CYBER CONNECT PODCAST

Jay Adamson & Warren Atkinson

Welcome to the SECURE | CYBER CONNECT Podcast: Hosted by Jay Adamson & Warren Atkinson, joined by leaders in Information & Cyber Security, Technology & Talent Acquisition. From across Venture Capital, Private Equity, Public & Private sectors, Guests share their Personal Journeys, Diverse Perspectives, offering Advice & Guidance.

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S1 · E123
Friday · 50 min
Global Cyber Threats: The Real Strategy to Protect Tech
An algorithm can predict your behavior, but it can never catch you when you fall. True resilience doesn't live in a server room- it lives in the people standing next to you. Live from the International Cyber Expo, we are cutting through the tech hype to address the real crisis: the cyber security industry doesn't just have a technology problem, it has a decision problem. Change makers Chuks, Nas, Bianca, and Allen join Warren and Jay to unpack the reality of securing modern businesses against automated cyber threats. We break down the industry's accessibility problem for early-career professionals, the widening AI security skills gap, and practical ways to protect your family from AI-driven social engineering and voice cloning. Drawing on global perspectives from the UK, the EU, India, and Brazil, the panel cuts through the tech hype to address shadow AI risks, data sovereignty, and how to eliminate "tool fatigue" by holding vendors accountable for actual ROI. Beyond the server room, we explore actionable strategies for expanding tech partnerships into South American markets, leveraging endpoint automation to reclaim IT hours, and maintaining mental resilience through sports, faith, and community charity work in a high-pressure digital world. A massive thank you to Helmguard AI for sponsoring this on-site ICE special edition. 🚀 Featured Guests & Sponsors: Christina Onwumelu (Chuks) – Global Cyber Security Engineer | ISACA London Representative: Connect With Chuks: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chukwumaonwumelu/ Nas Ahmed – Enterprise Sales & Cybersecurity GTM Specialist: Connect With Nas: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nas-ahmed-0248357/ Bianca Cunha – Global Bid Writer | CF APMP | ESG & Policy Specialist: Connect With Bianca: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jc-cy/ Allan Bossman – Enterprise Account Director https://www.linkedin.com/in/allen-bossman-353406b9/ A Special Thank You: Thank you to Jack and the team at HelmGuard AI for sponsoring todays episode, be sure to check out our earlier discussion with Jack Here: https://www.linkedin.com/events/7514248473446260737?viewAsMember=true HelmGuard is currently offering a free rapid assessment of your company's AI usage and risks. We will review up to 50 vendors you select to determine the risk posed by their use of AI. We also check your internal AI usage via a risk assessment process that can bring in data from MDM, internal policies and your cloud usage. 👉 Get in touch: https://helmguard.ai/contact The £1M Enterprise AI Challenge: Through SECURE | CYBER CONNECT, we are deploying £100,000 in fully funded, hands-on cybersecurity and AI infrastructure support to TEN selected individuals, leaders, and nonprofits. 🎟️ Register Interest: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScdcQpsUsBp50krYU_IW3rMcuw-Kk5RYATMp5lCA1vfwvObEA/viewform Connect On LinkedIn: • Warren: https://www.linkedin.com/in/warren-atkinson/ • Jay: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justinadamson/ • Jack: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-w-miller/ Join Us Next Year at ICE: https://www.internationalcyberexpo.com/ 📲 Free guides, tools and resources: https://link.v1ce.co/warrenatkinson 🔔 Please SUBSCRIBE, LIKE + SHARE to empower others.
S1 · E122
October 16 · 37 min
How Autonomous AI Infiltrates Infrastructure: Can You Actually Trust Your Agents? | International Cyber Expo LIVE
You are terrified of machines taking over, yet you wake up every morning and operate your schedule like one. In our collective rush to automate heavy lifting, enterprises are blindly handing the keys to critical infrastructure over to autonomous AI agents operating with zero human visibility. The "Move Fast and Break Things" era is dead. Today, an unvetted agent given a completely benign prompt- combined with access to sensitive data and external networks- can quietly misalign, bypass permissions, and infiltrate live production. The ultimate leadership test is no longer about how fast you can deploy AI, but whether you have the architecture to actually see what it is doing and govern it. Live from the floor at the International Cyber Expo (ICE) at Olympia London 2026, we sit down with Jack Miller, Co-Founder & CTO of Helmguard AI. Moving past generative AI hype, we expose the real mechanics of agentic AI security, why elite enterprises choose 16-hour governed workflows over 1-hour unmonitored scripts, and how to deploy secure execution environments to keep autonomous tech in check. A massive thank you to Helmguard AI for partnering with us to sponsor this on-site ICE special edition episode. 🔥 Inside this episode: - The Misalignment Reality: How simple prompts trigger rogue network actions and the growing legal threat of autonomous agent liability. - The 16-Hour Rule & GRC 8.0: Why top hedge funds prioritize slow, rigorous assurance and how to simulate risk before breaking production. - Taming the AI: Fixing LLM sycophancy, eliminating shadow AI, and safely automating vendor governance. - Scaling Securely: How Helmguard AI reached £1M ARR in 9 months by cutting through the noise to master AI security. 🚀 Featured Guest & Sponsors: Jack Miller, HelmGuard AI’s CTO, is an AI engineer and researcher specializing in secure, robust AI systems. He has collaborated with top European institutions such as ETH Zürich, University of Cambridge, and University of Oxford. Jack graduated from the Australian National University, earning one of the country’s most prestigious undergraduate scholarships. His work includes publishing in leading AI research journals and developing a commercialized algorithm in quantum chemistry. Jack combines deep academic expertise with practical innovation to shape HelmGuard’s approach to AI-powered cyber defence. HelmGuard is currently offering a free rapid assessment of your company's AI usage and risks. We will review up to 50 vendors you select to determine the risk posed by their use of AI. We also check your internal AI usage via a risk assessment process that can bring in data from MDM, internal policies and your cloud usage. 👉 Get in touch: https://helmguard.ai/contact Up Next: SUBSCRIBE so you don't miss our upcoming montage episode from the ICE floor featuring rapid-fire operator insights. Special thanks to Helmguard AI for making this series possible. The £1M Enterprise AI Challenge: Through SECURE | CYBER CONNECT, we are deploying £100,000 in fully funded, hands-on cybersecurity and AI infrastructure support to TEN selected individuals, leaders, and nonprofits. 🎟️ Register Interest: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScdcQpsUsBp50krYU_IW3rMcuw-Kk5RYATMp5lCA1vfwvObEA/viewform Connect On LinkedIn: • Warren: https://www.linkedin.com/in/warren-atkinson/ • Jay: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justinadamson/ • Jack: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-w-miller/ Join Us Next Year at ICE: https://www.internationalcyberexpo.com/ 📲 Free guides, tools and resources: https://link.v1ce.co/warrenatkinson 🔔 Please SUBSCRIBE, LIKE + SHARE to empower others.
S1 · E121
October 9 · 23 min
How AI is Breaking Open-Source: Are You Accidentally Shipping Malware? | International Cyber Expo LIVE
We lock our front doors every night, yet we surrender the keys to our businesses, finances, and personal lives to complete strangers the moment convenience calls. You do not need to write a single line of code or work in technology to understand this trap: whether you are sitting in an executive boardroom, leading a household, or managing an engineering sprint, our collective addiction to moving faster has replaced real diligence with blind trust. In enterprise tech, this reality is hitting a breaking point. The average organisation now runs on third-party code that nobody on the internal team actually wrote or verified. With AI coding tools supercharging the pace of deployment, teams are unknowingly pulling in dozens of unvetted, nested dependencies. Attackers no longer need to breach perimeters; they simply hide malicious code inside trusted names and wait for busy people to install it. Warren Atkinson and Justin (Jay) Adamson sat down live at the International Cyber Expo at Olympia London with David Hunt (Chief Organiser, ICE) and Nate Dunning (Co-Founder & CEO, Ossprey Security) to expose the software supply chain blind spot, why legacy scanners miss live exploits, and how to protect developers without grinding business momentum to a halt. A massive thank you to Ossprey Security for partnering with us to sponsor this on-site ICE special edition series. Inside this episode: • The Hidden Dependency Crisis: Why installing a single API tool can silently pull in hundreds of nested packages, and how threat actors weaponise open-source repositories through typosquatting and maintainer takeovers. • Flaws vs Active Exploits: Why a CVE is merely a potential flaw, whereas a malicious package is an active attack executing the moment it is downloaded- and why traditional signature tools miss them entirely. • Ending Alert Fatigue: How burying developers under thousands of false positives destroys security culture, and how Ossprey achieved a benchmark 0.001% false-positive rate inside native developer workflows. • Founder Resilience & Scaling: The reality behind securing an oversubscribed £2M+ ($2.65M) pre-seed round, the power of founder-led customer feedback, and sustaining personal well-being in high-pressure environments. Featured Guests: David Hunt: Chief Organiser of the International Cyber Expo (Nineteen Group), dedicated to uniting global leaders across governent, critical national infrastructure, and enterprise tech to drive cross-industry resilience. Nate Dunning: Co-Founder & CEO of Ossprey Security. Backed by over 15 years leading incident response, MSSP operations, and enterprise data security Nate has spent his whole career on the defensive side of security. He trained as an engineer, then found he was better at breaking things than building them. That led him into security operations and incident response, where he spent more than five years and worked his way up into leadership. After moving to the UK, he led Security Operations and Incident Response at Funding Circle after its IPO. He then joined Starling Bank and built its data security function. Having seen software supply chain risk first-hand in financial services, Nate co-founded Ossprey in London in 2024 to stop malicious open source code before it reaches engineers, CI pipelines and AI agents. Explore Ossprey Security and access their 30-day Early Bird Programme: 👉 https://www.ossprey.com/early-bird The £1M Enterprise AI Challenge: Community support is essential, but it doesn't always pay for the practical help required to fix infrastructure problems. Through SECURE | CYBER CONNECT, we are deploying £100,000 in fully funded, hands-on cybersecurity and AI infrastructure support to TEN selected individuals, leaders, and nonprofits. 🎟️ Register Your Interest Here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScdcQpsUsBp50krYU_IW3rMcuw-Kk5RYATMp5lCA1vfwvObEA/viewform Connect with Warren here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/warren-atkinson/
#120
October 5 · 29 min
The SME Breaking Point: Property Market Chaos, AI Traps & Surviving Ransomware
If your business is feeling the intense pressure of a digital world that refuses to slow down, you are not alone. In this special Yorkshire Cyber Security Cluster edition of the SECURE | CYBER CONNECT Podcast, Warren Atkinson steps behind closed doors with your peers- architects and property lawyers- who are actively navigating a flat housing market, rising construction costs, and crippling Land Registry delays. When the expectation to adopt AI overnight clashes with the reality of trying to get your projects over the line, the results can be devastating. This episode unpacks the hidden dangers of blindly trusting algorithms like ChatGPT for legal contracts without human oversight. We also share the quiet reality of digital exhaustion, featuring a harrowing story of a North Korean ransomware attack that cost a local architectural business tens of thousands, destroyed months of drawings, and pushed a family to the breaking point. Technology is moving fast, but human resilience has a speed limit. This episode offers practical, human-first protocols to help you take back control: - Protect your foundations by prioritising basic cyber security hygiene and manual backups before stressing about AI advancements. - Maintain human judgement to oversee algorithms and verify AI-generated output. - Build extra time, cash, and grace into your development plans so you aren't living on the edge of panic. - Protect your mental health by logging off and setting hard boundaries against midnight doomscrolling. - Rely on trusted platforms that secure your data under strict regulations like the EU AI Act. ⏱️ Video Chapters: 00:00 - The SME Breaking Point: AI Chaos & Digital Burnout 02:45 - The Real Cost of Land Registry Delays on Property Deals 06:30 - Why ChatGPT Won't Save Your Legal Contracts 09:15 - Surviving a £50,000 North Korean Ransomware Attack 14:20 - Will AI Actually Replace Property Lawyers? 18:50 - Social Media Bans & Escaping Midnight Doomscrolling 24:00 - 5 Human Protocols to Protect Your Mental Health & Business 26:45 - The £1M Challenge: How to Access Funded SME Cyber Support The £1M Enterprise AI Challenge: Community support is essential, but it doesn't always pay for the practical help required to fix infrastructure problems. Through SECURE | CYBER CONNECT, we are deploying £100,000 in fully funded, hands-on cybersecurity and AI infrastructure support to TEN selected individuals, leaders and nonprofits. Full details can be found in my latest LinkedIn Newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/1-million-ai-reality-check-we-empowering-leaders-setting-atkinson-pclme 🎟️ Register Your Interest Here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScdcQpsUsBp50krYU_IW3rMcuw-Kk5RYATMp5lCA1vfwvObEA/viewform If you know someone in your network feeling the weight of digital overwhelm, please share this episode with them. Let's get the foundations right, together. Featured Guests in This Episode: Lee Gaddes: Lee is an experienced commercial property solicitor and has been advising landlords, tenants and developers for over 20 years. Lee particularly enjoys advising on development land purchases and the acquisition of commercial property for redevelopment, then setting up the documentation ready for plot or apartment sales. His Landlord and Tenant work involves drafting or advising on new leases for retail, manufacturing, and service sectors. Connect with Lee: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leegaddes/ Connect with Danielle: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-heckler-biglin-bab9b8171/ Learn More About Arch Law: https://www.arch.law Andrew Edwards: Connect with Andrew: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-edwards-chartered-architect-riba-6020a875/ Learn More About EDG Architecture: http://www.edgarchitecture.co.uk/ Connect with our team on LinkedIn: Warren: https://www.linkedin.com/in/warren-atkinson/ 🔔 We appreciate your support - Please SUBSCRIBE, LIKE + SHARE to empower others.
S1 · E119
September 26 · 59 min
UK vs US Investors: Why we're losing the Cyber & AI Race
Why do brilliant UK deeptech and cybersecurity startups struggle to scale, while their US counterparts secure multi-million-pound rounds with ease? For academic founders and technical innovators, bridging the gap between a breakthrough research project and a commercial enterprise solution is the hardest hurdle they will face. In this special International Cyber Expo edition, we break down the brutal reality of the UK investment landscape. If you are an early-stage founder trying to navigate enterprise procurement, or a CISO looking for genuine innovation outside the usual tier-1 vendors, this episode unpacks exactly where the friction lies and how to bypass it. Join Jay Adamson and Warren Atkinson as they sit down with Dr. Emma Fadlon from Innovate UK Business Connect. Drawing on a decade of data and over £50m in leveraged investment from the CyberASAP programme, we explore the stark contrast in risk appetite between UK and US investors, the ego-check academic founders face when entering the commercial market, and the uncomfortable truths about why large enterprises are terrified to back early-stage technology. ⏱️ Chapters: • 00:00 - The UK’s Deeptech Crisis: Why We’re Losing the Cyber & AI Race • 01:59 - Inside CyberASAP: The Engine Building UK Cyber Spin-Outs • 03:56 - Untapped Talent: Why CISOs & Enterprises Must Look to Academia • 05:02 - License or Launch? The Brutal Choice Facing Academic Founders • 05:26 - The 10-Year Sacrifice: The Hidden Personal Cost of Tech Innovation • 11:23 - The Academic Ego-Check: Surviving Messy Enterprise Procurement • 23:51 - Escaping the Lab: Validating Cyber Tech in Corporate Sandboxes • 25:51 - RSA Conference Insights: The Stark Reality of UK vs US Risk Appetite • 39:54 - The Language of Funding: How to Pitch Cybersecurity to Mainstream Investors • 55:17 - AI & Automation: Does Cybersecurity Still Excite Investors Today? • 01:01:28 - The Global Drain: Why UK Cyber Funding is Fleeing to Singapore & the UAE About Our Guest, Dr. Emma Fadlon: As the Investment Projects Lead at Innovate UK Business Connect, Emma supports a range of angel and VC investor-focussed capacity-building programmes, primarily for early-stage technologies up to Series A. Since 2015, she has designed and delivered commercialisation activities to support the UK’s wider innovation strategy. Alongside her role as Co-Director of the DCMS-funded CyberASAP accelerator, Emma brings a wealth of cross-sector commercialisation expertise to the cybersecurity landscape. With a PhD in tumour immunology, her technical background encompasses health applications, diagnostics, and medical devices. She has previously served as Head of Business Development at the Pirbright Institute and is currently a director of the Southern Angels Investor Club (SAIC). Learn more about Innovate UK Business Connect & CyberASAP: https://iuk-business-connect.org.uk/ 🎙️ Catch us LIVE at the International Cyber Expo! We will be recording live on the floor at Olympia London on the 29th and 30th of September. Come challenge the norm and speak with us at Stand K62. Secure your VIP ticket for the International Cyber Expo here: https://forms.reg.buzz/international-cyber-expo-splash-2026/ice-partner-secure-cyber-connect Connect With: Warren here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/warren-atkinson Jay here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justinadamson/ Free guides, tools and resources: https://link.v1ce.co/warrenatkinson 🔔 We appreciate your support - Please SUBSCRIBE, LIKE + SHARE to empower others.
S1 · E118
September 23 · 48 min
Securing AI Agents: AI Hijack. Prompt Injection vs. Authorisation Breach (Live)
The cybersecurity industry is completely obsessed with prompt injection, but what happens when the software stops just answering questions and starts acting on its own behalf? We have recreated the identity problem of the 2010s, but this time it is at machine speed and without an HR department. Warren Atkinson and Jay Adamson sat down with Valeri Milke, Hilding Karlsson, and Youssef Sahnoun from VamiSec to unpack the reality of agentic AI security, why basic guardrails fail, and how to navigate complex European regulations. Inside this episode: • The Agentic AI Identity Crisis: Why AI agents are essentially over-privileged users who never asked for a laptop, and why relying on frontier model guardrails won't save you from poor access controls and authorisation breaches. • Surviving the EU Regulatory Avalanche: Navigating the realities of the EU Cyber Resilience Act (CRA) 24-hour reporting mandate, NIS2 compliance fragmentation across member states, and managing the AI Bill of Materials (AI BOM). • Threat Modelling & Reality Checks: How to combine STRIDE, MAESTRO, and the OWASP Top 10 for Agentic Applications. Plus, an exploration of whether the "human in the loop" is a genuine security control or just a boardroom comfort blanket. Detailed timestamps for searchability and AI discovery: 00:00 Introduction: Why prompt injection is the headline, but authorisation is the breach 00:40 Introducing the VamiSec team: Valeri Milke, Hilding Karlsson, and Youssef Sahnoun 03:13 From breaking software to signing it off: Valeri’s first critical SQL injection find 20 years ago 09:01 The Guardrail Illusion: Why the industry relies too much on AI manufacturers instead of building custom, role-based access controls for AI agents 17:22 Non-Human Identities: Managing agent accountability and the danger of giving AI full authorisation access 22:26 Navigating the EU Cyber Resilience Act (CRA), 24-hour vulnerability reporting, and NIS2 fragmentation 26:56 Is a "Human in the Loop" a real security control for an AI agent performing 300+ actions a day? 28:57 Threat modelling agentic applications using MAESTRO for architecture and the OWASP Top 10 for real-world testing 32:14 Fixing AI plumbing: The AI Bill of Materials (AI BOM), software supply chains, and fine-grained agent roles 35:38 Live Demo Introduction: Talking an AI agent into misusing a legitimate tool and how fixing token scope breaks the attack 37:02 The future of junior security roles as AI agents take over Tier 1 SOC automation 40:08 Mental resilience: Avoiding burnout by balancing high-pressure cognitive work with physical exercise 44:38 Staying up-to-date with rapid AI protocols (like MCP) and the raw value of attending the International Cyber Expo (ICE) 48:13 Outro: Securing your community access and preparing for offensive AI attacks Valeri Milke: Founder and CEO of VamiSec, an AI-driven IT security and GRC firm based in Bonn, Germany, and CEO of softScheck, a security-testing house with more than twenty years in security testing. He is an ISO/IEC 27001 and ISO/IEC 42001 Lead Auditor, AI Officer under the EU AI Act, CISSP, CISM, and OSCP. He works on NIS2, DORA, the Cyber Resilience Act, IEC 62443, and ISO/SAE 21434. He audits management systems and breaks the systems they are meant to protect-which makes him unusually sceptical of certificates. Hilding Karlsson: Cyber Security Specialist in VamiSec’s CERT Team, based in Berlin. He implements what management systems promise: ISO 27001 Controls, PCI-DSS and NIST-aligned Programmes, SIEM Engineering with Splunk & Elastic Stack, Incident Response & Vulnerability Management, alongside the hardening of AWS & Azure. He holds CompTIA Security+, is ISC2 Certified in Cybersecurity, and is also an ISO/IEC 27001 Associate. Youssuf Sahnoun: Offensive Cyber Security Engineer who enjoys the challenges of limit testing systems, identifying vulnerabilities, exploring threat modelling, and exploiting AI systems.
S1 · E117
September 20 · 48 min
The CISO's Guide to AI Innovation & Surviving Board Expectations
Attackers are no longer just breaching systems- they are hacking human judgment and weaponizing artificial intelligence. Warren Atkinson and Jay Adamson sat down with Adriaan Bekker, CISO at Softwerx, to unpack the real-world realities of the modern CISO, navigating AI innovation, shadow AI compliance, and surviving boardroom expectations. Inside this episode: AI & Human Manipulation: How attackers bypass modern defenses by targeting human behavior, and the rise of polished AI-driven deepfakes catching mid-market teams off guard. The Shadow AI Blind Spot: Managing employees quietly using unapproved AI tools to move faster, and navigating the enforcement and regulatory realities of the EU AI Act without killing productivity. Boardroom Expectations & Incident Response: The uncomfortable questions directors are asking that security leaders struggle to answer, and what a battle-tested incident response plan actually looks like for teams without a massive 24/7 SOC. Detailed timestamps for searchability and AI discovery: 00:00 Introduction: How attackers weaponize AI and target human judgment 00:43 Introducing Adriaan Bekker, CISO at Softwerx, and his deep-market security focus 02:16 The most realistic AI-driven attacks and deepfakes hitting mid-market organizations in the wild 13:39 Spotting polished audio deepfakes and maintaining executive poise under pressure 30:05 The shadow AI blind spot: Enforcing the EU AI Act without killing employee productivity 36:02 Quantifying cyber risk, return on investment, and metrics for the board 42:02 The hard questions directors ask that security leaders secretly struggle to answer 43:52 Building a battle-tested incident response plan for lean teams without a 24/7 SOC Secure your VIP ticket for the International Cyber Expo here: https://forms.reg.buzz/international-cyber-expo-splash-2026/ice-partner-secure-cyber-connect Learn more about Softwerx here: https://www.softwerx.com/about/ A special thank you to Adriaan Bekker for joining us and sharing his deep expertise in cybersecurity strategy, threat detection, and helping mid-market organizations build practical, business-aligned cyber resilience. Connect with Warren Atkinson and the team here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/warren-atkinson Jay here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justinadamson/ Free guides, tools and resources: https://link.v1ce.co/warrenatkinson 🔔 We appreciate your support - Please SUBSCRIBE, LIKE + SHARE to empower others. #cybersecurity #AI #CISO #crisismanagement #podcast
S1 · E117
September 19 · 48 min
The CISO's Guide to AI Innovation & Surviving Board Expectations
