The ITSPmagazine Podcast

Latest Episodes:

Security Is the Network: Integrating AI Firewall and Threat Intelligence Into the Fabric of Enterprise Defense | A Brand Highlight at RSAC Conference 2026 with Mounir Hahad, Head of HPE Threat Labs of Hewlett Packard Enterprise Mar 31, 2026

Show notes

Hewlett Packard Enterprise has been rethinking what it means to secure an enterprise network -- and the answer they keep arriving at is that security cannot be an afterthought. At RSAC Conference 2026, Mounir Hahad, Head of HPE Threat Labs, sat down with Sean Martin to walk through what that philosophy looks like in practice and what two major announcements at the show mean for security teams.

One of those announcements is the HPE AI firewall -- a solution built specifically for organizations trying to govern how employees use generative AI tools without shutting down innovation. Mounir Hahad frames the challenge directly: gen AI has doubled the attack surface, and organizations that fail to act risk both data leakage and a loss of confidence in the technology itself. The AI firewall starts with visibility -- showing which AI services employees are using, what data is moving where, and whether private information is leaking to external services -- and then gives administrators the tools to set and enforce policy.

The second announcement is the formal launch of HPE Threat Labs, which brings together threat research capabilities from both Hewlett Packard Enterprise and the former Juniper Networks. The combined team covers both threat analysis and vulnerability analysis -- capabilities that were previously siloed. HPE Threat Labs has published its inaugural In the Wild threat report, drawing on telemetry, honeypots, and open-source intelligence to give CISOs and decision makers a clear view of how cybercrime has industrialized, why attacks are increasingly targeted, and why high-confidence alerts matter more than ever.

This is a Brand Highlight. A Brand Highlight is a ~5 minute introductory conversation designed to put a spotlight on the guest and their company. Learn more: https://www.studioc60.com/creation#highlight

GUEST

Mounir Hahad, Head of HPE Threat Labs, Hewlett Packard Enterprise
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mounirhahad/

RESOURCES

HPE Threat Labs: https://www.hpe.com
HPE Threat Labs 2026 In the Wild Threat Report: https://www.hpe.com

Are you interested in telling your story?
▶︎ Full Length Brand Story: https://www.studioc60.com/content-creation#full
▶︎ Brand Spotlight Story: https://www.studioc60.com/content-creation#spotlight
▶︎ Brand Highlight Story: https://www.studioc60.com/content-creation#highlight

KEYWORDS

Mounir Hahad, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, HPE, HPE Threat Labs, Sean Martin, brand story, brand marketing, marketing podcast, brand highlight, AI firewall, generative AI security, network security, threat intelligence, SASE, cybercrime, RSAC Conference 2026, threat research, enterprise security, AI governance, cybersecurity

The Backup Layer Is a Security Layer | A Brand Spotlight at RSAC Conference 2026 with Anthony Cusimano, Chief Evangelist & Director of Solutions Marketing at Object First Mar 31, 2026

Show notes

At RSAC Conference 2026, Anthony Cusimano, Chief Evangelist and Director of Solutions Marketing at Object First, joins Sean Martin on the show floor to break down what separates truly immutable storage from the checkbox version. The answer comes down to zero access: no command line interface, no root access, no administrative back doors at any layer -- for customers or for Object First itself.

Object First appliances are purpose-built for Veeam and ship with S3 protocol storage in automatic compliance mode, versioning, and object lock. Once data is written and a retention period is set, nothing -- no admin, no attacker, not even the vendor -- can touch it. Cusimano describes the architecture as a storage utility, not an administration platform: Veeam handles all backup policy and configuration; Object First handles one thing only, ensuring the data cannot be erased.

The statistics behind the design are sobering. According to Cusimano, 96 percent of ransomware attacks specifically target backup data -- a figure validated across four independent industry surveys. Organizations that rely on encryption alone, without immutable storage, are leaving a critical gap that attackers have learned to exploit. Many do not discover that gap until recovery is already underway.

Cusimano also makes the case for recovery testing as a security priority in its own right. He recommends full tabletop exercises that assume worst-case conditions: every admin credential compromised, active directory gone. Teams that run through this process discover gaps in their architecture that no amount of vendor documentation will surface. His practical tip -- collect coworkers' cell phone numbers before an incident -- reflects just how complete the communications blackout can be when directory services fail.

Two capabilities from Object First round out the conversation. Fleet Manager, launching May 6th, gives managed service providers and large enterprises a single SaaS dashboard to manage all Object First instances with unified telemetry and honeypot visibility -- with no backup data leaving the appliance. And the honeypot feature, included on every device at no cost, simulates a Veeam backup and replication server as a decoy. When agentic AI-driven attacks probe the environment, they interact with the honeypot exactly as they would a real target, triggering alerts that can surface threats days or weeks before a full attack develops.

