Cloud Security Today

Hosted by Matthew Chiodi

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Oct 2026

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The Cloud Security Today podcast features expert commentary and personal stories on the “how” side of cybersecurity. This is not a news program but rather a podcast that focuses on cyber leadership and understanding the threats most impacting organizations today.

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October 6, 202654 min

The psychology of CISO

CISOs are accountable for cyber risk—but do they have the authority to change it? In this episode of Cloud Security Today, Matt sits down with cybersecurity researcher Raghav Singh to explore how organizational culture, power dynamics, and emerging AI capabilities shape security outcomes. Drawing on a burnout study involving 37 CISOs, Raghav explains how resource constraints and communication challenges reinforce one another—and why experience doesn’t necessarily make the job less stressful. They discuss why reporting to the CEO doesn’t guarantee influence, how AI could replace alert fatigue with the burden of explaining machine-generated judgments, and emerging research into how attacks take shape before execution. The conversation closes with three practical actions: align accountability with authority, address recurring organizational friction, and examine incidents as connected sequences of behavior rather than isolated alerts.

August 20, 202651 min

The AI harness

AI security has a hype problem. Every week brings a new headline about agents escaping sandboxes, AI replacing security teams, or models becoming “too smart” to control. But the more useful question for CISOs is much more practical: where do the actual security controls belong? In this episode, I sit down with Diana Kelley , CISO at Noma Security and one of the clearest voices in AI security, to separate AI mythology from operational reality. Diana explains why the LLM itself is not the security boundary, why the “harness” around the model matters, and how security teams should think about contamination, consequence, and runtime control as agentic AI moves into the enterprise. This conversation is not about AI hype. It is about what CISOs, security architects, and technical leaders need to understand before AI systems start taking autonomous action at machine speed. What You’ll Learn Why AI security is different from traditional AppSec What an AI “harness” is and why it matters Why the LLM should not be treated as a security control How prompt injection relates to trust boundaries and context windows Why agentic AI increases both speed and consequence Key Takeaways The model is not the control point. The LLM is powerful, but it is not deterministic enough to serve as the primary security boundary. Security controls need to live before and after inference — in the harness, surrounding software, workflow, and runtime environment. Think in terms of contamination and consequence. Contamination is what enters the context window. Consequence is what the system does after inference. Both need controls, especially when AI agents can act repeatedly and autonomously. Agentic AI changes the scale problem. A single bad prompt is one thing. Hundreds or thousands of agents looping through tasks at machine speed is another. The risk is not just bad output. It is autonomous action without adequate guardrails.

July 1, 202647 min

Cyber and the NY Giants

Christina Morillo shares her unconventional career journey from traditional IT to cybersecurity in the NFL, highlighting the importance of building trust, understanding business risk, and addressing misconceptions in cybersecurity. Christina's book: Zero Trust Networks

May 10, 202645 min

Identity for AI agents

AI agents are moving from answering questions to taking action. That changes everything for identity and access management. In this episode, Ken Huang joins Matt to break down why traditional IAM was not built for agentic AI, where service accounts and OAuth scopes fall short, and what CISOs should do now to govern agents before they hit production at scale. Episode Links Ken's substack Ken's paper from 2011 on AI (he was way ahead!) NIST AI RMF

April 11, 202644 min

The future of CISO

In this episode, Michael Piacente shares insights on career transitions in IT and security, the evolving role of CISOs, and the impact of AI on security talent and practices. Discover how community, storytelling, and strategic hiring shape the future of cybersecurity leadership. Resources The 2026 Global CISO Leadership Report Hitch Partners NIST AI Framework

December 20, 2023Episode 1252 min

30 years in cybersecurity

Send a text Episode Summary On this episode, InfoSec veteran, Aaron Turner, joins the show to talk about everything from Cloud to AI. Over the past three decades, Aaron has served as Security Strategist at Microsoft, Co-Founder and CEO of RFinity, Co-Founder and CEO of Terreo, VP of Security Products R&D at Verizon, Founder and CEO of Hotshot Technologies, Founder and CEO of Siriux, Faculty Member of IANS, Board Member at HighSide, President and Board Member of IntegriCell, and most recently as CISO at a large infrastructure player. Today, Aaron talks about the critical decisions that led to his success, the findings in his IANS research, and the importance of physical vs logical separation in home networks. What are the things that are lacking in current AI services? Hear about the security applications of behavioral AI, Aaron’s approach as he gets back into industry, and what it takes for Aaron to remain sharp. Timestamp Segments · [02:49] Getting started. · [10:53] Aaron’s keys to success. · [16:40] Aaron’s IANS research. · [20:42] Physical vs logical separation. · [24:19] Top mistakes that customers make. · [26:56] Real-world AI applications. · [32:13] Thinking about AI and risk. · [36:15] What’s missing in the current AI services? · [40:46] Getting back into the industry. · [45:22] How does Aaron stay sharp? Notable Quotes · “Get deep in something.” · “Make sure you put yourself in situations where people expect you to be sharp.” Relevant Links LinkedIn: Aaron Turner . Resources: www.iansresearch.com The future of cloud security. Simplify cloud security with Prisma Cloud, the Code to Cloud platform powered by Precision AI. Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

