Defense in Depth

CISO Series

Defense in Depth, hosted by David Spark, Steve Zalewski, Geoff Belknap, and Edward Contreras, promises clear talk on cybersecurity's most controversial and confusing debates. Once a week we choose one controversial and popular cybersecurity debate and use the InfoSec community's insights to lead our discussion.

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31 episodes
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English

Episodes 31

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Thursday · 25 min
How Should Security Be Architected for Human Error?
All links and images can be found on CISO Series We've all internalized that humans are the weak link in cybersecurity. Why do we not account for that when we're building our cybersecurity programs? Check out this post for the discussion that is the basis of our conversation on this week's episode, co-hosted by David Spark, the producer of CISO Series, and Geoff Belknap. Joining them is their sponsored guest, Kieran Human, lead cybersecurity engineer, ThreatLocker. In this episode: Humans and automation checking each other Assume the click happens Catch it in the moment Take the manual step out entirely A huge thanks to our sponsor, ThreatLocker An AI-generated attack may be new, but it still needs to execute, access data, and move through your environment. ThreatLocker applies enforceable controls at each of those points, limiting what attackers can do regardless of how their code was created. Book a demo at threatlocker.com/ciso.
October 8 · 33 min
Can SMBs Get the Same Security as Everyone Else?
All links and images can be found on CISO Series Check out this post for the discussion that is the basis of our conversation for this week's episode co-hosted by me, David Spark, the producer of CISO Series, and Steve Zalewski. Joining us is their sponsored guest, Mark Stockley, cybersecurity evangelist, ThreatDown. In this episode: The ripple effect The economics of ignoring SMB Let the defaults do the work Accountability doesn't get outsourced A huge thanks to our sponsor, ThreatDown ThreatDown MDR is a 24/7/365 security analyst service that explains and resolves suspicious endpoint events. Our team of cybersecurity experts delivers proactive monitoring, investigation, and remediation, catching threats before they escalate. With ThreatDown's always-on protection, organizations gain peace of mind and safeguard their data, reputation, and finances - backed by real analyst expertise, not just automation. Learn more at threatdown.com
October 1 · 33 min
Why Do We Keep Complaining About the Same Issues in Cybersecurity?
All links and images can be found on CISO Series LinkedIn used to have a decent reputation among cybersecurity professionals. But lately, it feels like our feeds are relitigating the same debates every day, just with different faces. Has the situation changed? Check out this post by Allan Alford of NTT Global Data Centers for the discussion that is the basis of our conversation on this week's episode co-hosted by me, David Spark, the producer of CISO Series, and Geoff Belknap. Joining us is Howard Holton, founder, Phronia Counsel. In this episode: The clichés that say nothing A discipline without shared answers Old topics, new lenses A people problem, not a security problem A huge thanks to our sponsor, Teleskope Most DSPMs stop at finding the risk. Teleskope fixes this: it automatically finds sensitive data, including IP documents or board decks, and remediates exposure across cloud, SaaS, and AI environments natively, with human-in-the-loop controls, improving your team's efficiency tenfold. Trusted by Ramp, Polymarket, and Chevron Phillips, and more. teleskope.ai
September 24 · 35 min
Securing AI-Generated Open Source Code
All links and images can be found on CISO Series Check out this post for the discussion that is the basis of our conversation on this week's episode co-hosted by me, David Spark, the producer of CISO Series, and Steve Zalewski. Joining us is our sponsored guest, Abby Kearns, CEO, ActiveState. In this episode: Trust, but nobody verifies The economics of trust just changed Implicit trust doesn't scale anymore Rethinking what "open" even means A huge thanks to our sponsor, ActiveState ActiveState gives security and engineering teams a single governed source for open source software. With 79 million components built from source, continuously remediated, and delivered directly into the tools teams already use, ActiveState eliminates the CVE backlog and the developer toil that comes with it. Companies see a 60 to 99% reduction in CVEs and reclaim up to 30% of developer time. Learn more at activestate.com.
September 21 · 21 min
BONUS EPISODE: Super Cyber Friday Express - Hacking Vendor Selection
All links and images can be found on CISO Series This is a bonus episode of our brand new podcast, Super Cyber Friday Express — a 20-minute highlight version of our live one-hour show we do every available Friday at 1 p.m. Eastern. In this episode, David Spark is joined by Karl Mattson, founder and managing director of Squared Circle Ventures, and Howard Holton, founder and principal analyst at Phronia Counsel LLC, to discuss how your existing environment shapes what you buy next — and whether that's a strategy or just inertia. Watch the full one-hour show at Crowdcast. Subscribe to Super Cyber Friday Express, or any show on CISO Series, at CISOseries.com/subscribe.
