The Future of Security Operations

Wiz’s Yinon Costica: Using a self-serve model to better equip organizations and improve security posture

In this season’s finale of the Future of Security Operations podcast, Thomas chats with Yinon Costica, Vice President of Product and co-founder at Wiz, the leading cloud infrastructure security platform that enables organizations to identify and remove the most pressing risks in the cloud.
Yinon has more than 15 years of experience leading cybersecurity product development teams, with expertise in the cloud security market. Yinon started his career as a software engineer at the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). After this, he was the VP of Adallom, a leading cloud access security broker, until they were acquired by Microsoft in 2015. At Microsoft, he led the Cloud Security Group product organization for four years before co-founding Wiz.
Topics include: 
Yinon’s journey, starting with the Israel Defense Forces, and how it led to his introduction to cybersecurity. 
The decision process behind building Wiz and how the original idea for the company changed and developed during this time. 
Yinon’s view on the changing landscape of security over the last 20 years and how it has become a C-level discussion. 
Measuring how mature your company’s security operations are and the process of wider teams becoming more proactive about security.
The self-serve model of security used at Wiz and how companies can employ this to create a more secure environment across the enterprise. 
Approaching the challenge of gaining Fortune 100 customers when running a start-up and what it takes to build an enterprise-grade product. 
The specific challenges that those who are leading security teams in fast-growing tech startups face when approaching the cloud.
Stepping back to find toxic combinations in your organization that need to be remediated first when evaluating levels of prioritization. 
What the security operations landscape will look like in five years and how the self-serve model will fit into this. 
Some lessons Yinon has learned from the close relationships that the Wiz founding members have built up over the last 20 years.
Taking steps to overcome the issue of diversity and bias in the security space.
Resources: LinkedIn

BeyondTrust’s Morey Haber: The challenges for security operations teams due to identity-based risks in a remote working world

In this episode of the Future of Security Operations podcast, Thomas chats with Morey Haber, Chief Security Officer at BeyondTrust. BeyondTrust is a worldwide leader in Privileged Access Management (PAM), focused on addressing the most urgent cybersecurity challenges, including zero trust, ransomware, cloud security, and more.
Morey has more than 25 years of IT industry experience, has authored four books, is a founding member of the industry group Transparency in Cyber, and in 2020 was elected to the Identity Defined Security Alliance (IDSA) Executive Advisory Board. Morey currently oversees BeyondTrust security and governance for corporate and cloud-based solutions and regularly consults for global periodicals and media.
 
Topics include: 
Morey’s journey in cybersecurity, starting almost 20 years ago in a software action team.
The cultural and perception shift that vulnerability management and security operations have undergone over the past 20 years.
The challenges modern security operations face due to identity-based risks increasing in a remote working world. 
The exploitable flaws seen in two-factor authentication (2FA) and multi-factor authentication (MFA) identification. 
How BeyondTrust specializes in privileged access and least privilege to ensure the integrity of all transactions. 
The differences with implementing security disciplines in the cloud. 
How Morey stays on top of the latest issues and threats in the cybersecurity world. 
The importance of self-discipline when it comes to mental health and overcoming the risk of burnout, and how managers can best support this. 
Some of the most memorable security incidents Morey has come across. 
Morey’s stance on what security teams should be wary of when it comes to ChatGPT. 
What cybersecurity might look like in five years’ time with advances in AI taken into consideration. 
 
Resources:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mjhaber/

Oracle’s Arthur Barnes: The evolution of cybersecurity & solving the challenge of hiring the right team

In this episode of the Future of Security Operations podcast, Thomas interviews Arthur Barnes, Senior Director of Security Operations at Oracle – the world’s largest database management company. 
Arthur is an experienced cybersecurity leader with 20 years of experience, having previously worked at Pearson, Dell, and M&S. He contributed to the ENISA Cloud Procurement Guidelines, which is a practical guide aimed at the procurement and governance of cloud services, and is currently completing an MBA in Business Administration and Management. 
Topics include: 
Arthur’s journey from working within government, consulting, and the private sector and how he found his way into the security space. 
How security has evolved over the last 10 years, including the main challenges faced by cybersecurity leaders and their teams. 
Solving the challenge of hiring the right people and how to identify the best candidates during the interview process.
What Arthur has learned about what it takes to be a leader and how to identify good candidates for promotion to leadership positions.
Approaching and dealing with mental health concerns for people working in cybersecurity.
Reducing time spent on repetitive tasks and helping teams outside of the security organization to automate tasks. 
Cases of forensic investigations that became story-worthy. 
Arthur’s number one piece of advice for those leading security teams today.
What security teams might look like in five years’ time. 
 
