Zero Hour Podcast

Ben is CTO and cofounder of Obsidian Security. He previously cofounded Carbon Black and most recently served as the company's chief security strategist. He has also has been a lecturer at University of Chicago’s Masters Program in Computer Science and a cybersecurity specialist at the National Security Agency (NSA) as well as serving on the board of a variety of security companies.

Key Minutes

1:30 The first time Ben heard of Cyber Security

4:00 What does cyber security mean to you?

6:40 Starting Carbon Black

9:15 Carbon Black reaching a global audience

10:58 Staying in front of your competitors

13:00 Why did you leave Carbon Black?

14:47 Starting Obsidian Security

19:45 What’s unique about Obsidian?

24:17 Being a CTO

27:40 Learning from previous lessons

31:42 Hiring strategy

35:27 Retaining high level talent

38:48 Standing out from the crowd

42:27 Democratising cyber security

54:30 Biggest tips for founders or entrepreneurs

56:30 Ten Quick Fire Questions

Key Points

- Take the approach of people first

- If you have 100 employees, that 100 people increases the risk because they are human

- When hiring we emphasis culture fit. You have to focus on character.

- If we don't retain our staff, its because we haven't created the right environment

You can find:

Conor on LinkedIn at: www.linkedin.com/in/conordsherman

Obsidian on Twitter at: @obsidiansec

Ben on Twitter at: @chicagoben

Follow us:

Twitter: @zero_hourpod

Instagram: @zerohourexperience

Website: www.karlsharman.com

This podcast is sponsored by:

BeecherMadden - www.beechermadden.com

Cyber Security Professionals - www.cybersecurity-professionals.com

Conor is currently VP of Security at Clear after recently leaving Apollo Global Management as Director of Cyber Security. Conor has successfully built, redesigned, and reinvigorated cyber security programs for fast paced, high performing companies. By leveraging security orchestration and automation (SOAR), and machine learning techniques, Conor delivers highly effective Security Operation Centers (SOCs), Threat Intelligence and hunting capabilities.

The programs are aligned with business objectives, and bring exponential threat reduction with incremental investment. He takes a “hands on” leadership style and builds programs with a first principles mindset following the Agile methodology. 

Key minutes

07:25 - What Cyber Security Means

08:30 - Defining Confidence

10:30 - Why would a organisation spend more on Cyber Security?

17:50 - How would you go out and assess vulnerabilities within an organisation?

22:15 - Would knowing your vulnerabilities help organisations move forwards

23:50 - The difference between a SOC and a threat intelligence program

27:00 - External vs internal threats

30:10 - Implementing these into any organisation

35:00 - The difference between a threat intelligence and threat hunter program

38:40 - Selecting the right vendors

44:25 - How long does it to build a program?

46:00 - What does success look like?

49:10 - Building the next generation of Investigation centres

Key Points

- Everything with Cyber Security has to bring integrity, trust and confidence

- Security needs to be integrated within everything from day one

- Threat intelligence is your lead indicator of an attack. SOC is your response. Threat hunting is you being pro-active before an attack has or is about to happen.

You can find:

Conor on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/conordsherman

Conor on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/conordsherman?lang=en

Conor on Medium at: https://medium.com/@ConorDSherman

Follow us:

Twitter: @zero_hourpod

Instagram: @zerohourexperience

Website: www.karlsharman.com

This podcast is sponsored by:

BeecherMadden - www.beechermadden.com

Cyber Security Professionals - www.cybersecurity-professionals.com

Mike Spain is an innovation and growth expert and neurodiversity advocate in the cyber sector with excellent links across UK Government, industry and academia. He is a driven, adaptable and innovative leader with influence at senior government and C-level industry. His leadership of diverse multi-organisational teams in complex and challenging environments consistently delivers measurable benefit. 

Mike has over 10 years consulting experience across a variety of sectors including cyber, defence and government. He leads the operations of Cyber Growth Partnership and Cyber Exchange initiative, working passionately to enable growth of the UK cyber sector and development of a sustainable UK cyber ecosystem.

Key points:

- A diverse team could lead up to 50% greater performance, which would make any board sit up and listen.

- Neurodiversity will add another pool of talent that people may not be accessing when there is a skill shortage.

- We need to make sure that neurodiverse personal get access to an industry that actually has access like every other industry

Key minutes:

11:05: What is neurodiversity

13:10: Common barriers in the workplace

15:00: How to approach job listings

18:30: Coordinating at national level

20:15: How can recruiters do more to make this more accessible?

