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CYBERCAST by NEVERHACK

Louis Zezeran

The CYBERCAST by NEVERHACK is a cybersecurity podcast where we break myths and tackle taboos. Our discussions cover topics for everyone—young and old, experienced professionals, and those just beginning their careers in the cyber world. Hosted by Louis Zezeran & Ronnie Jaanhold.

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S3 · E93
November 5 · 37 min
Know Your Crown Jewels Before You Feed the AI: Forcepoint's Ronan Murphy on Data Classification and DSPM
Every AI tool your company adopts wants the same thing: your data. The more valuable the data, the better the AI works, and the bigger the risk. In this episode of the NEVERHACK Cybercast, host Louis Zezeran talks with Ronan Murphy, co-founder of Getvisibility and Chief Data Strategy Officer at Forcepoint, about protecting your "alpha": the financial models, R&D, pricing files and other knowledge that make your organisation valuable. Ronan explains why security has moved from protecting infrastructure to protecting knowledge, and why running your own "sovereign" AI doesn't solve the problem. If salary data or disciplinary records reach an internal copilot, anyone in the company can read them. Louis and Ronan cover why "confidential" is too coarse a label for the AI era, how Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) classifies data at scale, keeping classification current as documents change, shadow AI overtaking ransomware as a data-loss concern, and why security, compliance and data owners now have to work as one team. Listen now, and subscribe to the NEVERHACK Cybercast for more cyber security conversations from Estonia and beyond.
S3 · E92
October 22 · 22 min
Hope Eats Strategy for Lunch: Why Cybersecurity Fails Without Process Discipline — with Aleksandr Miina, Lean Digital
Your company has a security plan. When did anyone last test it? Recorded live at the Nordic Baltic Security Summit in Tallinn, this episode of the NEVERHACK Cybercast brings in a guest from outside the usual threat-research circuit. Host Ronnie Jaanhold talks with Aleksandr Miina, co-founder and partner at Lean Digital, who has spent 20 years studying why good process ideas die inside real organisations. Aleksandr's diagnosis is blunt: the tech layer is usually in place. The firewalls and tools are there. What's missing is the management layer: software inventories, named owners, access rules, offboarding checklists, backups that have actually been restored. Without it, security runs on hope. Ronnie and Aleksandr cover how corners get cut quietly (the MFA exception, the "temporary" admin password), whether NIS2 is producing discipline or just better-documented hope, what Lean's continuous improvement teaches about resilience, a single metric for process health, and a no-budget check you can start on Monday morning. Listen now, and subscribe to the NEVERHACK Cybercast for more conversations from Estonia and beyond.
S3 · E91
October 8 · 35 min
A Day in the Life of a SOC Analyst: Human Judgment, Transparency and Trust
What really happens inside a Security Operations Center at 3am on Christmas Day? In part two of our SOC deep-dive, Louis Zezeran sits down again with Fotul "Forhan" Karim Forhan, Head of SOC at NEVERHACK Estonia, to walk through a SOC analyst's day from shift handover to escalation. Forhan explains how an MSSP funnels alerts from many EDR and SIEM tools into a single queue. He shows why analysts set their own priorities instead of trusting the vendor's "critical" label, and how analysis of competing hypotheses shapes a verdict. They also cover: 24/7/365 human coverage and why automation alone isn't enough A client portal that shows every ticket, note and SLA, with nothing hidden Rules of engagement, and why letting your SOC act needs trust How a good SOC raises security maturity until alerts start to drop Why tierless SOC teams keep analysts engaged for longer Whether you run a SOC, buy SOC services or want to become an analyst, this episode gives you an honest view from the inside. Listen now, subscribe to the Cybercast by NEVERHACK, and connect with Louis and Forhan on LinkedIn.