Attackers are no longer just breaching systems- they are hacking human judgment and weaponizing artificial intelligence. Warren Atkinson and Jay Adamson sat down with Adriaan Bekker, CISO at Softwerx, to unpack the real-world realities of the modern CISO, navigating AI innovation, shadow AI compliance, and surviving boardroom expectations. Inside this episode: AI & Human Manipulation: How attackers bypass modern defenses by targeting human behavior, and the rise of polished AI-driven deepfakes catching mid-market teams off guard. The Shadow AI Blind Spot: Managing employees quietly using unapproved AI tools to move faster, and navigating the enforcement and regulatory realities of the EU AI Act without killing productivity. Boardroom Expectations & Incident Response: The uncomfortable questions directors are asking that security leaders struggle to answer, and what a battle-tested incident response plan actually looks like for teams without a massive 24/7 SOC. Detailed timestamps for searchability and AI discovery: 00:00 Introduction: How attackers weaponize AI and target human judgment 00:43 Introducing Adriaan Bekker, CISO at Softwerx, and his deep-market security focus 02:16 The most realistic AI-driven attacks and deepfakes hitting mid-market organizations in the wild 13:39 Spotting polished audio deepfakes and maintaining executive poise under pressure 30:05 The shadow AI blind spot: Enforcing the EU AI Act without killing employee productivity 36:02 Quantifying cyber risk, return on investment, and metrics for the board 42:02 The hard questions directors ask that security leaders secretly struggle to answer 43:52 Building a battle-tested incident response plan for lean teams without a 24/7 SOC Secure your VIP ticket for the International Cyber Expo here: https://forms.reg.buzz/international-cyber-expo-splash-2026/ice-partner-secure-cyber-connect Learn more about Softwerx here: https://www.softwerx.com/about/ A special thank you to Adriaan Bekker for joining us and sharing his deep expertise in cybersecurity strategy, threat detection, and helping mid-market organizations build practical, business-aligned cyber resilience. Connect with Warren Atkinson and the team here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/warren-atkinson Jay here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justinadamson/ Free guides, tools and resources: https://link.v1ce.co/warrenatkinson 🔔 We appreciate your support - Please SUBSCRIBE, LIKE + SHARE to empower others. #cybersecurity #AI #CISO #crisismanagement #podcast
S1 · E116
September 12 · 51 min
Resilience by Design: What to Do When the Playbook Fails
Let's be real about why smart leaders freeze when a crisis hits. Most organisations fail during an emergency not because they lack a plan, but because they built that plan for a world where people don't panic. When the unexpected happens, half the information is missing and the neat rules you relied on instantly disintegrate. Warren Atkinson and Jay Adamson sat down with Milena Maneva from Cantor Fitzgerald and BGC Group to unpack what high-stakes pressure really reveals about human nature, third-party risk, and operational survival ahead of Fortress Manchester. Inside this episode: The Live Fire: Why organisations spend fortunes on tech while doing almost nothing to prepare human beings to lead under suffocating pressure. Cloud & AI Risk: Navigating systemic shocks when vendors crash together, and the danger of AI models hallucinating under stress. The Compliance Illusion: Why a green audit tick and hefty budgets do not mean a business can survive a real-world hit. Timestamps for your convenience: 00:00:00 Why traditional crisis plans fail when people panic 00:01:35 Why organizations fail to prepare humans for pressure 00:03:16 What separates calm leaders from those who freeze 00:07:43 Are cloud supply chains creating invisible single points of failure? 00:12:30 Will AI copilots create a dangerous reliance for leaders? 00:17:57 Does a green audit tick mean your business can survive? 00:23:54 Are businesses building operational muscle or drowning in compliance? 00:33:04 The 2030 horizon: What assumptions about risk need to be torn up? 00:46:52 Why closed-door gatherings like Fortress Manchester matter now 00:52:07 The uncomfortable truth about enterprise crisis readiness Join Jay Adamson, Warren Atkinson and the team live at Fortress Manchester at the Emirates Old Trafford on September 17th. Connect with Milena Maneva and register for the summit through the links below. A special thank you to Milena Maneva for joining us and sharing her incredible expertise. Milena Maneva is a recognised resilience executive and strategic advisor with 17 years of experience helping global organisations strengthen resilience in an increasingly volatile world. As Head of Business Continuity & Resilience, EMEA at BGC Group and Cantor Fitzgerald, Founder of ResilienceArc, and Chair of several organisations, she advises senior executives and boards on enterprise resilience, crisis leadership, and strategic risk. Renowned for translating complex disruption into competitive advantage, Milena is a respected thought leader driving innovation, cross-sector collaboration, and the future of organisational resilience across global markets. Connect with Warren and the team here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/warren-atkinson Free guides, tools and resources: https://link.v1ce.co/warrenatkinson 🔔 We appreciate your support - Please SUBSCRIBE, LIKE + SHARE to empower others. #cybersecurity #resilience #leadership #crisismanagement #podcast #FortressManchester
#115
September 5 · 14 min
The "Safe" Career Advice That Is Silently Holding You Back
If you work hard, follow all the traditional rules, and keep your head down, why do you still feel overlooked, exhausted, and stuck in your career? We went behind the scenes at the CyBlack Conference 2026 to capture raw, unfiltered stories from engineers, keynote speakers, and frontline builders on what it actually takes to build career leverage, beat self-doubt, and break through. Key Topics Covered in This Episode: • The Certification Trap: Why endlessly collecting paper qualifications without practical context creates a false sense of security (and why proof of work always wins). • Overcoming Imposter Syndrome: Why top performers hide their work behind the scenes, and why learning to talk about your achievements unlocks career progression. • The Multi-Passionate Advantage: How to balance technical expertise with creative pursuits without diluting your focus. • AI Shortcuts vs Real Engineering: Why taking shortcuts breaks systems, why software testing remains vital, and why human judgement will never be automated. • Networking for Introverts: Practical, low-friction habits to reach out, find common ground, and build genuine industry connections without feeling awkward. • The Audacity to Back Yourself: What happens when you ignore the crowd telling you to "be realistic", step out of your comfort zone, and bet on your own craft. Curiosity-Driven Chapters • 00:00 - Why "Playing It Safe" Keeps You Stuck • 00:41 - The Certification Trap: Paper Badges vs Context (Simbiat) • 02:09 - Imposter Syndrome: The Cost of Staying Invisible (Oluchi Imoh) • 03:40 - Why Being Multi-Passionate Is a Superpower • 05:15 - How Introverts Can Network Without Being Awkward • 06:01 - AI Shortcuts vs Real Engineering Skill (David) • 09:05 - Why Human Judgement Beats Automated Speed • 10:39 - "They Told Me to Settle." How to Back Your Own Craft • 12:58 - Audacity: Why You Must Take the Bull by the Horns • 13:26 - The Messy Middle of Career Growth & Survival • 13:40 - Stop Waiting for Permission (The 60-Second Challenge) 👇 WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU Be completely honest: What is one piece of conventional, "safe" advice you followed for years that you know in your gut you need to unlearn right now? Drop it in the comments below so we can get into it together. 🎁 Bypass the Waiting List: Our core mission is to make career growth accessible to absolutely everyone. Get FREE access to salary guides, career pathways, tools, and direct employer matching to help you stand out and lead. Use the private access code “CYBLACK” to join the SECURE ecosystem today: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdiJ3kC2UDadnnLfP91u2K18XEiwV9n7J-l_-Dt8icUzP00bA/viewform?pli=1 🔔 We appreciate your support - Please SUBSCRIBE, LIKE + SHARE to Empower others. Follow Warren's other channel for more: https://www.youtube.com/@UCyUalmWLE_eMJZlUbeeVzwQ #cybersecurity #infosec #ai #careers #motivation #podcast
S1 · E113
August 1 · 23 min
Are traditional events broken? Facing the reality of leadership
