We’re doubling down and embracing the absolute worst of hacker tropes. Put on your black hoodie and then a second one. Boot up your Matrix screensaver and listen to the latest episode of CISO/Security Vendor Relationship Podcast.

This episode is hosted by me, David Spark (@dspark), producer of CISO Series and founder of Spark Media Solutions and Mike Johnson. Our sponsored guest this week is Bruce Potter (@gdead), CISO, Expel.

Here are the links to the items Bruce mentioned on the show:

Thanks to this week’s podcast sponsor Expel

Expel is flipping today’s managed security model on its head (Ouch!) for on-prem and cloud, taking a technology-driven approach that lets analysts focus on what humans do best: exercise judgment and manage relationships. The company offers 24×7 monitoring through its security operations center-as-a-service, using the security tools customers already have.

Got feedback? Join the conversation on LinkedIn.

On this week’s episode

We’ve got listeners, and they’ve got questions

A listener, who wishes to remain anonymous asks, “I am a one person security organization, and I get frustrated reading industry news and even listening to the CISO Series (love the show). My frustration is that so very often articles, blogs and podcasts assume that you/your organization has a security TEAM… How do you thrive and not just survive as a security shop of one?” What can a one-person shop expect to do, and not do?

Let’s dig a little deeper

Bruce is also the founder of the Shmoo Group and his wife is the organizer for the annual ShmooCon which is a hacker conference held in DC every year. I’m stunned that his 2200-person event sells out in less than 20 seconds. There is obviously huge demand to attend and speak at your event. This year’s event he had 168 submitted talks and 41 were accepted. Bruce tells us what makes a great ShmooCon submission and what were the most memorable talks from ShmooCon.

“What’s Worse?!”

Today’s game probably speaks to the number one problem with every company’s security program.

Hey, you’re a CISO, what’s your take on this?

An issue that comes up in security all the time is “how do you do more with less.” Are there ways to advance your security program when you don’t have more budget or more people to do so?

Study after study shows a top priority for cloud users is having visibility into application and data traffic. But most are not getting it. Nine out of ten respondents believe that access to packet data is needed for effective monitoring. So even though the cloud providers maintain the fortress, the enterprise still needs to see what’s going on. They’re ultimately responsible, after all.

Cloud needs its own approach to monitoring, more closely based on how cloud customers interact with their data. It needs its own tools and greater level of communication between them and their providers.

One of the most interesting facts to come from these studies is that 99% of respondents – yes, 99% saw a direct link between comprehensive network visibility and business value, which means that IT and IT performance can be proven to contribute directly to the bottom line. Yes, we all knew that, but it’s good to see it in print.

The short-term benefit might actually be improved data visibility, but the longer-term benefit will be a larger and more authoritative voice from IT at the C-suite table.

Check out lots more cloud security tips sponsored by OpenVPN, provider of next-gen secure and scalable communication software. OpenVPN Access Server keeps your company’s data safe with end-to-end encryption, secure remote access, and extension for your centralized UTM.

Why is everybody talking about this now?

We have talked in the past about the tired and negative image of the hacker in the black hoodie. It’s pretty much all you see in stock photos. And since that’s all any media outlet uses, that image just keeps getting reinforced. Poking fun and I think truly trying to find a better hacker image meme, Casey Ellis, founder of Bugcrowd, challenged others on LinkedIn to find a better “hacker stock photo” than the one he posted of hands coming out of a screen and typing on your keyboard with a cat looking on. We debate the truly worst hacker images we’ve seen and we propose a possible new stock image of the hacker.