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
Wednesday Jan 06, 2021
Wednesday Jan 06, 2021
In this episode of the Hacker Valley Studio podcast, hosts Ron and Chris interview Neil Bearden, storytelling expert and founder of The Story School and Plot Wolf Ltd. Neil originally started his career by teaching statistics and behavioral economics but had an astonishing introduction to storytelling by a stranger in San Francisco.
The episode begins by Neil sharing that he began his career in academia by completing a PhD in psychology which led to him teaching statistics, behavioral economics and behavioral decision-making. At some point, Neil found that he had a passion for storytelling and started the first MBA course at our INSEAD university on storytelling called storytelling workshop. Teaching storytelling at university helped Neil discover that the storytelling market is the entire world! Which ultimately led to his recognition and founding companies that help individuals tell their greatest stories.
While completing his postdoctoral studies at Duke University in 2005, Neil attended a neuroscience conference in San Francisco where he decided to go for a walk and ran into a stranger that asked him, “Would you like to hear some poetry young man?”. After Neil agreed, the man said:
“They’re latent semantics embedded deep down inside these rambles; these aren't the ravings of a madman alone, the dark with candles.
These are my notes, the underground they were sent to me from the year 2012
Dusky as he said to a beat these lyrics, they were pinned in a prison cell
Caught up with a knife, sent to the compression of vacuum tubes that articulate expressions
Are readily answered with a question.
A rhythm that's progressing
It keeps the head nodding like you agreeing with the lesson
Your freedom, It's called the question - Free will. That's obsolescent.
It's a myth from long ago. It's no longer relevant to the present.
So you must obey then all your thoughts young man, you must replace them with this prism. You’re plugged into the system. You too are now in prison.
In the matrix of your mind known as walls, ancient wisdom in a system of symbols, encrypted and deeply hidden
In the depths of your unconscious as if it were forbidden from outside awareness, by the id who does its bidding”
The man introduced himself as Osiris, a poet. For several hours, Neil and Osiris shared life experiences together while Osiris recited poems at his own accord throughout the night. After departing, Neil never had the opportunity to meet Osiris again but did attempt to track him down years later with no luck.
After the introduction to Osiris, Neil made a commitment that he’d begin writing poetry and cultivate the courage to share his stories publicly. Neil learned that he could halt beer bottles from clinking, discussions happening, and have listeners lean in while telling a great story. This compelled Neil to pivot from teaching statistics at university to teaching storytelling. After teaching storytelling for many years, Neil realized that he wanted to make a bigger impact and become an entrepreneur and teach storytelling to anyone who needs it.
Today, Neil helps companies and individuals add spice to their stories by extracting the details of a story that helps listeners internalize and visualize the nutrient rich details of a story. Neil is often humbled by the fact that he was able to pivot to a psychology PhD to storyteller organically and is able to help so many through having conversations.
As the podcast progresses, Neil highlights the difference between a story and a “crappy little speech”. While telling a story, the presenter needs to invoke a visual experience for the audience and provide a mental movie. Providing description of looks, taste, and feel helps build a mental model for the audience when being told a story. Everyone has experiences and knowledge that is story worthy.
0:00 - Intro
2:52 - This episode features Neil Bearden, founder of The Story School and Plot Wolf Ltd
3:57 - Neil’s introduction to storytelling by Osiris, the poet.
12:20 - The search for Osiris after 2005
15:09 - How Neil helps companies and individuals with storytelling
18:03 - Difference between a story and a crappy little speech
23:51 - Shaking the dust off of a story and making it great
26:00 - Using previous experience from statistics to tell stories
36:36 - Advice for beginning to tell your story
41:00 - How to stay in touch with Neil Bearden
Links:
Connect with Neil Bearden on LinkedIn
Learn more about Hacker Valley Studio.
Support Hacker Valley Studio on Patreon.
Follow Hacker Valley Studio on Twitter.
Follow hosts Ron Eddings and Chris Cochran on Twitter.
Learn more about our sponsor ByteChek.
