Best Allan Alford Podcasts (2024)

1
Managing Threats Throughout the SDLC with Tomer Schwartz 28:33

3d ago28:33

28:33

Howdy, y’all, and welcome to The Cyber Ranch Podcast! Our guest toda is Tomer Schwartz, co-founder and CTO over at Dazz Yup! He’s a vendor! And OMG he’s a sponsoring vendor too! Whatever will we do? But wait, y’all know Allan's rule: Vendors are allowed on the show if and when they can add more value on a given subject vs. any practitioners in The …

1
Measuring Leadership (And Followership!) 30:20

11d ago30:20

30:20

If leadership exists in good and bad forms, so must followership. Leadership can exist both by designation, and dynamically, as manifested by folks who may not have an official leader title. And yet we don't measure followership, and our measurements of leadership leave something to be desired... Join Allan Alford as he flies solo this week explori…

1
There Is No Such Thing As Security with Nathan Case 41:20

17d ago41:20

41:20

Howdy, y’all, and welcome to The Cyber Ranch Podcast! Our guest is Nathan Case, who is a previous guest from a multi-guest show. Nate has been a CISO, CTO, Strategist, consultant, CEO, and all kinds of other things. His career is as colorful and varied as Allan's – maybe even more so. Nat's chosen topic is “There is no such thing as security!” So w…

1
21 Questions LIVE! at RSAC 2024 - 3 of 3 28:57

26d ago28:57

28:57

In this show, Allan interviews seven guests and asks them questions from a list of 21: Omkhar Arasaratnam “How do we leverage LLMs for our own use in cybersecurity?” "How do you challenge your own precepts and assumptions to stay current in your role?" Ofer Klein “How do you describe what you do in cybersecurity to someone at a cocktail party who k…

1
21 Questions LIVE! at RSAC 2024 - 2 of 3 34:04

1M ago34:04

34:04

In this show, Allan interviews seven guests and asks them questions from a list of 21: Chris "Cpat" Patteson “Why do so many CISOs think cybersecurity insurance is snake oil?” Johann Balaguer “People, process, technology - Which is the most important and why?” "What do you want your fellow community of CISOs to know?" Lee Krause “What are we still …

1
21 Questions LIVE! at RSAC 2024 - 1 of 3 40:35

1M ago40:35

40:35

In this show, Allan interviews nine guests and asks them questions from a list of 21: Dr. Deanna Caputo “How do you measure and articulate risk to the business?” “People, process or technology?” Carlos Guerrero “How do we foster community in cybersecurity?” Elliott Franklin “Governance, Risk Management, and Compliance – Which of the three is most i…

1
The Positives of Cybersecurity LIVE! at CISO XC with Dani Woolf and Guests 38:39

2M ago38:39

38:39

Howdy, y’all, and welcome to The Cyber Ranch Podcast… AND The Audience 1st Podcast! What you are about to hear was recorded LIVE! at the CISO XC conference in Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas (my very favorite conference!) I am your host, Allan Alford, CEO of Alford & Adams Consulting. I have co-host on this episode, Dani Woolf, of the Audience 1st podcast…

1
The Negatives of Cybersecurity LIVE! at CISO XC with Dani Woolf and Guests 29:09

2M ago29:09

29:09

Howdy, y’all, and welcome to The Cyber Ranch Podcast… AND The Audience 1st Podcast! What you are about to hear was recorded LIVE! at the CISO XC conference in Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas (my very favorite conference!) I am your host, Allan Alford, CEO of Alford & Adams Consulting. I have co-host on this episode, Dani Woolf, of the Audience 1st podcast…

1
When It's Good To Deprioritize Security with Drew Simonis 33:11

2M ago33:11

33:11

Howdy, y’all, and welcome to The Cyber Ranch Podcast! That’s Drew Simonis, CISO @ Juniper Networks, former CSO @ Hewlett Packard Enterprise, former CISO at Willis – you get the idea. Drew’s posts on LinkedIn are pure fire – not in the hot takes way, but because of the quality of the thinking behind them. Drew has also been on the show a couple of t…

1
Driving Business Growth with Ankur Ahuja 31:43

3M ago31:43

31:43

Howdy, y’all, and welcome to The Cyber Ranch Podcast! Our guest today is Ankur Ahuja, 2x CISO, Ted-X Speaker, Startup Investor, Board Advisor, etc. etc. Ankur is currently SVP and CISO at Billtrust, and he’s got some Big 4 in his DNA too (ten years, in fact!). Ankur wanted to chat about how CISOs can drive business growth, so I asked him to come on…

1
Properly Prioritizing Cybersecurity with Melanie Ensign 39:48

3M ago39:48

39:48

Melanie Ensign is a communications strategist and corporate anthropologist for cybersecurity, privacy, and risk organizations. She is founder and CEO of Discernible, a multi-disciplinary Center of Excellence for security, privacy, & risk teams. Her team includes experts in communications, product development and management, compliance, security and…

1
Selling The Mission 26:42

3M ago26:42

26:42

In this episode, Allan tackles the idea of selling the CISO mission. He deconstructs the types of CISOs and the "selling" they must do. Sometimes you really are selling, but most of the time you should be solving business problems. Allan speaks to: Business objectives met Business risks reduced Maturity And also deconstructs the art of selling itse…

1
SecDataOps with Jonathan Rau 43:31

3M ago43:31

43:31

Our guest this week is Jonathan Rau, VP and Distinguished Engineer over at Query, and a proponent of what he calls "SecDataOps". Jonathan is quite active on LinkedIn and his takes, though often spicy, tend to be spot-on. Allan has come to enjoy following Jonathan's posts, and he was excited to have Jonathan come on the show and share his insights. …

1
Neurodiversity and Women in Cyber with 3 Guests 54:08

3M ago54:08

54:08

This is part two in our neurodiversity series. Our guest roster this time also includes Dr. Ursula Alford, a psychologist who routinely works with the neurodiverse populace. The lineup of guests covers ADHD, Autism, challenges unique to women with neurodiversity, how leaders should manage neurodivergent team members and more. Y'all be good now!…

1
CISO Communications with Geoff Hancock 40:13

4M ago40:13

40:13

Geoff Hancock is Deputy CEO and CISO for Access Point Consulting, Former Global Director and CISO over at World Wide Technology. He’s also a Senior Fellow and Adjunct Professor at George Washington University and has held various C-suite and executive roles at Verizon, CGI Federal Advanced Technology, Microsoft, and Advanced Cybersecurity Group. He…

1
What Does Zero Trust Mean to You? with 12 Guests 36:37

4M ago36:37

36:37

Join Allan LIVE! at Zero Trust World in Orlando as he asks 12 guests "What does Zero Trust Mean to You?" and a wide variety of other questions. Conference highlights are discussed as well, including hacker activities, hacker demonstrations, incredible talks, etc. Allan also learns all about The Tech Degenerates, and organization furthering partners…

1
The 4 Horsemen & Zero Trust with Dr. Chase Cunningham 30:14

4M ago30:14

30:14

How does cybersecurity relate to the four horsemen of the apocalypse? Famine, Pestilence, War, and Death? In this episode, Dr. Chase Cunningham, renowned Zero Trust expert, author, instructor, Chief Strategy Officer, advisor, etc., examines the 4 conditions on our planet represented by the four horsemen, ties it all to cybersecurity, and then solve…

1
Incident Response Done Right with James Keeler 27:14

4M ago27:14

27:14

Howdy, y'all! Allan went down to Orlando, Florida and recorded three LIVE! shows at Zero Trust World, a conference sponsored by ThreatLocker. This is the first of those three shows. James Keeler of LMT Technology Solutions has a steady hand on the incident response wheel and a lot of experience under his belt as well. After seeing James speak on a …

1
Neurodiversity in Cybersecurity with 3 Guests! 47:19

5M ago47:19

47:19

This week Allan is joined by Leigh Honeywell (CEO of Tall Poppy) Nathan Case (Federal CISO at Snyk), and Ryan Macababbad (Currently looking. HIRE HER!), three cybersecurity professionals with broad backgrounds in cyber, and all three of whom are neurodivergent. Allan in fact, has been recently diagnosed as being on the autism spectrum, albeit 'high…

