Cybersecurity Advisors Network

In this “Secure in Mind” podcast episode, we interview two special guests on how the worlds of immunology, research, pharmacy and national security intersect. How does technology play a part? Is a cyber attack on virus databases or weaponisation through manipulation possible?

In this “Secure in Mind” podcast episode, we interview two special guests on how the worlds of immunology, research, pharmacy and national security intersect. Dr Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infection Diseases in the US, and my sister, Dr Melissa Kelly, Infectious Diseases Physician specialized in HIV.

Complexities, mitigations and successes
Dr Fauci is the Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infection Diseases (NIAID) that is an agency of the US Department of Health and Human Services. As said, Melissa Kelly, more than being my awesome sister, is also an incredibly talented Infectious Disease Physician specialised in HIV, so I invited her along to make sense of any answers where all I could respond with was “boh” (my Italian audience will understand this!).
Dr Fauci’s vast experience is incredible: he has personally advised six, count them, SIX, US Presidents since Reagan on research / preparation / budget and direction of a department that fundamentally predicts and prepares the US for the worst and constructs both its National and International health and safety interests accordingly. We discuss the evolution of the infection diseases, immunology and HIV and the impact that these transmittable diseases have on society. Nation states will be nation states, and stockpiling weapons of immunological destruction is an old game, so we touch on stockpiles of Soviet Anthrax, Smallpox, Botulism and more!
However, for all of the wonderful destruction that we humans can and do inflict upon ourselves, we are not even in the same ballpark as mother nature, and Dr Fauci mostly dismisses the prospect of a “humanity endgame” event being the result of a man-made pathogen.
Nature will find a way, and countries must navigate through the highly complex landscape of pharmaceutical incentives, international relations, security mitigations, health education and more to ensure we are in the strongest position possible before the next inevitable pandemic hits.
Dr Fauci’s experience over the last 4 decades is formidable and both my sister and I truly appreciated spending time with one of the greats in the field. It was a pleasure to have my sister join me as well to make up for my zero medical knowledge! She is travelling the world with organisations like the World Health Organisation continuing Dr Fauci’s fights against microbial nasties.
A final note: I have the utmost admiration and respect for people like Dr Fauci and my sister, Dr Mel; they are on the frontlines, sometimes facing very dark days filled with death and pain but always fighting the good fight.

Policy-wise health and hygiene guidelines: a global perspective
We are passionate about international policy, and to contextualise this, we discussed the state of the art of cross-border cooperation and integration of different entities – researchers, academics, practitioners, institutions, clinics – for risk mitigation strategies and pre-clinical trials.
Particularly enriching was the discussion on the role of national and global institutions, such as the US National Institute of Standards and Technology, the WHO and the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention in setting best practices and health guidelines.
Particularly, what kind of pressures are successful on different nation states’ governments to foster their alignment with globally recognised best practices? You’ll have to listen to find out!
The Secure in Mind Project
Our mission is to greatly increase and encourage community discussion about technological and ethical issues that have done, are and will impact society on a global scale.
There is a longstanding and distinct disconnect between the way information is packaged and presented to the public and the effectiveness of this presentation in terms of generating informed, considered debate.
If we can take complex, important topics and present them, as best we can, in a manner that can interests people from outside the speciality, then we have surpassed our expectations.
Nick Kelly Bio
Nick is someone who, in many senses, is just like you: a human being trying to make sense of this existence of ours as we hurtle around a ball of gas in a sea of infinite eternity. More relevant though are his vacillations in the world amongst diverse countries and environments, collaborating, negotiating, elaborating and celebrating with fascinating people from all walks of life including politics, technology, activism, military and intelligence the world over.
He brings this unique breadth of perspective to the table and has a dogged interest in pursuing the human story behind the title or policy, appreciating the fact that underneath all of our bravado, political correctness and dichotomous states of creation and destruction, we are, after all, merely mortals trying to make the best of it.