This is a Brand Spotlight. A Brand Spotlight is a ~15 minute conversation designed to explore the guest, their company, and what makes their approach unique. Learn more: https://www.studioc60.com/creation#spotlight

GUEST

Anthony Cusimano, Chief Evangelist & Director of Solutions Marketing, Object First
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonycusimano89/

RESOURCES

Object First website: https://objectfirst.com
ITSPmagazine RSAC Conference 2026 coverage: https://www.itspmagazine.com/rsac-2026-conference-san-francisco-usa-cybersecurity-event-infosec-conference-coverage

KEYWORDS

Anthony Cusimano, Object First, Sean Martin, brand story, brand marketing, marketing podcast, brand spotlight, ransomware, immutable storage, backup security, Veeam, data protection, RSAC Conference 2026, cyber resilience, absolute immutability, ransomware recovery, Fleet Manager, honeypot detection, managed service providers, zero trust storage

Cutting Through the Fog: Trust, Outcomes, and What Real Consulting Looks Like | A Brand Spotlight at RSAC Conference 2026 with Michael Parisi, Chief Growth Officer of Steel Patriot Partners Mar 31, 2026

Show notes

At RSAC Conference 2026, the noise is relentless. Vendor booths, AI pitches, and breathless marketing compete for attention at every turn. Michael Parisi, Chief Growth Officer at Steel Patriot Partners, joins Sean Martin and Marco Ciappelli on the ground in San Francisco to name what too few are willing to say out loud: most of the conversation happening on the show floor does not reflect the conversations that actually matter.

The real exchanges, Parisi says, are happening backstage -- in the hallways, over coffee, between practitioners who trust each other enough to ask: does this vendor actually do what they say? That shift back to peer-driven trust is not a trend. It is a correction. Security leaders are exhausted and fragile, operating under intense pressure, and they are returning to the relationships they know rather than the research tools and AI-generated answers they do not trust.

Steel Patriot Partners was built around exactly that dynamic. Their operating principle -- business owners first, engineers second, compliance and security people third -- runs counter to how most consulting firms approach an engagement. Rather than leading with frameworks or certifications, the team starts by asking what outcome the client is actually trying to achieve. Parisi is candid about how often that conversation leads them to steer a client away from the path they came in convinced they needed. That willingness to say no -- and mean it -- is what sets a trusted advisor apart from a vendor.

The outcome-first philosophy shapes every engagement. As founder Jason Ford says, 80% of what Steel Patriot Partners does is a therapy session. Organizations coming in with complex compliance challenges -- FedRAMP, CMMC, HITRUST, DoD IL -- need more than a checklist. They need a partner who has lived those journeys themselves, made the mistakes, and can speak honestly about what is worth pursuing and what is not.

Parisi's advice to anyone evaluating a consulting partner is pointed: ask the question up and down the team, not just of the founder. The firms that have genuinely lived what they sell -- and can talk about the failures as clearly as the successes -- are the ones worth trusting when the stakes are high.

GUEST

Michael Parisi, Chief Growth Officer, Steel Patriot Partners
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-parisi-4009b2261/

RESOURCES

Steel Patriot Partners: https://www.steelpatriotpartners.com

KEYWORDS

Michael Parisi, Steel Patriot Partners, Sean Martin, brand spotlight, brand story, brand marketing, marketing podcast, cybersecurity consulting, compliance advisory, FedRAMP, CMMC, HITRUST, DoD IL, trusted advisor, outcome-based consulting, vendor trust, cybersecurity noise, RSAC Conference 2026, security leadership, GRC, business risk, human in the loop

When Trust Becomes the Product: Digital Executive Protection in a World of Deepfakes and Disappearing Privacy | A Brand Spotlight at RSAC Conference 2026 with Dr. Chris Pierson, Founder and CEO of BlackCloak Mar 31, 2026

Show notes

At RSAC Conference 2026, Dr. Chris Pierson, Founder and CEO of BlackCloak, sat down with Sean Martin and Marco Ciappelli for a conversation that has become something of an annual tradition. What started in 2018 as a category BlackCloak largely invented -- digital executive protection -- has become one of the most pressing concerns in enterprise security. Adversaries have figured out that the easiest path into a company often runs straight through the personal lives of its leaders: the About Us page, the board listing, the family members visible on social media. BlackCloak was built to close that gap.

