Delve by Distology

Welcome to this live edition of Delve Live - Delve is a podcast by Distology where we’re joined by guests to tackle technology topics that need some exploring, unpacking, and, in some cases, demystifying in this brave and boundaryless IT world that we live and work in.

Today, our panel is named “OT Rise of the machines” - which is in no way related to Terminator 3, so don’t worry there will be no Arnold Schwarzenegger impressions today. What we are going to be delving into during this discussion is Operational Technology cybersecurity, or OT for short. This podcast episode will explore the challenges OT environments face, the convergence of IT and OT, and the new opportunities this will present to the IT Channel.

To set the scene a little, Operational Technology is the backbone of critical infrastructure in various sectors from Oil & Gas, Energy and Transportation.

The priorities in OT differ to IT.

IT (information technology) primarily focuses on managing digital data and communication systems, whilst OT centres around controlling and optimising physical processes and machinery in industries – making the safety and availability of systems paramount.

A cyber-attack in an OT environment carries severe repercussions, impacting not only OT professionals but also posing significant threats to the environment and human life. This risk is particularly evident when considering critical facilities like nuclear energy facilities and water treatment plants on a broader scale.

For those who OT is relatively new to, we have a stellar panel lineup of experts in the OT field – helping you bridge the gap.

• Chris Bihary – CEO/Co-finder of Garland Technology, Buffalonian and is a 30-year veteran in the network TAP and OT space.
• Jake Alosco - Experienced Channel Leader, VP of Global partnerships and all-round great guy from Cyolo, who provide secure remote access to high-risk infrastructures.
• Ian McGowan – CEO/Co-founder of Solutions Provider Barrier Networks
• Harjit Hothi - With extensive experience in Cyber Security and Operational Technology. He has been in the industry for over 20 years, and he is here today representing OPSWAT, who is the latest vendor to join our OT portfolio.

Welcome to this episode of Delve!

Today, we’re delving into the world of product design & engineering – what place does this have on a cybersecurity podcast, I hear you think? Well, with the explosion of web applications in recent years there are some big questions being raised over development practices, secure access to the applications for users and of course the age old struggle of hiring a multi-disciplined team to design and build the product. Helping us get into this topic is Distology’s very own Martyn Roberts – the founder of Berlin-based boutique design & agency Squareball, who are now part of the Distology family as Distology Studios. Martyn, a Glasgow native with a passion for innovation and customer-centric work, embarked on a journey that combines his expertise in product design, engineering, and software systems. After studying product design and engineering with a strong emphasis on engineering, he pursued an MSc in software and systems, further expanding his knowledge. Martyn's career kick-started at prominent consultancies like Unisys, Atos, and C&W, where he quickly realized the lack of innovation and meaningful customer interaction in these sectors. Yearning for fulfillment and a sense of achievement, he decided to venture out on his own as a contractor, establishing valuable connections and gaining confidence in his abilities. It was during this period that he discovered the recruitment industry as his primary focus, directly engaging with clients and their customers, which proved to be an incredibly rewarding experience. As his client base evolved, he began building small, dedicated teams to cater to their specific needs, resulting in closer collaboration and more impactful solutions. Over the course of a decade, Martyn honed his skills in building custom applications, recognizing the pivotal role of UI/UX in delivering exceptional user experiences. In 2011, he made a pivotal move to Berlin, a city known for its vibrant and welcoming creative community. At that time, Berlin was at the forefront of the co-working scene, setting the stage for Martyn's team to thrive and collaborate with like-minded individuals. The city's creative energy also facilitated unique opportunities, such as hosting events in museum spaces, fostering an environment that encouraged unconventional ideas to flourish. In 2018, Martyn's expertise led him to explore the realm of identity and security, as the high-profile projects he undertook required the implementation of Auth0. This development further expanded his repertoire and solidified his position as an innovative force in the industry. Today, he continues to push the boundaries of technology, leveraging his multidisciplinary background and customer-focused approach to create transformative solutions. With a rich tapestry of experiences and a steadfast commitment to excellence, he brings a wealth of knowledge and insight to any discussion on innovation, customer-centricity, and the evolving landscape of technology. 🌟 Episode Discussion Points - Martyn’s background - From Glasgow to Berlin - Designing and engineering applications - methodologies, innovation teams and processes - The importance of UX in the design process - Tools which support the team in the design and engineering process - The benefits of being “agile” to teams and customers - How do smaller agencies take a secure approach to engineering? - The technology Martyn will be delving further into 🎙 Follow Our Guests Martyn Roberts - LinkedIn Lance Williams - LinkedIn 👇 Follow Distology Distology - LinkedIn Distology Studios - LinkedIn

This is the tale of how Jurassic Park could have gone from 2 hours to 10 minutes if only they had used Okta.

Dennis Nedry, the sole IT support at Jurassic Park, had the immense responsibility of safeguarding the entire park. He possessed exclusive knowledge of the passwords which were the key to the power servers and operational technology. However, when he met his untimely demise, nobody else could get into the servers because only he knew the special passwords that were now lost forever!

Step in Okta.

With the help of Okta, the remaining characters could have effortlessly entered the browser and accessed the Okta portal. There, they could have swiftly logged in using Okta Fast Pass, which relies on the power of biometric authentication - the strongest and most secure form of verification. 

Once in the Okta dashboard, a gateway to all applications would open up before them. But perhaps most crucially, they would have gained the ability to access the power servers controlling the entire park.

And this is how Jurassic Park could have been a 10-minute movie, without any deaths.

Join Distology for a special episode of Delve, which was recorded in front of a live audience in Utrecht as part of Disruptor Day Netherlands.

