
Defense in Depth
David Spark, Steve Zalewski, Geoff Belknap · David Spark
Show overview
Defense in Depth has been publishing since 2019, and across the 7 years since has built a catalogue of 364 episodes. That works out to roughly 180 hours of audio in total. Releases follow a weekly cadence.
Episodes typically run twenty to thirty-five minutes — most land between 27 min and 31 min — and the run-time is fairly consistent across the catalogue. None of the episodes are flagged explicit by the publisher. It is catalogued as a EN-language Technology show.
The show is actively publishing — the most recent episode landed 4 days ago, with 25 episodes already out so far this year. Published by David Spark.
From the publisher
Defense in Depth promises clear talk on cybersecurity's most controversial and confusing debates. Once a week we choose one controversial and popular cybersecurity debate and use the InfoSec community's insights to lead our discussion.
Latest Episodes
View all 364 episodesIs the "Attackers Only Need to Be Right Once" a Misnomer?
What It Takes To Be Successful in Cyber Media
CISOs Buy For Selfish and Politically Risk-Averse Reasons (Not Because Your Product is the Best)
Has Cybersecurity Become a Cult?
What Does the Next Generation of Cloud Security Look Like?
The Dangers of Picking the Wrong Vendor
Why Cyber Startups Need CISO Advisors
Breaking the Reactive Cycle of Cybersecurity
How Do You Know If Your Backups Will Survive a Ransomware Attack?
What Makes a Successful Security Vendor Demo?
Should You Use Native or 3rd Party Cloud Management Tools?
How Should We Measure the Performance of a CISO?
How to Be Less Busy and More Effective in Cyber
All links and images can be found on CISO Series. Check out this post for the discussion that is the basis of our conversation on this week's episode co-hosted by David Spark, the producer of CISO Series, and Ross Young, co-host, CISO Tradecraft. Joining them is Dan Walsh, CISO, Datavant. Be sure to check out Ross's book Cybersecurity's Dirty Secret: Why Most Budgets Go to Waste. In this episode: Patterns hiding in plain sight Activity vs. advancement The human cost Frameworks about frameworks A huge thanks to our sponsor, Fenix24 Fenix24 is the world's leading breach recovery firm, providing rapid ransomware restoration, full asset visibility, and threat informed hardening. Alongside expert recovery services, Fenix24 delivers ongoing managed protection that secures backups, infrastructure, and critical controls, helping organizations stay resilient, recoverable, and prepared for modern cyber threats. Learn more at fenix24.com.
How to Engage With a CISO When They Express Interest
All links and images can be found on CISO Series. Check out this post for the discussion that is the basis of our conversation on this week's episode, co-hosted by David Spark, the producer of CISO Series, and Steve Zalewski. Joining them is Adam Palmer, CISO, First Hawaiian Bank. Be sure to check out David's book, Three Feet from Seven Figures: One-on-One Engagement Techniques to Qualify More Leads at Trade Shows. In this episode: Lead with insight, not persuasion Recognize the opportunity when it arrives Strategy over features Keep it efficient A huge thanks to our sponsor, Endor Labs Discover how AI coding agents are reshaping software supply chain risk in the State of Dependency Management. Original research from Endor Labs shows 49% of dependency versions have known vulnerabilities (and that 34% don't actually exist). Get the report to see how "shadow AI" is reshaping attack surfaces. Learn more at endorlabs.com.

Who is Responsible for the Conflict Between Security and Developers?
All links and images can be found on CISO Series. Check out this post for the discussion that is the basis of our conversation on this week's episode, co-hosted by David Spark, the producer of CISO Series, and Steve Zalewski. Joining is their sponsored guest, Matt Brown, solutions architect, Endor Labs. In this episode: The development disconnect Functionality first, security second The incentive problem Speed as the common ground A huge thanks to our sponsor, Endor Labs Discover how AI coding agents are reshaping software supply chain risk in the State of Dependency Management. Original research from Endor Labs shows 49% of dependency versions have known vulnerabilities (and that 34% don't actually exist). Get the report to see how "shadow AI" is reshaping attack surfaces. Learn more at www.endorlabs.com.

