Resilient Cyber w/ AJ Yawn - Transforming Compliance Through GRC Engineering

In this episode, we sat down with AJ Yawn, Author of the upcoming book GRC Engineering for AWS and Director of GRC Engineering at Aquia, to discuss how GRC engineering can transform compliance.We discussed the current pain points and challenges in Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC), how GRC has failed to keep up with software development and the threat landscape, and how to leverage cloud-native services, AI, and automation to bring GRC into the digital era.We dove into:What the phrase “GRC Engineering” means and how it differs from traditional Governance, Risk and ComplianceWhat some of the major issues are with traditional compliance in the age of DevSecOps, Cloud, API’s, Automation and now AISpecific examples of GRC Engineering, including the use of automation, API’s and cloud-native services to streamline security control implementation, assessment and reportingThe promise and potential of AI in GRC, and how AJ is using various models for control assessments, artifact creation and more, and how GRC practitioners should be leveraging AI as a force multiplierAJ’s new book “GRC Engineering For AWS: A Hands-On Guide to Governance, Risk and Compliance Engineering”

In this episode of Resilient Cyber, we chat with Patrick Duffy, Product Manager at Material Security, on Securing the Modern Workspace. The conversation will include discussions about the increased adoption of cloud office suites, limitations of traditional security approaches, and a deep dive into how Material Security is tackling issues such as securing email and data, identity threat detection, and posture management.Stepping back a bit before we get too specific, we've seen major fundamental shifts in the way organizations work and operate today, including widespread adoption of Cloud Office Suites (e.g., Google Workspaces, Microsoft 365, etc.). How have these shifts changed the threat landscape, and what sort of issues are we seeing with traditional security practices when it comes to securing these environments?We know phishing and email attacks are common and critical to protect against, but what about challenges around visibility of accounts/activity, sensitive data, and secure configurations and posture?Getting more specific to Material, can you help us understand how you all approach this problem space from a platform and offering perspective? What are some key features and abilities Material Security customers utilize to secure their cloud office suite environments, and what threats do they help against?What are some key differentiators for Material compared to some of the other vendors working on this problem, or even how do you all differ from some of the native security capabilities of environments such as M365 or Google Workspace?This space continues to evolve, both in terms of the cloud workspace environments and their usage by organizations and the relevant threats. How is Material preparing for these changes, whether it's the widespread adoption of AI, increased complexity, and so onIt's always great to hear some first-hand use cases and applications. Can you share some examples where Material Security has found success with specific customers and users of the solution?We've covered everything from the pitfalls and shortcomings of traditional security approaches to cloud office suites to where the market is headed. Where can folks learn more about Material, and what should we keep an eye out for next?

In this episode, I sit down with longtime industry researcher Wade Baker to dive into Cyentia's latest IRIS report. The report provides a data-driven look at incident trends, impacts, costs, and more.Are cyber incidents becoming more or less frequent? Are specific industries doing better than others? What does the average incident impact actually look like?Tune in to learn the answers, along with many other interesting insights!The report found that the number of security incidents continue to climb YoY, which isn’t a surprise, although there has been peaks and valleys throughout various periods, note the huge uptick in 2021~Similar to recent reports such as DBIR and M-Trends, application exploitation (e.g., system intrusion) is climbing. In contrast, methods such as physical threat and others have declined due to increased cloud adoption, virtual infrastructure, and so on.One finding that may surprise some is that the proportion of incidents is going down for some organizations, particularly the largest enterprises, while it is going up for SMBs and smaller organizations. This ties to concepts such as the cybersecurity poverty line, which I have discussed in other articles, such as with Ross Haleliuk in our article “Lifting the world out of cybersecurity poverty.”This is likely due to factors such as large enterprise organizations having robust security teams, larger budgets, being able to afford the latest security tooling and more, while SMB’s often fail to have many of these and deal with resource constraints in both dollars and expertise.We also see sectors which had historically low incidents now climbing, likely due to factors such as increased adoption of software and being digitally connected, as well as being a previously untapped sector for attackers

