Be Fearless Podcast by SquareX
SquareX is excited to launch The Be Fearless Podcast Series, where we bring together industry experts and professionals from the cybersecurity community.
Hosted by SquareX Founder - and cybersecurity veteran - Vivek Ramachandran, look forward to insights about our guests’ journeys in security, the evolution of the field, the changing threatscape and how enterprises across industries are addressing them today.
Episodes
77 episodes
Revolutionizing Affordable Cyber Training | Kenneth Ellington, Founder, Ellington Cyber Academy
Kenneth Ellington went from making sandwiches at Publix to founding Ellington Cyber Academy after discovering the gap in cybersecurity training. He breaks down why expensive programs don't necessarily prepare students for real corporate environ...
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41:51
“Be Disciplined Early and Follow Your Gut" | Jesse Scott, Cybersecurity Executive and VC Advisor
Jesse Scott, Cybersecurity Executive and VC Advisor, has lived quite the journey - from NATO to building security teams at three unicorns including $3B+ Databricks. In this episode, he breaks down why current security operations are funda...
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29:28
From Consultant to First Security Hire | Kevin Qiu, Staff Security Engineer, Shiftsmart
Kevin Qiu, Staff Security Engineer at Shiftsmart and their first security hire, breaks down the realities of building security programs from scratch. In this episode, he discusses the risk that comes with using work devices for personal purpose...
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50:03
Managing Security for 11 Companies | Julia Dudenko, Group CISO at Haniel
Julia Dudenko, Group CISO at Haniel, oversees cybersecurity strategy for 11 portfolio companies spanning everything from manufacturing to kindergartens. In this conversation, she reveals why enterprises need to watch out for attacks that target...
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38:18
Why Good Offense is Your Best Defense | Prasanna Kanagasabai, CISO, Dkatalis (Bank Jago)
Prasanna Kanagasabai (PK), CISO, Dkatalis (Bank Jago), started his career as a network engineer and before becoming a pentester-turned-CISO. In this episode, Prasanna explains why breaking systems first is crucial for building robust defenses, ...
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51:58
Preparedness is Your Cybersecurity Superpower | Sabika Ishaq, CISO, Grant Thornton Luxembourg
Sabika Ishaq, CISO at Grant Thornton Luxembourg and President of Women Cyber Force, shares her journey from the United Nations to becoming a cybersecurity leader. In this episode, Sabika reveals insights on AI integration in cybersecurity, why ...
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Season 1
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Episode 66
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44:02
Why Business Alignment Beats Maturity | Ashish Garg, Founder, Managing Partner, RIGA Cyber
Ashish Garg, founder and managing partner at Riga Cyber, sits down to discuss his two-decade journey in cybersecurity and the massive shifts he's witnessed since his early days in the field. In this conversation, Ashish shares insights on how a...
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35:54
Cyber Risks for Government Agencies | Kush Sharma, Founder of KnightSpectre
Kush Sharma, Founder of KnightSpectre and Inaugural CISO of the City of Hamilton, has advised organizations worth over $2.5 trillion and knows exactly why most CISOs fail when talking to boards. From his experience being Toronto's inaugural CIS...
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44:40
The Dirty Secret of Cybersecurity: Why More Alerts Don't Work | Bryson Bort, CEO and Founder, Scythe
Bryson Bort, CEO and founder of Scythe and West Point graduate, breaks down the uncomfortable truths about modern cybersecurity that most vendors won't tell you. From real purple team stories to the "NSA problem" plaguing enterprises, Bryson ex...
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1:00:14
"The Right Tool for The Right Type of Adversary" | Perry Young, Director & ASEAN CISO at Kyndryl
Perry Young brings 25 years of cybersecurity expertise across three continents, from network engineering to serving as Director and ASEAN CISO at Kyndryl. In this conversation with SquareX Field CISO John Carse, he discusses CISOs challenges, w...
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Season 1
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Episode 64
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1:07:05
Why We're Still Doing Security Wrong | Evgeniy Kharam CSO, Discern Security
This episode of the Be Fearless Podcast features Evgeniy Kharam, Chief Strategy Officer at Discern Security and Security Architecture Podcast host. With 25+ years in cybersecurity—from Navy networking to enterprise consulting—Evgeniy explains w...
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50:02
Building Trust with the "No-Agenda Agenda" | Satyen Desai, VP Sales, ColorTokens
Satyen Desai, VP of Sales for Asia Pacific at ColorTokens, discusses enterprise cybersecurity's evolution and why traditional security approaches fail. With over 25 years at IBM, SAP, Cisco, Oracle, and Cloudflare, he explains why organizations...