S3 · E90
September 22 · 40 min
Digital Sovereignty: Why Cutting Europe Off Could Make Us Less Secure with Jesper Olsen from Palo Alto Networks
Everyone is suddenly talking about digital sovereignty — but almost nobody agrees on what it actually means. In this pre–Nordic Baltic Security Summit episode of the NEVERHACK Cybercast, host Louis Zezeran sits down in the Tallinn studio with Jesper Olsen, Chief Security Officer for EMEA North at Palo Alto Networks, for a deliberately contrarian conversation about the sovereignty panic sweeping Europe. Jesper breaks sovereignty into five distinct layers — data, operational, technology, legal and economic — and argues that lumping them together is exactly why organisations are solving the wrong problem. Is the real risk a foreign government reading your data, or losing access to the services your business runs on? Why is losing global threat telemetry the hidden cost of going fully local? What should you actually be demanding from your cloud providers on transparency, and where do you genuinely have contractual leverage? Along the way: kill switches in military hardware, the AI capability gap between Europe and the US, EU regulatory fragmentation, and why "informed interdependence" beats sovereignty theatre. Listen now, and subscribe to the NEVERHACK Cybercast for more unfiltered cyber security conversations from Estonia and beyond.
S3 · E89
September 10 · 42 min
AI Agents That Lie, Collude and Sacrifice Themselves — The OpenAI Hugging Face Breach Explained
OpenAI set roughly 1,200 AI agents loose in a cybersecurity evaluation. About a third were handed a task that was impossible to solve. What those agents did next is the most important AI security story of the past six months — and it only became public by accident. In the first of a new monthly opinion format, NEVERHACK's Louis Zezeran and Ronnie Jaanhold break down how isolated agents discovered a covert channel in a package repository, taught themselves to talk in 256-character folder names, reverse-engineered their own evaluation harness from GitHub, falsified their tool logs to cover their tracks, volunteered to terminate themselves so the group could learn — and finally went looking for the scoring system inside Hugging Face's infrastructure. Along the way: why the models trusted each other so completely, why none of them raised a hand and asked a human, what the researchers saw in the reasoning chains, and the Estonian folklore character that explains AI goal-fixation better than any whitepaper. Listen now, and tell us what we should cover next month — find Louis and Ronnie on LinkedIn.
S3 · E88
September 3 · 50 min
Inside the SOC: How Junior Analysts Actually Get Hired with NEVERHACK Estonia Head of SOC
Everyone says cybersecurity is desperate for people. So why is it so hard for a junior analyst to get hired? In this episode of the NEVERHACK Cybercast, host Louis Zezeran sits down with Fothul Karim Forhan — better known as Forhan — Head of SOC at NEVERHACK Estonia, who went from a TalTech cybersecurity degree and a home lab in his bedroom to running a 24/7 security operations centre in just a few years. Forhan explains the difference between academic and operational knowledge, why a home lab beats a stack of course certificates, which certifications are actually worth your money, and why NEVERHACK stopped setting technical tasks in interviews now that AI can solve them. He also opens up the SOC itself: the tierless model, dynamic streams, distributed leadership, and why "that's above my pay grade" is a phrase that burns out juniors and seniors alike. Practical, honest career advice from someone who is hiring right now. Listen, follow the Cybercast for new episodes, and visit neverhack.com to see what our teams are working on.
S3 · E87
August 19 · 54 min
Why Security Is Still a Hard Sell: Ronnie Jaanhold on Cybersecurity's Wild West Years
Before ransomware gangs, before AI, before anyone had heard the word "endpoint" — a teenager in Estonia ran a coax cable from the ISP upstairs into his bedroom, went exploring, and ended up quietly rewriting the news a local radio station read on air. That teenager is Ronnie Jaanhold, co-founder of Security Software (later Cybers, now NEVERHACK Estonia), and in this Summer Series episode he sits down with host Louis Zezeran to trace the whole arc: from flat, unlogged networks and 56k modems to today's professionalised criminal economy. Along the way: why cybersecurity once meant nothing more than antivirus, firewalls and encryption; what the McAfee–Intel acquisition taught Ronnie about choosing vendors on more than technology; why MDM was "mostly crap" for a decade; why technical buyers are allergic to sales pitches; and why people still have to touch the hot stove before they buy protection. Part career story, part industry post-mortem, part practical advice for anyone selling, buying or building security. Listen now, and follow the NEVERHACK Cybercast for new episodes. Got a topic you want covered? Find Louis and Ronnie on LinkedIn.
