Skip to content
Sign in
Artwork for Dark Reading Confidential
Technology

Dark Reading Confidential

InformaTechtarget

At any moment around the world, cybercriminals and nation-state sponsored hackers are targeting businesses, government entities, and nonprofits for financial gain, cyber espionage, or geopolitical advantage. But behind every organization facing this nonstop barrage of cyberattack activity are dedicated cybersecurity professionals working to defend their organizations’ networks, systems, and sensitive information.

Dark Reading Confidential brings you rare, firsthand stories from the cybersecurity practitioners in the cyber trenches, as well high-profile industry experts and headline-makers. Subscribe, and treat your ears to compelling stories and insights from the actual people fighting back against these hackers, and the experts helping to shape ever-evolving cybersecurity defenses.

Play
Open in
  • 20 episodes
  • monthly
  • Avg 36 min
  • English

Episodes 20

NewestOldestLongest
All20Unplayed20In progress0Played0
  • #19
    June 24 · 41 min

    Do CISOs Need a Code of Ethics?

    Kickbacks, no-show jobs, "dirty" VCs, and shelf ware — industry expert Robert "RSnake" Hansen explains why he thinks its time for a CISO code of ethics to ensure cybersecurity bosses aren't engaged in self-dealing that could risk enterprise, and even national, security.

  • #18
    May 5 · 26 min

    How the Story of a USB Penetration Test Went Viral

    Two decades ago Dark Reading posted its first blockbuster — a story from a pen tester who sprinkled rigged thumb drives around a credit union parking lot and let curious employees do the rest. This episode looks back at the history-making column with its author Steve Stasiukonis and Dark Reading's editor-in-chief Kelly Jackson Higgins.

  • #16
    April 2 · 41 min

    Security Bosses Are All-In on AI. Here's Why

    CISOs are bullish on AI and have big plans to roll out future tools. We talk to Reddit CISO, Fredrick Lee and leading analyst Dave Gruber about how AI is working out in the real world, as well as its future promise.

  • #13
    January 23 · 34 min

    Reviving the Hacker Ethos That Built Cybersecurity

    Dark Reading Confidential Episode 14: This episode features teen hackers who grew up to become cybersecurity executives Michael Coates and Tal Kollender who discuss how curious, ethical problem solving can continue to serve as a guiding principle for an evolving cybersecurity sector.

  • #11
    Nov 24, 2025 · 29 min

    CISOs Get Real About Hiring in the Age of AI

    Dark Reading Confidential Episode 12: Experts Fred Kwong and Jessica Sica help cyber job seekers get noticed; make an argument for a need to return to the hacker ethos of a bygone era; and have a stark conversation about keeping AI from breaking the sector's talent pipeline for years to come.

  • #9
    Sep 23, 2025 · 32 min

    Battle Space: Cyber Pros Land on the Front Lines of Protecting US Critical Infrastructure

    Dark Reading Confidential Episode 10: It’s past time for a cohesive plan to protect vital US systems from nation-state cyberattacks, and increasingly, that responsibility is falling to cybersecurity professionals and asset owners across a vast swath of organizations, who likely never bargained for a full-blown international conflict landing in their environments. But here we are. And here’s what comes next, according to Frank Cilluffo from the McCrary Institute and Booz Allen’s Dave Forbes.

  • #8
    Aug 28, 2025 · 32 min

    A Guided Tour of Today's Dark Web

    Join us for a look around today's Dark Web, and find out how law enforcement, AI, nation-state activities, and more are reshaping the way cybercriminals conduct their dirty business online. Keith Jarvis, senior security researcher at Sophos' Counter Threat Unit joins Dark Reading's Alex Culafi for a conversation you don't want to miss.

  • #7
    Jul 30, 2025 · 52 min

    Funding the CVE Program of the Future

    Dark Reading Confidential Episode 8: Federal funding for the CVE Program expires in April and a trio of experts agree the industry isn't doing enough to deal with the looming crisis. Bugcrowd's Trey Ford, expert Adam Shostack, and vulnerability historian Brian Martin sit down with Dark Reading to help us figure out what a "good" future of the CVE Program would look like, and how to get there.

  • #6
    Jun 25, 2025 · 34 min

    CISA is Shrinking: What Does it Mean for Cyber?

