Welcome back to the show! Hacker Valley Studio podcast features Host Ron Eddings, as he explores the world of cybersecurity through the eyes of professionals in the industry. We cover everything from inspirational real-life stories in tech, to highlighting influential cybersecurity companies, and we do so in a fun and enthusiastic way. We’re making cybersecurity accessible, creating a whole new form of entertainment: cybertainment.
Episodes
Tuesday Jun 08, 2021
Tuesday Jun 08, 2021
In this episode, we've brought in a special guest, Kelsey Hightower. Kelsey is Principal Engineer at Google, and also co-author of Kubernetes: Up and Running: Dive into the Future of Infrastructure.
To start the show, Kelsey shares he considers himself a self-taught engineer. He started his life out as a small business owner and then moved to a system administrator. Now, he is at Google.
Kelsey’s fascination with cyber started post High School. Rather than go to college, he jumped into, tech support, consulting, dropping cat five cable, but about 2004ish he really digs into the world of open source and all the things that you can do with it as a user and as a contributor.
When it comes to community and customers, Kelsey felt they were one in the same. However, in the last five years or so, he has kind of changed that a little bit, thinking everyone is probably in your community. The willing the ones that are willing to pay you money, we call those customers.
And then the conversation turns to comedy, and his journey through comedy management and performances. Along with this comes discussion about acquiring skills.
Finally, Kelsey shares advice to listeners!
Key Takeaways:
1:00 Welcome back
2:18 Kelsey shares his background
3:31 Community and customers
4:40 Professional purpose
6:00 Retirement thoughts
10:31 Journey in comedy
14:35 Getting better
16:28 Propelling forward
20:12 Minimalism
22:18 Immersion journey
25:25 Don’t miss the moment
27:00 Exceeding expectations
37:56 It’s ok to start!
39:25 How to keep up to date with Kelsey
Kelsey on Twitter
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Sponsored by Attack IQ
Attack IQ Academy
Wednesday Jun 02, 2021
Wednesday Jun 02, 2021
In this episode, have James Hadley, CEO of Immersive Labs, and we talk about the best ways to learn in cybersecurity.
James starts the show with his background and what he is doing today, which is Immersive Labs. But, he spent a lot of time in different organizations prior to that.
When it came to education, James found he had quite a poor memory, so he would always learn better through doing things rather than reading about things. Things would go in one ear and out the other.
In addition to learning styles, they all discuss measuring education. When it comes to measuring academics, for James it is all about the outcomes you want people to achieve.
They all agree that storytelling is incredibly powerful. James shares a few of his own drawing back on his incredible journey. And, of course, they round out the show with how to stay in touch and up to date with James.
Key Takeaways:
1:02 Welcome back
2:24 James’ background
5:06 Education experience
5:46 Changes
7:18 Measuring education
9:14 Balancing in testing
11:40 Biggest a’ha
13:14 Feedback
15:54 Learner vs. learner
17:37 Skill behind catching the bad guys
19:20 Applying knowledge
21:53 Geeks in the basement
23:47 The best job in cyber
26:30 Advice
27:58 How to stay in touch with James
Links:
James on Immersive Labs
James on LinkedIn
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Tuesday May 25, 2021
Tuesday May 25, 2021
In this episode, we brought back fan-favorite, John Strand. He is owner of Black Hills Information Security, a SANS instructor, and a mentor to many in the industry.
Johns starts the show sharing a little bit about his background and what he is doing today.
Ron and Chris dive a little bit deeper into John’s earlier life asking what his personal superpower, personal or professional, and when did that power really came about in his life?
John shares his experiences with failure, which he feels are key to where he is at today. How everyone needs to get comfortable with struggles, failures and hardships. On top of that, one needs to be able to laugh at themself.
Key Takeaways
1:02 Back with fan favorite John Strand
2:21 John shares his background
3:38 John’s superpower
5:51 Going through the grind to learn
8:30 Partnerships
11:44 Getting a head start
14:58 The entertainment factor
16:36 Journey through being an instructor
19:35 Pay what you can concept
25:53 Education systems
29:18 Advice from John
Links:
John Strand blog.
John Strand on Twitter.
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Tuesday May 18, 2021
Tuesday May 18, 2021
This is the finale of Know Thyself. What an incredible journey, we feel like this entire experience flew by so fast, we got to talk to so many incredible people about knowing yourself, knowing your team, knowing your tech stack, knowing your environment, and even knowing your story.
Make your organization better make your security posture better, strive for impact, what are the most high leverage things that you can do today to make everybody's lives easier, or more safe, and then yield the feedback, there might be some things that you might be missing, you might need to ask questions, ask for feedback, get some information from your stakeholders, what what are you thinking about that I might not be thinking about? asking these different things is how you know thyself. And this is how you get to know the people that are around you, your peers, your stakeholders, the more knowledge you have got started with that Sun Tzu quote, in the very beginning of the podcast, if you know yourself and you know your enemy, you need not fear the results of 100 battles. So if you really understand yourself, and you have good threat intelligence, understanding the externals, you have good vulnerability management that understands the externals and the internals, if you mash all that information together, I think you'll be able to do great things with your cybersecurity program.
Key Takeaways
0:02 Introduction to the show
0:49 Our Sponsor, Axonius
2:09 Welcome back
2:31 Reflecting on Know Thyself
3:17 Recap This Seasons Guest
3:22 Marcus Carey
4:17 John Strand
5:05 Aaron Reinhart & Jamie Dixon
5:54 Chaos Engineering
7:12 Lenny Zeltser, asset inventory
7:54 Kevin Allison, Storytelling is a soft skill
10:19 John Strand
12:13 Can we do better?
13:54 What kind of leader are you?
14:26 Do you have unsupported devices?
17:34 Ask yourself these questions
13:33 Go back to the EASY Framework
21:50 Learning
23:29 Exploration
24:00 Immersion
27:28 Reach Hacker Valley
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Tuesday May 18, 2021
Tuesday May 18, 2021
In this masterclass of HVB season 2 we brought in a master story teller in Kevin Allison. The biggest thing is to get a person to understand, don't just summarize, don't just walk us through a Wikipedia like where you're just giving us a broad overview. And you're explaining; it’s important to remember sensory details that will help us see almost like movie scenes, what was happening between people. That is what brings the story alive. So that's a good case right there where the bones of the story were incredible. Like that's just on paper and an incredible overview of a story, but it's not going to work unless you can fill in all those sensory details that bring it alive and make it emotional for us.
Storytelling is a soft skill that offers the ability to contextualize cybersecurity in a manner that any organization can understand to allow their business to stay safe.
Key Takeaways:
0:00 Previously on the show
2:37 Kevin introduction
3:20 Episode begins
3:39 Where Kevin is today
7:58 Kevin’s origin story
12:04 Cybersecurity is performing
17:08 Storytelling for business
21:00 Engineering a story
26:12 Authentic storytelling
34:54 Speaking isn’t perfect
41:02 Where to find Kevin
RISK!: True Stories People Never Thought They’d Dare To Share
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