Thursday Dec 17, 2020
Thursday Dec 17, 2020
In this episode of the Hacker Valley Studio podcast, hosts Ron and Chris interview the brilliant Dr. James Stanger, Chief Technology Evangelist at CompTIA and scuba diving aficionado. The episode is a kind of journey through time - touching on the past, present, and future of cybersecurity.
As the conversation begins, James looks to the past, sharing about himself and his background. He studied English Literature, worked as a technical editor and then writer, worked in education, and finally made his way to a position with CompTIA. All along, James demonstrated his propensity for combining aspects of his knowledge and experience, a propensity revealed most recently by the way in which his work for CompTIA merges education and cybersecurity. James’ background has an incredible evolution to it, and has set him up to be a well-rounded and knowledgeable addition to the cybersecurity field.
And his knowledge comes in handy, as much of James’s work involves answering client questions. James shares with Ron and Chris about current trends of questions he’s facing, as well as how he encourages agility in the face of emerging technology. Further, he explains the term, “ambient computing” and its tie to emerging tech, concluding that we are entering a hyper- or post-information age in which data is collected at an incredible rate. Data is in the air, captured, and processed, with massive stores of information about individuals available. This fact raises questions about how to ethically manage the data, and how to make sure it is used well. These questions, in turn, lead to considerations of business compliance, ramifications, and the like. As the conversation winds down, James shares areas of opportunity he sees in approaching cybersecurity from a business perspective, and explores ways in which he’d like to see the future of cybersecurity take shape - including an uptick in IT hiring, a stronger focus on implications, and more!
0:00 - Intro
1:41 - This episode features Dr. James Stanger, who begins by sharing about his background.
5:25 - What kinds of questions are companies and individuals asking these days?
8:04 - How is Dr. Stanger advising companies to pursue agility in light of emerging tech?
11:19 - What is ambient computing?
13:43 - The conversation turns to ethics, understanding of ramifications, and business compliance.
17:02 - What areas of opportunity does James see in approaching cybersecurity from a business perspective?
21:01 - James shares about what he wants the future of cybersecurity to look like.
Links:
Follow James Stanger on Twitter
Connect with James on LinkedIn
Learn more about Hacker Valley Studio
Support Hacker Valley Studio on Patreon
Follow Hacker Valley Studio on Twitter
Follow Ronald Eddings on Twitter
Follow Chris Cochran on Twitter
Want to take the Introduction to EASY Framework Course with Ron and Chris? Take it for FREE here: www.hackervalley.com/easy
Monday Dec 14, 2020
Monday Dec 14, 2020
In this episode of the Hacker Valley Studio podcast, Ron and Chris are joined by Suzanne Falter, an author, motivational speaker, and podcaster who helps busy women find happiness through self care. In 2012, she ended her relationship, shut down her business, and her 22 year old daughter, Teal unexpectedly died. In the year that followed, she says she did nothing but take exceptional care of herself. Living in a friend’s guest room, she learned to slow down and practice self care.
Years later, Suzanne met the young woman who received Teal’s organs, and her mother, Debbie. Now, Debbie and Suzanne host the Back to Happy podcast together. Suzanne explains their instant chemistry, and how meeting them allowed pieces of life to fall together. These days in addition to the podcast, Suzanne has continued slowing down her life, working as an author and podcaster. She shares that she’s done this through choosing to slow down and practice meditation. She recommends taking a break from screens and starting to do small moments of life without them. It can be difficult, she says to start mindfulness from a healthy mental state, for those with depression or other mental health concerns, she says your first priority is to get help. Help can come in many forms, and it’s okay to reach out and ask for it.
To keep your alignment in check, and be able to sit in stillness, Suzanne says you have to have strong boundaries. This means recognizing what is encroaching on you. Once you’ve identified it and set that boundary, you can sit and do nothing which takes your brain into default mode. Default mode is where creativity and problem solving happens. In the midst of the pandemic, this can be difficult. Suzanne recommends small tasks that keep your hands busy, but allow your brain to relax as a start. She says avoid telling yourself what you “should” do, and think about what the next right thing to do is instead - one step at a time.
As the episode ends, Suzanne gives her advice to listeners for how to get back to happy.
0:00 - Intro
1:42 - Listeners are introduced to Suzanne and the episode ahead.
