matters as much as the technology itself.The conversation then gets practical: conduct a friction audit, identify repetitive or inefficient work, find low-risk opportunities with measurable value, run a focused pilot, and expand only after you’ve proven the result.They also discuss a risk many businesses may already have: employees using public AI tools without understanding what happens to company information.The takeaway: Stop asking what you can do with AI. Start asking what problem in your business is worth solving.Guest: Mikaela Myers, Co-Founder & CEO, Navi SolutionsHost: Jeff Edwards, The SafeHouse Podcast

#ResponsibleAI #SmallBusiness #ArtificialIntelligence #AIAdoption #SMB #TheSafeHousePodcast

In this episode of The SafeHouse Podcast, Jeff Edwards sits down with Mike Hamilton, former Seattle CISO and Chief Technical Officer of PISCES International, a nonprofit organization providing free cybersecurity monitoring and workforce development for underserved communities across the United States.

Mike shares his remarkable journey from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and early cybersecurity consulting to building one of the most impactful community-focused cyber defense initiatives in the country.

The conversation explores:

• Why rural hospitals, school districts, utilities, and local governments are increasingly vulnerable to cyberattacks
• How PISCES delivers enterprise-grade monitoring capabilities to organizations that otherwise could not afford them
• The growing cybersecurity workforce shortage and how hands-on training is changing lives
• How AI is rapidly transforming Security Operations Centers (SOCs)
• One simple policy change organizations can make today to dramatically improve security posture

This episode is a powerful discussion about resilience, public infrastructure protection, workforce development, and the future of operational cybersecurity.

Learn more about the SafeHouse Initiative and its mission to educate underserved communities on cybersecurity and operational resilience.

#CyberSecurity #CyberDefense #CyberAwareness #OperationalResilience #CriticalInfrastructure #RuralCybersecurity #PublicSectorSecurity #SOC #AI #WorkforceDevelopment #CommunityResilience #SafeHousePodcast #SafeHouseInitiative #PISCES

What would you do if you got hacked today?

Not in theory. In real life.

In this episode of The SafeHouse, Jeff Edwards sits down with Alan Gin to walk through exactly what happens when a cyber incident hits close to home.

Based on Alan’s three-part series on what to do if you get hacked, this conversation breaks down the reality most people aren’t prepared for.

• They cover:
• The most common ways people get compromised
• How to recognize the early signs of a breach
• What to do in the first 24 hours
• How to contain the damage
• Where to go for help
• The mistakes that make things worse
• How to prepare before it happens
• This is not a technical discussion. It’s a practical one.

Because when something goes wrong, there’s no help desk for your personal life.

#CyberSecurity #CyberRisk #CyberAwareness#OnlineSafety #CyberAttack #SafeHousePodcast

Most small and mid-sized businesses don’t have a standalone cyber insurance policy. Not because they don’t care. Not because they don’t face risk, but because the system around them isn’t built in a way that’s practical to navigate.

In this episode, Jeff Edwards sits down with Kurt Suhs, Founder and CEO of Concierge Cyber, to unpack why adoption remains low, what’s changed in the cyber insurance market, and what businesses are actually doing instead.

Kurt brings a rare perspective. From his early days at the FDIC investigating failed financial institutions, to helping shape some of the first cyber insurance policies in the late 90s, to building a “Plan B” model designed for the real world.

This conversation goes beyond policy language and into something more useful:

• How businesses think about risk when they don’t have coverage
• Why complexity and policy structure are major barriers
• What happens when something goes wrong and there’s no safety net
• And what a practical, response-first approach actually looks like

If you’re an SMB owner, advisor, or part of the cyber insurance ecosystem, this is a grounded look at the gap between coverage and reality.

#CyberInsurance #CyberRisk #SMB #Ransomware #BusinessContinuity #Resilience #Insurance #SafeHouse #FailureGap

Cyber risk management is often framed as a choice between prevention and insurance. In reality, the most resilient organizations combine both.

In this episode of The SafeHouse, Jeff Edwards speaks with Michael Phillips, Global Head of Cyber at Coalition, about how insurers evaluate cyber risk and why mitigation and insurance must work together.

Building on a previous discussion about the elements of risk management, the conversation explores how underwriters think about cyber exposure, what signals insurers look for when assessing organizations, and why operational resilience is becoming central to modern cyber insurance.

The result is a practical discussion about how businesses should approach cyber risk today.

