The Cybersecurity Defenders Podcast

Latest Episodes:

#198 - AI risk and safety with John Vaina, AI Researcher & Red Teamer Mar 06, 2025

Show notes

On this episode of The Cybersecurity Defenders Podcast we talk with John Vaina, AI Researcher and Red Teamer, about AI risk and safety.

John is an expert in AI risk, safety, and security. John currently works as an AI red team operator, tackling some of the most complex challenges in the field. His work spans traditional cybersecurity concerns, such as identifying vulnerabilities in AI systems, to cutting-edge tasks like testing for emergent behaviors and conducting AI alignment and safety audits.

John’s expertise includes evaluating ethical and bias risks, ensuring model robustness, and running adversarial attack simulations to uncover potential weaknesses. Beyond these technical aspects, he also addresses broader safety issues, including scenarios involving CBRNE threats and other high-stakes risks.

John’s unique combination of technical skills, strategic thinking, and a focus on ethical considerations makes him a leading voice in ensuring that AI technologies are safe, secure, and aligned with human values.

#197 - Avoiding burnout and a managing stress with Amanda Berlin, CEO of Mental Health Hackers Feb 28, 2025

Show notes

In this episode of The Cybersecurity Defenders Podcast, we discuss stress management and avoiding burnout with Amanda Berlin, CEO of Mental Health Hackers.

Amanda is the Senior Product Manager of Cybersecurity at Blumira, where she collaborates with a talented team to make security more accessible. With a career in IT spanning nearly her entire adult life, her expertise includes infrastructure security, network troubleshooting, purple teaming, and security awareness training.

Beyond her role at Blumira, Amanda leads Mental Health Hackers, an organization dedicated to addressing the unique mental health challenges faced by cybersecurity professionals and heavy technology users. Through education and advocacy, she helps shine a light on the critical intersection of mental health and the tech industry.

All of the links:

Coffee bot: Donuts

Book: The Fearless Organization

American Psychological Association

Mental Health hackers next at: Bsides Charm in Baltimore, Blue Team Con in Chicago... check social media for more

#196 - Security challenges in the Arctic with Deepak Dutt, Founder of Zighra Feb 25, 2025

Show notes

On this episode of The Cybersecurity Defenders Podcast, we talk about security issues in the Arctic with Deepak Dutt, Founder of Zighra.

Deepak is a technology leader and entrepreneur on a mission to secure the future against AI-powered threats and to inspire founders to transform their ideas from zero to meaningful impact.

Deepak’s career began in the software space, inspired by his father’s passion for technology. In his late teens, he founded his first company in the eLearning space, which he successfully led to an acquisition, relocating to Ottawa at the age of 21.

While in Ottawa, Deepak balanced graduate studies with roles at Newbridge Networks and Nortel, where he spent nearly a decade gaining expertise in product development, go-to-market strategy, and technological innovation. These experiences reinforced his drive to harness technology’s transformative potential.

In 2009, Deepak founded his second startup, a cloud-based cybersecurity company. Over the years, he has participated in leading accelerators worldwide, including Barclays/Techstars, Creative Destruction Labs, and the Canadian Technology Accelerator. Today, as Founder and CEO of Zighra, he is building an operating system designed to defend against AI-powered attacks, working with financial institutions and governments to deliver robust security solutions powered by explainable AI, behavioral biometrics, and contextual intelligence.

A passionate advocate of the Zero to Impact philosophy, Deepak is committed to inspiring tech founders to embrace big challenges and develop innovations that drive meaningful change.

#195 - Intel Chat: APT tunnelling, BadPilot, CVE-2025-0108, emojis & Kitty Stealer (take 2) Feb 21, 2025

Show notes

In this episode of The Cybersecurity Defenders Podcast, we discuss some cutting-edge intel coming out of LimaCharlie's community Slack channel.

Network traffic tunneling is a technique used by attackers to bypass security controls and exfiltrate data or establish covert communication channels. Threat actors use various tunneling methods, including DNS tunneling, HTTP/S tunneling, and ICMP tunneling, each with its own advantages depending on the target environment.

The "BadPilot" hacking campaign has been linked to Russia's Sandworm threat group, a unit of the GRU known for cyber espionage and disruptive attacks.

GreyNoise has observed active exploitation of CVE-2025-0108, a critical authentication bypass vulnerability in Palo Alto Networks’ PAN-OS. This vulnerability allows unauthenticated attackers to gain administrative access to affected firewall devices, posing a significant risk to organizations relying on PAN-OS for network security.

Security researcher Paul Butler has demonstrated a novel technique for smuggling arbitrary data using emojis, leveraging the way modern text encoding and rendering systems handle Unicode characters.

Kitty Stealer is a newly identified malware targeting macOS systems, designed to steal sensitive user data such as credentials, browser cookies, and cryptocurrency wallets.

#194 – Exploring MSSP partnerships and technology providers with Raffaele Mautone, CEO of Judy Security Feb 19, 2025

Show notes

On this episode of The Cybersecurity Defenders Podcast, we explore MSSP partnerships and technology providers with Raffaele Mautone, CEO of Judy Security.

Raffaele brings a strong background in IT, sales, and operations, with extensive experience in cybersecurity and IT shaping the foundation of Judy Security. He has a proven track record of leading teams through successful acquisitions, strategic planning, and large-scale program deployments.

Throughout his career, he has worked with major companies like Duo, FireEye, McAfee, and Dell, focusing on marketing and sales strategies, business process improvements, and go-to-market programs.