3:15 - Suzanne shares her background.
5:58 - How do you get back to happy after something tragic happens?
11:43 - Suzanne gives advice for how to slow down.
14:08 - Mindfulness practices.
21:53 - Suzanne explains the default mode.
24:42 - How can folks get back to happy in a pandemic?
32:41 - Suzanne’s advice to listeners.
Links:
Learn more about Suzanne Falter and connect with her on Twitter
Learn more about Suzanne’s books.
Learn more about Hacker Valley Studio.
Support Hacker Valley Studio on Patreon.
Follow Hacker Valley Studio on Twitter.
Follow hosts Ron Eddings and Chris Cochran on Twitter.
Learn more about our sponsor Bytecheck.
Thursday Dec 10, 2020
Thursday Dec 10, 2020
In this episode of the Hacker Valley Studio podcast, Ron and Chris are joined by co-founders of Material Security, Ryan Noon and Abhishek Agrawal. They co-founded Material Security in 2017, today Ryan serves as the CEO, and Abhishek the CTO. Abishek has a background in engineering, infrastructure and analytics and his MBA from Harvard. Ryan’s background is in engineering and data analysis, and holds multiple computer science and security degrees from Stanford. Before they moved on to creating their own company, they worked together at DropBox.
While they both have a strong engineering background, they are developing a security product. Ryan explains that coding and engineering is why he’s able to work in cyber security, all his years of engineering helped him make a reliable and effective product. Abhishek agrees that both their different backgrounds have carried over into the security industry and says the lessons he learned in productivity and engineering have been incredibly useful. Despite these diverse backgrounds, Ryan says going into security was an easy decision. “Go to where the problems are,” he says. Around the time of the founding of Material Security, there were a lot of problems with email. Abhishek agrees, and says he’s always been interested in email and how it’s being destroyed by threats.
When hackers access your email, what are they looking for? Abhishek explains that they may be downloading all of its contents, or resetting passwords to services like Twitter or Instagram. Material Security works to ask those questions and stop the effectiveness of a breach in email security. This shifts the focus from all the ways someone may hack you, to the implications of that hack. Ryan likens it to a burglary, explaining that their security is less about all the doors and windows - ways to get into your home - but rather what someone may want once they’re inside.
There is a lot of hand wringing in startup land, Ryan says, but there is no one right way to do it. The startup can burn you out, and what made Material Security’s leadership work was the reliance on each other, both he and Abhishek and their third co-founder, Chris Park. For them, this was the magic answer, having a third person gives them a tie breaker and someone who could cut through the noise with clarity. Abhishek agrees, joking that they compliment each other by Ryan giving long detailed answers, and Abhishek can summarize his thoughts. In all seriousness, this balance of responsibility and strengths requires a level of trust and lack of ego but makes the team work smoothly. Having unique skill sets is important, but Abhishek explains overlap is important as well because you can speak the same language and push each other for the best solutions.
When you come from similar backgrounds, no one is the authority and ideas get pressure tested. One of the challenges is using this overlap of skills for good - not letting it paralyze you. Another challenge they faced is knowing where to question and press industry standards, versus where to accept and excel at current practices. When thinking over their challenges and journey they offer some advice to new founders. Ryan stresses, “stop trying to get into things.” People can fall into the trap of trying to get into college, programs, and industries, and end up giving up some of their productivity and creativity to others. He also encourages people to know their partners and communicate with them about everything. Abhishek says people should divorce the idea of leaving their job from starting a company. Instead you should decide if you’re ready to leave your current job and then if you want to go to a new company or start your own.
0:00 - Intro
1:40 - Listeners are introduced to co-founders of Material Security and the episode ahead.
3:05 - Ryan and Abhishek introduce themselves.
5:38 - How do engineering and cyber security intersect?
8:39 - Why did Ryan and Abhishek decide to go into security?
14:28 - Ryan and Abhishek explain what hackers do when they’ve gotten into email.
18:08 - How do Ryan and Abhishek navigate their relationship?
24:19 - Ron asks Ryan and Abhishek about the challenges of the founder’s journey.
26:45 - What piece of advice do they have for new founders?
Links:
Learn more about Material Security.
