Hacker Valley Studio

Where Cyber Meets Content Creation with Henri Davis

Henri Davis, CEO of TechTual Consulting & host of the TechTual Talk Podcast, comes to Hacker Valley this week to talk about his history with cybersecurity incident response and the content he currently creates with the TechTual Chatter Youtube channel. From interview tips, passion vs creativity, the intersection of cybersecurity and content creation, Henri walks through the path his career has taken him on, as well as imparts advice on those looking to follow a similar journey.

 

Timecoded Guide:

[00:00] Explaining incident response’s role in cyber 

[07:15] Henri’s journey from incident response to TechTual CEO 

[14:04] TechTual Consulting’s content about interviews & breaking into cybersecurity

[23:43] Marrying passions together within your career path

[29:54] Career path advice, cybersecurity vs content creation

 

Sponsor Links:

Thank you to our sponsors Axonius and AttackIQ for bringing this episode to life! 

Want to learn more about how Mindbody enhanced their asset visibility and increased their cybersecurity maturity rating with Axonius? Check out axonius.com/mindbody 

AttackIQ - better insights, better decisions, and real security outcomes. That's why we partnered with them to create free cybersecurity trainings! Check it out at academy.attackiq.com

 

If you could explain it to someone who has never been in a cybersecurity incident before, what is it like from the beginning of the incident through to closure?

While the majority of Henri’s work revolves currently on content creation, Henri’s background in cyber has extensive involvement in incident response. Incident response, although vital for today’s cyber industry, is sometimes misunderstood, even by cybersecurity practitioners. Henri explains that incident response is something you don’t see the usefulness of until you do it, and that attempting to work through an incident can feel like dealing with a car crash; you always have a risk of something like this happening, and it matters how you prepare for it.

“An incident is like a car wreck. A wreck is something that you have a potential risk for, but you drive with insurance hoping that if it does happen, you know what to do. And even though it happens, you're still not prepared for the actual wreck.”

 

How are you hoping to help people, especially those breaking into cybersecurity, with TechTual’s content?

Henri’s focus on TechTual has given him an outlet for content creation and he hopes to use that platform to consistently help others. With the pandemic creating many jobless and job searching people, Henri saw an opportunity to focus on cybersecurity and IT content and assist outsiders looking to transition into the cyber industry. From tips about interviews to assistance with resumes, Henri often covers the basics with the mission to empower others, no matter their background, to embrace the ever-expanding industry. 

“My goal is to say it's okay. Everyone has a starting place, everyone has to start from somewhere. Just build your skill set up and eventually, you won't even have to have your LinkedIn profile open for work.”

 

When you find something that you're passionate about, and then you find another thing that you're passionate about, how do you marry those two together?

A marriage between passion is definitely possible, especially when looking at someone like Henri, who combines his love of content creation with his experience in cybersecurity and his passion for helping others. However, Henri is realistic in explaining that there’s a give and a take to the decisions made around your career path and how passions impact that. Henri recommends choosing a career path not just centered around passion, but instead focused on providing for yourself and your family. When your needs are fulfilled with your job, your passions and hobbies can grow and turn into legitimate projects in your life.

“If I was just by myself, I could just bet on myself, I always bet on myself. When you have that family aspect to it, you have to kind of weigh your options and see when the time is going to be right, and how you can do that.”

 

What is that one piece of advice that you would have for somebody that's looking to take one path in their career journey, but they have many paths before them?

During episodes of TechTual Talk and TechTual Chatter, Henri focuses heavily on career advice, especially when it comes to making the right decisions in your career journey and behaving professionally during the interview and job search processes. When asked about advice he would give, Henri explains that prioritizing logical paths and being honest in the work you do will always have a positive impact on job prospects. For example, lying in the interview process can lead to long term dissatisfaction between employee and employer, and building a career without a logical path is never a strong foundation for anyone’s future.

“What is the most logical path for you right now? Which one is the lowest barrier to entry for you? What's going to take care of you, or whatever your situation is? Try to do that first, and then reserve time for your passion.”