BlackCloak announced at RSAC Conference 2026 the launch of its new travel advisory platform -- a tool designed to give executives and their families actionable, real-time intelligence when traveling domestically or internationally. Pierson explained that CISOs and CSOs are increasingly being asked questions that go well beyond network security: what are the crime trends in this city, what embassy contacts are needed, which areas should be avoided? The platform distills complex, fast-moving threat intelligence into concise briefings -- four or five pages, mobile-accessible, and built for the executive and the family members traveling alongside them.

On the privacy side, BlackCloak introduced Search Suppression -- a new feature that goes further than data broker removal alone. Even after information is scrubbed from the major data broker sites, traces of personally identifiable information can persist across the open internet. Search Suppression identifies those instances and requests their removal from search engine results, shrinking the digital footprint that attackers use to build targeted OSINT profiles. And because the threat surface shifts as executives' children age and begin generating their own data trails, the platform monitors continuously -- not just at a single point in time.

Pierson also addressed the deepfake threat head-on. BlackCloak re-released its Impersonation Protection feature with deeper capabilities specifically designed for this problem. Plugin-based detection tools for Teams or Zoom leave the most common attack vectors -- phone calls, text messages, WhatsApp, Signal -- completely unaddressed. Impersonation Protection allows members to push a quick identity-verification request through the BlackCloak app to anyone in their trusted circle, regardless of how the original communication arrived. If verification fails, alarm notifications fire to both the CISO and the BlackCloak team. In a world where high-quality deepfake audio and video can be synthesized from publicly available earnings call recordings and media appearances, slowing down to verify through a trusted channel is one of the most reliable defenses available.

The conversation closed on the concept of trust -- a word Pierson returned to repeatedly. It is, he said, the reason people choose BlackCloak. The relationships the company builds with CISOs, CSOs, and the executives and families they protect require trust that is built carefully and maintained continuously. As BlackCloak scales, preserving that culture is something Pierson thinks about deeply. For a company whose entire business is built on protecting people in their most personal digital spaces, trust is not just a value. It is the product.

GUEST

Dr. Chris Pierson, Founder and CEO, BlackCloak
https://www.linkedin.com/in/drchristopherpierson/

RESOURCES

BlackCloak official website: https://blackcloak.io
BlackCloak Digital Executive Protection Platform: https://blackcloak.io/product/
Request a BlackCloak demo: https://blackcloak.io/executives/

KEYWORDS

Dr. Chris Pierson, BlackCloak, Sean Martin, Marco Ciappelli, brand story, brand marketing, marketing podcast, brand spotlight, digital executive protection, executive cybersecurity, personal cybersecurity, deepfake defense, impersonation protection, travel advisory security, search suppression, data broker removal, OSINT, executive privacy, RSAC Conference 2026, RSAC 2026, cybersecurity, privacy

Protecting Kids Online Since 2007 and in the Age of AI: Ben Halpert on Savvy Cyber Kids at RSAC 2026 Mar 30, 2026

Show notes

In this episode from RSA Conference 2026, Marco Ciappelli sits down with Ben Halpert, founder of the non-profit organization Savvy Cyber Kids, to discuss the critical intersection of child development and technology.

Since its founding in 2007, Savvy Cyber Kids has been on a mission to provide parents and educators with the tools needed to guide children through the digital world. Ben explains why introducing technology too early can be detrimental to a child’s emotional preparedness and brain development, and why adult-led guidance is essential even when kids seem like "tech experts".

In this conversation, we explore:

The Evolution of Threats: Moving from MySpace and CRT monitors to 24/7 access via mobile devices.

Early Intervention: Why the "rhyme and picture book" approach works for children as young as three to teach concepts like online aliases and stranger safety.

Safe AI for Kids: Introducing a new partnership with Chaperone, a platform featuring "homework mode" and parental controls to ensure AI is a tool for learning, not a shortcut for thinking.

Going Global: How the organization has expanded internationally with materials translated into Spanish, German, French, and Hebrew.

About Our Guest

Ben Halpert is a cybersecurity veteran with over 25 years of experience and the founder of Savvy Cyber Kids. He is dedicated to helping parents navigate the "wild" of the internet with positive, developmentally appropriate programming.

Resources

Savvy Cyber Kids Website: savvycyberkids.org

More RSAC 2026 Coverage: itspmagazine.com/rsac

Marco's Website: Marcociappelli.com

Empowering Native Hawaiians in Tech: Kahikina Scholarship | With Marco Ciappelli and Hoala Greevy Mar 30, 2026

Show notes

In this episode, Marco Ciappelli sits down with Hoala Greevy, founder of Paubox, to discuss a mission-driven initiative aimed at changing the face of the technology industry. What started as a celebratory giveaway of spam musubi for Paubox customers has evolved into the Paubox Kahikina Scholarship, a recurring $1,000 annual grant for Native Hawaiian students pursuing careers in STEM and technology.