Judy Security delivers enterprise-grade cybersecurity tailored for SMBs and MSPs. Their AI-powered platform is affordable, intuitive, and designed to seamlessly integrate with MSP business models while addressing the unique security challenges of SMBs. With Judy Security, businesses can stay protected with advanced, easy-to-use cybersecurity solutions—because safeguarding data shouldn’t be complicated.

#193 - Intel Chat: Ransomware drops, 8Base, XE Group, SolarWinds-esque attack & cyber-espionage in South Asia Feb 13, 2025

Show notes

In this episode of The Cybersecurity Defenders Podcast, we discuss some cutting-edge intel coming out of LimaCharlie's community Slack channel.

Ransomware payments saw a significant drop in 2024, falling by 35% compared to the previous year.
Law enforcement agencies have arrested a suspected core member of the 8Base ransomware group, marking a significant development in efforts to combat cybercrime.
The XE Group, a financially motivated cybercrime organization, has shifted its tactics from traditional card-skimming attacks to more sophisticated supply chain compromises.
Security researchers at watchTowr have demonstrated a supply chain attack technique that surpasses the scale and stealth of the infamous SolarWinds breach.
A newly discovered cyber-espionage campaign is targeting government and military entities in South Asia, according to researchers at Unit 42.

#192 - Talent acquisition, training, and retention in the MSSP space with Paul Ihme, Cofounder & Managing Principle at Soteria Feb 11, 2025

Show notes

On this episode of The Cybersecurity Defenders Podcast we talk about talent acquisition, training, and retention in the MSSP space with Paul Ihme, Cofounder & Managing Principle at Soteria.

Paul is a cybersecurity professional with extensive experience in both federal and private sectors. He is the co-founder and managing principal of Soteria, a firm that provides tailored cybersecurity solutions and strategic advisory services to help businesses defend against cyber threats 24/7. Soteria specializes in managed detection and response, domain monitoring, and risk management for Microsoft 365 environments among other things. Prior to founding Soteria, Paul held key roles in cybersecurity, including Vice President of Active Network Defense at JPMorgan Chase and as a Cyber Warfare Operator in the U.S. Air Force. Today, we are going to be discussing what it takes to Build a Skilled Team and exploring his experience with Talent acquisition, training, and retention in the MSSP space.

#191 - Intel Chat: Lumma Stealer, xWorm, WSDOT & FortiOS Feb 04, 2025

Show notes

In this episode of The Cybersecurity Defenders Podcast, we discuss some cutting-edge intel coming out of LimaCharlie's community Slack channel.

Lumma Stealer, an information-stealing malware, has been observed using new evasion techniques to avoid detection.
Researchers at CloudSEK have uncovered a trojanized version of the xWorm Remote Access Trojan (RAT) builder that is being secretly distributed among cybercriminals.
A recent disclosure by security researcher Zach Latta highlights how the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) inadvertently exposed sensitive server credentials on its public website.
A critical authentication bypass vulnerability (CVE-2024-21762) in Fortinet’s FortiOS has been actively exploited in the wild, allowing attackers to execute arbitrary code or gain unauthorized access to affected systems.

#190 - How MSSPs can help clients meet regulatory requirements with Garret Grajek, CEO at YouAttest Feb 03, 2025

Show notes

On this episode of The Cybersecurity Defenders Podcast we speak with Garret Grajek, CEO of YouAttest, about how MSSPs help clients meet regulatory requirements and what it means for the MSSP.

Garret is a certified security leader with nearly 30 years of experience in information security. Garret is widely recognized as a visionary in identity, access, and authentication, holding 13 patents in areas such as x.509, mobile security, single sign-on (SSO), federation, and multi-factor technologies. Over the course of his career, he has contributed to major security projects for prominent commercial clients like Dish Networks, Office Depot, TicketMaster, and E*Trade, as well as public sector organizations including the U.S. Navy and the EPA.

Garret began his career as a security programmer at Texas Instruments, IBM, and Tandem Computers, later advancing to key roles at RSA, Netegrity, and Cisco. He is also the founder and creator of SecureAuth IdP, a two-factor authentication and SSO platform. Known for his expertise in security architecture, product development, and leadership, Garret is a thought leader in modern IT architecture, including mobile deployments, cloud, hybrid environments, and advanced authentication technologies.

#189 - Intel Chat: Docker, LDAPNightmare, Codefinger & Fortinet FortiGate Jan 28, 2025

Show notes

In this episode of The Cybersecurity Defenders Podcast, we discuss some cutting-edge intel coming out of LimaCharlie's community Slack channel.

From earlier this week, The Docker Systems Status page reports an ongoing issue affecting Docker Desktop on macOS, where malware alerts are triggered by macOS identifying com.docker.vmnetd or com.docker.socket as potential threats.
SafeBreach Labs has released a proof-of-concept (PoC) exploit for CVE-2024-49113, a critical vulnerability in the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) that impacts unpatched Windows Servers, including Active Directory Domain Controllers (DCs).
The Halcyon RISE team has uncovered a novel ransomware campaign targeting Amazon S3 buckets, exploiting AWS’s Server-Side Encryption with Customer-Provided Keys (SSE-C).
A recent campaign has been targeting Fortinet FortiGate firewalls with exposed management interfaces, likely exploiting a zero-day vulnerability to gain unauthorized administrative access.
Sophos recently reported on two distinct ransomware campaigns utilizing unique techniques to pressure victims and evade detection.

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

The Cybersecurity Defenders Podcast

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected