As organizations push return-to-office (RTO) mandates and chase efficiency, many security teams are quietly accumulating debt they don’t know how to unwind.

In this episode, we are joined by Lea Cure Thorpe and Kayne McGladrey to unpack the less-discussed consequences of recent security decisions: RTO exposure, endpoint blind spots, tooling overload, analyst burnout, and the slow erosion of junior talent (thanks AI).

Rather than going too crazy on hot takes and obvious trends, we focus in on operational reality, business risk, and what security leaders need to confront before these issues compound further.

02:00 | Is the perimeter really dead?

06:30 | RTO fallout and the return of local network risk

12:30 | Endpoint sprawl, dirty devices, and SOC fatigue

18:30 | Cloud tooling, visibility gaps, and false assurances

26:00 | AI adoption: risk appetite vs. reality

33:30 | Identity, agentic AI, and trust amplification risk

41:00 | Workforce erosion and the efficiency trap

50:30 | The business math CISOs can’t avoid

58:30 | Career development, communication, and relevance

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In this episode, we break down Whisper Leak, a newly disclosed side-channel issue affecting encrypted LLM communications. JBO explains how attackers can infer conversation topics using packet size and timing metadata without breaking encryption. The discussion covers how the research team discovered the issue, how vendors (including Microsoft and OpenAI) mitigated it, and what it means for the future of secure AI systems.

01:30 – What Whisper Leak Actually Is
02:30 – Understanding Side-Channel Attacks
04:00 – Why LLMs Are Uniquely Vulnerable
08:00 – Stream Ciphers vs Block Ciphers
13:30 – “Did You Break Encryption?” Clearing Up Misconceptions
16:00 – Fixes & Mitigations Across LLM Vendors
18:30 – Why Some Vendors Were More Vulnerable Than Others
20:00 – Could High-End Adversaries Still Pull This Off?
24:00 – How API Users Can Protect Themselves
25:00 – Designing LLM Systems with Side Channels in Mind

Guests: Jonathan (JBO) Bar Or, Principal Security Researcher, Microsoft Threat Intelligence, who just joined CrowdStrike

Hosts: Elliot Volkman & Neal Dennis

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In this episode of Adopting Zero Trust, hosts Elliot Volkman and Neal Dennis discuss critical infrastructure security with expert guest Ian Branson, Vice President of Global Industrial Cybersecurity at Black and Veatch.

The discussion centers around the philosophical and strategic approaches to handling incidents and breaches, especially in the operational technology (OT) realm. Branson highlights the importance of understanding what needs protection, the integration of IT and OT security, and the crucial role of threat intelligence. They also explore the evolving need for converging physical and digital security data to manage risks effectively.

01:37 Starting Point for Protecting Critical Infrastructure

04:52 Funding and Resource Allocation for Cybersecurity

10:57 Threat Intelligence and Incident Response

16:25 IT and OT Convergence

23:47 Discussing Employee and Equipment Management

26:19 Integrating Physical and Cyber Security

34:39 Proactive Security Measures in New Constructions

40:46 Balancing Rapid Response and Availability

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