September 17 · 26 min
How AppSec Needs to Change For the Speed of AI
All links and images can be found on CISO Series Check out this post by Anand Singh, CSO, Symmetry Systems, for the discussion that is the basis of our conversation on this week's episode co-hosted by me, David Spark, the producer of CISO Series, and Steve Zalewski. Joining us is Ryan Barrett, svp, security, Intermedia Cloud Communications. In this episode: Risk by default, not by decision Identity, not just speed Building security into the pipeline, not around it Letting the machine make the fix A huge thanks to our sponsor, ThreatLocker An AI-generated attack may be new, but it still needs to execute, access data, and move through your environment. ThreatLocker applies enforceable controls at each of those points, limiting what attackers can do regardless of how their code was created. Book a demo at threatlocker.com/ciso.
September 10 · 27 min
Building Resilience for Microsoft 365
All links and images can be found on CISO Series Check out this post for the discussion that is the basis of our conversation on this week's episode co-hosted by me, David Spark, the producer of CISO Series, and Brett Conlon, CISO, American Century Investments. Joining us is our sponsored guest, Simon Hughes, vp of field security at CoreView. In this episode: Ecosystem, not platform Beyond backup, into resilience What survives the restore Toward a digital twin A huge thanks to our sponsor, CoreView Attackers don't break into Microsoft 365. They log in and reconfigure it. When tenant configurations drift or get tampered with, recovery can take weeks and missed settings can reopen the door. The Cyber Resilience Framework for Microsoft 365 covers the five pillars, harden, govern, detect, respond, recover, and shows exactly where today's tools leave gaps. Download the free practical guide
September 3 · 28 min
Recommendations to Reboot the Security Vendor Pitch
All links and images can be found on CISO Series Check out this post by Val Tsanev of CyberRisk Alliance, for the discussion that is the basis of our conversation on this week's episode co-hosted by David Spark, the producer of CISO Series, and Edward Contreras, senior evp and CISO, Frost Bank. Joining is Jill Rhodes, svp, CISO, Option Care Health. In this episode: The ten-minute test Relevance beats format Price the problem or lose the room Whose meeting is it, really A huge thanks to our sponsor, Teleskope Most DSPMs stop at finding the risk. Teleskope fixes this: it automatically finds sensitive data, including IP documents or board decks, and remediates exposure across cloud, SaaS, and AI environments natively, with human-in-the-loop controls, improving your team's efficiency tenfold. Trusted by Ramp, Polymarket, and Chevron Phillips, and more. teleskope.ai
August 27 · 29 min
Market Confusion Is Responsible for the Biggest Gaps in Cybersecurity
All links and images can be found on CISO Series Check out this post from Joe Head of RELEX Solutions for the discussion that is the basis of our conversation on this week's episode co-hosted by David Spark, the producer of CISO Series, and Edward Contreras, senior evp and CISO, Frost Bank. Joining is Mary Rose Martinez, CISO, and vp of digital technology services, Marathon Petroleum Corporation. In this episode: Left behind A hypothetical sale The philosophy problem Stop shifting the problems A huge thanks to our sponsor, ActiveState ActiveState gives security and engineering teams a single governed source for open source software. With 79 million components built from source, continuously remediated, and delivered directly into the tools teams already use, ActiveState eliminates the CVE backlog and the developer toil that comes with it. Companies see a 60 to 99% reduction in CVEs and reclaim up to 30% of developer time. Learn more at activestate.com.
August 20 · 35 min
Will AI Replace Detection Roles in Cybersecurity?
All links and images can be found on CISO Series Check out this post from Caleb Sima of Whiterabbit for the discussion that is the basis of our conversation on this week's episode co-hosted David Spark, the producer of CISO Series, and Yaron Levi, CISO, Dolby. Joining is Adrian Ludwig, CSO, Rippling. In this episode: The messy middle The automatable part Where automation stops The influence gap A huge thanks to our sponsor, ThreatLocker ThreatLocker delivers Zero Trust Network Access and Zero Trust Cloud Access that verifies both user and device before granting access to specific applications. No broad access, nothing exposed, and no reliance on credentials alone. It's a smarter way to control access and reduce risk. Learn more at ThreatLocker.com/CISO.
August 13 · 31 min
What Makes a Good AI Security Deployment?
What Makes a Good AI Security Deployment? All links and images can be found on CISO Series Check out this post by Chris Matthews of UpGuard for the discussion that is the basis of our conversation on this week's episode co-hosted by me, David Spark, the producer of CISO Series, and Edward Contreras, senior evp and CISO, Frost Bank. Joining us is Peter Liebert, CISO, Salesloft & Clari. In this episode: Non-determinism changes everything The foundation problem Nobody owns the whole problem The authorization gap A huge thanks to our sponsor, CoreView Attackers don't break into Microsoft 365. They log in and reconfigure it. When tenant configurations drift or get tampered with, recovery can take weeks and missed settings can reopen the door. The Cyber Resilience Framework for Microsoft 365 covers the five pillars, harden, govern, detect, respond, recover, and shows exactly where today's tools leave gaps. Download the free practical guide
August 6 · 28 min
The Office Politics of Remediation
All links and images can be found on CISO Series Check out this post for the discussion that is the basis of our conversation on this week's episode co-hosted by David Spark, the producer of CISO Series, and Dan Walsh, CISO, Datavant. Joining is our sponsored guest, Elizabeth Nammour, founder and CEO, Teleskope. In this episode: Data ownership before automation A shared vocabulary for agent risk Maturing from crawl to run Trust earns automation its place A huge thanks to our sponsor, Teleskope Most DSPMs stop at finding the risk. Teleskope fixes this: it automatically finds sensitive data, including IP documents or board decks, and remediates exposure across cloud, SaaS, and AI environments natively, with human-in-the-loop controls, improving your team's efficiency tenfold. Trusted by Ramp, Polymarket, and Chevron Phillips, and more. teleskope.ai
July 30 · 30 min
Why is Preventative Security So Difficult?
All links and images can be found on CISO Series Prevention in cybersecurity is a lot like flossing: everyone knows they should do it, but few do it enough. What's stopping us? Check out this post by Ross Haleliuk of Venture in Security for the discussion that is the basis of our conversation on this week's episode co-hosted by me, David Spark, the producer of CISO Series, and Edward Contreras, senior evp and CISO, Frost Bank. Joining us is Deneen DeFiore, vice president & chief information security officer, United Airlines. In this episode: The sponsorship gap One strike and you're out Policy without position Prevention isn't static A huge thanks to our sponsor, CoreView Attackers don't break into Microsoft 365. They log in and reconfigure it. When tenant configurations drift or get tampered with, recovery can take weeks and missed settings can reopen the door. The Cyber Resilience Framework for Microsoft 365 covers the five pillars, harden, govern, detect, respond, recover, and shows exactly where today's tools leave gaps. Download the free practical guide
July 23 · 30 min
Identity and Access Management (IAM) in an Agentic AI World
All links and images can be found on CISO Series Check out this post by Tomás Maldonado, CISO, NFL, for the discussion that is the basis of our conversation on this week's episode co-hosted by me, David Spark, the producer of CISO Series, and Yaron Levi, CISO, Dolby. Joining is Will Gregorian, vp of information technology & security, Galileo Medical. In this episode: From who to what The manipulation problem Cryptographic accountability The audit gap A huge thanks to our sponsor, ActiveState ActiveState gives security and engineering teams a single governed source for open source software. With 79 million components built from source, continuously remediated, and delivered directly into the tools teams already use, ActiveState eliminates the CVE backlog and the developer toil that comes with it. Companies see a 60 to 99% reduction in CVEs and reclaim up to 30% of developer time. Learn more at ActiveState.com.
July 16 · 33 min
Protecting AI Agents in O365 and Google Workspace
All links and images can be found on CISO Series Check out this post for the discussion that is the basis of our conversation on this week's episode co-hosted by David Spark, the producer of CISO Series, and Steve Zalewski. Joining is their sponsored guest, Rajan Kapoor, vp, security, Material Security. In this episode: Pre-existing conditions Architecture over rollout Access isn't legitimacy Data has a half-life A huge thanks to our sponsor, Material Security Legacy email security only watches the door. Material protects your entire cloud workspace—email, files, and accounts—as one ecosystem. It's more coverage for less than the cost of a legacy SEG. One price, no surprises: just security that covers the whole surface area. Learn more at material.security.