Learn more about Hacker Valley Studio.
Support Hacker Valley Studio on Patreon.
Follow Hacker Valley Studio on Twitter.
Follow hosts Ron Eddings and Chris Cochran on Twitter.
Learn more about our sponsor ByteChek.
Tuesday Dec 08, 2020
Tuesday Dec 08, 2020
In this episode of Hacker Valley Studio podcast, Ron and Chris are joined by Jason Meller, Founder, and CEO of Kolide. Jason has over 10 years of experience in managing and leading security organizations. Jason’s interest in technology and cybersecurity began in the 1990s when he began programming in Visual Basic and building AOL Instant Messenger bots. Building offensive tools accelerated Jason’s interest in defending networks and helped him learn how much honesty plays part in building security solutions.
Jason mentions that the security monitoring software at most organizations have the same functionality as spyware or surveillance tools. In addition, these tools are designed to scrutinize all the actions that occur on a device. COVID-19 has increased the rate of organizations going through a digital transformation; as a result, users at an organization are not in a cubicle but at their home. This could mean that security teams have an extremely elevated level of access to devices without transparency as to what is being monitored to protect an organization. This is why Honest Security was created - to create a transparent relationship between security teams and end-users.
Jason has collaborated with Jesse Kriss from Netflix who is actively working towards incorporating user-focused security. Jason describes that organizations should build a culture based on trusting users, treating them like adults, giving them the tools that they need to do their job, and not treating them as suspects from day one. Instead, organizations and security teams should seek teachable moments by giving recommendations and educating users.
Throughout the episode, Jason describes situations that involve users and security team members maneuvering around security tooling obstacles to get their job done. Since working at home, traditional tools have created friction in the user experience. For instance, not having the ability to use USB ports on work devices, disabling corporate VPN to watch a YouTube video, and having to create a ticket to install software to help them with their job. When this friction is created, users will resort to using their personal devices for work activities and miss the opportunity to benefit from security. In some cases, there are “evil” applications found on a device created by a user - but often bad applications installed by users are Chrome extensions or helper utilities that are sending browsing history to a marketing firm.
In the Honest Security manifesto, there’s a section on empathetic intelligence, Jason describes this concept as thinking of the daily life users, thinking of what challenges are users attempting to solve in their workflow, and what part of that workflow could pose a risk to the organization. An example of this would be a security team member trying to empathize with someone who is a developer- and thinking of their daily workflow. When empathizing the security team may realize that the developer is attempting to fix issues on a production application. While fixing the production application, the developer may try to bring a copy of the application database to their local device. Creating a local copy of the database could pose a security risk the copy of the database is not deleted in a reasonable time or the user has their device auto-backup folders to their corporate or personal cloud storage solution (ie. Google Drive). Creating education for avoiding this mistake is a prime example of empathic intelligence when practicing Honest Security.
As the episode progresses, Jason goes into depth and explains more tenants of Honest Security - The goal is not to give unlimited power to the user or security team but to enable everyone to be in the position to make the right decisions and give appropriate recommendations. When consequences are articulated, users can understand that when maneuvering around security tools can pose a risk to their device and organization. Ie) disconnecting from the corporate VPN. When coaching and education are put as a priority when practicing security, James describes it as empowering the user to be successful and more transparent.
0:00 - Intro
2:28 - This episode features Jason Meller, Founder, and CEO of Kolide!
2:54 - Jason shares his background and his path into cybersecurity.
4:07 - What is Honest Security?
5:22 - Jason’s examples of dishonest security
8:08 - Collaboration with Netflix and User-Focused Security
16:00 - Jason describes Empathetic Security
19:17 - Tenants of Honest Security
35:32 - Wrap Up and Resources for Honest Security
Links:
Learn more about Jason Meller and connect with him on LinkedIn.
Learn more about Honest Security and read the manifesto.
Learn more about Jason’s company Kolide
Learn more about Hacker Valley Studio.
Support Hacker Valley Studio on Patreon.
Follow Hacker Valley Studio on Twitter.
Follow hosts Ron Eddings and Chris Cochran on Twitter.
Learn more about our sponsor ByteChek.