1
Below-the-OS Security with Yuriy Bulygin 36:58

5M ago36:58

36:58

Fun fact: There are more vulnerabilities and exploits below the OS layer than above it! CPUs, BIOS, Firmware, embedded Linux, FPGAs, UEFI, PXE... The list goes on an on. What are we supposed to do about that? Allan asked Yuriy to come down to the 'Ranch to discuss this issue with him. Yuriy is CEO at Eclypsium, member of the Forbes Technology Couns…

1
Ownership of Risk and Accountability 22:49

5M ago22:49

22:49

In this episode, Allan flies solo, as he is finally willing to speak on an issue he has been mulling and fussing over for some time: the two-fold CISO laments of: "We have all the accountability and none of the authority!" "We don't own the risk - we advise the business" Allan is refuting both of these claims. Allan calls up examples such as projec…

1
Get That Seat at the Table! with Jim McConnell 30:34

5M ago30:34

30:34

We declared a while back that 'not having a seat at the table' was a tired CISO topic. So we decided to solution the complaint. Hopefully we pulled it off. Join Allan and Jim McConnell, Principal at Ask McConnell, LLC and former Fellow in Corporate Security Protection Operations at Verizon, as they take on the challenge of solving this common lamen…

1
Getting a NACD Directorship Certification with Pat Benoit 23:45

6M ago23:45

23:45

Pat Benoit, CISO at Brinks, returns to the 'Ranch to visit Allan and to chat about his newest achievement - Pat got a NACD Directorship Certification! Allan has often thought about doing this as well, so he got Pat on the mic to talk about his whole experience: Why did you do it? How hard was it? What was involved? What do you hope to get out of it…

1
Integrating with the Business with Ayman Elsawah 35:09

6M ago35:09

35:09

Howdy, y’all, and welcome to The Cyber Ranch Podcast! Our guest is Ayman Elsawah, who, like Allan these days, is a fractional CISO and founder of his own security company. He has done the fractional CISO thing many times. He has also been a professor, a security consultant, and a cloud-specific security consultant. His tenure includes eBay, NCC Gro…

1
Leadership Conflicts with Tom LeDuc 26:24

6M ago26:24

26:24

This one was recorded LIVE! in Podcast Alley at the CyberMarketingCon 2023 put on by the Cybersecurity Marketing Society in Austin, Texas. Marketing!?!!? Say what!?!? Yup! Allan went down to Austin to catch up with industry players and to participate in the conference as a "creator", i.e., podcaster. While there Allan ran into his friend Tom LeDuc,…

1
Alternative CISO Lifestyles with Andrew Wilder 28:45

6M ago28:45

28:45

Howdy, y'all, and welcome to The Cyber Ranch Podcast! Our guest is Andrew Wilder, Retained CISO at Community Veterinary Partners, Member of the Board of Directors at Washington University in St. Louis, Advisory Board Member, former Global CISO, former Regional CISO... He's got a real history in this game. What we're talking about today is retained,…

1
A Zero Trust Case Study with John Checco 33:21

6M ago33:21

33:21

Howdy, y’all, and welcome to The Cyber Ranch Podcast! Our guest this week is John Checco, aka "Checco", who is overdue for being on the show we freely admit! John is a presence on LinkedIn and in our industry. He’s the author of “Zero Trust: From Aspirational to Overdue”. He’s also involved, as you can imagine, in many other things – various adviso…

1
The SaaS Attacks Matrix with Luke Jennings 37:21

7M ago37:21

37:21

Howdy, y’all, and welcome to The Cyber Ranch Podcast! Our guest is Luke Jennings, VP of Research & Development at Push Security, former Chief Researcher at Countercept, Principle Security Consultant at MWR… He’s been around the industry. Luke is passionate about tracking the evolution of attacks – how are the bad guys morphing and changing their ga…

1
Identity as the Perimeter with Adam Bateman 31:51

7M ago31:51

31:51

Howdy, y’all, and welcome to The Cyber Ranch Podcast! Our guest is Adam Bateman, CEO and Co-Founder at Push Security, based in the UK. Another of our cyber friends from across the pond! Is a former director at the security consultancy MWR who were renowned in the industry for their specialist research and red team capability. Adam started off as a …

1
CSF 1.1 and 2.0 with Geoff Hancock 37:17

7M ago37:17

37:17

Howdy, y’all, and welcome to The Cyber Ranch Podcast! Our guest is Geoff Hancock, Deputy CEO and CISO for Access Point Consulting, Former Global Director and CISO over at World Wide Technology. He’s also a Senior Fellow and Adjunct Professor at George Washington University and has held various C-suite and executive roles at Verizon, CGI Federal Adv…