Let's be real about the state of traditional networking. Leaders are completely exhausted by the endless cycle of vendor pitches. Getting dragged from one surface-level meeting to the next does not solve real problems. Jay Adamson and Warren Atkinson sat down with Llewellyn James and Jack Armstrong from Business Leaders Accelerate to talk about a better approach. We are breaking down the old model to build something that actually supports the community. That is why we are launching our Special Edition Series: “Fortress Edition” SECURE | CYBER CONNECT is proud to be an official knowledge partner for Fortress Manchester. The gathering happens on September 17th at the Emirates Old Trafford Cricket Ground. We will be hosting live recordings onsite alongside our speakers, attendees and partner organisations. We want you there in the room with us. Both aspiring and long standing leaders from across Information, Cyber Security, Governance, Risk, Compliance, AI and Quantum. Inside this episode: Solving People Problems: Why relying on technology alone will not fix your organiSational breakdowns. Stopping Vendor Overload: How putting a strict cap on pitch sessions completely changes the room. The Power of Storytelling: Creating environments where leaders actually share insights instead of selling. The Northern Shift: Why Manchester and the surrounding region is the next major hub for real leadership conversations. Will you join us on September 17th to help us drive the conversations that actually matter. If you're ready to join a room full of people who care about substance over status, grab your Tickets Here: https://theblagroup.com/fortress-manchester/ 🎁 Join the SECURE | CYBER CONNECT Ecosystem, use code ‘FORTRESS’ and bypass the waiting list: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdiJ3kC2UDadnnLfP91u2K18XEiwV9n7J-l_-Dt8icUzP00bA/viewform?pli=1 🔔 We appreciate your support - Please SUBSCRIBE, LIKE + SHARE to Empower others. #cybersecurity #ciso #leadership #events #podcast
S1 · E113
July 25 · 21 min
You’re not behind (Yet): Why AI fails (Funded Fix) | EU AI Act and Zero-Trust Guardrails
Searching for answers on why your enterprise sandbox keeps breaking? Want to know how to deploy production-grade trust infrastructure cleanly? You are in the exact right place. Here is the reality: You build a brilliant AI tool in a safe testing space and it works perfectly. But the second you plug it into real, live data? Everything breaks. Security steps in, legal flags the compliance risks and your entire build gets trapped in testing forever. Recent reports suggest that 95% of AI builds never make it to production. And with the EU AI Act enforcement hitting in August 2026, launching without strict safety rails is a risk nobody can afford to take. In this episode, Jay and Warren sit down with Chiru Bhavansikar to talk openly about what it actually takes to get AI working in the real world. We break down exactly why these builds fail, what the missing "trust layer" really is, and how to fix it without completely stalling your progress. You’re Not Behind (Yet): We are going to walk you through exactly how you can start implementing inline Zero-Trust Guardrails and automated technical logging under the EU AI Act, using an infrastructure you can actually trust. The Community Initiative (The Funded Fix): Our mission is simple- we want to make AI transformation and cyber security accessible to all. Building these safety rails from scratch usually costs hundreds of thousands of pounds, but today, we are proud to announce that we can help take that financial burden off our community's shoulders. We are offering up to a 90% reduction on deployment costs for SECURE | CYBER CONNECT community members, Yorkshire Cyber Security Cluster members and partner organisations.* If you are an individual professional, a business leader, or an organisation of any scale, please do not navigate this transition in isolation. Whether you are a charity qualifying for a fully funded platform activation, an SME looking to scale safely, or an enterprise needing a straight-talking, pitch-free chat about your architecture- the doors are open. Reach out directly to Jay Adamson or Warren Atkinson to learn more. Let's find the right flexible solutions to get your AI out of testing, build the missing rails and safely launch. Learn More Here: https://v1cebucket.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/media_library/media_library_individual/iL5hJeUZDAhLdfvVplDvPLiTE79lI5QXmLPEGsTv.pdf Join the Conversation: We want to hear from you. Drop your thoughts in the comments below: Are you currently stuck in Pilot Purgatory? Has compliance blocked your latest AI rollout? Let’s get the debate going. Let's build an integrity-first tech ecosystem together. If you found this valuable, be sure to Like, Subscribe, and Share to empower others. From all of us at SECURE- stay safe. #ai #euaiact #agenticai #cybersecurity #aigovernance
S1 · E112
July 18 · 1 hr 9 min
MFA Won't Stop Ransomware... How Hackers Get In and How To Defend?
Forget the Hollywood myths of green matrix code and black hoodies. The reality of how your company gets hacked is a clinical, psychological, and highly industrialised operation. In this episode, Jay Adamson and Warren Atkinson are joined by Ethical Hacker Glenn Wilkinson lifts the veil on the murky world of offensive security. From the origin of the hacker mindset in the 1970s "phone freaking" era to the modern £300 billion cyber security industry, Glenn exposes the exact toolkits and manipulation tactics threat actors use to bring down enterprises. In this episode, we explore: The Black Hoodie Myth: Exposing corporate world misconceptions about hackers. What is the Hacker Mindset? From 1970s "phone freaks" to modern curious tinkerers. Why We Founded AgAr Labs: Flipping the model from anarchist to defense engineer. The Actual 2026 Hacker Toolkit: Real methodologies vs cute tools like Flipper Zero. How to Learn Ethical Hacking Safely: Virtual home labs and Subverted.io training. How the Network Perimeter Shifted: From 1990s dial-up to cloud identity as the perimeter. Breaking Into Cybersecurity in 2026: Raw passion vs degrees and certifications. Why Traditional CVs Are Dying: How to use open-source intelligence to land a cyber job. Live Ransomware Detonation Demo: A step-by-step screen share of a live recider.exe attack. The Agger Labs Agent Solution: Defending endpoints, EDRs, and AV from being disabled. Leaked LockBit Chat Logs Exposed: How hacker lawyers review financials to price a $2M ransom. The Basic Cyber Hygiene Gaps: Why password reuse and bad backups are a 10-minute hack. How Hackers Bypass MFA: Weaponizing human psychology, push fatigue, and token theft. AI in Social Engineering: The truth about deepfakes, voice cloning, and vendor scare tactics. Whaling Attacks: How hackers profile the C-suite and compromise Executive Assistants (EAs). The Redundancy Email Exploit: Using accidental carbon-copy (CC) psychology to trick staff. Inside Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS): $100 malware leases and $5,000 initial access brokers. The Scattered Spider Threat: How Western, English-speaking gangs trick foreign help desks. 3 Things Every CISO Must Do: Implementing canary tokens and deception technology. The Uncomfortable Truth About Security Tool Sprawl: Managing the burden of 170+ tools. Room 404: Why the "Human Firewall" myth and shifting blame to end-users needs to stop. 🔹 Glenn Wilkinson is an ethical hacker, keynote speaker, and founder of Agger Labs. He is known for making cyber threats tangible through storytelling, real-world examples, and a hacker’s-eye view of how attacks unfold. Glenn has spoken internationally and appeared across major media discussing hacking, ransomware, fraud, and cybersecurity. Learn More About Agger Labs Here: https://agger-labs.com 👇 WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU! 🎁 🎁 Join the Ecosystem, use code ‘AGGERLABS’ and bypass the waiting list:https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdiJ3kC2UDadnnLfP91u2K18XEiwV9n7J-l_-Dt8icUzP00bA/viewform?pli=1 🔔 We appreciate your support - Please SUBSCRIBE, LIKE + SHARE to Empower others. #cybersecurity #infosec #ai #hacking #ransomware
#111
July 10 · 35 min
How to get hired. Tech and cyber security. The CyBlack blueprint.
