Afternoon Cyber Tea Podcast Season in Review

As we wrap up another season of Afternoon Cyber Tea with Ann Johnson (thecyberwire.com), I wanted to take a moment to recap some of the compelling interviews and conversations we had along the way. We were fortunate to be able to speak with a variety of industry experts across a wide range of topics. Topics ranged from how Microsoft works with security researchers and governments globally with Aanchal Gupta and Amy Hogan-Burney to protecting journalists and journalism with Runa Sandvik, privacy and trade secrets with Dr. Nicole Searle, creative approaches to recruiting, hiring, training, and retaining women in cybersecurity with Lauren Buitta and Jessica Gulick; wide ranging cyber topics with the venerable Diana Kelley and Wendy Nather; and an opportunity to meet the incredibly talented Wendy Thomas as she leads SecureWorks on their mission to keep customers safe.

As always I want to thank our guests and listeners. Many thanks to the production team for their continued commitment to excellence. Links are below to all of the referenced episodes, and look forward to our next season of interviews. Every episode continues to be my favorite!

Building Customer Trust in the Face of Cyber Attacks Named one of the Top 25 women leaders in cybersecurity Wendy Thomas, President, and CEO of SecureWorks joins Afternoon Cyber Tea with Ann Johnson to examine building customer trust during a time of unprecedented cyberattacks. With more than 25 years of experience in strategic and functional leadership roles Wendy shares her unique perspective and guidance when helping organizations improve their security posture, and ways to develop and maintain a successful operational resilience plan. She and Ann also dive into the relationship between machine learning and human intelligence and how it will help build the SOC of the future.

Cybersecurity & Privacy Protections Nicola Searle, Digital Economy Fellow at the Institute for Creative and Cultural Entrepreneurship at Goldsmiths, University of London, joins Afternoon Cyber Tea with Ann Johnson on this episode focused on privacy and the cybersecurity of trade secrets. Nicola served as a government economist at the UK Intellectual Property Office from 2013 to 2015 and authored two Oxford University Press manuscripts on intellectual property. Before her academic career, she was a financial associate at Goldman Sachs in the US and Italy. Ann and Nicola discuss privacy trends and standards for 2022, why trade secrets seem more vulnerable to cyberattacks, and how companies can create ecosystems that provide their customers with comparable value for their data.

Protecting Journalism and Free Speech Runa Sandvik, a modern-day hacker and computer security expert joins Ann Johnson on this week's episode of Afternoon Cyber Tea. Having a reputation as a staunch proponent of strong encryption, Runa was hired by The New York Times as their first senior director of information security. Ann and Runa discuss instituting new high-tech security measures at The Times, what types of skills she believes all journalists should possess today, and what she believes the tech industry should be doing more of when protecting against disinformation.

Girl Security Lauren Buitta, co-founder and CEO of Girl Security, shares how advancing girls, women, and gender minorities in national security leads to better cyber defense on today’s episode of Afternoon Cyber Tea with Ann Johnson. Lauren began as a policy analyst with the National Strategy Forum, a nonpartisan think tank, focusing on a wide range of national and global security issues, including domestic terrorism, transnational threats, and cybersecurity. Ann and Lauren discuss what led her to launch Girl Security, what the industry could do differently to help women grow in security, and why it is crucial to engage young girls in discourse about disinformation?

Inside Microsoft's Security Response Center Aanchal Gupta, Vice President for Microsoft Azure, joins Ann on today's episode of Afternoon Cyber Tea. Aanchal is an executive with more than two decades of experience leading geographically distributed teams developing secure and trustworthy software used by billions of people. Aanchal joins us to discuss her work leading Microsoft's Security Response Center, giving our listeners a behind-the-scenes look into how the company’s security team tackles issues. Aanchal also talks with Ann about different lessons learned when tackling recent threats, her philosophy on cybersecurity, and how important she believes diversity and open work culture for diverse people are when trying to maintain trust and clarity in a crisis.

The Next Cyber Defender Jessica Gulick, Founder, and CEO of KATZCY, a woman-owned cyber consulting firm driven to help cybersecurity experts become great leaders, joins Ann Johnson on today's episode of Afternoon Cyber Tea. Ann and Jessica discuss the evolution of cybersecurity gaming competitions, why these events are crucial to inspiring young people, and who she believes is the next generation of cyber defenders. As the founder and commissioner of US Cyber Games, an organization committed to informing and inspiring the broader community on ways to develop tomorrow's cybersecurity workforce, Jessica also shares how the cyber industry can help train and retain the next generation of cyber defenders.

IoT-Based Infrastructures Diana Kelley, the co-founder, and CTO of SecurityCurve, a cybersecurity consulting firm, joins Ann Johnson on this episode of Afternoon Cyber Tea. Diana is a globally known security expert who donates much of her time volunteering in the cybersecurity community while also serving on the Association for Computing Machinery Ethics and Plagiarism Committee. Diana talks with Ann about helping inexperienced organizations get up to speed on the cybersecurity landscape, some of the current significant security and privacy hurdles currently plaguing the field, and some of the best practices to assist network defenders and users trying to combat botnet threats.

The Rising Ransomware Risks Rinki Sethi; Former Vice President and Chief Information Security Officer for Twitter joins Ann Johnson for this conversation focused on the recent rise in cybercrime. Rinki was an Information Security Executive at IBM from 2018 to 2019 before joining Twitter in September 2020. She is responsible for protecting Twitter's information and technology assets and managing the company's continued product innovations in the security space. Rinki talks with Ann about the significant uptick in ransomware attacks, what she enjoys most about her career in cybersecurity, best practices when raising consumer awareness, and Twitter's approach to cybersecurity.

The Rising Risks of Cybercrime Amy Hogan-Burney, General Manager of Microsoft's Digital Crimes Unit, and former attorney at the U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation joins Ann Johnson to discuss how to address the leap in cyberattack sophistication seen in the new Microsoft Digital Defense Report, and the steps needed to establish new rules for cyberspace. As the leader of a global team of attorneys, investigators, engineers, and analysts Amy shares the strategic vantage point that these insights reveal about the increase of imposter domains attacking a variety of industries, and what guidance she has for organizations trying to protect themselves during a new wave of cyberattacks unlike any we have seen in the past.

Defending Our Infrastructure Wendy Nather, the highly respected cyber strategist, CISO, research director, and former industry analyst, joins Ann Johnson on Afternoon Cyber Tea to talk about the strategies helping defend against human-operated ransomware. Wendy has served as a CISO in both the private and public sectors leading IT security for the EMEA region of the investment banking division of Swiss Bank Corporation (now UBS) and the Texas Education Agency. Her specialties are security program management, threat intelligence, risk analysis, identity and access management, security operations, and incident response. In this episode, Wendy and Ann also discuss the Digital Extortion Task Force, which specializes in combating these attacks, and how the threat landscape has continued to widen and evolve.