1
SPECIAL EDITION! Charity, Community, Collaboration @ CISO XC w/ 3 CISOs 13:14

7M ago13:14

13:14

In this SPECIAL EDITION! Allan interviews the 3 CISOs who created the CISO XC series of conferences: Cecil Pineda Jaimin Shah Randy Potts CISO XC is the only conference for CISOs (and their reports) that is put on my a team of 3 CISOs and an awesome all-CISO advisory board. And the amount of money CISO XC gives to charity is MIND BOGGLING. Hint: Th…

1
12 Questions for 12 Guests LIVE! at CISO XC 35:56

8M ago35:56

35:56

Allan takes the show on the road again, this time at his all-time favorite conference: CISO XC! He asks a unique question of each guest, who represent a great deal of breadth in our industry: Dave Belanger, CISO at Bestow Insurance - What is the most effective way to demonstrate and communicate security program progress to the board? Tera Davis, CE…

1
American Thanksgiving Holiday 0:21

8M ago0:21

0:21

Howdy, y'all! Allan is taking this week off to spend time with family and to give thanks for all the wonderful things in his life - including y'all! For those who don't track it, there is no Cyber Ranch Podcast four times a year: American Thanksgiving week Christmas week Black Hat week RSA week That gives Allan enough breaks throughout the year to …

1
Cybersecurity Awareness Month CALL TO ACTION - The Conclusion! 22:36

8M ago22:36

22:36

Warning, there might be some naughty language in this one! The challenge was issued!!!! Allan teamed up with TWO other podcasts to take on the insufferable marketing that floods the cybersecurity industry in the month of October! Who won??? "Won"? That's right! Allan, along with George K and George A from Bare Knuckles & Brass Tacks joined forces w…

1
Ask Real Life CISO Mike Melo Your Cyber Security Questions | DailyCyber 265 1:25:13

8M ago1:25:13

1:25:13

In today’s DailyCyber Podcast I am fortunate to have Mike Melo CISO of LifeLabs on my DailyCyber stream. He answers real life questions to give you insight into the real world of Cyber Security. To learn more watch the video or listen to the podcast at www.DailyCyber.ca and comment belowBy Brandon Krieger

1
SEC/SolarWinds Legal Analysis w/ Evan Wolff 36:43

8M ago36:43

36:43

Howdy, y’all, and welcome to The Cyber Ranch Podcast! Our guest today is Evan Wolff, partner at Crowell & Moring, and Allan's favorite cyber attorney. Evan has led and managed 100s of investigations including cybersecurity, data breach, insider threats, security incidents and suspected terrorist incidents. Evan also teaches a class at Columbia Univ…

1
Defining Budgets with Tim Rohrbaugh 36:08

9M ago36:08

36:08

Howdy, y’all, and welcome to The Cyber Ranch Podcast! That’s Tim Rohrbaugh, Founder/Principal at DefaultDenySec, former CISO for JetBlue Airways, advisor, investor: yup! Another Cyber Ranch guest with an awesome history! Tim and Allan were chatting a while back about budgeting cybersecurity programs, and they found out that they disagreed on a rath…

1
The New SEC Regulations with Jack Powell 43:18

9M ago43:18

43:18

Howdy, y’all, and welcome to The Cyber Ranch Podcast! We're joined today by Jacqueline (AKA “Jack”) Powell, CISO at Allianz Life and former Deputy CISO at Hanes. She has also consulted, and has worked at Chevron, General Dynamics, and SACI. Jack has an illustrious career! Jack is here today talking with Allan about the new SEC regulations about cyb…

1
Building Excellent Teams w/ Kymberlee Price 33:45

9M ago33:45

33:45

Howdy, y’all, and welcome to The Cyber Ranch Podcast! That’s Kymberlee Price, strategic security consultant, Black Hat content review board member, former Sr. Director of Product Security at New Relic, former Principal Security Manager at Microsoft – Kym has held a variety of roles in our industry, but with one common theme: Kym is an outstanding t…