In this “Secure In Mind” podcast episode, Despina Spanou, Director of European Commission for Cybersecurity, ePrivacy and more, discusses the complexities of keeping pace policy-wise in an ever-changing landscape

I’m trying to blend “a can of sardines” in its proverbial sense with my schedule toward the end of last month but am coming up short… “time-slots and hard-stops squished together like sardines in a can”. We’ll go with that.

Cyber Security in Europe is a Top Priority
Anyway, preamble over, the above point’s purpose was to illustrate that during a jam-packed mini-road trip traversing several countries late last month, I dropped by Brussels to the European Commission HQ to catch up with Despina Spanou, Director for Digital Society, Trust and Cybersecurity, European Commission. It was an absolute pleasure speaking with Despina; our conversation touches on her background prior to moving into public office and the associated policy-making complexities and considerations across the 28 country EU market in a perennially evolving landscape. We also discuss her more recent initiative as co-founder of the Women4Cyber initiative where community, job markets and more will be incorporated into EU policy-shaping for the future.
So hats off to a remarkable woman at the top of the tech policy game – plug your headphones in and check it out!!
P.S. At the beginning of the podcast, literally seconds after Despina reiterated the pronunciation of her name to me before we hit the record button, I gleefully say that I nailed the pronunciation. After we finished the recording, my hubris came crashing down in one big pile of last name blunder!

The Secure in Mind project
Our mission is to greatly increase and encourage community discussion about technological and ethical issues that have done, are and will impact society on a global scale.
There is a longstanding and distinct disconnect between the way information is packaged and presented to the public and the effectiveness of this presentation in terms of generating informed, considered debate.
If we can take complex, important topics and present them, as best we can, in a manner that can interests people from outside the speciality, then we have surpassed our expectations.
Nick Kelly Bio
Nick is someone who, in many senses, is just like you; a human being trying to make sense of this existence of ours as we hurtle around a ball of gas in a sea of infinite eternity. More relevant though are his vacillations in the world amongst diverse countries and environments
Collaborating, negotiating, elaborating and celebrating with fascinating people from all walks of life including politics, technology, activism, military and intelligence the world over. He brings this unique breadth of perspective to the table and has a dogged interest in pursuing the human story behind the title or policy, appreciating the fact that underneath all of our bravado, political correctness and dichotomous states of creation and destruction, we are, after all, merely mortals trying to make the best of it.

In this “Secure In Mind” episode, Despina Spanou, Head of Cabinet of the Vice-President of the European Commission Margaritis Schinas, was kind enough to join us for a second time on all things EU. Ardent supporters will note that Despina has been on the podcast before in her previous role as Director for Digital Society, Trust and Cybersecurity for Communications Network, Content and Technology (DG CONNECT)

What is it to be European? (Well I’m an Australian so I’ll ask you, dear audience!). What is it to be Italian? Or French? Or Greek? Is it the type of food grown and eaten from a specific location on a map? Is it the invisible line drawn by the ‘powers that be’ to delineate one from the other? Who exactly are those ‘powers that be’ who are drawing lines all over the place and why did ‘they’ start doing that?
Ok so I’m not even going to try to conduct a Yuval Harari-an analysis of the historical and geo-political structures that have coalesced over the course of human history leading to the European Union… Google it, it’s remarkable. In this podcast episode, however, it was my absolute pleasure to welcome Despina Spanou back to the podcast to shed light on what the bloc is doing right now to support its citizens at this time.
As time was limited for this conversation, we didn’t touch on all of the areas that we could have; there are obviously a never-ending stream of challenges and opportunities faced by Despina and her team when trying to promote the European Way of Life at this critical juncture in time. The primary take-away for listeners should be this: Despina and indeed so many of the people working for the union are working 28 hours a day 8 days a week to carry the torch of hope in an international, peaceful and incorporative framework that was generated the day the EU was born.
So, listen (and skip my damn 2 minute meandering introduction if time is tight!) share and take your hat of for the folk on the citizens’ payroll paving the way for a better future in a time of uncertainty.
Links referenced in the chat (here, here and here).
The Secure in Mind project
Our mission is to greatly increase and encourage community discussion about technological and ethical issues that have done, are and will impact society on a global scale.
There is a longstanding and distinct disconnect between the way information is packaged and presented to the public and the effectiveness of this presentation in terms of generating informed, considered debate.
Nick Kelly Bio
Nick is someone who, in many senses, is just like you; a human being trying to make sense of this existence of ours as we hurtle around a ball of gas in a sea of infinite eternity. More relevant though are his vacillations in the world amongst diverse countries and environments
Collaborating, negotiating, elaborating and celebrating with fascinating people from all walks of life including politics, technology, activism, military and intelligence the world over. He brings this unique breadth of perspective to the table and has a dogged interest in pursuing the human story behind the title or policy, appreciating the fact that underneath all of our bravado, political correctness and dichotomous states of creation and destruction, we are, after all, merely mortals trying to make the best of it.