July 9 · 35 min
Humans Are Bottleneck in a Machine-Speed World
All links and images can be found on CISO Series We're evolving fast to secure AI. But are we evolving fast enough to secure WITH AI? Check out this post by Rinki Sethi, CSO, Upwind Security, for the discussion that is the basis of our conversation on this week's episode co-hosted by me, David Spark, the producer of CISO Series, and Howard Holton, former CEO, GigaOm. Joining is Adam Glick, CSO, PSG Equity. In this episode: Human-in-the-loop math Should machines decide at all From assistant to autonomous Redefining the security role A huge thanks to our sponsor, Palo Alto Networks Cortex Cloud unifies code, cloud, and SOC on a single data, risk, and control plane — giving teams the context, workflows, and agentic intelligence to turn risk into resolution. Native AI agents investigate and act within enterprise guardrails, delivering real-time protection from workload to network edge. Cloud security that outpaces machine-speed threats. Visit paloaltonetworks.com/cortex/cloud.
July 2 · 33 min
Even With All These Security Vendors We Still Have Glaring Gaps
All links and images can be found on CISO Series There are thousands of cybersecurity vendors across categories. If there's a gap in the market, it's likely not for technical reasons. So, how do you actually find vendors that are a good fit rather than one that just meets technical requirements? Check out this post by Joe Head of REFLEX Solutions for the discussion that is the basis of our conversation on this week's episode, co-hosted by me, David Spark, the producer of CISO Series, and Edward Contreras, senior evp and CISO, Frost Bank. Joining us is Ajit Girn, CIO, Employment Development Department (EDD). In this episode: Built for vendors, not users Signal versus noise Priced out The elegance gap A huge thanks to our sponsor, ThreatLocker ThreatLocker takes a deny-by-default approach to endpoint security — controlling what applications can run, what can access data, and what can elevate privileges. Used by organizations that want to reduce attack surface without relying on detection alone. Learn more at threatlocker.com/ciso.
June 25 · 27 min
Is the "Attackers Only Need to Be Right Once" a Misnomer?
All links and images can be found on CISO Series Check out this post for the discussion that is the basis of our conversation on this week's episode co-hosted by me, David Spark, the producer of CISO Series, and George Finney, CISO, University of Texas System. Joining is Sean Walls, CISO, Bob's Discount Furniture. In this episode: Asymmetric accounting Sometimes it really is that easy The spirit of the saying The cheapest way in A huge thanks to our sponsor, Native Security Native is the Cloud Security Control Plane. It helps enterprises enforce secure-by-design architecture across multi-cloud environments by translating security intent into the cloud provider's built-in controls, previewing impact before rollout, and keeping enforcement aligned as the environment changes.
June 18 · 55 min
What It Takes To Be Successful in Cyber Media
What It Takes To Be Successful in Cyber Media All links and images can be found on CISO Series Check out this post for the discussion that is the basis of our conversation on this week's episode co-hosted by me, David Spark, the producer of CISO Series, and Dave Bittner, producer and host, The CyberWire. Joining is Graham Cluley, host of Smashing Security podcast and Leo Laporte, founder of TWiT (This Week in Tech) and host of Security Now podcast. In this episode: Format follows function The decision gap Practitioner fingerprints Beyond the news cycle A huge thanks to our sponsor, Palo Alto Networks Cortex Cloud unifies code, cloud, and SOC on a single data, risk, and control plane — giving teams the context, workflows, and agentic intelligence to turn risk into resolution. Native AI agents investigate and act within enterprise guardrails, delivering real-time protection from workload to network edge. Cloud security that outpaces machine-speed threats. Learn more at paloaltonetworks.com/cortex/cloud/demo.
June 11 · 31 min
CISOs Buy For Selfish and Politically Risk-Averse Reasons (Not Because Your Product is the Best)
All links and images can be found on CISO Series Check out this post for the discussion that is the basis of our conversation on this week's episode co-hosted by me, David Spark, the producer of CISO Series, and Howard Holton, CEO, GigaOm. Joining is Tyler King, senior director - threat operations and response, Sinclair. In this episode: Career insurance In the trenches together Who are you actually selling to? Common sense, uncommon in sales A huge thanks to our sponsor, Material Security Legacy email security only watches the door. Material protects your entire cloud workspace—email, files, and accounts—as one ecosystem. It's more coverage for less than the cost of a legacy SEG. One price, no surprises: just security that covers the whole surface area. Learn more at material.security.

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