Let’s have an honest conversation about the cybersecurity job market. You have put in the hard miles. You have studied late into the night, paid for the certifications, and sent endless applications into the void- only to hit a brick wall. If you are feeling exhausted, isolated, or wondering if you are the problem, you are not alone. The industry constantly talks about a "talent shortage," but the lived reality for so many brilliant people is paywalls, biased filters, and a profound lack of access. Today, we are stripping away the corporate talking points. We sit down with Simbiat Sadiq, Co-Founder of CyBlack, for a raw discussion about the human element of surviving the tech job hunt. This isn't about selling you another certification; this is about building the human infrastructure and mental resilience you need when the traditional system fails you. In This Conversation, We Discuss: • The Danger of Isolation: Why trying to study, prepare, and apply for jobs completely alone is the biggest mistake you can make. • The Mental Toll: Honest strategies for managing burnout, protecting your boundaries, and silencing the loud voice of imposter syndrome when you are the only one in the room who looks like you. • Building Your Own Table: How to bypass performative corporate diversity and find the grassroots communities that will actually champion your growth. Join Us at the CyBlack Conference 2026 This conversation is just the beginning. On August 20, 2026, the community is coming together in Preston for the 5th edition of the CyBlack Conference. The theme is "Solving tomorrow's cyber challenges together". If you are tired of standard networking and want to build genuine, lasting professional relationships, this is where you need to be. Jay Adamson and Warren Atkinson will be there on the day, proudly supporting the community as co-hosts for the conference. We want to see you in the room! Important Links: • 🎟️ Get Your Ticket: https://cyblack.org/cyblack-conference-2026/ • 🤝 Become a Sponsor: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeUn-JwJOcdZnvSBt0tT9jugDQ-4bcSUyYrmBc2zl1evsnwjw/viewform 👇 WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU! What is the biggest hurdle you are facing in your job search right now? Or, what is one "win" you've had recently? Drop it in the comments below so we can support each other. 🎁 Bypass the Waiting List: Our core mission is to make career growth accessible to absolutely everyone. Get FREE access to salary guides, career pathways, tools, and direct employer matching to help you stand out and lead. Use the private access code “CYBLACK” to join the SECURE ecosystem today: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdiJ3kC2UDadnnLfP91u2K18XEiwV9n7J-l_-Dt8icUzP00bA/viewform?pli=1 🔔 We appreciate your support - Please SUBSCRIBE, LIKE + SHARE to Empower others. #cybersecurity #informationsecurity #technology #events #careers
S1 · E110
June 20 · 1 hr 3 min
AI, infosec and cyber career guide: What skills actually beat AI hype and burnout?
Are you tired of AI hype and "entry-level" cybersecurity roles that demand a decade of experience? We sit down with frontline experts from HSBC, Salesforce, and AXA to bypass the broken hiring system, revealing the exact skills you need to land your first infosec job and survive SOC burnout. 00:00 - Introduction: Meet the panel of cybersecurity experts and alumni. 00:28 - How to Get Your First Cybersecurity Job: From online CTFs to networking. 08:15 - What are the Biggest Cybersecurity Trends in 2026? AI and pen-testing. 13:00 - How to Deal with Alert Fatigue & SOC Burnout: Processing 500+ tickets a day. 18:45 - Do You Need a Cyber Degree? (And University Regrets). 27:10 - How to Stand Out to Tech Employers in a Tough Market. 33:40 - The Most In-Demand Cybersecurity Skills Right Now: Soft skills and board translation. 39:15 - AI in Cybersecurity: Can It Be Trusted for Defense? 45:00 - The Weakest Link in Security: Humans vs. Outdated Tech. 48:20 - Deepfakes & Digital Evidence: Can We Still Trust Our Eyes? 52:10 - Data Privacy & GDPR: Why Global Banks Must Store Your Data. 55:30 - Mental Health in Tech: Expert Tips to Prevent Burnout & Skill Fade. 58:45 - Q&A: Is the AI Security Boom Just Marketing Hype? 01:01:07 - Final Thoughts & Outro. Endlessly tweaking your CV and hitting the "Easy Apply" button is the fastest way to kill your tech career right now. The industry is currently undergoing a massive course correction, and the traditional pathways for breaking into tech are effectively closed to those who don't know the new rules of the game. In this exclusive panel edition of the SECURE | CYBER CONNECT Podcast, Warren Atkinson and Jay Adamson bring you straight to those working on the frontline. We bypass the corporate buzzwords and AI marketing hype to give you an unfiltered, insider POV blueprint to navigating the hidden job market, protecting your mental bandwidth, and securing a resilient, long-term career in cybersecurity. . 🎯 WHY THIS EPISODE IS CRITICAL FOR YOUR JOURNEY: • STUDENTS: Learn how to stop playing it safe and territorial. Discover why maximizing university life means moving past internal job boards, joining active tech societies, building home lab environments, and creating open-source portfolios that force employers to notice you. • GRADUATES: Break through the gatekeeping. Discover why you shouldn't let unrealistic LinkedIn job adverts- which look like they are trying to hire an entire SOC in a single, entry-level role- intimidate you from taking your shot. • PROFESSIONALS: Learn the vital skill of identifying when your employer handles your mental health correctly. Discover how speaking up to a reasonable manager can unlock accommodations, hybrid adjustments, or isolated deep-work time to keep you highly productive. • LEADERS: Stop having conversations about talent without having talent at the table. Understand why leadership must shift away from rigid, AI-generated certification checklists and move toward continuous personal development, standardized frameworks, and building human-centric technical defences. MEET THE PANEL: 🔹 Dalian Terry - Senior Product Security Engineer at Salesforce. Embedded inside global organisations for over six years, Dylan is an expert in application security engineering, security automation, and threat modeling frameworks. 🔹 Brett Wright - Incident Response Analyst at HSBC. A graduate of Sheffield Hallam University, Brett specialises in high-stakes incident response, fraud mitigation and managing digital risks within global banking compliance. 🔹 Eleanor Wardman - Senior Information Protection Analyst at AXA UK. Specialising in data loss prevention, risk management, and security architecture, Eleanor focuses on fine-tuning enterprise detections to alleviate alert fatigue. 🔹 Olly Wright - Advanced Computer Network Master's Student at Sheffield Hallam University. Oliver’s advanced research focuses directly on the convergence of automated AI penetration testing wit
S1 · E106
June 6 · 34 min
Job red flags. Before during and after the offer (AI deepfakes and scams) and how to stand out
If you are feeling burnt out, ghosted, or incredibly frustrated by the current hiring landscape, you are not alone. You are putting in the hours, tailoring your CVs, and doing everything right, only to find yourself navigating an absolute minefield just to get an interview. Speaking directly to 50–60 job seekers every single week, I hear your stories firsthand. I see exactly why incredibly talented, hard-working people are getting blocked by a fundamentally broken system. This industry must be accessible to everyone—whether you are a career changer, an underrepresented professional, or part of the next generation (like my own nieces and nephew) looking for a fair start. You shouldn't have to fight through scams just to get your foot in the door. But the reality of the 2026 job market is brutal. Fake job adverts and fraudulent recruiters have surged by 500% over the last 24 months. Scammers are actively deploying "harvest now, use later" tactics to steal your personal data, and deepfake technology is now being weaponized against you live on camera during the interview process. You need a way to fight back. In this special edition episode of the SECURE | CYBER CONNECT Podcast, Jay and I are pulling back the curtain on the modern job search. We aren't just giving you theory; we are giving you the exact blueprint to protect your identity, cut through the noise, and finally secure the role you deserve. 🚨 What You Will Discover in This Episode: 5 Red Flags Before You Apply for a Job: Why hitting the easy "Quick Apply" button traps your CV in outdated tracking systems, and the specific "shopping list" of 5+ certifications that proves a company has no idea what they are doing. How to Spot a Fake Recruiter & Deepfake Interview: Scammers are using AI to clone interviewers. We break down the simple physical camera test—like passing your hand in front of your face—to expose a deepfake live on a call. 5 Job Interview Red Flags (And Warning Signs After the Offer): The subtle bait-and-switch tactics, such as evasive responses about your daily tasks, lacking visible DEI initiatives, and below-market salary traps you must watch out for before signing a contract. How to Answer Interview Questions About AI: The exact strategies you need to bring up regarding Agentic AI and post-quantum cryptography to "shift security left". This will instantly outrank other candidates and prove your forward-thinking value. Build Your Personal Brand & Stand Out: Your voice and community presence matter significantly more than your resume. Discover how to leverage automated tools to reclaim 20 hours a month on content creation without losing your authentic edge. • 30 Free AI Courses & Tools: Get our curated list of 20 foundational free AI courses, 10 advanced courses, and 10 highly effective free tools. • Free CIO Guide: Download the 30-page AI-First Enterprises guide to master AI governance and talk like an executive in your next interview. 🚀 Level Up Your Career (Free Tools & Resources): Our core mission is to make career growth accessible to absolutely everyone. ✅ Join the Ecosystem: Get FREE access to salary guides, career pathways, certs, resources, tools, and opportunities, as well as our new platform helping with both individual and organisational growth. Use the code “NEXTGEN”: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdiJ3kC2UDadnnLfP91u2K18XEiwV9n7J-l_-Dt8icUzP00bA/viewform?pli=1 🔔 We appreciate your support - Please SUBSCRIBE, LIKE and SHARE to encourage diverse and inclusive knowledge sharing.