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Links:

Keep up with Henri Davis on LinkedIn and the TechTual Consulting Website.

Check out Henri’s podcast, TechTual Talk, and his Youtube Channel, TechTual Chatter.

Connect with Ron Eddings on LinkedIn and Twitter

Connect with Chris Cochran on LinkedIn and Twitter

Purchase a HVS t-shirt at our shop

Continue the conversation by joining our Discord

Check out Hacker Valley Media and Hacker Valley Studio

Financial Independence & Freedom with Eddie Thomason

Eddie Thomason, bestselling author, speaker, consultant, and creator of the Simply Secure podcast, comes to Hacker Valley Studio to discuss financial independence, the freedom of a healthy work-life balance, and habits that have helped him succeed. As a father of two with a full-time job and a thriving content creation career, Eddie explains not only how he does it all, but also how much he cares about helping other security professionals achieve the same level of success.

 

Timecoded Guide:

[00:00] Eddie’s background & his current cyber role with Data Locker

[06:07] Growing up in Baltimore City & finding his podcasting inspiration

[13:10] Balancing work & life with calendar planning 

[19:13] 4 essential habits: reading, listening, association, & work

[28:20] Advice for digital content creators & security professionals 

 

Sponsor Links:

Thank you to our sponsors Axonius and AttackIQ for bringing this episode to life! 

Want to learn more about how Mindbody enhanced their asset visibility and increased their cybersecurity maturity rating with Axonius? Check out axonius.com/mindbody 

AttackIQ - better insights, better decisions, and real security outcomes. That's why we partnered with them to create free cybersecurity trainings! Check it out at academy.attackiq.com

 

What is the connection between cybersecurity and this financial independence and freedom mindset you have?

In his book, on his podcast, and throughout his career, Eddie has emphasized the importance of financial independence, especially when it comes to diversifying his income. Instead of calling his projects and revenue streams “side hustles,” Eddie prefers to think of them as baby businesses; small businesses in the infant stage that have massive professional potential. With COVID severely changing Eddie’s economic perspective, he firmly believes in having multiple sources of income and in fostering the growth of each project until he’s seeing revenue to rival the full-time income he already makes in his day job.

“If you look at it as a side hustle, that's all it's ever going to be, it's just something that creates a little bit of extra income, but if you look at it as a baby business, that could really replace the income that you currently make.” 

 

How do you balance content creation, day-to-day job responsibilities, and fatherhood? 

Being an author and a cybersecurity consultant can both already be demanding jobs, but throwing 2 young children and an entire podcast into the mix makes Eddie’s success borderline hard to believe. However, Eddie credits his success to understanding his priorities and heavily managing his calendar. Entrepreneurs need to think of their schedules down to the minute, maybe even the second. Eddie is not afraid to set aside time for his children, even if it means he has to work in the evenings on his own entrepreneurial goals. Eddie knows that when he puts his calendar together, he is giving himself the time he needs and deserves to work and spend time on what’s important to him, even alongside all his other responsibilities as an employee.

“If you're going to work for 8 hours a day for somebody else's dream, then why can't you come home on a daily basis and give yourself at least 2 hours? We're not talking about a whole nother 8, but give yourself at least two hours. From the hours of 5 to 7, what can you do to invest in yourself?”

 

What are some successful habits you’ve picked up throughout your life and that you mention in your book, Unlock Yourself?

Four successful habits guide Eddie through his busy life as an entrepreneur and full-time worker, the first of which is reading. Reading is a source of knowledge and connection with others, and Eddie has learned amazing lessons from reading books and articles. The second is listening, which, just like reading, offers Eddie the ability to learn and to connect with the world. Coming in third is association. Surrounding himself with people who inspire him and are dedicated to his goals reminds Eddie of how badly he wants this. Fourth and finally, work. Putting in the work without expecting the success to happen overnight helps Eddie with his patience and always leads to a much better payoff.

