No Password Required

Nick Biasini leads a team of threat researchers at Cisco Talos who patrol the cutting edge of the threat landscape. Not only has he investigated some of the most significant cyberattacks in history, but he also has hands-on experience with the 1980 Olympic bobsled track. In this episode of No Password Required, Nick joins Carlton Fields’s Jack Clabby and KnowBe4’s Kayley Melton to talk about his start as an FAA security analyst, some of his top discoveries during his threat research days, and the value of getting comfortable with failure. He shares his story of investigating the SamSam ransomware and his predictions for how AI might be able to support businesses in the future. Kayley and Jack break down the $10 million reward for information leading to the arrest or conviction of alleged Russian ransomware affiliate Mikhail Matveev.

You can connect with Nick on Twitter here: @infosec_nick

Check it out on YouTube here: https://tinyurl.com/4mtbd4ed

Gotham Sharma is a cybersecurity consultant, writer, educator, and stand-up comic. He’s on a mission to help folks build successful careers in information security through his latest venture, AccessCyber.co. In his training, Gotham leverages humor to make security awareness and education relatable to audiences of various technical backgrounds. Inspired by satire publications like The Onion, Gotham recently launched an infosec magazine called Brute Farce Attack, one of the many projects on his growing list of side hustles. In this episode of No Password Required, Gotham joins Carlton Fields’s Jack Clabby and KnowBe4’s Kayley Melton to share how his life changed after a well-intentioned anti-mentor inspired him. Jack and Kayley discuss IARPA’s plan to hack hackers’ brains as the agency considers reimagining security with cyberpsychology-informed network defenses.

You can connect with Gotham on Twitter here: @GothamJSharma

You can learn more about AccessCyber here: https://accesscyber.co/

You can learn more about Brute Farce Attack here: https://www.brutefarceattack.com/

Bianca Lewis, also known by her hacker name BiaSciLab, is a next-generation teenage hacker and the CEO of Girls Who Hack. Bianca’s cybersecurity journey started at age 11 when she was part of a team who successfully compromised a simulated election-reporting system at DEF CON 26. She has since become a national conference speaker and advocate for recruiting girls into the cyber industry. In this episode of No Password Required, Bianca joins Jack Clabby and KnowBe4’s Kayley Melton to share her experiences as a teenage hacker, her advice for being a confident public speaker, and her other biggest passion in life: the theatre. Jack and Kayley discuss the joint investigation between German police, the FBI, and law enforcement in Ukraine and the Netherlands and how they took down the DoppelPaymer ransomware group.

You can connect with Bianca on Twitter here: @BiaSciLab

You can learn more about Girls Who Hack here: https://girlswhohack.com/

You can learn more about Secure Open Vote here: https://secureopenvote.com/

Louis Nyffenegger is the founder and CEO of PentesterLab. On this episode of No Password Required, Louis shares how he built his penetration-testing training company, why empathy is crucial to application security, and what can be learned from having hobbies you’re not good at. He also tells us his favorite pen testing story, explains the early days of smartwatch security, and describes his journey from France to Australia. The entire No Password Required team (Ernie, Jack, Rex, Devin, and Sarina) celebrate Ernie’s final episode by participating in a game show challenge about his life. Learn how many tattoos he has, how many countries he’s been to, and more juicy facts that we’ve all been dying to know.

You can connect with Louis on Twitter here: @snyff

You can learn more about the PentesterLab here: https://www.pentesterlab.com/

Joey deVilla is a Senior R&D Content Engineer at Auth-Zero, a division of Okta. After hours, Joey is known as the Accordion Guy and spends his time playing music and sharing his nerdy takes on his two personal blogs. In this episode, Joey joins Jack and guest-host Tashya Denose (host of the Do We Belong Here podcast) to talk about his love for the tech community, his unique assortment of passions, hobbies, and jobs, and how he continues to trust the serendipity of his life even when the path seems unclear. Tashya and Jack talk about DoNotPay’s $1 million offer to lawyers to let AI take their place before the Supreme Court and what this kind of technology could mean for the future.

You can connect with Joey here: globalnerdy.com  and here: joeydevilla.com

You can learn more about the Legendary Nanaimo Bar here: https://www.nanaimo.ca/about-nanaimo/nanaimo-bars

General (Ret.) Frank McKenzie is the Executive Director of the Global and National Security Institute at the University of South Florida and the Executive Director of Cyber Florida. In April 2022, General McKenzie retired from the Marine Corps after completing over 42 years of service. He joins the No Password Required team to discuss the evolution of his leadership style over time, a typical morning for a four-star military general, and his preference for Star Trek over Star Wars. In honor of the holidays, Ernie and Jack discuss one of the most iconic (and shocking) Christmas movies of all time – Gremlins.

Andy Sekela is the Private Sector Coordinator for the FBI Tampa Division, who may just be on a mission to have the world’s coolest resumé. In this episode, Andy joins the No Password Required team to talk about his diverse career path, including his time as an officer on a nuclear submarine, public corruption investigations, and his best “wow, I’m an FBI agent” story. He also explains the FBI’s role in investigating cybersecurity breaches, what happens after an IC3 report, and career opportunities at the agency. Jack and Ernie discuss the dark web’s recent offer for sale of 487 million WhatsApp numbers and how modern businesses handle suspected website scraping.

Hannah Sutor is the Senior Product Manager at GitLab and Digital Privacy Advocate at The Privacy Chick. Hannah joins the No Password Required team to talk about how she discovered privacy and cybersecurity in college, what she expects for the future of usernames and passwords, and her adventures while traveling in an RV with her family for a year. Bonus: she also reveals her recipe for the best pumpkin spice latte. Ernie and Jack discuss the proposed U.S. labeling program for IoT consumer devices and some potential cyber and privacy implications.

Charles Shirer is the Chief Executive Officer of GlobalWave Consulting, an IT and cybersecurity consultancy. Known as the @bsdbandit to his 20,000+ Twitter followers, Charles is often considered the most positive person in cybersecurity (and for good reason!). In this episode, Charles joins the No Password Required team to tell us about how his childhood love for video games led to his passion for everything computer-related, what inspires him to share motivational messages on Twitter, and the importance of striving for a positive mindset in life. Jack and Ernie discuss the United Kingdom’s potential privacy enforcement against TikTok, and the regulatory regime for collecting the personal data of minors.

Kayley Melton is the Vice President of Security Awareness Company Courseware and Labs at KnowBe4. Although she can’t share too much about what the “labs” portion of her job entails, let’s face it, the secrecy makes her even cooler. Kayley joins the No Password Required team to tell us about her journey from an Appalachian farm to fine arts major at a self-described “bougie” college, and from there to VP at a leading security awareness company and the challenges that she overcame to get there. Kayley also shares the story of how a Craigslist ad changed her life, who the Chewbacca is to her Han Solo, and the lessons she’s had to learn as a woman in this industry. Ernie, Jack, and Pablo discuss something likely to shock 90s babies; the cybercriminal “TarTarX” has stolen the data of 69 million Neopets users.