Are Your Security Tools Creating More Work for Your Team?
All links and images can be found on CISO Series. Check out this post by Caleb Sima for the discussion that is the basis of our conversation on this week's episode co-hosted by me, David Spark, the producer of CISO Series, and Edward Contreras, senior evp and CISO, Frost Bank. Joining us is Evan McHenry, CISO, Robinhood. In this episode: The information paradox Setting realistic expectations Prioritization over noise The cart before the horse Huge thanks to our sponsor, Endor Labs Discover how AI coding agents are reshaping software supply chain risk in the State of Dependency Management. Original research from Endor Labs shows 49% of dependency versions have known vulnerabilities (and that 34% don't actually exist). Get the report to see how "shadow AI" is reshaping attack surfaces.

Why Overpromising is a Dangerous Sales Tactic
All links and images can be found on CISO Series. Check out this post, CISO, Upwind Security, for the discussion that is the basis of our conversation on this week's episode co-hosted by me, David Spark, the producer of CISO Series, and Geoff Belknap, CISO, LinkedIn. Joining us is Octavia Howell, vp and CISO, Equifax Canada. In this episode: Beyond the quota The hard truth beats the polished bluff Paying for someone else's mistakes Reducing friction, increasing trust Huge thanks to our sponsor, ThreatLocker ThreatLocker takes a deny-by-default approach to endpoint security — controlling what applications can run, what can access data, and what can elevate privileges. Used by organizations that want to reduce attack surface without relying on detection alone. Learn more at threatlocker.com/ciso.

Should You Phish Your Employees or Not?
All links and images can be found on CISO Series. This week's episode is co-hosted by me, David Spark, the producer of CISO Series, and Edward Contreras, senior evp and CISO, Frost Bank. Joining us is Mark Eggleston, CISO, CSC. In this episode: Breaking trust to test it Technical controls over testing The measurement imperative Fire drills, not gotchas Huge thanks to our sponsor, Scanner All your security logs end up in cloud storage like AWS S3. Scanner makes them searchable in seconds and runs real-time detections directly on that data. No pipelines, no re-ingestion. 100x faster than traditional data lakes, 10x cheaper than SIEMs. Loved by analysts. Built for AI agents. Learn more at scanner.dev.

How Much Autonomy Should You Give AI Agents in Your SOC?
All links and images can be found on CISO Series. This week's episode is co-hosted by me, David Spark, the producer of CISO Series, and Steve Zalewski. Joining us is our sponsored guest, Cliff Crosland, co-founder and CEO, Scanner.dev. In this episode: Earning autonomy gradually The blast radius question The reality check Today's value, tomorrow's evolution Huge thanks to our sponsor, Scanner All your security logs end up in cloud storage like AWS S3. Scanner makes them searchable in seconds and runs real-time detections directly on that data. No pipelines, no re-ingestion. 100x faster than traditional data lakes, 10x cheaper than SIEMs. Loved by analysts. Built for AI agents. Learn more at scanner.dev.

Cybersecurity's Broken Hiring Process
All links and images can be found on CISO Series. Check out this post by Dr. Chase Cunningham, CSO at Demo-Force, for the discussion that is the basis of our conversation on this week's episode co-hosted by me, David Spark, the producer of CISO Series, and Geoff Belknap. Joining us is Brett Conlon, CISO, American Century Investments. In this episode: The experience paradox Who benefits from the narrative Kitchen sink job postings The aggregation problem Huge thanks to our sponsor, Scanner All your security logs end up in cloud storage like AWS S3. Scanner makes them searchable in seconds and runs real-time detections directly on that data. No pipelines, no re-ingestion. 100x faster than traditional data lakes, 10x cheaper than SIEMs. Loved by analysts. Built for AI agents. Learn more at scanner.dev