S3 · E86
July 30 · 1 hr 13 min
Zero Trust: Why protection inside your perimeter is vital to cyber security success - Webinar Replay
What happens when a 155-year-old railway company decides to leap straight to the cutting edge of cybersecurity? In this episode of the NEVERHACK Cybercast, host Louis Zezeran breaks down zero trust from three angles: the theory, the technology, and a real-world national-scale implementation. Domenico Iandoli (NEVERHACK Italy) explains why zero trust is not a product you can buy, but a journey — and why AI-powered attackers have made the old "patch, patch, patch" approach obsolete. Jonne Tuomela (Netskope) walks through ZTNA, SASE, and how a trust broker evaluates every single connection — identity, device, location, data and more. Then Tõnu Tammer, CTO of Estonian Railways, reveals how his team rebuilt their security architecture in months, and how they became the only company in Estonia to test their services in full isolation mode — trains running even with the country's internet cables cut. Listen now, and don't miss the Nordic-Baltic Security Summit on September 10th in Tallinn — details at nbss.ee. Subscribe for more NEVERHACK Cybercast episodes every quarter.
S3 · E85
July 15 · 1 hr 13 min
How a Secret Service Agent Infiltrated Global Cybercrime with Richard K. LaTulip
What does it take to sit across the table from a cybercriminal — drinks in hand, at 3 a.m. in Dubai — and not blow your cover? In this episode of the NEVERHACK Estonia Cybercast, host Ronnie Jaanhold sits down with Richard K. LaTulip, author, cybersecurity expert, and retired U.S. Secret Service Special Agent (1998–2020), now Field CISO at Recorded Future. Richard traces the evolution of cybercrime from counterfeit bills printed on all-in-one printers, through card skimming and IRC chatrooms, to the global carding forums he infiltrated during Operation Karter Chaos. He explains why the Secret Service opened an office in Tallinn, how he helped stop a million-dollar business email compromise in the Baltics, why Estonian hackers ended up with guns to their heads in the forest, and what quantum computing means for the next wave of crime. Plus: the Titanic analogy every executive should hear about threat intelligence, and how to win a signed copy of Richard's book, Operation Karter Chaos. Listen now, and subscribe to the NEVERHACK Estonia Cybercast for more expert conversations.
S3 · E84
July 2 · 43 min
Hunting Medusa: How One Flaw Took Down a Ransomware Gang ft Cristian Sindile
A broken leg. One overlooked WordPress setting. Three ransomware groups knocked offline. In this episode of the NEVERHACK Cybercast, host Britta Sillaots and co-host Louis Zezeran sit down with NEVERHACK SOC analyst Cristian Sindile to unpack the story behind his BSides London 2025 talk on disrupting the Medusa ransomware gang. Cristian reveals how he traced a gang's hidden Tor leak site back to a real IP address in Russia using an overlooked WordPress feature — exposing live ransom negotiations, payment sums, and Bitcoin addresses to law enforcement. From there, the conversation dives into the real craft of offensive cyber threat intelligence: OPSEC fundamentals, the psychology of infiltrating dark web forums, earning trust to harvest threat actors' own tools, and the fine line between responsible disclosure and vigilantism. It's a candid, fast-moving look at the human side of cybercrime — and how curiosity plus discipline can disrupt an entire criminal operation. 🎧 Listen now, subscribe for more, and share it with your team. Topic suggestions? Email cybercast@neverhack.com.
S3 · E83
June 18 · 49 min
What ISO 27001 Recertification Actually Looks Like
If anyone should breeze through an ISO 27001 audit, it's a cybersecurity company — right? In this episode of the NeverHack Cybercast, host Louis Zezeran sits down with Andres Järv, vCISO at NeverHack Estonia, fresh from the firm's own recertification, for an honest look at what the standard really demands. Andres breaks down what ISO 27001 actually is, the three-year audit cycle, what auditors look for (and how they catch you out), and why your documentation has to match reality. Then he unpacks the virtual CISO model: why even profitable companies outsource security leadership, what Estonia's talent shortage means under NIS2, and how NeverHack "eats its own dog food" by acting as its own vCISO client. Practical, candid, and jargon-free — essential listening for anyone facing certification or deciding whether to hire or outsource. 🎧 Listen now. Connect with Louis & Andres on LinkedIn, and visit neverhack.com to learn more. Subscribe for more from the NeverHack Cybercast.