23:00: How can individuals improve the cyber security eco system?

25:20: Neurodiversity and cyber security in the future

You can find:

Mike at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-spain-14a07b3/

Cyber Exchange at: https://cyberexchange.uk.net

Cyber Growth Partnership at: https://www.techuk.org/about/our-staff/programmes/item/3438-mike-spain

Follow us:

Twitter: @zero_hourpod

Instagram: @zerohourexperience

Website: www.karlsharman.com

This podcast is sponsored by:

BeecherMadden - www.beechermadden.com

Cyber Security Professionals - www.cybersecurity-professionals.com

Chris Baynham-Hughes is the UK Head of DevOps & Redhat Emerging Technology at ATOS. His background is in software delivery, business transformation, process re-engineering, practice management and business strategy. Chris works with clients to deliver solutions that not only transform delivery capability, but also set a sustained culture of relentless improvement. When Chris is not undertaking adventures in DevOps Chris is usually found running and swimming around the mountains.

Key points:

- Achieve the balance of both cultural and technological change required to maximise ROI

- Recognise, address and solve business problems

- Focus activities on pain points rather than ‘DevOps by numbers’

Key minutes:

5:30 emerging Technolgoies

8:00 first leadership role

12:30 measuring happiness in your team

16:00 what is Devops

20:00 Open shift containers

24:30 Procurement/Vendors

28:00 Benefits to the business for implementing Devops

45:00 Helping implement cultures

50:00 Emerging technologies in transformation

59:30 A high performing team

01:10:30 Ten Quick Fire Questions

Find Chris's work at: https://atos.net/en/expert/chris-baynham-hughes

Twitter: https://twitter.com/OnlyChrisBH

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisbh/?trk=hp-identity-name

Follow us:

Twitter: @zero_hourpod

Instagram: @zerohourexperience

Website: www.karlsharman.com

This podcast is sponsored by:

BeecherMadden - www.beechermadden.com

Cyber Security Professionals - www.cybersecurity-professionals.com

Dan Raywood is the contributing editor of Infosecurity Magazine. He has written about IT security since 2008, having spent five years as news editor of SC Magazine, 20 months as Editor of IT Security Guru and six months as an Analyst in the Information Security Practice at 451 Research. He has spoken at 44CON, SecuriTay, SteelCon and Infosecurity Europe, as well as writing for a number of vendor blogs and presenting on webcasts.

Key points:

- To get ahead, you need mentors;

- Hiring is key as you will hire the people to enable the technologies to work;

- Accepting cybersecurity risk for the business is a huge step forwards

Key minutes:

1:40 - Why Dan got into journalism

6:00 - Starting in information security

8:45 - Connections over knowledge

10:00 - Breaking big news in Cyber Security

15:00 - State of Cyber Security

17:00 - Trends in Cyber Security

20:00 - GDPR

23:45 - Predictions for Cyber Security

29:40 - How do we improve the state of security?

30:30 - Next big topic in cyber security

32:20 - Objectives of a journalist

33:30 - Top ten questions

You can view the report here: https://www.infosecurityeurope.com/__novadocuments/484123?v=636650221535700000

You can reach InfoSec at: https://www.infosecurityeurope.com/about/

Their new North American conference: https://www.infosecuritynorthamerica.com/

Find Dan Raywood's work at: https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/profile/dan-raywood-1/

Follow us:

Twitter: @zero_hourpod

Instagram: @zerohourexperience

Website: www.karlsharman.com

This podcast is sponsored by:

BeecherMadden - www.beechermadden.com

Cyber Security Professionals - www.cybersecurity-professionals.com

We are joined by Christian Toon at InfoSec Europe 2018. Welcome to the latest episode of the Zero Hour Podcast and I’m your host Karl Sharman. Christian Toon, is the CISO at Pinsent Masons. Christian has spent the last 14 years successfully disrupting traditional approaches to information protection and management for large international organisations. From a career in end user security, moved into Big 4 Consulting to build a practice around ‘CISO for Hire’ services that involved engagements with financial and insurance services clients. Leaving PwC after nearly 3 years, joined Pinsent Masons to lead their information protection strategy across a firm of over 3200 employees around the globe.

Three takeaways:

- Make a lot of noise, to create disruption.

- Hire on behaviour.