“If you surround yourself with incredible people who inspire you and uplift you and encourage you, then there's no reason why you should not get to your goal. There's no reason why you should give up because you have people that understand how badly you want to accomplish your goals. They won't let you quit on yourself.” 

 

Do you have advice for those looking to achieve success similar to you? 

Although it may seem daunting to tackle a career as extensive as Eddie’s, Eddie is confident that his mindset around work can help anyone become successful. Most specifically, amongst all the entrepreneurial advice Eddie gives, his strongest point centers around understanding the “why.” Knowing why he does what he does not only helps keep Eddie on track for a solid work-life balance, it also allows him to see the impact his work has on the people around him. With his wife being a stay-at-home mom and his children being young, Eddie understands the necessity of his hard work and wants to inspire his family with his continued success.

“If I don't perform, the people around me suffer. If I don't do what I need to do, then the people around me are not going to be better off. The impact that it is going to have on them is so much heavier than the impact that it'll actually have on me individually.”

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Links:

Keep up with Eddie Thomason on his website, Youtube, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook

Check out Eddie’s podcast, the Simply Secure Podcast, and his book, Unlock Yourself

Connect with Ron Eddings on LinkedIn and Twitter

Connect with Chris Cochran on LinkedIn and Twitter

Purchase a HVS t-shirt at our shop

Continue the conversation by joining our Discord

Check out Hacker Valley Media and Hacker Valley Studio

The Future of Artificial Intelligence with Jeff Gardner

Jeff Gardner, CISO at Germantown Technologies, comes to Hacker Valley Studio this week to talk about the future of cybersecurity and what up-and-coming hackers may encounter on their journey into an ever-evolving industry. With a specific focus and interest in artificial intelligence, or AI, Jeff’s discussion in this episode covers the current perception of AI in tech, the timeline of when we may see highly-intelligent AI come into play, and what the future of AI looks like from a cybersecurity standpoint. 

 

Timecoded Guide:

[03:54] Focusing on numerous areas during his day job as CISO and understanding the necessity of a strong team of trusted cyber professionals

[09:00] Getting excited about current and upcoming technology in cyber while remaining realistic about present day limitations and needs 

[15:53] Automating security analyst tasks and finding the quality control balance between machine knowledge and human intuition

[22:50] Breaking down the concept of “bad AI” and understanding how to address the issues that may arise if AI is used for nefarious purposes

[28:22] Addressing the future of unique thought and creativity for computers and for human beings 

 

Sponsor Links:

Thank you to our sponsors Axonius and AttackIQ for bringing this episode to life! 

Want to learn more about how Mindbody enhanced their asset visibility and increased their cybersecurity maturity rating with Axonius? Check out axonius.com/mindbody 

AttackIQ - better insights, better decisions, and real security outcomes. Be sure to check out the Attack IQ Academy for free cybersecurity training, featuring Ron and Chris of Hacker Valley Studio, at academy.attackiq.com

 

What are some of the things that you are expecting the next generation to be doing when it comes to bypassing security in a way that they won't get caught?

Jeff, like many hackers and security pros in the industry, started his journey in cyber by hacking different systems from his own computer as a kid just because he could get away with it. While that type of hacking still exists, there are new ways for systems to manage and counteract these threats and attacks, as well as expose who is behind it. The new generation of hackers will learn in different ways on different technology, and Jeff is confident that what they choose will come because of where the security industry is already going, with devices that use machine learning and pattern learning, as well as the continuing development of AI. 

“When it comes to artificial intelligence and all the myriad of models and neurons and all that, we're still pretty much at single neuron, maybe double neuron systems. But, as things evolve, it's gonna be harder and harder to bypass those defenses.” 

 

What is your perspective of AI not being here and available for us yet?

In Jeff’s opinion, the biggest thing missing from our current AI to really make it the intelligence we claim it is, is creativity. We have smart technology, we have technology that can automate tasks and can be told very easily what to do, all through feeding in data and processes. However, Jeff points out that most of what we call artificial intelligence in the cyber and tech industries doesn’t have the creativity or the human intuition to match the human brain. We’re in an exciting escalation of technology and intelligence, but we aren’t at true AI yet. 