S1 · E108
May 30 · 1 hr 4 min
Harvest now, decrypt later: The quantum data threat and how to future-proof your career
Are you feeling overwhelmed by the endless cycle of tech buzzwords? You are expected to protect your organisation, stay ahead of the curve, and advance your career, all while navigating a sea of confusing vendor hype and impossible expectations. If you are frustrated by an industry that constantly demands you learn how to code, when what it actually desperately needs are clear communicators and strategic leaders- you are not alone. The transition to a new era of digital security is already happening, and it is creating one of the biggest professional opportunities of our generation. The industry doesn't just need more software engineers; it needs everyday professionals who can translate complex concepts into real-world business strategies that the boardroom actually understands. In this high-stakes edition of the SECURE | CYBER CONNECT Podcast, Jay and I are joined by deep-tech leaders Anna Beata Kalisz Hedegaard and Niki Harris from QSECDEF. We strip away the intimidating jargon to give you the exact blueprint for future-proofing your career, protecting your organization's data today, and stepping into a highly valued leadership role during the greatest technological shift of the decade. 🔥 WHAT YOU'LL DISCOVER: 00:00:00 – The Quantum Heist: They Are Already Stealing Your Data 00:02:34 – Why Everyday Professionals Need to Care About Quantum 00:04:51 – Exposing the Broken Global Quantum Ecosystem 00:07:04 – How to Spot Vendor Rubbish and Build Real Trust 00:10:46 – The 2026 Government Mandates (And Why We Aren't Ready) 00:12:44 – The Reality of the "Harvest Now, Decrypt Later" Threat 00:16:39 – AI vs Quantum: The Dangerous Budget Trap 00:17:25 – Why Waiting for 'Q-Day' Will Destroy Your Business 00:21:10 – The Two Exact Questions CISOs Must Ask the Board Today 00:24:05 – How to Survive the Quantum Shift on a Tight Budget 00:26:38 – Step 1: Your Cryptographic Inventory 00:33:36 – What Quantum Needs to Learn from Cyber’s Past Failures 00:37:12 – The Real Industry Choke Point: Executive Illiteracy 00:39:47 – Translating High-Level Policy into Commercial Reality 00:42:23 – Will AI Break Crypto Before Quantum Even Arrives? 00:45:20 – The Hidden Threat Inside Your Cloud Supply Chain 00:50:01 – Why Risk "Translators" Will Soon Own the Industry 00:51:37 – How Women in Tech Can Claim Their Seat at the Leadership Table 00:54:06 – Generalists vs Specialists: Who Actually Wins in Cyber? 00:57:05 – Leading Globally While Ignoring the Hype 01:03:30 – Bypass the SECURE | CYBER CONNECT Platform Waitlist 🔹 Anna Beata Kalisz Hedegaard - Anna is the CEO and Founder of QSECDEF. With a background spanning Theoretical Cosmology, Nanoscience, and Global Defense, she has built the world’s most trusted vendor-neutral platform for the quantum ecosystem, connecting over 1,000 members across 40+ countries. 🔹 Niki Harris - Niki is the North American Policy Director for QSECDEF. Formerly an AI Policy lead at Canada's Department of National Defence (DND), she specializes in bridging the gap between elite military mandates and practical, board-ready security strategies. 🎁Learn More About QSECDEF Here: https://www.qsecdef.com 👇 The Challenge: What is the most "overhyped" tech buzzword that is actually distracting us from real security right now? Name it in the comments below! ✅ Join the Ecosystem, use code ‘QSECDEF’ and bypass the waiting list: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdiJ3kC2UDadnnLfP91u2K18XEiwV9n7J-l_-Dt8icUzP00bA/viewform?pli=1
S1 · E107
May 23 · 1 hr 3 min
The reality of working in tech and cyber: IT Leadership, patching and cybersecurity
Everyone loves to celebrate "Digital Transformation" in the boardroom, but no one wants to talk about the grueling, unglamorous foundational work required to actually pull it off. If your culture ignores the teams keeping the lights on, your transformation is already failing. Welcome to Part 2 of our special DTX Edition of the SECURE | CYBER CONNECT Podcast, recorded live in Manchester. If Part 1 was about the vision of the future, Part 2 is the ultimate reality check. Today, Jay and Warren take you inside the trenches. Featuring an exclusive walk-around and interviews with a leading IT Director and the elite vulnerability management team at Patch My PC, we expose the massive friction between "shipping the future" and "securing the present." 🔥 WHAT YOU'LL DISCOVER: - 📍 Live From the Trenches: Unfiltered, raw insights straight from the DTX expo floor. We capture the genuine frustrations, fears, and triumphs of the people actually doing the heavy lifting in tech today. 0:00 - Intro: Live from DTX Manchester (Frontline IT Operations) 📍 0:21 - The Reality of Enterprise Vulnerability & Patch Management 🏦 03:00 - Is AI Going to Replace Software Engineers & Developers? 🤖 04:35 - The Most Overrated Cybersecurity Buzzwords in Tech Right Now ⛔️ 07:27 - IT Leaders Share Their Most Embarrassing Tech Failures 💀 13:08 - How an IT Director Manages Digital Transformation & Cyber Risk ♟️ 15:13 - Real-World AI Governance & Managing Shadow IT 🔍 20:20 - The Frustrating Reality of Managing Enterprise Software Budgets 😣 22:53 - AI Use Cases in Engineering, Manufacturing & Digital Twins ♊️ 26:53 - Do You Really Need ISO 27001 Certification? (vs Cyber Essentials) ⁉️ 30:00 - Retaining Women in Tech & Breaking the Gender Pay Gap 🤑 32:32 - 3 Questions You MUST Ask Enterprise AI Vendors Before Buying 🧐 35:24 - Ransomware, Insider Threats & Protecting Public Sector Client Data 🔐 38:14 - AI Liability: Who is Legally Responsible When AI Fails? 📑 40:33 - Upskilling a Multi-Generational IT Team for the Future 📚 47:16 - Preventing Tech Burnout: Why IT Leaders Need the "14-Minute Rule" ⏲️ 49:44 - How Cybersecurity Professionals Teach Cyber Hygiene to Their Children 🧑‍🧒‍🧒 55:46 - What Tech Hiring Managers Are Actually Looking For Today 🧠 🔹 David Price - IT & Digital Transformation Director at Curtins. With a strong focus on cyber security, risk, and building resilient IT functions in complex organisations. He leads technology strategy across multi-site environments, making sure systems are secure, reliable, and actually support how the business operates day to day. David works closely with senior leadership on cyber risk, data protection, and how to balance security with performance and growth. 🎁Learn More About Curtins: https://www.curtins.com/ 🔹 The Team at Patch My PC (Keeran Mistry, Andrew Osiname, Ada Aitonean & Sam Bamber) - The absolute defenders of the foundation. They shed light on the critical, often-overlooked world of automated patch management and why third-party vulnerability management is the bedrock of enterprise defence. 🎁Learn More About Patch My PC: https://patchmypc.com/ 📅 Learn more about the Digital Transformation EXPO: https://dtxevents.io/ 👇 The Challenge: What is the most unglamorous, frustrating part of your daily grind in tech that people outside the industry just don't understand? Drop your truth bomb in the comments below! ✅ Join the Ecosystem: Get FREE access to salary guides, career pathways, certs, resources, tools, and opportunities, as well as our new platform helping with both individual and organisational growth. Use the code “DTXM26” and bypass the waiting list: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdiJ3kC2UDadnnLfP91u2K18XEiwV9n7J-l_-Dt8icUzP00bA/viewform?pli=1 🔔 We appreciate your support - Please SUBSCRIBE, LIKE and SHARE to encourage diverse and inclusive knowledge sharing.