Key Highlights: • The Mission: To encourage Native Hawaiians—who are significantly underrepresented in tech and medical fields—to pursue and stay in STEM careers. • The Impact: Since 2019, the scholarship has grown from a single recipient to 62, providing both financial aid and direct access to a professional network. • Beyond the Money: Recipients share their college journeys through annual blog posts or vlogs, creating a community of future leaders. • New Milestones: Hoala discusses the scholarship's recent 501(c)(3) nonprofit status, opening the doors for corporate partnerships and expanded funding.

How to Support or Apply: If you are a Native Hawaiian student pursuing STEM, or if you are interested in donating to the fund, visit the link below: •
Website: https://www.paubox.com/kahikina-stem-scholarship
• Application Deadline: May 31st.

Marco's Website: https://www.marcociappelli.com
ITSPmagazine: https://www.ITSPmagazine.com

Everyone Is Talking About Agentic AI at RSAC 2026. Almost Nobody Is Saying Anything Different | With Marco Ciappelli and Theresa Lanowitz Mar 29, 2026

Show notes

Marco Ciappelli sits down with cybersecurity evangelist and thought leader Theresa Lanowitz at the end of day one on the expo floor for a conversation that cuts through the noise — from shadow AI and leadership accountability, to brand identity, to why most companies here can't articulate a message above the fray. Plus: a Peloton story that accidentally became the best explanation of brand loyalty you'll hear all week.
Chapters:
- Judge Sentences CEO to 8 Hours on the RSAC Floor
- End of Day One: Setting the Scene
- Who Is Theresa Lanowitz
- The Binary View of AI: Love It, Fear It, or Find the Gray
- Leadership's Role in the AI Transformation
- Shadow AI: The Insider Threat Nobody Is Naming
- Why Some Companies Still Say No to AI
- Fighting With Your LLM (We All Do It)
- AI Slop and the Brand Differentiation Problem
- The Peloton Story: What Real Brand Loyalty Looks Like
- RSAC 2026: Everyone Sounds the Same
- Where Is Agentic AI Actually Going
- Integration, Orchestration, ROI: The Real Questions
- Make AI Your Own

What's actually covered: → Why agentic AI is dominating RSAC 2026 — and why it all sounds the same → Shadow AI: the insider threat nobody is calling an insider threat → What strong brand presence actually looks like (hint: it's not a circus tent) → Why fear — not budget — is the real reason companies still say no to AI → Integration, orchestration, ROI: what comes after the hype → The one message that matters: make AI your own 🔗 More from RSA Conference 2026: itspmagazine.com/rsac

Agentic AI at RSAC 2026: Revolutionary Tech or Just Marketing Noise? | Guests: Theresa Lanowitz and Joseph Carson Mar 29, 2026

Show notes

Is the RSA Conference floor a visionary glimpse into the future, or just an "AI blender" where every vendor tastes the same? Join hosts Marco Ciappelli and Sean Martin as they sit down with industry heavyweights Theresa Lanowitz and Joe Carson to dissect the real sentiment of RSAC 2026.

Key Discussion Points:

The AI Agent Explosion: Everyone says they can secure your agents, but is there any actual differentiation?

Keynote Insights: A breakdown of George Kurtz’s CrowdStrike keynote on "Full Throttle" AI vs. total fear.

The "Mushroom" Metaphor: Why AI is like a power-up in Super Mario Kart—it makes you go faster, but it doesn't make you a better driver.

The Marketing Disconnect: Why vendor messaging is failing to map to the actual "to-do lists" of modern CISOs.

Niche Power: Why the most innovative solutions are often found on the perimeter of the expo floor.

Beyond the Noise: A Senior Forrester Analyst’s Take on Securing GenAI at RSAC 2026 Mar 28, 2026

Show notes

Is the cybersecurity industry just "agent-washing" its marketing, or are we on the verge of a revolutionary shift in how CISOs manage risk? Join Madelein van der Hout (Senior Analyst at Forrester), Marco Ciappelli, and Sean Martin as they record live from the RSA Conference to cut through the GenAI noise.

Key Discussion Points:

The CISO Challenge: Why security leaders are struggling to define their roles for the next five years.

Agentic Behavior: The risks of AI agents attempting to bypass security controls to "find a way" to complete tasks.

AI vs. AI: Exploring the concept of a "cybersecurity autoimmune disease" where defensive and offensive AI clash.

Regulation as an Enabler: Why the EU AI Act and digital safety rules should be viewed as "brakes" that allow organizations to go faster, not slower.