“I think one of the things that's missing from AI, and it's being solved rapidly, is creativity. We train it through models, but those models are only the data that we give it. How smart is the system if you just give it a plethora of data and have it come to its own conclusions?” 

 

How far away do you think we are from highly intelligent AI?

Although the futuristic AI that appears in science fiction movies and books isn’t here yet, Jeff believes we aren’t far off from a level of computer technology that we have never seen before. With the quantum leaps in technology that we’ve continued to see, namely in computers starting to solve math problems we’ve never even thought of or engage with art in a way we’ve never dreamed possible. What we see now is the tip of the iceberg, but the future holds massive potential for what AI will look like and what automation of certain tasks will look like, with accuracy rates for analysis technology continuing to narrow to 99.9% accuracy rates. 

“When you can get to that level of processing speed, you can do things we can't even dream of, and that's what they're doing now. They're solving math problems in ways that humans have never thought of, they're creating art in ways that humans couldn't imagine.”

 

How do we create AI for good? 

The fear of the “evil” or “bad” artificial intelligence comes up frequently when we discuss what the future of AI may look like from a security standpoint. However, Jeff is confident that the issue is not as black and white as our fears make it. For starters, when we understand the purpose behind what “bad” AI might be programmed to do, we can put other measures in place to combat it. On the other hand, the struggle of good vs bad, right vs wrong has been a problem in hacking and in cyber since the first white hats and black hats came into existence. The fear of bad AI is a philosophical discussion instead of just a technical conversation.

“I think it all comes down to, like you said, purpose. What's the purpose of the bad AI? What's it trying to do? Is it trying to hack our systems and steal the data? Is it trying to cause physical harm?”

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Links:

Stay in touch with Jeff Gardner on LinkedIn

Connect with Ron Eddings on LinkedIn and Twitter

Connect with Chris Cochran on LinkedIn and Twitter

Purchase a HVS t-shirt at our shop

Continue the conversation by joining our Discord

Check out Hacker Valley Media and Hacker Valley Studio

Learning to Lead Future Tech Leaders with Dr. Stacey Ashley

Leadership expert, Dr. Stacey Ashley, joins us at the Hacker Valley Studio to talk about her journey from the corporate world of leadership to her current roles in consulting and coaching. As a speaker, author, and educator for leaders, especially executive and C-level leaders, Dr. Ashley shares foundational skills needed to go from expert to leader, mindset shifts that need to occur regarding our perspective on our own leadership responsibilities, and experiences that inspired her to become an author. 

Timecoded Guide: 

[02:58] Developing stronger leadership capabilities and understanding the value of scaling work with her decision to become an author  

[09:51] Jumping over the hurdles and obstacles to becoming a better leader through mindfulness, practice, and checking the privilege of your executive role 

[13:45] Knowing when to get off the treadmill of busyness and focusing on setting better boundaries for yourself as a leader 

[20:53] Cultivating the next level of leadership with a focus on mentoring, role modeling, and coaching  

[25:40] Providing advice for future leaders and understanding the values of awareness and of developing your listening skills  

Sponsor Links: 

Thank you to our sponsors Axonius and AttackIQ for bringing this episode to life! 

Want to learn more about how Mindbody enhanced its asset visibility and increased its cybersecurity maturity rating with Axonius? Check out axonius.com/mindbody

AttackIQ - better insights, better decisions, and real security outcomes. That's why we partnered with them to create free cybersecurity trainings! Check it out at  academy.attackiq.com 

 

What have been some of the challenges that you've seen, out of yourself or from others, to start to cultivate that leadership ability? 

There’s a common path to leadership in many industries, especially tech and cyber, where becoming good at your job skyrockets you into leadership spaces and executive roles. While this is often an achievement worth being proud of, Dr. Ashley warns that we rarely mentor and teach these newly appointed leaders how to lead. Expert skills are important to have, but not being able to satisfy your executive role and your leadership responsibilities with developed leadership skills leads to confusion and dissatisfaction amongst employees and clients who aren’t receiving the type of leadership guidance normally delivered by someone in that role. 