#SafeHousePodcast #CyberRisk #CyberSecurity #CyberResilience #RiskManagement #CyberSecurityPodcast #OperationalResilience

Cyber risk is no longer just a technical issue. It’s a financial one.

In this episode of The SafeHouse Podcast, Jeff Edwards sits down with Davis Hake, leader of Venable’s San Francisco cybersecurity practice, to unpack what risk management actually means in today’s cyber environment.

Davis shares his early exposure to national critical infrastructure risk, the moment he saw one of the first comprehensive cyber breach tracking lists, and how Stuxnet changed the public conversation around digital vulnerability.

From there, the discussion moves into something most organizations still struggle with: measuring cyber risk in financial terms.

You’ll hear:

• The five elements of risk explained in plain language

• Why most cyber programs fail to quantify exposure

• How to think about cyber risk like a CFO

• The growing need for financial risk measurement training

• Practical resources for professionals who want to level up

If you work in cybersecurity, insurance, enterprise risk, or resilience strategy, this conversation will sharpen how you think about exposure, impact, and accountability.

Cyber risk isn’t abstract. It’s measurable. And it’s time we treated it that way.

#CyberRisk #RiskManagement #CyberSecurity

#CyberInsurance #OperationalResilience.#BusinessContinuity

Nearly a year after federal cybersecurity policy shifted responsibility and funding to the states, what does that change actually look like in practice?

In this episode of The SafeHouse Podcast, host Jeff Edwards sits down with James Saunders, Chief Information Security Officer for the State of Maryland, to unpack how cybersecurity leadership, resilience, and public service are evolving at the state level.

James shares his career journey from frontline technical support at Comcast to federal cybersecurity leadership during COVID, and now to safeguarding Maryland’s digital infrastructure. Along the way, he explains Maryland’s IT Master Plan, the state’s five-pillar cybersecurity strategy, and why partnerships, talent development, and resilience matter more than ever.

The conversation goes beyond policy and architecture, touching on leadership, empathy, burnout, and what it really takes to sustain a career in cybersecurity.

If you work in cybersecurity, IT leadership, government, or risk management, this episode offers a rare, candid look inside how states are adapting to a new national reality.

Key topics include:

• The shift of cybersecurity responsibility from federal to state governments
• Maryland’s IT Master Plan and cybersecurity strategy
• Cyber resilience beyond technology alone
• Building and retaining cybersecurity talent
• Information sharing across states
• Leadership lessons from crisis moments like COVID
• One practical thing everyone can do to improve their security posture

#SafeHousePodcast #CyberRisk

#CyberSecurity  #StateCybersecurity

#RiskManagement #CyberSecurityPodcast 

#Resilience #PublicSectorIT

Most people think warranties and insurance are interchangeable.

They’re not

Insurance transfers risk after loss. Warranties enforce behavior before loss.

In this episode of The SafeHouse Podcast, Jeff Edwards speaks with Kirsten Bay, CEO and co-founder of Cysurance, about why warranties are becoming a critical layer in cyber risk management.

We discuss:

• Why traditional cyber insurance struggles with prevention
• How warranties tie security controls to real accountability
• The role of embedded security and measurable outcomes
• How warranties reduce loss severity and support underwriting
• What this shift means for insurers, brokers, CISOs, and boards

This conversation reframes how cyber risk is reduced, not just insured.

If you care about resilience, insurability, and prevention-first models, this episode is for you.

#SafeHousePodcast #CyberRisk#CyberInsurance 

#RiskManagement#CyberSecurityPodcast #Resilience #Cysurance

In this episode of The SafeHouse Podcast, we’re joined by Ryan Ettridge, CEO of CyberCert, an Australian innovator helping SMBs and enterprises turn compliance into measurable cyber resilience.

Titled “Cybersecurity Frameworks Made Practical: From Confusion to Clarity,” this conversation tackles a problem many organizations face: frameworks and standards that look good on paper but feel impossible to implement in the real world.

Ryan breaks down how AI-driven cyber certification can help organizations predict where risk is most likely to emerge, prevent disruption before it becomes a claim, and protect both insureds and carriers by creating clear, defensible signals of cyber maturity.

We also explore how certification data can bridge the long-standing gap between technology teams and the cyber insurance ecosystem — giving brokers, underwriters, and policyholders a shared language for risk, resilience, and insurability.

If you’ve ever wondered how to move from framework fatigue to practical cyber readiness, this episode delivers clarity.

Predict. Prevent. Protect.

#CyberResilience #AI #CyberInsurance #SafeHousePodcast #PredictPreventProtect #CyberCert