In this episode of THREATCON1, hosts Tom Bain and Patrick Garrity sit down with Nathan Rollings, Field CISO at Zafran, and Yonatan Keller, Analyst Team Lead at Zafran, for a deep, practitioner-focused conversation on the realities of modern vulnerability management.

Together, they explore why patching alone can’t keep up with today’s threat landscape — and how security teams can dramatically reduce risk by prioritizing what actually matters.

🔍 Key Topics Covered

Why patching is too slow

The average enterprise takes ~49 days to patch — while attackers weaponize vulnerabilities in days (or minutes).

Mitigating controls vs. patching

How firewalls, EDRs, WAFs, segmentation, and configuration changes can meaningfully reduce exploitability — even when patching isn’t possible.

The “1 in 50,000” insight

Why only a tiny fraction of vulnerabilities are truly critical when you factor in runtime, reachability, exploitability, and existing controls.

Zero-days without CVEs

How agentic workflows can assess exposure, identify impacted assets, and recommend mitigations before scanners, signatures, or CVE IDs exist.

CTEM as a maturity journey

Moving from noisy vulnerability lists to operationalized, risk-driven exposure management — without creating shelfware.

Threat enablement is the real danger

Why loosely organized groups and even teenagers are now capable of causing enterprise-level disruption.

Edge devices, legacy software, and OT risk

Why internet-facing systems and unpatchable environments (manufacturing, healthcare, critical infrastructure) demand a mitigation-first mindset.

AI vulnerabilities: the next frontier

No CVEs, no standards, rapid adoption — and a growing attack surface most organizations aren’t tracking yet.

AI as a force multiplier for defenders

How agentic AI can shorten exposure windows, automate analysis, and upskill under-resourced security teams.

If you’re overwhelmed by vulnerability volume, constrained by patching windows, or struggling to align security priorities with business reality, this episode offers a grounded, experience-driven perspective on how modern teams are adapting — and where the industry is heading next.

THREATCON1 is created by VulnCheck and focuses on emerging threats, real-world security operations, and conversations with practitioners shaping the future of cybersecurity.

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In this episode of the Threatcon1 Podcast, Tom and Patrick sit down with Tyler Shields, Cybersecurity Strategy Analyst at Omdia, for a wide-ranging conversation on where cybersecurity is heading — and what actually matters to practitioners right now.

Tyler brings a rare perspective shaped by years spent across research, offensive security, vendor strategy, and analyst work. Together, they unpack how AI is reshaping cybersecurity workflows, why threat and exposure management is emerging as a critical discipline, and how offensive and defensive security must converge to drive real risk reduction.

The discussion dives deep into the realities behind AI hype, the importance of keeping humans in the loop, and why buyers are overwhelmed by security debt rather than lacking data. Tyler also offers a candid take on the CVE ecosystem, vulnerability scoring fragmentation, and why context — not raw severity scores — is the only thing that makes vulnerability data actionable.

The episode closes with a look at the next generation of cybersecurity leaders, startup strategy, and what students entering the field are uniquely positioned to do differently.

Key topics include:

1. Applied AI vs. AI hype in cybersecurity
2. Threat & exposure management as a risk-reduction engine
3. Offensive security’s role in prioritization and validation
4. Why vulnerability scoring breaks down without context
5. CVEs, ecosystem fragmentation, and global vulnerability data
6. Platformization, consolidation, and the future of security tooling
7. Building cybersecurity startups that solve real buyer problems

http://threatcon1.org

https://vulncheck.com

https://omdia.tech.informa.com

In this episode of THREATCON1, Tom and Patrick sit down with Nabil Hannan, Field CISO at NetSPI, AI-focused startup advisor, and host of the Agent of Influence podcast. Nabil shares his unique perspective on today’s most pressing cybersecurity challenges, including:

1. Insecure software and why vulnerabilities are becoming increasingly dangerous in our hyper-connected world.
2. The human factor in cybersecurity: why people often pose a bigger risk than technology itself.
3. Secure by design principles and the hurdles organizations face when trying to implement them at scale.
4. CVE program insights: understanding the gap between published vulnerabilities and real-world threats.
5. Software Bill of Materials (S-BoM): why tracking third-party components is critical for enterprise security.
6. AI in cybersecurity: from deepfakes to real-time impersonation, Nabil breaks down the risks and practical applications.
7. Career insights: Nabil reflects on his journey through software development, product management, and cybersecurity leadership.

Whether you’re a cybersecurity professional, software engineer, or just interested in the evolving digital threat landscape, this episode is packed with actionable insights and real-world examples from someone on the front lines of security.

Resources & Links Mentioned:

THREATCON1: https://www.threatcon1.org/

NetSPI: https://www.netspi.com

Agent of Influence Podcast: https://www.netspi.com/podcast/logistics-cybersecurity/

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Tom and Patrick sit down with Christine Fignar, Cybersecurity Analyst at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, to unpack one of the most misunderstood areas of security: insider threats and human-driven risk. Christine’s background spanning aviation, HR, communications, and counterterrorism gives her a rare perspective on stress, behavior patterns, and the subtle signals that often precede incidents.

We get into her “Cone of Uncertainty” framework for visualizing how threats form and evolve, discuss hiring fraud, offboarding gaps, nation-state recruitment, and why organizations routinely miss early warning signs. A conversation for anyone looking to better understand, track, and communicate human-centric risk.

🔍 Topics Covered

• How the Federal Reserve approaches insider threat detection
• The “Cone of Uncertainty” model — and why it works for cyber
• Why human stress is one of the strongest predictors of insider risk
• How to watch for early “storm signals” inside your organization
• The rise of nation-state hiring scams (North Korea, China)
• OSINT techniques for tracking behavioral risk
• Why cyber teams must become “English-to-English translators”
• Problems with spreadsheets, CVSS scores, and risk communication
• The hidden dangers in onboarding/offboarding workflows
• Real-world examples: sales data theft, disgruntled employees, access misconfigurations
• Why organizations still fail at protecting sensitive information

🎙️ About Our Guest

Christine Fignar

Cybersecurity Analyst, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis

Specializes in insider threat, incident response, human-behavior-driven risk, and threat intelligence analysis.

Background includes aviation operations, HR, communications, and counterterrorism/anti-corruption studies.

📢 If You’re in Cybersecurity, This Episode Is For You

Perfect for security leaders, threat intel analysts, defenders, SOC teams, and anyone who wants to understand the human side of modern cyber threats — beyond the dashboards and detection tools.

Tom and Patrick welcomed Simon Goldsmith, CISO, Ovo Energy to the show, to chat about the emerging threat landscape across different industries he’s served in - from the CISO’s perspective. We dig into some of his cyber experiences throughout his career, talk rugby, debate Oasis vs Blur and even drill down into how to counter coordinated nation-state attacks!

Tom and Patrick host Mike Privette, Founder, Return on Security, to get a sense of Mike's perspectives on how he's used his operational background in cyber as a former multi-time CISO to pivot into something entirely different in the cyber market today! Mike brings insights on how he tracks and slices data on all cyber funding and M&A activity with his broad-ranging dataset and his leading newsletter. They cover ground on emerging threats, AI investment in cyber and what pushed him to pursue a unique pivot in his cybersecurity journey!

Tom and Patrick sit down with VP of Security Research, Tod Beardsley. We talk to Tod about his current role leading cyber research at RunZero, his time at CISA, emerging cyber threats he's currently engaged in researching, his perspective on the CVE program and its future - and finally, horror movies, of which Tod is an aficionado and active podcast host himself of Podsothoth: A Lovecraft Book Club. This session isn't THAT scary really...