In this “Secure in Mind” podcast episode, Ciaran Martin, CEO of the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (a part of GCHQ), and Nick Kelly discuss why the centre exists and its successes since creation

For this episode of “Secure in Mind” podcast, I travelled to the UK to take a tour of the UK’s Cyber Security Centre and meet with Ciaran Martin, the man at the helm of the impressive initiative.

So government institutions are fighting criminals on the internet
Ciaran is an exceptionally sharp leader of an organisation that is charged with protecting the United Kingdom from cyber attacks. During this episode, we discuss how he landed in the lead role of such a critical function in public office just over 2 years ago when the centre was officially established. This is a must listen for anyone remotely connected to the internet [pun intended]… which is most people nowadays.
I truly enjoyed meeting up with Ciaran again – it’s a pleasure to listen to someone so thoroughly on top of their game give well considered answers to questions regarding modern day efforts government institutions are employing to combat miscreants on the internet.
As always, listen, share and please send me any feedback you may have as well as recommendations or introductions for other critical thinkers and operators you may know!

The Secure in Mind project
Our mission is to greatly increase and encourage community discussion about technological and ethical issues that have done, are and will impact society on a global scale.
There is a longstanding and distinct disconnect between the way information is packaged and presented to the public and the effectiveness of this presentation in terms of generating informed, considered debate.
If we can take complex, important topics and present them, as best we can, in a manner that can interests people from outside the speciality, then we have surpassed our expectations.
Nick Kelly Bio
Nick is someone who, in many senses, is just like you; a human being trying to make sense of this existence of ours as we hurtle around a ball of gas in a sea of infinite eternity. More relevant though are his vacillations in the world amongst diverse countries and environments
Collaborating, negotiating, elaborating and celebrating with fascinating people from all walks of life including politics, technology, activism, military and intelligence the world over. He brings this unique breadth of perspective to the table and has a dogged interest in pursuing the human story behind the title or policy, appreciating the fact that underneath all of our bravado, political correctness and dichotomous states of creation and destruction, we are, after all, merely mortals trying to make the best of it.

In this “Secure in Mind” podcast episode, we discuss with Christopher Painter, the world’s first Cyber Diplomat. Christopher was appointed as the inaugural cyber diplomat for the US State Department by then-Secretary Hillary Clinton in 2011 and has been cutting through the global cyber dross ever since