Breaking away from the usual format, Distology’s CTO Lance Williams has invited a whole host of cybersecurity specialists to share their thoughts on some of the latest automation-harnessing technology services super-powering cybersecurity teams in their continued fight against cyber villains.

This panel discussion explores the challenges of:

• IT & OT – able to work together in harmony? Digitally awakened machinery based on legacy systems are forming part of the attack surface that organisations need to protect, yet incredibly difficult to secure without impacting operational excellence. How can IT help OT teams to close this loop?
• Automating Governance, Risk & Compliance: How can CISO’s take advantage of automation to ensure security investments are consciously competent? ISO/GDPR/SOC2 – can this process be automated?Identity Access
• Management Design – Become the choreographer of your identity journey by putting human centric design at the forefront of development
• Data First Approach to Security – In a world of porous networks and interconnected infrastructures, how do we protect our data highways and keep the spies out of our lanes?
• Human vs Machine – With data overload facing almost all IT teams and alert fatigue setting in, can we trust machines to ‘take over the wheel’ of our cybersecurity journey? Where does the liability lie if an error is made?

Follow Our Guests

• Lance Williams, Distology
• Dr Richard Searle, Fortanix
• George Bonser, Drata
• Eward Driehuis, Keynote Speaker
• Andreas Grimm, Distology Studios
• Mark Edge, Cyolo

About Delve

Delve is a technology podcast, where your host, Lance Williams, is joined by guests to tackle technology topics that need exploring, unpacking and in some cases, de-mystifying in our brave and boundary-less IT world. Available on all podcast platforms, please subscribe and tune in each month as Lance interviews special guests from the cybersecurity world and beyond.

Delve is a technology podcast, where the host, Lance Williams, is joined by guests to tackle technology topics that need exploring, unpacking and in some cases, de-mystifying in our brave and boundary-less IT world. Subscribe and tune in each month, as Lance interviews special guests from the cybersecurity world and beyond. Available on all podcast platforms.

That is what our two guests today are going to help us understand, Tobias Urban, CIAM Specialists Lead at Okta and Grace Shaffi, former Senior Solutions Engineer and multi-cloud security SME at Distology, now Solutions Architect at AWS.

Discussion Points

• Introduction [00:00-03:45]
• What is consumer identitiy and access management (CIAM) and how it creates the magic behind the login? [03:51-05:30]
• Is CIAM real magic or is it illusion and a series of cleverly engineered things to be as invisible as possible to the user? [05:32-06:35]
• Can anyone develop a CIAM platform themselves? What are the challenges? [06:36-11:24]
• What else can we get out of a CIAM platform in terms of customer experience and business intelligence? [11:25-14:07]
• What else can we get out of a CIAM platform in terms of security? [14:08-17:32]
• What do you say to those sitting on the fence between home-grown and purpose built platforms like Okta? [17:33-26:27]
• The benefit of CIAM for detection and response [26:28-29:44]
• What do the acronymys MFA, API and DDoS mean? [29:45-32:57]
• Which technology topic will you be delving into in 2022 and why? [32:58-35:46]

About Delve
Delve is a technology podcast, where the host, Lance Williams, is joined by guests to tackle technology topics that need exploring, unpacking and in some cases, de-mystifying in our brave and boundary-less IT world. Available on all podcast platforms, please subscribe and tune in each month as Lance interviews special guests from the cybersecurity world and beyond.

Originally from Middle Earth (the Midlands), Jake Anthony is a Solutions Engineer at LogRhythm. During his time at university, he spent three years leaving in Headingly, Leeds - studying a computer science degree. You'd be surprised to hear that this degree was not his first-choice, he originally wanted to study Ancient South American Archaeology, but this is something Leeds University didn't cater to. Post-university he moved to Nottingham and joined a distributor as a sales Account Manager, but left for London on a whim after a trip to Barbados. He flitted through sales jobs before a mentor suggested he become an Solutions Engineer (SE) at ITC where he built SIEM solutions– from there joined LogPoint as an SE for 18 months, before joining LogRhythm three years ago where he uses his past experience to help organisations get their security monitoring strategy right.

Buckinghamshire born & bred, Nick Barron is the Chief Operating Officer (COO) at Harbor Solutions. Nick kicked-off his career by going into an IT helpdesk - helping people to fix their modem within 2 days, a role which he found through the Yellow Pages! At the turn of the century he went to Nortel to be a Senior Pre-sales Consultant and spent 2 years working on dial up to .com companies. After this, he ventured into Sales at Global Crossing and then into cloud computing at Carenza before joining Softcat - to start-up Cloud Softcat. Several years later, he moved to Harbor Solutions as the Chief Technical officer (CTO) and is now COO. Nick enjoys the challenge of trying to fix things – so much that he takes them apart to figure out how and why they work, and once upon a time, Nick was quite the sportsman with rugby, fencing, kayaking, and then rowing up to National standard.

Welcome to this month's episode of Delve! Rapid advancements in technology, and the unprecedented boom in remote working has made modern web security more vital than ever. In this episode, Lance and Tom discuss the biggest threats of the modern IT world.

Tom McVey is a Solutions Architect at Menlo Security, cybersecurity technology designed to eliminate online threats for users via its isolation core. Tom landed a career in technology straight out of college, with no formal IT education, but with an interest in tech, he entered an apprenticeship at a value added reseller. Since then, Tom has worked for a variety of organisations, including Varonis, LogRhythm, and now Menlo Security. Tom is very selective of the companies he works for and only joins an organisation if he can be truly passionate about the technology.

Ladies and gentlemen, sit back, relax, and enjoy this episode of Delve.