The Missing Link: Why discovery and identity are the most overlooked aspects of the agentic age.

Chapters:

0:00 - Live from RSA Conference San Francisco

1:03 - The impossible task of the modern CISO

2:26 - Why there were no "puppies" at RSAC this year

4:14 - Cutting through the GenAI marketing noise

5:51 - Upskilling vs. reskilling for an AI workforce

7:50 - The need for "Discovery" in AI agents

11:39 - Budgeting: Securing AI within the AI budget

13:24 - Stop treating AI like it's "mysterious" software

15:42 - Regulation: The EU AI Act and "Brakes" for innovation

18:19 - AI Horror Stories: Agents gone rogue?

23:00 - The Cybersecurity Autoimmune Disease theory

Suggested Tags

Broad Tags: Cybersecurity, InfoSec, Artificial Intelligence, GenAI, AI Agents, RSA Conference, RSAC 2026.

Specific Tags: Forrester Research, Madelein van der Hout, CISO strategy, EU AI Act, AI regulation, Agentic AI, AI security risks, Cybersecurity marketing, Tech regulation.

Next Step: Would you like me to generate a high-impact thumbnail concept or a few community post blurbs to promote the video once it's live?

Order of Operations: The Foundation Risk Healthcare AI Is Running Past | Lens Four by Sean Martin | Read by TAPE9 Mar 22, 2026

Show notes

Healthcare's AI ambition and its data infrastructure are moving at different speeds. In this edition of Lens Four, Sean Martin examines what happens when those speeds collide — and who is accountable when the sequence is wrong.

🔍 In this episode:

82% of health systems have limited or no AI governance in place, while deployments proceed — Digital Medicine Society
58% of frontline clinical staff are using unsanctioned AI tools — not out of recklessness, but because approved alternatives don't exist — Wolters Kluwer
The vendor trust gap: trusted vendors are shipping AI capabilities into integrated products after contracts are signed, after integrations are built, after due diligence has closed — and most health systems have no mechanism to detect it
Jason Kor of HITRUST on what procurement processes aren't built to catch — recorded for the Redefining CyberSecurity Podcast
The Stryker attack: a nation-state operation that disrupted hospitals through their supplier — not their own systems
Ryan Patrick of HITRUST on why availability of services now sits in the same risk tier as confidentiality of data
Who actually owns the patient's data — the provider, the insurer, the vendor, the device manufacturer, the government program, or the patient?
TEFCA — the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement — moves data nationally across eleven Qualified Health Information Networks. It does not move the ownership rights with it
The CMS agenda: $1.7 trillion, 160 million Americans, and a policy clock that does not wait for the identity infrastructure to catch up
The vocabulary of transformation — what "pilot to production" and "scale" are selecting for, and what they are leaving out
Zero Trust reframed as the infrastructure condition that makes trustworthy AI deployment possible — not just a ransomware defense

Fourth Lens: Healthcare's AI ambition and its data infrastructure are moving at different speeds — and the patient is where those speeds collide. The program layer is making sequence choices. The market layer is accelerating pressure. The messaging layer is optimizing for ambition. None of it is an argument against innovation. All of it is an argument for discipline — A-to-Z, every dependency, ambiguity, and fragility along the way.

🎙️ Podcast conversations referenced in this article:

🔗 Full article and references: seanmartin.com/lens-four

🌐 HIMSS26 coverage: itspmagazine.com

Sean Martin is a cybersecurity market analyst, content strategist, and advisor with 30+ years across engineering, product development, marketing, and media. Co-founder of ITSPmagazine and Studio C60, host of the Redefining CyberSecurity Podcast and the Music Evolves Podcast. Connect at seanmartin.com.

Subscribe to Lens Four — Where business, innovation, and messaging come into focus.

🎯 Keywords: healthcare AI governance, order of operations AI, data foundation healthcare, vendor trust gap, patient data ownership, TEFCA, health information exchange, QHINs, Shadow AI healthcare, third-party risk management, supply chain resilience healthcare, Zero Trust healthcare, CMS interoperability framework, CIA triad healthcare, data integrity AI, identity management healthcare, HITRUST, Jason Kor, Ryan Patrick, Wolters Kluwer, Digital Medicine Society, DiMe, Google for Health, Jon McNeill, John Halamka, Mayo Clinic Platform, Sumbul Ahmad Desai, Apple Health, Daymond John, Dr. Mehmet Oz, Amy Gleason, Kim Brandt, DOGE healthcare, Stryker cyberattack, nation-state healthcare attack, HIMSS26, Redefining CyberSecurity Podcast, Lens Four, Sean Martin, ITSPmagazine

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