October 18, 2021

Global Threat Intelligence with Susan Peediyakkal

by Hacker Valley Blue

Listen Now

Global Threat Intelligence with Susan Peediyakkal

October 18, 2021 Hacker Valley Blue

00:00:00

Show Notes

This episode of the Hacker Valley Studio podcast is the fifth installment in this first season of the Hacker Valley Blue series, and features guest Susan Peediyakkal, an expert in building threat intelligence programs.  Susan is a cyber threat intelligence consultant, the founder of BSides Sacramento, and a member of the advisory boards for several cybersecurity companies.  She joins hosts Ron and Chris to speak to her background, the future of threat intelligence, and much more.

Susan first details her background, running through the highlights of her approximately 16 years in cybersecurity, which have focused mostly on threat intelligence.  Susan began her career in the air force, and is still a reservist.  She worked with radar, and eventually decided to cross-train and branch into IT.  The following years saw her in a number of roles with various organizations, and move decisively into the threat intelligence field.  Eventually, Susa noticed that her career trajectory was moving her toward building threat intelligence programs for government entities.  She built programs for such varied clients as the government of Abu Dhabi, USPS, US courts, and industry leaders.  She recently paused her work to pursue further education, but has since returned to work as a threat intelligence practitioner.

 

1:40 - Listeners are introduced to the episode and today’s guest, Susan Peediyakkal; Susan then shares her background.

5:41 - The group considers the importance of community, misconceptions Susan has noticed about her field, and the artistry and human element of threat intelligence.

16:02 - What kind of bias is Susan running into, and where do analysts go wrong with regard to bias?

21:38 - Susan addresses the term “unhackable.”

24:35 - Susan and her hosts turn to matters of podcasting, voice, and speaking.

31:40 - What do people outside the field get wrong about it?

33:48 - What’s the future look like for Susan, her field, and the workforce?

 

Links:

Learn more about Hacker Valley Studio

Support Hacker Valley Studio on Patreon

Follow Hacker Valley Studio on Twitter

Follow Ronald Eddings on Twitter

Follow Chris Cochran on Twitter

Follow Susan on Twitter

Connect with Susan on LinkedIn

Learn more about the episode sponsor, RiskIQ

Read more

Recent Episodes

December 22, 2022
by Hacker Valley Blue

Daniel Borges, Senior Red Team Engineer at CrowdStrike and author of Adversarial Tradecraft in Cybersecurity, brings his unique perspectives on learning, training, and failure to the pod. Collaboration is key in any purple team, and Dan believes coll...

December 15, 2022
by Hacker Valley Blue

Jorge Orchilles, Chief Technology Officer at SCYTHE and Principal SANS Instructor, brings his expertise in purple teaming to the pod this week to talk about the uniquely human and the understandably technical parts of red and blue collaboration. As t...

December 8, 2022
by Hacker Valley Blue

Angela Saccone, Community Manager at MetaCTF, Cyber Competitions Coordinator at Women’s Society of Cyberjutsu, and Youtube Content Creator, joins the pod this week to talk about content of all kinds— from cyber competitions to online courses, k-pop d...

December 1, 2022
by Hacker Valley Blue

Eric Thomas, Detection & Response Engineer at HD Supply, brings his 15 years of experience in tech and cyber to the show this week to discuss collaboration— the most essential piece of the purple team formula. Eric walks us through his day-to-day rou...

November 17, 2022
by Hacker Valley Blue

Nick Popovich, Hacker in Residence at PlexTrac, drops by to say hi to the Hacker Valley crew and give some insight into PlexTrac’s purple teaming services. Starting his career in offensive security as a pen tester, Nick gained great insight into purp...

November 10, 2022
by Hacker Valley Blue

Alexia Crumpton, Lead Cybersecurity Engineer at MITRE, joins the pod this week to cover leaving the old ways of cybersecurity behind to embrace the new generation. As both an engineer with MITRE and an educator for future cybersecurity practitioners,...

November 3, 2022
by Hacker Valley Blue

Bryson Bort, CEO and Founder of SCYTHE, dons his unicorn getup and joins the pod this week to talk about purple teaming and building businesses with community in mind. After founding GRIMM, his first company, Bryson wanted to carve a path of purple t...

October 27, 2022
by Hacker Valley Blue

In this episode, we’re joined by Maril Vernon. Maril is a purple team lead and co-host of the Cyber Queens Podcast. From a background in marketing, Maril’s natural curiosity and determination lead her to a new career in cybersecurity with the Air Nat...

April 29, 2022
by Hacker Valley Blue

In this episode, host Davin is joined by Tyson Supasatit, the Director of Product Marketing at Uptycs, to discuss how Upytcs is leveraging the MITRE D3FEND framework to further build upon their defensive capabilities. Tyson shares how Uptycs utilizes...

April 22, 2022
by Hacker Valley Blue

In this episode of Hacker Valley Blue, host Davin is joined by McKenna Yeakey, a Corporate Security Engineer at Plaid, to discuss the importance of human-centric security. Mckenna explores the “human” aspects of her job and why end user impact plays ...