1
Bad Behaviors: A Better Way LIVE! with Chris Tillett 33:12

9M ago33:12

33:12

Chris Tillett is a well-known figure in our industry. He is in product management and R&D at Palo Alto Networks. He is also a great guy, funny, and can wield the snark quite well. He is the perfect foil for Allan Alford as the two of them take the gloves off, pick on one another, and tear apart bad vendor and bad CISO behaviors. LIVE! At Black Hat!…

1
Permissions Management w/ Ron Nissim 31:00

10M ago31:00

31:00

Howdy, y’all, and welcome to The Cyber Ranch Podcast! Joining Allan this week is Ron Nissim, CEO @ Entitle. Yes, this is one of our rare shows with a vendor as a guest. Why? Because in this case, the vendor was more highly informed than any of Allan’s practitioner friends he was able to query about the subject. And what is that subject? Permissions…

1
The Cybersecurity Efficacy Gap w/ AJ Grotto 41:49

10M ago41:49

41:49

Allan is joined by AJ Grotto: William J. Perry International Security Fellow and Founding Director of the Program on Geopolitics, Technology and Governance at Stanford University. He also serves as the faculty lead for the cyber policy specialization that the university offers through its master's in international policy program . He’s also a visit…

1
Cybersecurity Awareness Month CALL TO ACTION - The Podcast Trifecta! 38:08

10M ago38:08

38:08

Warning: Some naughty language in this show, but well placed naughty language! Challenge issued!!!! Allan has teamed up with TWO other podcasts to take on the insufferable marketing that floods the cybersecurity industry in the month of October! Who among you will win??? Win? That's right! Allan, along with George K and George A from Bare Knuckles …

1
Protecting Small Organizations w/ Georges Merchak 37:16

10M ago37:16

37:16

Nearly 43% of cyber-attacks are on small businesses. 82% of ransomware attacks were targeted at companies with less than 1000 employees. 61% of SMBs were the target of a Cyberattack in 2021. 37% of companies hit by ransomware had fewer than 100 employees. And yet... 36% of small businesses have no concern whatsoever about cyberattacks. Another 59% …

1
Nowhere to Hide w/ Chris Roberts 32:22

11M ago32:22

32:22

You know you're being watched, right? Imagine for some reason you needed to bury a treasure where nobody would ever find it. In today's society, how could you even do that? How can you get from Point A to Point B without being observed or tracked in some way? Did you know that you can be listened to through smart lightbulbs? This episode features t…

1
Cybersecurity in Popular Culture w/ George Finney LIVE! 31:43

11M ago31:43

31:43

In this LIVE! show at Black Hat, Allan and his friend George Finney (recurring guest, CISO @ SMU, multi-times author and CEO of Well Aware Security) discuss cybersecurity in popular culture. They talk about the impact on real-world cybersecurity practices of such non-fiction gems as Clifford Stoll's book The Cuckoo's Egg and such cheesy fictional a…

1
Allan Interviews EVERYONE at Black Hat 34:58

11M ago34:58

34:58

Did you miss Black Hat this year? Well you won't miss the great conversations that were had, as Allan captured so many good ones for this special Black Hat retrospective episode. Did you get to attend Black Hat this year? See if your experience was as amazing as Allan's! This show is LIVE and untarnished. It's the real Black Hat experience! In this…

1
Allan is at Black Hat 0:45

11M ago0:45

0:45

A brief thank you to our listeners and a request for feedback on the show. We'll catch y'all next week!By Allan Alford

1
The Open Source Security Foundation with Omkhar Arasaratnam 31:36

12M ago31:36

31:36

The OpenSSF is doing invaulable work for the cybersecurity community. And their new managing director happens to be Omkhar Arasaratnam, whose appearance on the show a while back created one of our most popular episodes ever! Omkhar is back to talk about the OpenSSF: What is the OpenSSF and how does it relate to the Linux Foundation? What is the org…

1
Cloud Security Remediation w/ Tunde Oni-Daniel 32:25

12M ago32:25

32:25

Cloud security remediation can be a daunting task that impacts Dev, Sec and Ops teams all. And it can be a huge, manual, pain in the... You get the idea. But there are techniques to navigate it and to overcome many of the common traps and hurdles. Tunde Oni-Daniel is a grizzled veteran in our industry who has managed to maintain his enthusiasm, pas…

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