After several in person discussion with Christopher, I finally sat down (remotely though due to timing! J) with him for an episode and I’m sure listeners will take away a huge amount from it. Christopher is the former Coordinator for Cyber Affairs at the US State Department and former Senior Director for Cyber Security at the White House, a role he covered from the beginning of Obama’s Administration in 2009, until the first eight months of Trump’s Presidency, in 2016. In this charge, he helped shape US international cyber policy and supported the creation of the Cyber Directorate Affairs at the US National Security Council. On top of this impressive background, he is currently a Commissioner at the Global Commission on the Stability of Cyberspace.
Prosecution, Diplomacy, Cyber
With his background as a Prosecutor and additional experience operating at the most senior levels of government and international diplomacy, Christopher is the perfect person to address the most pressing cyber issues governments’ face today, including dealing with cyber conflicts, fighting cybercrime and, among others, facing electoral interference. Particularly, he points out the reasons for supporting a stronger integration of a cyber agenda in every government’s top priorities.
Public attribution, activism vs crime & the diplomacy game
Our conversation was rich with coverage of the complexities involved in diplomacy e.g. shaping cyber dialogue, coordinating different support mechanisms and stakeholders, untangling complex adversarial relationships and posturing correctly to gain both internal and external desired reactions. We then moved on to a discussion concerning the need for inter-country alliances aimed at defense-driven information sharing and joint public attribution.
We ended our conversation on the perceived purpose of hacking attacks and attempted to separate hacktivism activities (for privacy, freedom online, security, defense) and crime (data theft and leakage, public exposure of secret documents, unauthorized access to restricted sources of information) while also looking at the associated disincentives / sentences for criminal hacking activities.
The Secure in Mind Project
Our mission is to greatly increase and encourage community discussion about technological and ethical issues that have done, are and will impact society on a global scale.
There is a longstanding and distinct disconnect between the way information is packaged and presented to the public and the effectiveness of this presentation in terms of generating informed, considered debate.
If we can take complex, important topics and present them, as best we can, in a manner that can interests people from outside the speciality, then we have surpassed our expectations.
Nick Kelly Bio
Nick is someone who, in many senses, is just like you: a human being trying to make sense of this existence of ours as we hurtle around a ball of gas in a sea of infinite eternity. More relevant though are his vacillations in the world amongst diverse countries and environments, collaborating, negotiating, elaborating and celebrating with fascinating people from all walks of life including politics, technology, activism, military and intelligence the world over.
He brings this unique breadth of perspective to the table and has a dogged interest in pursuing the human story behind the title or policy, appreciating the fact that underneath all of our bravado, political correctness and dichotomous states of creation and destruction, we are, after all, merely mortals trying to make the best of it.

Amitabh Singh, CSO & CDO for Swisscard, the largest issuer of credit cards in Switzerland, talks successful hatch battening and what is on the horizon for tech & society

In this Secure In Mind episode, I enjoyed a conversation with Amitabh Singh, whose dual responsibilities at Switzerland’s largest credit card issuer are as Chief Security and Chief Digital Officer for the company. Swisscard issues cards to over a million folk in Switzerland out of a population of 8 million, and ensuring they have access to their funds to keep necessary payments ticking over, especially when the use of cash diminishes due to physical necessities, is a joint responsibility of Swisscard’s and other financial institutions.
The initial portion of the conversation focused on what Amitabh and his team at Swisscard did to prepare themselves in the face of the crisis. As it turns out, they were already very well poised to migrate staff and operations remotely, something that would be encouraging to hear if you were one of their customers!
I’ll leave the rest of the discussion, including the predictions for future technological innovations and societal trends (including VR shopping!) to your ears, rather than your eyes. Listen – enjoy – share!
NOTE: Sound recording is slightly iffy for some minutes in the middle thanks to either my sputtering microphone but it’s more than listenable. Apologies – hazards of remote recordings!
The Secure in Mind project
Our mission is to greatly increase and encourage community discussion about technological and ethical issues that have done, are and will impact society on a global scale.
There is a longstanding and distinct disconnect between the way information is packaged and presented to the public and the effectiveness of this presentation in terms of generating informed, considered debate.
If we can take complex, important topics and present them, as best we can, in a manner that can interests people from outside the speciality, then we have surpassed our expectations.
Nick Kelly Bio
Nick is someone who, in many senses, is just like you; a human being trying to make sense of this existence of ours as we hurtle around a ball of gas in a sea of infinite eternity. More relevant though are his vacillations in the world amongst diverse countries and environments
Collaborating, negotiating, elaborating and celebrating with fascinating people from all walks of life including politics, technology, activism, military and intelligence the world over. He brings this unique breadth of perspective to the table and has a dogged interest in pursuing the human story behind the title or policy, appreciating the fact that underneath all of our bravado, political correctness and dichotomous states of creation and destruction, we are, after all, merely mortals trying to make the best of it.