August 20, 2024Episode 1054 min

Microsoft 365 incident response

Send a text Purav Desai is a Microsoft 365 incident responder at a large financial institution (name withheld to protect the innocent). He shares his journey and expertise in the field. He explains how his early exposure to Microsoft security solutions and their constant innovation led him to specialize in 365 security and incident response. He discusses the importance of mentors and influential figures in his career, highlighting the lessons he learned from them. He then dives into his popular project, Deciphering UAL (Unified Audit Logs), which aims to make sense of the complex logs in Microsoft 365. Purav shares an incident response scenario involving a banking Trojan and how he used telemetry and logging to investigate and remediate the issue. He concludes by discussing effective threat detection methods in Microsoft 365, including threat hunting with KQL and leveraging Zero-Hour Auto-Purge (ZAP) to prevent the spread of attacks. In our conversation, we dive into: How specializing in Microsoft 365 security and incident response can be a wise choice due to the constant innovation and market demand for Microsoft solutions. How having mentors and influential figures in your career can provide valuable guidance and inspire you to push yourself and try new things. His personal project, Deciphering UAL (Unified Audit Logs), aims to make sense of the complex logs in Microsoft 365, providing insights for digital forensics and incident response. How proper licensing and logging configuration are crucial for effective incident response. How native tools like Purview Audit and eDiscovery provide valuable insights for forensic analysis. The future of cloud security. Simplify cloud security with Prisma Cloud, the Code to Cloud platform powered by Precision AI. Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

March 21, 2023Episode 343 min

Book review: CISO Evolution

Send a text On this episode, the Founder of CISO Evolution LLC, Matthew Sharp, joins Matt to talk about his book, CISO Evolution. Prior to founding CISO Evolution LLC, Matt served as a strategic advisor to CISOs of Fortune 500 and global institutions. He holds a Bachelor of Science (BS) in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Colorado and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Colorado State University. Matt is a co-author of "The CISO Evolution: Business Knowledge for Cybersecurity Executives." Today, Matthew talks about his 2012 sabbatical, walking the Camino de Santiago, and the CISO Evolution book. Why does process matter more than analysis? Hear about value creation, business negotiations, and Matthew’s formula for personal growth. Timestamp Segments · [02:06] A bit about Matthew. · [04:30] Matthew’s sabbatical & the Camino de Santiago. · [09:21] What prompted the book? · [12:23] Why does process matter more than analysis? · [19:08] Did Matthew’s MBA lead him down this path? · [24:22] Value creation. · [27:40] Standard metrics. · [31:23] Why is it important for a CISO to know terms? · [33:32] Negotiations and decision-making. · [37:19] What’s Matthew’s formula for personal growth? · [41:12] Matthew’s words of wisdom. Notable Quotes · “If you want to be in the room where it happens, then you have to be equipped to participate in the conversation.” · “Ask the questions that go unasked.” · “Don’t be afraid to go and look like an idiot in front of another business stakeholder.” The future of cloud security. Simplify cloud security with Prisma Cloud, the Code to Cloud platform powered by Precision AI. Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

December 15, 2021Episode 1031 min

Supply Chain Security

Send a text Despite the media coverage afforded to the SolarWinds and Kaseya breaches, Palo Alto Networks, Unit 42 threat research indicates supply chain security in the cloud continues its growth as an emerging threat. Much remains misunderstood about both the nature of these attacks and the most effective means of defending against them. To better understand how supply chain attacks occur in the cloud, Unit 42 researchers analyzed data from a variety of public data sources around the world and, at the request of a large SaaS provider, executed a red team exercise against their software development environment. As you'll hear in the podcast, overall, the findings indicate that many organizations may still be lulled into a false sense of supply chain security in the cloud. Case in point: Even with limited access to the customer’s development environment, it took a single Unit 42 researcher only three days to discover several critical software development flaws that could have exposed the customer to an attack similar to that of SolarWinds and Kaseya . In the podcast, Unit 42 researchers Nathaniel "Q" Quist and Dr. Jay Chen , draw on Unit 42’s analysis of past supply chain attacks. The Cloud Threat Report explains the full scope of supply chain attacks, discusses poorly understood details about how they occur, and recommends actionable best practices that organizations can adopt today to help protect their supply chains in the cloud. The future of cloud security. Simplify cloud security with Prisma Cloud, the Code to Cloud platform powered by Precision AI. Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

October 21, 2022Episode 1132 min

What Serverless Can Do For You

Send a text What Serverless Can Do For You? With Mark Gould Episode Summary On this episode, Cloud Security Engineer at Manhattan Associates, Mark Gould, joins Matt to talk about serverless computing. Mark is a Cybersecurity specialist, with a focus on the Google Cloud Platform, and is a Certified Google Architect. Today, Mark talks about serverless computing, the security risk to consider, and working with DevOps teams. What are the top three metrics to start with for automation and security? Hear about cloud automation, Mark’s NSG alerting system, and his greatest accomplishments in recent years. Timestamp Segments · [01:22] About Mark. · [02:49] About Manhattan Associates. · [04:46] How does cloud fit in? · [06:16] Automation in the cloud. · [09:03] Modernization at Manhattan Associates. · [10:18] Serverless computing. · [14:39] Security risks with using serverless functions. · [17:58] Mark’s NSG alerting system. · [21:27] Three metrics for automation and security. · [23:33] What should security teams be doing differently when working with DevOps? · [25:43] What is Mark most proud of? · [27:45] How does Mark continue to learn? · [30:31] Is Manhattan Associates hiring? Notable Quotes · “You definitely have to pick what kind of processes you want to automate and make sure that you’re willing to put in the work to maintain them.” · “Sometimes serverless isn’t always the cheapest option.” · “Leaders are learners.” Relevant Links Manhattan Associates: https://www.manh.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-gould-15a7a3149 The future of cloud security. Simplify cloud security with Prisma Cloud, the Code to Cloud platform powered by Precision AI. Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.