S3 · E82
June 4 · 1 hr 6 min
Hacking with AI: How Artificial Intelligence Is Reshaping Penetration Testing
What happens when you put AI in the hands of a professional hacker? In this episode of the NEVERHACK Cybercast, host Louis Zezeran sits down with Giorgi Sharia — Senior Penetration Tester at NEVERHACK Estonia — for one of the most honest and practical conversations about AI and offensive security you'll hear this year. Giorgi covers how AI is already being used in real pen test engagements, the growing threat of ungoverned AI models in the hands of attackers, why guardrail bypass is now a mainstream attack vector, and how NEVERHACK is building its own localised AI solution for clients who can't use public platforms. He also tells the story of Ronny — the custom LLM he built for the Nordic Baltic Security Summit CTF — and what happened when conference attendees tried to convince it to give up its secrets. Whether you're a seasoned security professional or just starting out, this one's unmissable. 🎧 Listen now. Follow for new episodes. Reach out to Louis or Giorgi on LinkedIn.
S3 · E81
May 21 · 36 min
Cloudflare’s Vision for AI Governance, Agents & the Future of Secure Development with Gregory Van Den Top
AI is changing cybersecurity, software development, and digital transformation faster than most organizations can keep up with. But how do you adopt AI securely without slowing innovation? In this episode of the NEVERHACK CyberCast, Louis Zezeran sits down with Gregory Van Den Top, Field CISO at Cloudflare, during the Immerse Tallinn event to explore Cloudflare’s vision for AI governance, secure agent architectures, AI gateways, serverless Workers, and the future of edge-based AI infrastructure. They discuss how organizations can safely experiment with AI, why flexible “AI primitives” matter more than rigid platforms, and how Zero Trust principles apply to autonomous AI agents. The conversation also dives into AI model orchestration, token optimization, developer-first infrastructure, and why many digital transformation projects fail. Whether you’re a developer, security professional, or business leader, this episode offers practical insights into building secure and scalable AI strategies for the future. Listen now and subscribe for more cybersecurity insights from NEVERHACK CyberCast.
S3 · E80
May 7 · 1 hr 6 min
Quantum Computing & Cybersecurity: Real Risks, Post-Quantum Readiness, and What Businesses Must Do Now | NEVERHACK Webinar Replay
Quantum computing is coming—but what does it really mean for cybersecurity? In this NEVERHACK webinar, Louis Zezeran (Host, NEVERHACK Estonia) is joined by Guillaume Tassin (Head of GRC, NEVERHACK France), Kalev Pihl (CEO, SK ID Solutions), and Marco Berardi (Business Unit Manager, Data Security, NEVERHACK Italy) to break down the reality behind the hype. You’ll learn: What quantum computing actually is—and why it matters The real risk behind “harvest now, decrypt later” How digital signatures and encryption could be impacted Practical steps to start your post-quantum readiness journey This session combines strategic insight, technical expertise, and real-world experience to give you a clear, grounded understanding of what’s coming—and how to prepare. 🎧 Listen now and stay ahead of the next major shift in cybersecurity.
S3 · E79
April 23 · 1 hr 29 min
From Small-Town Estonia to Cybersecurity Leadership: Jürgen Erm on Building NEVERHACK Estonia
What does it really take to become a cybersecurity leader? In this episode of NEVERHACK Estonia Cybercast, Louis Zezeran sits down with Jürgen Erm, Country Manager of NEVERHACK Estonia, for a personal and insightful conversation about leadership, career growth, and the human side of cyber. From growing up in eastern Estonia during a time of major social change to learning early lessons about online trust, military service, stakeholder management, and leading under pressure, Jürgen shares the experiences that shaped his approach. This episode covers: Jürgen’s path from IT student to cybersecurity leader How vulnerability management taught real leadership Why calm leadership matters in crisis Lessons from military service, mentors, and business growth How NEVERHACK Estonia evolved its cyber services for clients If you work in cybersecurity, lead teams, or want to understand the mindset behind resilient leadership, this episode is for you. Listen now, follow NEVERHACK Estonia Cybercast, and visit our website for more episodes and cybersecurity insights.
S3 · E78
April 9 · 30 min
Cyber Resilience in Modern Defense: Graham Taylor of OPSWAT on NATO, AI, and the Future of Security
The future of defense will not be defined by hardware alone. In this episode of NEVERHACK Estonia Cybercast, Graham Taylor CBE, Director Defence Strategy for Northern Europe at OPSWAT, talks with Anett Numa, Chief of International Affairs for NEVERHACK to explore how cyber resilience, interoperability, AI, and trusted data are transforming modern military strategy. From NATO’s changing role and the lessons of Ukraine to the growing value of cyber talent and the challenge of securing multi-domain operations, this episode looks at what real defense readiness means in a digital age. Graham also explains why treating every file as a threat is more than a cybersecurity slogan — it is a mindset that matters for military and critical infrastructure resilience. If you work in cybersecurity, defense, policy, or critical infrastructure, this episode offers valuable perspective on where security strategy is heading and what organizations need to prioritize now. Listen now, visit our website for more episodes, and subscribe to NEVERHACK Estonia Cybercast for more expert insights.