S1 · E105
May 16 · 57 min
What Does it take to build the future: AI research, business analysis and cybersecurity
Title: What Does it take to build the future: AI research, business analysis and cybersecurity Stop pretending that a flashy new AI tool will magically transform your business. If your vision for the future isn't anchored in real business analysis and secure foundations, you aren't innovating - you are just building a very expensive liability. Welcome back to another DTX Edition of the SECURE | CYBER CONNECT Podcast, recorded live on the floor of the Digital Transformation EXPO in Manchester. Our host Jay Adamson and Warren Atkinson are stripping away the vendor hype to look at the actual anatomy of a winning tech companies. They sit down with three visionary leaders operating at the bleeding edge of AI governance, applied data research, the intersection of business analysis and cybersecurity, the importance of special interest groups and regional tech growth to answer one massive question: What does it actually take to build the future? 🔥 WHAT YOU'LL DISCOVER: 🤖 The AI Bubble vs. Reality: Are we in an AI echo chamber? We cut through the boardroom hype to reveal what enterprises are actually building, and whether generative AI is a true revolution or a costly distraction. 🧠 The Invisible Data War: Forget what you know about traditional tech. Discover how elite applied research and 'graph tech' are quietly solving the most complex business problems on the planet. 🌉 The 'Death' of Good Ideas: Why the greatest technical innovations fail before they even launch. We explain why elite Business Analysis is the only bridge between a brilliant concept and commercial survival. ⚡ The 1% Leadership Paradox: The ultimate executive balancing act. How do you relentlessly push your teams for rapid innovation without collapsing the security that keeps your company alive? 📍 The UK's Hidden Tech Hubs: Breaking the London bubble. We expose the raw truth about scaling high-performing teams, driving regional growth, and building world-class infrastructure outside the capital. 🤝 Careers Advice and Guidance: For Information and cybersecurity, project management, business analysis and AI research. 🔹 Chiru Bhavansikar - As a Chief AI Officer at Arhasi, Chiru is at the absolute forefront of AI governance, ensuring that the next generation of enterprise AI is not just powerful, but ethical, compliant, and deeply trusted by the market. 🎁 Learn More About Arhasi: http://arhasi.ai 🔹 Andreas - Operating as the Director of Applied Research at Neo4j, Andreas explores how cutting-edge graph technology and deep data science are mapping the future of enterprise intelligence. Andreas is a technological humanist. Starting at NASA, Andreas designed systems from scratch to support science missions. Then in Zambia, he built medical informatics systems to apply technology for social good. Now with Neo4j, he is democratizing graph databases to validate and extend our intuitions about how the world works. Everything is connected. 🎁Learn More About Neo4J: https://neo4j.com/ 🔹 Mark Cross - Mark Cross is the founder and principal consultant of Envista Consulting, a York based business analysis practice that specializes in cybersecurity. He is also the founder and Regional chair (EMEA) for the IIBA's 🎁Learn More About Envista: http://envista.consulting/ 🎁Learn More About IIBA: http://www.iiba.org/ 📅 Join us on 14-15th October at Excel London for DTX London: https://www.dtxevents.io/london 👇 The Challenge: What is the biggest disconnect in your company right now? Is it between the visionaries driving AI and the IT teams trying to secure the network? ✅ Join the Ecosystem: Get FREE access to salary guides, career pathways, certs, resources, tools, and opportunities, as well as our new platform helping with both individual and organisational growth. Use the code “DTXM26” and bypass the waiting list: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdiJ3kC2UDadnnLfP91u2K18XEiwV9n7J-l_-Dt8icUzP00bA/viewform?pli=1
S1 · E105
May 13 · 50 min
From military to cyber, from poverty to protected: Real stories, real impact
Behind every firewall is a human being. Behind every policy is a story. We recently hit the road and attended the National Cyber Security Show (NCSS 2026) in Birmingham, we stopped looking at screens and started looking at people. In Part 2 of our NCSS Special Edition Series, Jay and Warren sit down with four extraordinary voices who are redefining what cybersecurity really means - and who it's really for. From a 21-year military career to the frontline of security culture. From digitally excluded children to the IT teams burning out to protect 30,000 UK schools. These are the stories the industry doesn't put on its keynote slides. 🔥 WHAT YOU'LL DISCOVER (The Unfiltered Truth): - 📉 The Frontline Reality Check: Raw market insights from the trenches. What is paralyzing leaders today, emerging trends, and why the future of defense is human-centric resilience. - 🛑 The Silent Burnout Epidemic: The extreme mental health toll on the exhausted, under-resourced IT teams tasked with defending the UK's 30,000 schools. - 🧸 The True Cost of Digital Poverty: The intersection of cybersecurity and child safety, proving why true digital defense means nothing if it leaves the digitally excluded behind. - 🚫 Toxic Culture vs. Human Defense: Why spending millions on AI and firewalls completely fails if your workplace is paralyzed by a culture of blame. - 🔮 The AI Threat & The Human Solution: As global threat actors weaponize AI, discover why your absolute ultimate defense will always be human connection. - 🚀 Breaking the "Coder-Only" Myth: The untapped, non-technical career pathways and why empathetic relationship builders are exactly what the market is starving for. 🔹 Liz Murray - Chief of Staff, SASIG Events Following a successful 21-year military career, Liz moved into the private sector in 2018. Despite having initially said “not a bank and not Cybersecurity.” her first role was in cyber at HSBC. Liz subsequently held impactful roles in financial services, cyber-vendor and retail enterprise organisations, deepening her cross-sector expertise in education, leadership behaviours, and humanfactorsled security. Liz now serves as Chief of Staff for the Security Awareness and Special Interest Group (the SASIG), driving resilience and risk discussions across cybersecurity best practice, mental health and wellbeing, cyberincident preparedness, safeguarding vulnerable people online, diversity and inclusion, and STEM career development. 🎁Learn More: https://www.thesasig.com/ 🔹 Michael Tarbard (Every Child Online) – CEO & Founder tackling digital poverty head-on. Michael's giving refurbished devices and online safety support to disadvantaged children and young people across the UK—while building national partnerships that connect families to education and opportunity. His challenge to transformation leaders? If your strategy doesn't reach the digitally excluded, you're building for a shrinking market. 🎁Learn More: Https://everychildonline.co.uk 🔹 Dolores Ruzafa - International Security Advisor - Xygeni Passionate about People, with nearly 40 years in the IT world - starting with Seagate, then Dell, Symantec, Kiuwan, Testrail, Ranorex, Preemptive and now the very best Xygeni. The one thing that she has seen constant is People – Dolores reminds us that “We all need the human touch” - and that is her strength. Dolores listens and connects so that you can share your concerns and together find a solution. 🎁Learn More: https://xygeni.io/ 🔹 Michael Coffer With over a decade of experience, Michael is a trusted strategic partner helping organizations drive security innovation and navigate emerging threats. While he and his team at Heimdal work relentlessly to keep threat actors out of enterprise environments, Michael’s primary mission is defending the UK Education Sector. He champions the critically under-resourced and under-staffed IT teams tasked with protecting the next generation across 30,000 schools.

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