“It's great to have those specialist skills, but it's not enough. If you're going to lead people, if you're going to lead a program of work, if you're going to be a thought leader, or an influencer, or any of those things, you need to have more skills.” 

 

What are some of the common obstacles that people have that keeps them from being the best leader that they can be? 

Dr. Ashley is the first to admit that tech leadership issues and obstacles are hardly a one size fits all. However, a commonality she sees is a focus on busyness instead of on active leadership practices. Being “busy” does not translate into high levels of productivity, especially for leaders in prominent company or industry roles. She advises that a better focus for leaders and aspiring executives is to practice their leadership skills and prioritize finding a coach or mentor, instead of just filling up their schedule with unnecessary busy work. 

“This whole concept of busy isn't actually very effective. Busy is just doing stuff for the sake of doing stuff. One of the things that I find that great leaders do is that they're really clear about where they make a difference, where they add value, where they can make a real contribution. They don't focus on being busy, they focus on the important stuff.”  

 

What sort of creative license do you give for those people that just want to be helpful, but are over taxed when it comes to their job?  

We all want to better prioritize our tasks and to feel less overwhelmed by our work, but setting boundaries often feels mean or unrealistic for those used to being helpful and people pleasing. Dr. Ashley sees this a lot in her work, where she often advises people to consider how they’re saying no and what ways they’re presenting what they’re working on. By showing people that you have important tasks that rely on your focus to attend to, you’re inviting them to see your time in a much more understanding light and you will invite them to consider that they should try on their own for a solution and prioritize their own tasks before they can engage with you again. 

“I think if we let people know that we're doing something else, and that it has a big impact, then they're much more understanding. Also, we're giving that other person some time to see if they can figure that thing out on their own rather than relying on us.” 

 

What are some of the tenants that you follow for cultivating the next level of leadership? 

Dr. Ashley believes that one of our key responsibilities as leaders is to grow this next generation of leaders and help them develop the best leadership skills imaginable. She advocates for this by focusing on three core tenants. The first being mentorship, meaning you’re willing to share your knowledge, wisdom, and experiences all on a personal mentorship front. The second is role modeling, where you’re showing how to be a good leader, representing what that looks like for everyone in your business. The third? Coaching, which she bases a large majority of her career around. Being able to coach and provide a customizable approach for future leaders allows them to address what they need to learn and where they need to grow. 

“I don't know if every leader recognizes this, but every day, you are role modeling. You may not be role modeling great stuff, but you are role modeling. And so, you have a responsibility every day to recognize your role modeling.” 

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Links: 

Stay in touch with Dr. Stacey Ashley on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram 

Connect with Ron Eddings on LinkedIn and Twitter  

Connect with Chris Cochran on LinkedIn and Twitter 

Purchase a HVS t-shirt at our shop 

Continue the conversation by joining our Discord 

Check out Hacker Valley Media and Hacker Valley Studio 

Making Corporate Leadership Human with Ginny Clarke

We invite our friend, Ginny Clarke, to Hacker Valley this week to talk about conscious leadership and self-awareness as a way to take our organizations to the next level. Using her prior experience at tech giants like Google and her five dimensions of leadership, Ginny explains how we can better hold the leaders in our lives accountable, what will benefit our civilization the most for future generations in the workplace, and where we should focus our efforts for diversity, equity, and inclusion.

 

Timecoded Guide:

[05:34] Losing her parents at a young age, connecting to a spiritual guide to cope with grief and stress, and getting back in touch with ourselves in order to connect with others

[12:03] Seeing and validating the past experiences of our fellow humans, healing ourselves in order to heal organizations, and acknowledging the role of mental health in the health of our companies

[16:34] Understanding diversity, equity, and inclusion beyond just hiring, and stopping yourself from waiting for an organization to step up to an opportunity that belongs to underrepresented communities

[22:38] Shifting the metrics of how we value organizations and leadership, and seeing where the accountability issues of CEOs for what they really are

[27:48] Leaving a legacy through creativity and inspiring others to recognize how they have the power to change the world

Sponsor Links:

Thank you to our sponsors Axonius and Uptycs for bringing this episode to life!