- Behaviour and experience will go a lot further than qualifications.

Key Minutes:

1:40 - Meeting Security

2:45 - Passion for Security

5:30 - Disrupting the industry

7:30 - Information Risk Sharing

12:30 - Law Sector

14:00 - People not in security

15:15 - There is no skills gap

20:00 - Team building exercises

20:20 - Recruiting on behaviour over skills

22:50 - Tom Langford

23:30 - Taking a wider approach

25:20 - Retaining talent

30:20 - Biggest tip for recruitment

Connect with Christian on LinkedIn or Twitter.

Connect with Pinsent Masons at: www.pinsentmasons.com

Follow us:

Twitter: @zero_hourpod

Instagram: @zerohourexperience

Website: www.karlsharman.com

This podcast is sponsored by:

BeecherMadden - www.beechermadden.com

Cyber Security Professionals - www.cybersecurity-professionals.com

Simon is the Co-Founder & Managing Director of Hut Six Security; a start-up creating a comprehensive solution to human error in information security. Simon works closely with clients consulting on their security awareness needs and designing specific and customised campaigns.

I'm not sure if you can tell but Simon and I had this discussion at InfoSec Europe 2018!

Three takeaways:

- Human factor in security is a massive issue with no complete solution yet;

- There's not going to be one solution as there's no one approach or similar situations in every organisation;

- When building training programmes, customise them for each individual, role and outcome - also make them engaging!

Connect with Hut Six Security on their website: www.hutsix.io

Find them on Twitter: @hutsixsecurity

Follow us:

Twitter: @zero_hourpod

Instagram: @zerohourexperience

Website: www.karlsharman.com

This podcast is sponsored by:

BeecherMadden - www.beechermadden.com

Cyber Security Professionals - www.cybersecurity-professionals.com

We are joined by Daniel Ng at InfoSec Europe 2018. Daniel is the CEO of Cyber Owl - a system that provides early warnings from cyber attacks. Dan spent ten years at KPMG before Cyber Owl and is also the Chair of the Working Group at the IoT Security Foundation, a non profit working towards establishing principles and improving capability globally for security.

Three takeaways:

- You never stop learning.

- You need to be harder to breach than the next person/organisation.

- The risk profile sets out the resources required.

Connect with CyberOwl on website: www.cyberowl.io

Email CyberOwl at: [email protected]

Follow us:

Twitter: @zero_hourpod

Instagram: @zerohourexperience

Website: www.karlsharman.com

This podcast is sponsored by:

BeecherMadden - www.beechermadden.com

Cyber Security Professionals - www.cybersecurity-professionals.com

Richard Merrygold is the Director of Group Data Protection at HomeServe. He is responsible for the protection of data across the European and UK business. He has recently developed and implemented a group wide privacy framework in preparation for GDPR covering all aspects of compliance for over 4 million customers.

Three takeaways:

- There is no difference between Information Security, Data Protection,

Data Privacy and Data Security - they are a combination.

- GDPR is a fantastic opportunity to provide a better relationship and insight into your customers.

- GDPR will more likely lower your costs and drive up revenue.

Follow Richard on Twitter: @RichMerrygold

Connect with Richard on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richard-merrygold-7856847/

Follow us:

Twitter: @zerohour

Instagram: @zerohourexperience

Website: www.karlsharman.com

This podcast is sponsored by:

BeecherMadden - www.beechermadden.com

Cyber Security Professionals - www.cybersecurity-professionals.com

Karla Reffold is an experienced and passionate recruitment business owner, having set up BeecherMadden over 6 years ago. In October, she successfully sold her company to the global recruitment company, Nicoll Curtin - although she is still the CEO. Despite the tests of being a single parent to two young children, her corporate governance and cyber security recruitment company operates in UK, Europe and US. As well as this she has recently been recognised as a contributor for Forbes and a judge for the Cyber Security Awards in London.

Three takeaways:

- Transition people from relevant sectors where people have the soft skills required to be successful

- Money isn't everything

- Build your network

Find Karla on LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/karlajobling

& at Forbes: www.forbes.com/sites/forbeshumanresourcescouncil/people/karlareffold/#608939103b9c

Follow us:

Twitter: @zerohour

Instagram: @zerohourexperience

Website: www.karlsharman.com

This podcast is sponsored by:

BeecherMadden - www.beechermadden.com

Cyber Security Professionals - www.cybersecurity-professionals.com