EP222 From Post-IR Lessons to Proactive Security: Deconstructing Mandiant M-Trends
Guests: Kirstie Failey @ Google Threat Intelligence Group Scott Runnels @ Mandiant Incident Response Topics: What is the hardest thing about turning distinct incident reports into a fun to read and useful report like M-Trends? How much are the lessons and recommendations skewed by the fact that they are all “post-IR” stories? Are “IR-derived” security lessons the best way to improve security? Isn’t this a bit like learning how to build safely from fires vs learning safety engineering? The report implies that F500 companies suffer from certain security issues despite their resources, does this automatically mean that smaller companies suffer from the same but more? "Dwell time" metrics sound obvious, but is there magic behind how this is done? Sometimes “dwell tie going down” is not automatically the defender’s win, right? What is the expected minimum dwell time? If “it depends”, then what does it depend on? Impactful outliers vs general trends (“by the numbers”), what teaches us more about security? Why do we seem to repeat the mistakes so much in security? Do we think it is useful to give the same advice repeatedly if the data implies that it is correct advice but people clearly do not do it? Resources: M-Trends 2025 report Mandiant Attack Lifecycle EP205 Cybersecurity Forecast 2025: Beyond the Hype and into the Reality EP147 Special: 2024 Security Forecast Report
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EP221 Special - Semi-Live from Google Cloud Next 2025: AI, Agents, Security ... Cloud?
Guests: No guests [Tim in Vegas and Anton remote] Topics: So, another Next is done. Beyond the usual Vegas chaos, what was the overarching security theme or vibe you [Tim] felt dominated the conference this year? Thinking back to Next '24, what felt genuinely different this year versus just the next iteration of last year's trends? Last year, we pondered the 'Cloud Island' vs. 'Cloud Peninsula'. Based on Next 2025, is cloud security becoming more integrated with general cyber security, or is it still its own distinct domain? What wider trends did you observe, perhaps from the expo floor buzz or partner announcements, that security folks should be aware of? What was the biggest surprise for you at Next 2025? Something you absolutely didn't see coming? Putting on your prediction hats (however reluctantly): based on Next 2025, what do you foresee as the major cloud security focus or challenge for the industry in the next 12 months? If a busy podcast listener listening could only take one key message or action item away from everything announced and discussed at Next 2025, what should it be? Resources: EP169 Google Cloud Next 2024 Recap: Is Cloud an Island, So Much AI, Bots in SecOps
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EP220 Big Rewards for Cloud Security: Exploring the Google VRP
Guests: Michael Cote, Cloud VRP Lead, Google Cloud Aadarsh Karumathil, Security Engineer, Google Cloud Topics: Vulnerability response at cloud-scale sounds very hard! How do you triage vulnerability reports and make sure we’re addressing the right ones in the underlying cloud infrastructure? How do you determine how much to pay for each vulnerability? What is the largest reward we paid? What was it for? What products get the most submissions? Is this driven by the actual product security or by trends and fashions like AI? What are the most likely rejection reasons? What makes for a very good - and exceptional? - vulnerability report? We hear we pay more for “exceptional” reports, what does it mean? In college Tim had a roommate who would take us out drinking on his Google web app vulnerability rewards. Do we have something similar for people reporting vulnerabilities in our cloud infrastructure? Are people making real money off this? How do we actually uniquely identify vulnerabilities in the cloud? CVE does not work well, right? What are the expected risk reduction benefits from Cloud VRP? Resources: Cloud VRP site Cloud VPR launch blog CVR: The Mines of Kakadûm
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EP219 Beyond the Buzzwords: Decoding Cyber Risk and Threat Actors in Asia Pacific
Guest: Steve Ledzian, APAC CTO, Mandiant at Google Cloud Topics: We've seen a shift in how boards engage with cybersecurity. From your perspective, what's the most significant misconception boards still hold about cyber risk, particularly in the Asia Pacific region, and how has that impacted their decision-making? Cybersecurity is rife with jargon. If you could eliminate or redefine one overused term, which would it be and why? How does this overloaded language specifically hinder effective communication and action in the region? The Mandiant Attack Lifecycle is a well-known model. How has your experience in the East Asia region challenged or refined this model? Are there unique attack patterns or actor behaviors that necessitate adjustments? Two years post-acquisition, what's been the most surprising or unexpected benefit of the Google-Mandiant combination? M-Trends data provides valuable insights, particularly regarding dwell time. Considering the Asia Pacific region, what are the most significant factors reducing dwell time, and how do these trends differ from global averages? Given your expertise in Asia Pacific, can you share an observation about a threat actor's behavior that is often overlooked in broader cybersecurity discussions? Looking ahead, what's the single biggest cybersecurity challenge you foresee for organizations in the Asia Pacific region over the next five years, and what proactive steps should they be taking now to prepare? Resources: EP177 Cloud Incident Confessions: Top 5 Mistakes Leading to Breaches from Mandiant EP156 Living Off the Land and Attacking Critical Infrastructure: Mandiant Incident Deep Dive EP191 Why Aren't More Defenders Winning? Defender’s Advantage and How to Gain it!
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EP218 IAM in the Cloud & AI Era: Navigating Evolution, Challenges, and the Rise of ITDR/ISPM
Guest: Henrique Teixeira, Senior VP of Strategy, Saviynt, ex-Gartner analyst Topics: How have you seen IAM evolve over the years, especially with the shift to the cloud, and now AI? What are some of the biggest challenges and opportunities these two shifts present? ITDR (Identity Threat Detection and Response) and ISPM (Identity Security Posture Management) are emerging areas in IAM. How do you see these fitting into the overall IAM landscape? Are they truly distinct categories or just extensions of existing IAM practices? Shouldn’t ITDR just be part of your Cloud DR or maybe even your SecOps tool of choice? It seems goofy to try to stand ITDR on its own when the impact of an identity compromise is entirely a function of what that identity can access or do, no? Regarding workload vs. human identity, could you elaborate on the unique security considerations for each? How does the rise of machine identities and APIs impact IAM approaches? We had a whole episode around machine identity that involved turtles–what have you seen in the machine identity space and how have you seen users mess it up? The cybersecurity world is full of acronyms. Any tips on how to create a memorable and impactful acronym? Resources: EP166 Workload Identity, Zero Trust and SPIFFE (Also Turtles!) EP182 ITDR: The Missing Piece in Your Security Puzzle or Yet Another Tool to Buy? EP127 Is IAM Really Fun and How to Stay Ahead of the Curve in Cloud IAM? EP94 Meet Cloud Security Acronyms with Anna Belak EP162 IAM in the Cloud: What it Means to Do It 'Right' with Kat Traxler EP199 Your Cloud IAM Top Pet Peeves (and How to Fix Them) EP188 Beyond the Buzzwords: Identity's True Role in Cloud and SaaS Security “Playing to Win: How Strategy Really Works” book “Open” book
Cloud Security Podcast by Google focuses on security in the cloud, delivering security from the cloud, and all things at the intersection of security and cloud. Of course, we will also cover what we are doing in Google Cloud to help keep our users' data safe and workloads secure.
We’re going to do our best to avoid security theater, and cut to the heart of real security questions and issues. Expect us to question threat models and ask if something is done for the data subject’s benefit or just for organizational benefit.
We hope you’ll join us if you’re interested in where technology overlaps with process and bumps up against organizational design. We’re hoping to attract listeners who are happy to hear conventional wisdom questioned, and who are curious about what lessons we can and can’t keep as the world moves from on-premises computing to cloud computing.
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