In this episode, I sit down with SAIC Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and longtime Federal/Defense leader Bob Ritchie to discuss his experience securing public sector digital modernization, including everything from large multi-cloud environments to zero trust, identity, and where things are headed with AI.Bob starts discussing SAIC and his background there. He went from intern to CTO over 20 years with this public sector industry leader, including a brief stint with Capital One on the commercial side.We covered the current state of the federal cloud community across multiple clouds (e.g., Azure, AWS, and GCP) and some of the challenges and opportunities on the security front.We often hear phrases such as “identity is the new perimeter,” but the perimeter is porous and problematic, especially in large, disparate environments such as the Federal/Defense ecosystem. Bob touched on the current state of identity security in this ecosystem, where progress is being made and what challenges still need to be tackled.The government is doing a big push towards Zero Trust, with the Cyber EO 14028, Federal/Defense ZT strategies, and more. But how much progress is being made on ZT, and where can we look for examples of innovation and success?We dove into the rise of excitement and adoption of AI, GenAI, Agentic AI, and protocols such as MCP, A2A, and where the public sector community can lean into Agentic AI for use cases ranging from SecOps, AppSec, GRC, and more.Bob explains how he balances a good business focus while staying deep in the weeds and proficient in relevant emerging technologies and nuances required as a CTO.I’ve known Bob for several years, and you would be hard pressed to find a more competent technology leader. This is not one to miss!

In this episode, I sit down with longtime industry leader and visionary Phil Venables to discuss the evolution of cybersecurity leadership, including Phil's own journey from CISO to Venture Capitalist. We chatted about: A recent interview Phil gave about CISOs transforming into business-critical digital risk leaders and some of the key themes and areas CISOs need to focus on the most when making that transition Some of the key attributes CISOs need to be the most effective in terms of technical, soft skills, financial acumen, and more, leaning on Phil's 30 years of experience in the field and as a multiple-time CISO Phil's transition to Venture Capital with Ballistic Ventures and what drew him to this space from being a security practitioner Some of the product areas and categories Phil is most excited about from an investment perspectiveThe double-edged sword is AI, which is used for security and needs security. Phil's past five years blogging and sharing his practical, hard-earned wisdom at www.philvenables.com, and how that has helped him organize his thinking and contribute to the community.Some specific tactics and strategies Phil finds the most valuable when it comes to maintaining deep domain expertise, but also broader strategic skillsets, and the importance of being in the right environment around the right people to learn and grow

In this episode, I discuss the Model Context Protocol (MCP) with the OWASP GenAI Co-Lead for Agentic Application Security, Vineeth Sai Narajala. We will discuss MCP's potential and pitfalls, its role in the emerging Agentic AI ecosystem, and how security practitioners should consider secure MCP enablement.We discussed: MCP 101, what it is and why it mattersThe role of MCP as a double-edged sword, offering opportunities but additional risks and considerations from a security perspectiveVineeth's work on the "Vulnerable MCP" project is a repository of MCP risks, vulnerabilities, and corresponding mitigations.How MCP is also offering tremendous opportunities on the security-enabling side, extending security capabilities into AI-native platforms such as Claude and Cursor, and security vendors releasing their own MCP serversWhere we see MCP heading from a research and implementation perspectiveAdditional Resources:Anthropic - Introducing the Model Context Protocol (MCP)Enhanced Tool Definition Interface (ETDI): A Security Fortification for the Model Context ProtocolEnterprise-Grade Security for the Model Context Protocol (MCP): Frameworks and Mitigation StrategiesVulnerable MCP Project