    Dark Reading Confidential sits down with two cybersecurity leaders to find out what cuts at CISA mean for the business of cyber. Featuring: Tom Parker, CEO of Hubble Technology Jake Williams, aka "@malwarejake", VP of R&D at Hunter Strategy In today’s episode, we’ll cover… The impact of CISA's workforce reduction How the private sector can fill the gap left by shrinking CISA Advice for cybersecurity professionals affected by CISA cuts and more! References: What is the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA)? How CISA Cuts Impact Election Security As CISA Downsizes, Where Can Enterprises Get Support? To learn more about cybersecurity, check out Dark Reading and Search Security. To watch clips from our podcast, subscribe to our YouTube channel, @EyeOnTech.

  • #6
    May 21, 2025 · 25 min

    The Day I Found an APT Group In the Most Unlikely Place

    Cyber researchers Ismael Valenzuela and Vitor Ventura share riveting stories about the creative tricks they used to track down advanced persistent threat groups, and the surprises they discovered along the way.

  • #5
    Mar 27, 2025 · 32 min

    Hoff’s Rules: People First

    Dark Reading Confidential Episode 5: Christofer Hoff, chief secure technology officer at LastPass, shares the human side of the story of how he led his team through a major cyber incident and built from the ground up a security team and security culture. In this frank conversation, Hoff has some valuable advice for how to handle and rebound from a cybersecurity incident. Have a listen.

  • #4
    Nov 5, 2024 · 30 min

    Quantum Has Landed, So Now What?

    Episode 4: The National Institute of Standards and Technology's (NIST) release of its new post-quantum cryptography standards last summer was the quiet start of a new chapter in cybersecurity. Now no longer something that can be filed away for future reference, post-quantum encryption has officially landed on the desks of cybersecurity leaders worldwide. We wanted to explore what comes next, so we recruited some world-class experts to help get answers. This episode of Dark Reading Confidential digs the world of quantum computing from a cybersecurity practitioner's point of view -- with guests Matthew McFadden, vice president, Cyber, General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT) and Thomas Scanlon, professor, Heinz College, Carnegie Mellon University. They give practical advice on how to manage the upgrade of post-quantum standards across an array of systems, and how to prioritize the most critical cryptography vulnerabilities inside your organization. From threat actors to regulators, the pressure to update to post-quantum standards is on. This episode of Dark Reading Confidential is focused on what to do about it. Take a listen.

  • #3
    Sep 10, 2024 · 41 min

    Pen Test Arrest: 5 Years Later

    Episode 3: On September 11, 2019, two cybersecurity professionals were arrested in Dallas County, Iowa and forced to spend the night in jail -- just for doing their jobs. Gary De Mercurio and Justin Wynn ultimately found themselves used as pawns in a very public and ugly power dispute between the local county Sheriff's office and the state, forced to justify the physical penetration test that the state of Iowa had hired them to conduct. Despite the criminal charges against them eventually being dropped, the saga that night five years ago continues to haunt De Mercurio and Wynn personally and professionally. In this episode, the pair and Coalfire's CEO Tom McAndrew share how the arrest and fallout has shaped their lives and careers as well as how it has transformed physical penetration tests for the cybersecurity industry as a whole.

  • #2
    Jun 27, 2024 · 54 min

    Meet the Ransomware Negotiators

    Episode 2: When a business gets infected with ransomware - its systems and data locked down by cybercriminals - there is rarely a quick fix to get back up and running. Sometimes the nature of the attack and the lack of backup options force the victim organization to pony up and pay ransom to the attackers. That's typically where a ransomware negotiator – often a third-party incident responder – steps in. These are the experts who communicate and negotiate with the ransomware attackers on the ransom demands, with the goal of decrypting locked-down systems so the victim business can get fully back up and running. In Episode 2 of Dark Reading Confidential, we meet two professional ransomware negotiators who share their real-world stories of the delicate deal-making process with cybercriminals who hold victims' computer systems and data for ransom. Among their stories: How they negotiated with cybercriminals to restore operations in a hospital NICU where lives were at stake, and a negotiation on behalf of a church, when the attackers themselves got "a little religion."

  • #1
    May 9, 2024 · 51 min

    The CISO and the SEC

    The first episode of Dark Reading Confidential dives into the complicated relationship between the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) within publicly traded companies. Frederick “Flee” Lee, CISO of Reddit, Beth Waller, a practicing cyber attorney who represents many CISOs, and Ben Lee, Chief Legal Officer of Reddit, chat with Dark Reading’s editor-in-chief Kelly Jackson Higgins and senior editor Becky Bracken.

Showing 1–20 of 20 episodes