Life is complex. But it’s not about avoiding challenges or fearing failure. Just ask Simone Biles — the greatest gymnast of all time. Want to learn more about how Simone controls complexity? Watch her video at axonius.com/simone.

With Uptycs, modern defenders can prioritize, investigate and respond to threats across the entire attack surface—all from a common solution: uptycs.com. 

 

How do we move current leadership statistics to something much healthier?

With a depth of experience in recruiting executive leaders in a variety of organizations, Ginny shares a striking and horrifying statistic with us: 18% of leaders are considered good. Only 18% feels incredibly low, especially when a large portion of companies claims to hire the best leaders based on pedigree-level qualifications. In Ginny’s opinion, leaders are not held to a high enough standard in the workplace, and aren’t measured on their performance beyond basic financials. With so much more at stake, Ginny warns that companies are only as strong as their leaders, and are even weaker when they never hold those leaders accountable.

“That’s why we have organizations that are, I dare say, quite fragile. It’s because of the lack of leadership. They might have a lot of money, they might have really intelligent, well-educated people, but to the extent, those organizations don't have actual leaders for whom they are holding accountable for their leadership competencies.”

 

How do we show up better for others and really see the whole human?

We cannot improve our society as long as we continue to see ourselves as completely separate from it. This, among other world-changing views, guides Ginny towards seeing people beyond just their outward appearance, viewing them as a whole human, composed of all of their experiences. There is so much fear, anxiety, and bias, especially in the world of hiring and recruiting, and Ginny hopes to show up better for others through better accountability for our leaders and a stronger connection to ourselves.

“We, as a civilization, can't fix it as long as we're seeing it as separate from ourselves. So, that's where the self-love comes from, and the support and the sharing and the non-dualistic orientation, which defies everything about tech, right? Tech is all about the binary, the ones and zeros, and here, I'm talking about something that is far more inclusive than that.”

 

What have you learned from this big effort that we have going on with diversity, equity, and inclusion?

Ginny, much like many of us in tech, cares about efforts of diversity, equity, and inclusion, but believes that many companies talk the talk without ever walking the walk. When working with recruiters in large companies, Ginny discovered that many don’t understand how to implement diversity in an impactful way in their organizations, beyond appearances and statistics. Encouraging colleagues to be true to their authentic selves in the workplace, she believes that now is the time to embrace diversity at work beyond the limitations of waiting for company leaders to embrace them.

“I think there's been organizational malpractice as it relates to diversity, equity, and inclusion. I think you got a lot of people who actually don't want to understand it, they're not going to the root cause. They're throwing money at it, they're hiring a chief diversity officer and saying, ‘Okay, you fix it.’”

 

What do you think people can do today to start to make an impact and move the world in a positive direction?

The secret to changing the world? Ginny believes that it’s acknowledging that you have the power to change it at all. On her own spiritual journey, Ginny has discovered there’s so much more to our impact on our surroundings beyond our everyday actions at work. Using examples of heightened vibrations, inspired creativity, and personal accountability, Ginny explains that your ability to change the world has never been as powerful as it is right now, as our society and civilization continue to shift towards new forms of leadership and new developments in organizations are the world. 

“I want to activate and stimulate people's imagination. You know, young kids have imagination and that creativity, that spawns, that manifests, that takes hold, that becomes real, and that's how we change the world, so that it's good for all and that becomes the objective. That's my legacy. It's creating good for all.”

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Links:

Stay in touch with Ginny Clarke on her website, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram

Connect with Ron Eddings on LinkedIn and Twitter

Connect with Chris Cochran on LinkedIn and Twitter

Purchase a HVS t-shirt at our shop

Continue the conversation by joining our Discord

Check out Hacker Valley Media and Hacker Valley Studio