In this “Secure in Mind” podcast episode, we welcome Brett Johnson, former US most wanted hacker, convicted of 39 felonies and prison escaper, who turned its love for crime into an unparalleled ability to spot and stop cyber criminals

Brett created the first organized cybercrime community, Shadowcrew, precursor of today’s DarkNet web and he helps us understand the major advancements of these communities by comparing his platform with the latest technologies in today’s marketplace through the analysis of the latest technological attacks.
Being a reformed cyber talent collaborating with US authorities and major conglomerates worldwide, he also illustrates the changes in cross-border collaboration as for the sharing and exchange of information at the law enforcement and government level, by looking at the role of major actors such as EUROPOL, INTERPOL and UNODC.
What a former crime leader can teach us today
I had the unique opportunity to witness Brett’s vision about the cybersecurity state of the art today, including cyber attackers’ extremely sophisticated education and information sharing capabilities, as well as their “privileged” status in terms of power and income.
Through his consulting, advisory and teaching roles, Brett can now exploit his unique, unparalleled and extremely deep knowledge of the cyber spectrum’s criminal landscape to help authorities understand the attackers and anticipate their moves, by building a pro-active, effective and targeted cybersecurity strategy.
The Secure in Mind Project
Our mission is to greatly increase and encourage community discussion about technological and ethical issues that have done, are and will impact society on a global scale.
There is a longstanding and distinct disconnect between the way information is packaged and presented to the public and the effectiveness of this presentation in terms of generating informed, considered debate.
If we can take complex, important topics and present them, as best we can, in a manner that can interests people from outside the speciality, then we have surpassed our expectations.
Nick Kelly Bio
Nick is someone who, in many senses, is just like you: a human being trying to make sense of this existence of ours as we hurtle around a ball of gas in a sea of infinite eternity. More relevant though are his vacillations in the world amongst diverse countries and environments, collaborating, negotiating, elaborating and celebrating with fascinating people from all walks of life including politics, technology, activism, military and intelligence the world over.
He brings this unique breadth of perspective to the table and has a dogged interest in pursuing the human story behind the title or policy, appreciating the fact that underneath all of our bravado, political correctness and dichotomous states of creation and destruction, we are, after all, merely mortals trying to make the best of it.

In this “Secure In Mind” podcast episode, we caught up with Elisabetta Trenta, the former Italian Minister of Defence, to discuss the concept of dual-use and how Covid-19 presents an opportunity to implement a National Security Strategy

Last week, Elisabetta Trenta and I sat down and recorded a podcast episode about her life, career, various roles, and perspectives regarding security and defence. Join us for a walk through an exceptional career, keen insight and some lessons learned – this is not to be missed.
Note: our remote recording quality was poor in the first minutes – my sound engineer tried his best to smooth it as much as possible, but it is sometimes the nature of this increasingly remotely connected world we live in. Stick with it though as it generally clears after some minutes and the content is fantastic.

The Secure in Mind project
Our mission is to greatly increase and encourage community discussion about technological and ethical issues that have done, are and will impact society on a global scale.
There is a longstanding and distinct disconnect between the way information is packaged and presented to the public and the effectiveness of this presentation in terms of generating informed, considered debate.
If we can take complex, important topics and present them, as best we can, in a manner that can interests people from outside the speciality, then we have surpassed our expectations.
Nick Kelly Bio
Nick is someone who, in many senses, is just like you; a human being trying to make sense of this existence of ours as we hurtle around a ball of gas in a sea of infinite eternity. More relevant though are his vacillations in the world amongst diverse countries and environments
Collaborating, negotiating, elaborating and celebrating with fascinating people from all walks of life including politics, technology, activism, military and intelligence the world over. He brings this unique breadth of perspective to the table and has a dogged interest in pursuing the human story behind the title or policy, appreciating the fact that underneath all of our bravado, political correctness and dichotomous states of creation and destruction, we are, after all, merely mortals trying to make the best of it.