Resources:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/arthurbarnes/?originalSubdomain=uk

Material Security’s Ryan Noon: Building & marketing a differentiated cybersecurity solution without spreading FUD

In this episode of Future of Security Operations, Thomas speaks with Ryan Noon, Founder and CEO of Material Security, a company that protects the email of high-risk VIPs and top global organizations.
A serial entrepreneur and an expert on cloud security, Ryan previously ran infrastructure teams at Dropbox after it acquired his last company, Parastructure. Before that, he helped build a company spun out of Stanford by the Department of Defense. A graduate of Stanford, Ryan holds degrees in Computer Science and Computer Security.
Topics include:
Ryan’s first startup experience and the decision to launch his first company, Parastructure
Getting acquired by Dropbox and what he enjoyed most about working there
Ryan’s journey from a hobbyist to a thought leader and founder in cybersecurity, taking a critical eye towards every system, and why Ryan sees himself as “a builder, a creator, and an optimist than a true security engineer”
How the Russian government’s interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election impacted his perspective on cybersecurity and helped him realize the power of APIs
Why email is such an excellent target for cyber attackers and how Material Security secures data within inboxes
What founders should focus on in the first year, the importance of product management, and how Material secured its early adopters, including customers like Stripe, Databricks, and Lift, so quickly
How to help your product to stand out, and why he believes it’s important to avoid FUD tactics in cybersecurity
What Ryan has learned from working with the world’s leading security teams and how the best teams bridge gaps to win
Ryan’s thoughts on the uncertain global economic climate, its impacts, and how Material’s conservative approach has allowed them to maintain a relatively lean team
The future of security operations and what trends Ryan believes will continue - doing more with less and leveraging better infrastructure and tools that enable you to go deeper with your existing tech stack
Resources:
LinkedIn

Cybrize’s Diana Kelley: Why compliance is more than a checkbox exercise, and how to integrate it into your security toolkit

In this episode of the Future of Security Operations podcast, Thomas speaks with Diana Kelley, Chief Security Officer / Chief Strategy Officer at Cybrize, which connects organizations, security leaders, and job seekers to train and support the next generation of cybersecurity professionals. 
Diana has been a trailblazer in the cybersecurity industry for over three decades. She's served as CTO for Microsoft and Global Executive Security Advisor at IBM; she was also previously VP of Burton Group (now Gartner for Technical Professionals) and a manager at KPMG. Diana volunteers with numerous organizations in her free time, including ACM Ethics & Plagiarism Committee and WiCyS (Women in Cybersecurity), all devoted to advancing diversity within this field.
Topics include: 
How Diana first developed a passion for computers and security
Diana's career path, from building and managing a global network to working as a consultant
The changing security landscape and how increasingly sophisticated adversaries challenge it
Why executives need to recognize compliance is not just a checkbox exercise, and how Diana helps business leaders bring compliance in as part of their toolkits to develop better security programs
The challenge of balancing security policies with different pressures within an organization
The cybersecurity skills gap and how hiring managers can attract and retain the best candidates through DEIA, allyship, creating open-minded job descriptions, and recognizing the value of different skill sets
The importance of sizing security teams properly to prevent exhaustion and burnout, measuring the success of your security program, and communicating the value of your security team
Why Diana believes SOCs will be more distributed in the future, why it makes sense for smaller companies to outsource, and the rise of AI and automation to support humans rather than replace humans
Diana reflects on a striking security incident
Resources: 
LinkedIn

Lacework’s Andreas Schneider: How to adapt as a CISO and the value of security failures

In this episode of the Future of Security Operations podcast, Thomas interviews Andreas Schneider - the Field CISO EMEA at Lacework. Leveraging its data-driven platform and cloud-native application protection solution, Lacework helps organizations make sense of immense amounts of security data with minimal effort. 
With over two decades of experience in cybersecurity, Andreas started off as a defender working on mainframes for a financial services company before building up his first security team within the Swiss broadcasting industry.
Topics include: 
After discovering computer games like Risk, how Andreas found himself accidentally working in security.
Building up the security team for a Swiss broadcasting company and managing large-scale environments sensitive to interruption.
Why Andreas moved to Lacework after first experiencing the platform as a customer.
Why Andreas feels comfortable dealing with large-scale attacks and enjoys what he does.
The shift to DevOps and why security needs to evolve continuously and become more decentralized.
The changing role of the lonely CISOs, the importance of culture and accountability, and how Andreas approaches his work to identify gaps.
Two of Andreas' biggest failures and why he believes it's essential to talk about failure in security.
Andreas' passion for the security community, how he sources new talent, and why he prioritizes listening to developers to enhance collaboration efforts.
How Andreas carefully chooses vendors and security tools to help his team avoid alert fatigue and friction that slows their processes down.
Why Andreas believes machine learning and automation will be a big focus in the future of security operations, and human behavior will remain the most formidable risk.
Resources:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ciso-andreas-schneider

GitHub’s Jacob DePriest: How to attract and retain more diverse security talent

In this episode of Future of Security Operations, Thomas speaks with Jacob DePriest, VP & Deputy Chief Security Officer at GitHub, a company with a mission "to help every developer - regardless of experience level - learn, code, and ship software effectively."
Before joining GitHub, DePriest spent more than 15 years as a senior executive at the National Security Agency (NSA) in the US.
Topics include: 
How Jacob moved from a career deep in the engineering world to security
His experience working at the NSA and why curiosity led him to move to GitHub to seek out a new adventure
His experience with Open Source tools and why he believes in making tools that help the security community more widely available to handle threats
How GitHub's security team prioritizes their workload, thinks about risk, and builds trust with their customers
The vast amount of automation in place at GitHub, what they're building, and how they bring security findings as close to developers as they possibly can
How the security team influences GitHub's product roadmap and why they want to be the first customer of any new feature
His experience with Log4j and why he's proud of GitHub's response to the breach
Why he prioritizes his team's psychological safety and thinks empathy, diversity, and transparency are critical to success for any security team
Resources: 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacobdepriest/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/jacobdepriest

Expel’s Jon Hencinski: How to Reduce Risk Through Better Security Strategy

In this episode of Future of Security Operations, Thomas speaks with  Jon Hencinski, VP of SecOps at Expel, a company with "a mission to make security easy to understand, easy to use, and easy to continuously improve." Hencinski is passionate about getting to the root cause of security issues and using strategy to help organizations make problems go away entirely.
Topics include: 
How Jon has seen security evolve from his time on the help desk to managing enterprise incident response investigation.
The importance of using automation for detection at scale — especially as new classes of threats continue to emerge — and what makes a “good detection.”
How organizations can reduce risk through strategy and by making investments in preventing common incidents like business email compromise and macro-enabled Word docs.
The metrics Jon uses to measure success, and why thinking in terms of business goals and objectives will help you retain customers and deliver great outcomes.
Some of the habits of an effective SOC, and how culture and candor can play a big role.
How Expel uses data and metrics to track workloads, hedge burnout, and take care of the mental health of their team.
Advice for those just getting started in security, and predictions for what the future of security teams will look like.  
Resources: 
Twitter: @jhencinski
Expel.com
Keep in touch with Jon Hencinski on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathanhencinski/

Madhav Gopal: Security Operations at Fortune 30 Scale

In this episode of Future of Security Operations, Thomas speaks with Madhav Gopal, CISO at a Fintech start-up and formerly VP of Cybersecurity Operations at Comcast Cable. Madhav has over 25 years of experience with a track record of using innovation to protect and support customers and partnering effectively with business teams. Over the course of his career, Madhav has also led engineering operations, internal audit and security consulting teams. Madhav serves as an advisor to Save the Children US and Citadel Banking.
Topics include: 
What security operations and infrastructure at scale looks like
How to protect key business operations while focusing on security
How security teams can be a better partner to other teams across an organization
The state of security operations today, considering the speed at which new technologies are adopted
How to manage risk and events at scale, and what to focus on
How to reduce manual tasks and the role engineering plays in doing so
Advice to security leaders and what to look for in a strong CISO
Resources: 
Keep in touch with Madhav on LinkedIn

Pipedrive’s Kristian Kivimägi: How to Scale Security Teams While Taking Care of Your People

In this episode of Future of Security Operations, Thomas speaks with Kristian Kivimägi, Head of Security Operations at Pipedrive, a CRM and intelligent revenue management platform for small businesses, who helped scale Pipedrive's Info Sec team from start-up to 20 people. Kivimägi is also a guest lecturer in vulnerability assessment and cybersecurity at Tallinn University of Technology.
 
Topics include: 
The state of security operations today, both the good and the bad
Tips for retaining and building talent from someone who built a security team
How to reduce time spent on manual tasks, including frequent phishing emails
What elements individuals who want to build a security team should prioritize, and advice to new security leaders
How to measure security team success, what metrics to track, and how to assess performance
How to take care of your team, combat burnout, and improve mental health 
What security operations teams will look like in five years, and what technology they will implement