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Season 1
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Episode 63
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54:04
The Human Side of Cybersecurity Leadership | Brian Fricke, CISO, City National Bank of Florida
Brian Fricke's cybersecurity journey started with fixing a malware outbreak that crippled his Marine squadron. Fast forward two decades, and he's now the CISO of City National Bank of Florida, protecting millions in assets while managing both p...
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Season 1
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Episode 59
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46:04
Understand Your Threat Model Before Choosing Solutions | Nicholas Muy, CISO, Scrut Automation
Nicholas Muy's cybersecurity journey started with a six-year-old's rebellion against his father's TV timer, leading him from the Department of Homeland Security to securing billions in travel transactions at Expedia, and now to his role as CISO...
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Season 1
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Episode 60
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51:26
Community-Driven Threat Intelligence | Jon Baker, Director & Co-founder, CTID, MITRE
Jon Baker, Director & Co-founder of MITRE's Center for Threat-Informed Defense (CTID) joins us for a deep dive into the beginnings of the eponymous concept. In this episode, Jon shares how he started his journey in MITRE, discusses the intr...
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Season 1
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Episode 60
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52:16
From EDR to Cloud to AI with Anton Chuvakin | Senior Security Staff, Office of the CISO, Google
One of security’s most well-known figures, Anton Chuvakin, coined the term EDR (Endpoint Detection and Response) during his stint at Gartner, pioneering the “DR” naming convention we’re all familiar with today. Now Senior Security Staff at Goog...
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Season 1
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Episode 59
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50:49
Breaking Barriers as a Woman in Cybersecurity | Chenxi Wang, Founder, Rain Capital
Dr. Chenxi Wang, Founder and General Partner of Rain Capital, has fascinating patterns in cybersecurity investing that most people miss. In this conversation, we dive deep into the mismatch between what founders are building versus what CISOs a...
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Season 1
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Episode 58
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57:51
From Reactive to Predictive Threat Intelligence | Christopher Ahlberg, CEO, Recorded Future
Christopher Ahlberg, CEO and co-founder of Recorded Future (which was recently acquired by Mastercard), breaks down the evolving cybersecurity landscape with SquareX's field CISO John Carse. From his journey building Spotfire to creating the wo...
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Season 1
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Episode 57
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1:05:49
How Scepticism Saves Companies | Luke Shoberg, Latacora, ex-Global CISO of Sequoia
Luke Shoberg took an unconventional path from studying biology to becoming Global CISO at Sequoia Capital. In this conversation, Luke explains what makes VC security uniquely challenging, why being "professionally paranoid" is essential in secu...
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Season 1
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Episode 56
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57:32
“True Leadership Lies in Humility” | Vijay Jajoo, Partner, Cyber, Data, and Tech Enablement, KPMG US
In this episode, we sit down with Vijay Jajoo, a partner at KPMG with over two decades of experience in cyber data and tech containment. Vijay shares his unique journey into cybersecurity, the biggest challenges facing large organisations today...
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50:33
The Browser Has Become The New Perimeter | Cecil Su, Director of Cybersecurity and CTI, BDO Advisory
Cecil Su, Director of Cybersecurity and CTI at BDO Advisory and co-lead of OWASP Singapore Chapter, brings nearly two decades of experience from his start in hospitality systems to becoming the cybersecurity leader he is today. In this episode,...
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1:08:24
Being a Purpose-Driven CIO | Andrea Bergamini, VP & CIO, Orbia
Andrea Bergamini, VP and CIO of Orbia, started as a telco engineer 20 years ago when cybersecurity barely existed, but went into the field due to his audit work at GE, which sparked his fascination with risk and controls. Fast forward to today,...
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Season 1
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Episode 51
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52:44
Building Great Cybersecurity Teams | Aamir Niazi, Executive Director/CISO, SMBC Capital Markets
Aamir Niazi, Executive Director and CISO at SMBC Capital Markets, shares his unfiltered 18-year journey from engineer to leading cybersecurity teams in financial services. Aamir gets honest about hiring mistakes, building remote teams during CO...
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34:42
Doing Adversary Emulation Right | William Booth, General Manager, Director MITRE ATT&CK Evaluations
What if most organizations are testing their security tools against the wrong threats entirely?As the leader behind the industry standard program that helps organizations understand how security tools perform against real-world threats,...
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Season 1
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Episode 51
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1:11:31
Building Companies to be Legendary | Aleksandr Yampolskiy, Co-Founder/CEO of SecurityScorecard
Dr. Aleksandr Yampolskiy, cofounder and CEO of SecurityScorecard, went from being a 14-year old immigrant to America to building SecurityScorecard — the security ratings platform now used by over 3,000 companies. In this conversation with Squar...
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43:55