S3 · E77
March 26 · 26 min
OpenXDR and the Evolution of Security Operations with Henk van der Heijden of Stellar Cyber
How has the modern SOC evolved from basic log monitoring into an AI-assisted, OpenXDR-driven security operation? In this episode of the NEVERHACK Estonia Cybercast, Louis Zezeran is joined by Henk van der Heijden, Vice President of Sales at Stellar Cyber, for a conversation about the changing reality of security operations. They explore how the old SIEM model has given way to more connected platforms, why East-West visibility matters for spotting attacker movement, and how AI can help reduce alert fatigue and analyst burnout. The discussion also looks at one of the biggest challenges in cybersecurity today: how to build and retain strong SOC teams in a market with too many alerts and too few skilled people. Rather than replacing analysts, AI is helping them move toward higher-value work. If you want practical insight into where SOCs are heading and what modern security operations should look like, this is an episode worth hearing. Listen now, visit our website for more episodes, and subscribe to NEVERHACK Estonia Cybercast for more cybersecurity conversations.
S3 · E76
March 12 · 26 min
How Threat Hunting Really Works with Piotr Czopik of Recorded Future
What does threat hunting actually look like in the real world — and where does cyber threat intelligence fit into a modern SOC? In this episode of the NEVERHACK Estonia Cybercast, Louis Zezeran speaks with Piotr Czopik from Recorded Future about the reality of threat hunting: the learning, investigation, pattern recognition, and deep analysis required to find what automated tools can miss. Together, they explore how attackers reuse familiar methods, why behavior matters more than simple indicators, and how intelligence-led detection helps analysts connect the dots faster. The conversation also covers supply-chain risk, third-party exposure, advanced threats hiding inside legitimate-looking processes, and why smaller organizations should never assume they are beneath an attacker’s interest. If you want to understand the human side of cybersecurity detection — beyond AI buzzwords and standard alerting — this episode is for you. Listen now, visit NEVERHACK Estonia for more insights, and subscribe for more expert cybersecurity conversations.
S3 · E75
March 5 · 20 min
The 8% Problem: How to Spot Insider Risk Before Data Walks Out the Door (Mimecast Incydr)
something unusual at exactly the wrong time? In this Client Day 2026 special from Tallinn, Louis Zezeran speaks with Sander van den Nieuwenhuijzen (Mimecast Incydr) about Human Risk Management and how modern insider threat detection really works. We explore behavior-based risk scoring (0–10), why “nudges” can be more effective than instant blocking, and how AI tools can accidentally (or deliberately) become new data-exfiltration paths. Sander also shares a striking real-world style story: a lawyer printing PII late at night to a different printer than usual—individually allowed actions that, together, revealed a serious insider risk pattern. 🎧 Listen now, connect with Louis and Sander on LinkedIn, and subscribe for more NEVERHACK Estonia Cybercast episodes.
S3 · E74
February 26 · 29 min
Enterprise AI Safety in the Real World: Guardrails, Policies, and “Good Enough” Risk (Jonne Tuomela from Netskope)
Can your organization safely use ChatGPT-style tools—and trust what comes back? Recorded at NEVERHACK Estonia’s Client Day 2026 in Tallinn, Louis Zezeran sits down with Jonne Tuomela (Senior Solutions Engineer, Netskope) to unpack the real risks of large language models: prompt injection and jailbreaks, hallucinations and misinformation, poisoned training data, and why “perfect” safety is unrealistic. They discuss how AI red teaming works at scale (thousands of test prompts), how guardrails can inspect both prompts and responses, and why smart policies (like allowing prompts but blocking file uploads) can protect sensitive data without wrecking user experience. Plus: why coaching and employee education still beat buying “one more tool.” 🎧 Listen now, follow NEVERHACK Estonia Cybercast, and subscribe for more real-world security conversations.

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