In this episode, I sit with long-time vulnerability management and data science experts Jay Jacobs and Michael Roytman, who recently co-founded Empirical Security.We dive into the state of vulnerability management, including:How it is difficult to quantify and evaluate the effectiveness of vulnerability prioritization and scoring schemes, such as CVSS, EPSS, KEV, and proprietary vendor prioritization frameworks, and what can be done betterSystemic challenges include setbacks in the NIST National Vulnerability Database (NVD) program, the MITRE CVE funding fiasco, and the need for a more resilient vulnerability database and reporting ecosystem.Domain-specific considerations when it comes to vulnerability identifiers and vulnerability management, in areas such as AppSec, Cloud, and Configuration Management, and using data to make more effective decisionsThe overuse of the term “single pane of glass” and some alternativesEmpirical’s innovative approach to “localized” models when it comes to vulnerability management, which takes unique organizational and environmental considerations into play, such as mitigating controls, threats, tooling, and more, and how they are experimenting with this new approach for the industry

In this episode, we sit down with the Co-Founder and CPO of Seemplicity, Ravid Circus, to discuss tackling the prioritization crisis in cybersecurity and how AI is changing vulnerability management.We dove into a lot of great topics, including:The massive challenge of not just finding and managing vulnerabilities but also remediation, with Seemplicity’s Year in Review report finding organizations face 48.6 million vulnerabilities annually and only 1.7% of them are critical. That still means hundreds of thousands to millions of vulnerabilities need to be remedied - and organizations struggle with this, even with the context of what to prioritize.There’s a lot of excitement around AI in Cyber, including in GRC, SecOps, and, of course, AppSec and vulnerability management. How do you discern between what is hype and what can provide real outcomes?What practical steps can teams take to bridge the gap between AI’s ability to find problems and security teams’ ability to fix them?One of the major issues is determining who is responsible for fixing findings in the space of Remediation Operations, where Seemplicity specializes. Ravid talks about how, both technically and culturally, Seemplicity addresses this challenge of finding the fixer.What lies ahead for Seemplicity this year with RSA and beyond

In this episode, we sit down with Varun Badhwar, Founder and CEO of Endor Labs, to discuss the state of AI for AppSec and move beyond the buzzwords. We discussed the rapid adoption of AI-driven development, its implications for AppSec, and how AppSec can leverage AI to address longstanding challenges and mitigate organizational risks at scale.Varun and I dove into a lot of great topics, such as:The rise of GenAI and LLMs and their broad implications on CybersecurityThe dominant use case of AI-driven development with Copilots and LLM written code, leading to a Developer productivity boost. AppSec has struggled to keep up historically, with vulnerability backlogs getting out of control. What will the future look like now?Studies show that AI-driven development and Copilots don’t inherently produce secure code, and frontier models are primarily trained on open source software, which has vulnerabilities and other risks. What are the implications of this for AppSec?How can AppSec and Cyber leverage AI and agentic workflows to address systemic security challenges? Developers and attackers are both early adopters of this technology.Navigating vulnerability prioritization, dealing with insecure design decisions and addressing factors such as transitive dependencies.The importance of integrating with developer workflows, reducing cognitive disruption and avoiding imposing a “Developer Tax” with legacy processes and tooling from security.

In this episode, we sit down with David Melamed and Shai Horovitz of the Jit team. We discussed Agentic AI for AppSec and how security teams use it to get real work done.We covered a lot of key topics, including:What some of the systemic problems facing AppSec are, even before the widespread adoption of AI, such as vulnerability prioritization, security technical debt and being outnumbered exponentially by Developers.The surge of interest and investment in AI and agentic workflows for AppSec, and why AppSec is an appealing space for this sort of investment and excitement.How the prior wave of AppSec tooling was focused on findings problems, riding the wave of shift left but how this has led to alert fatigue and overload, and how the next-era of AppSec tools will need to focus on not just finding but actually fixing problems.Some of the unique capabilities and features the Jit team has been working on, such as purpose-built agents in areas such as SecOps, AppSec and Compliance, as well as context-graphs with organizational insights to drive effective remediation.The role of Agentic AI and how it will help tackle some of the systemic challenges in the AppSec industry.Addressing concerns around privacy and security when using AI, by leveraging offerings from CSPs and integrating guardrails and controls to mitigate risks.