Bare Metal Cyber

Dr. Jason Edwards
  • 5.0 (4)
  • Technology
  • Updated Weekly

Welcome to Bare Metal Cyber, the podcast that bridges cybersecurity and education in a way that’s engaging, informative, and practical. Hosted by Dr. Jason Edwards, a seasoned cybersecurity expert and educator, this weekly podcast brings to life the insights, tips, and stories from his widely-read LinkedIn articles. Each episode dives into pressing cybersecurity topics, real-world challenges, and actionable advice to empower professionals, educators, and learners alike. Whether navigating the complexities of cyber defense or looking for ways to integrate cybersecurity into education, Bare Metal Cyber delivers valuable perspectives to help you stay ahead in an ever-evolving digital world. Subscribe and join the thousands already benefiting from Jason’s expertise!

  1. Sep 25

    Bare Metal Cyber Weekly Roll-Up — September 25, 2026

    This week’s roll-up opens with ransomware crews exploiting TeamCity servers, putting trusted software build pipelines and downstream customers at risk. It then turns to actively exploited edge and security systems that can hand attackers control over network access and policy. A third major theme is scale: AI-assisted attacks reportedly stole more than 600,000 payment card records while reaching scores of retailers. The issue also examines altered water controls and a phishing service tied to 12,000 compromised Microsoft inboxes. Across the week, defenders face the same pressure: shorten patch windows, protect privileged control planes, and verify identities that ordinary reviews overlook.… This week's stories: Software pipelines face ransomware through exploited TeamCity serversNetwork access and security tools face active edge-system attacksOnline retailers lose 600,000 payment cards in AI-assisted attacksForeign hackers alter water controls at two Colorado utilitiesDevice-code phishing compromises 12,000 Microsoft inboxesGyazo breach exposes 23.62 million users and screenshot metadataAI agent crosses Australian government access controls unnoticedFBI jobs portal incident puts personnel and applicants at riskForgotten Microsoft 365 accounts expose emails, chats and filesFake job interviews infect 30,000 devices across 100 countriesWordPress attacks begin within hours of a critical security fixSharePoint attacks put unpatched and unsupported servers at riskNearly 1,000 Zyxel switches breached across 48 countriesRoundcube attacks threaten exposed webmail accounts and dataGitLab email tokens can open private code and software pipelinesMore cybersecurity coverage at BareMetalCyber.com.

  2. Jul 16

    The Last Legacy System

    Retiring a legacy system sounds simple until you realize one platform has quietly become the backbone of revenue, reporting, and regulatory history. In “The Last Legacy System: Planning for the Day You Finally Turn It Off,” the narrated version walks leaders through why one or two systems always outlive every modernization wave and why that matters for risk, resilience, and strategy. You will hear how technical entanglements, business lore, and hero culture combine to keep that last legacy system alive long after it should have been a conscious, time-bound decision. From there, the episode follows the structure of the Wednesday “Headline” feature from Bare Metal Cyber Magazine. It explores how to move from migration talk to a true business decision, how to model and rehearse the turn-off so it fails safely instead of catastrophically, and how to handle the humans in the loop whose identities are tied to keeping the system running. It closes by looking forward: what it means to design today’s systems with explicit exit strategies, clearer ownership, and governance that treats decommissioning as a first-class concern, so you do not quietly build the next untouchable relic.

  3. Jul 16

    Real-World Recovery

    When a major incident hits, most organizations still cling to the promise of “getting back to normal.” In this narrated Headline, “Real-World Recovery: When ‘Return to Normal’ Is the Wrong Goal,” we look at why that mindset quietly undermines resilience. The episode walks through how complex, cloud-heavy environments never truly return to a previous baseline, and why leaders are better served by thinking in terms of new, intentional steady states instead of rewinds. This audio is developed from my Wednesday “Headline” feature in Bare Metal Cyber Magazine, with a focus on the decisions that shape recovery long after the alerts stop. Across the narration, we explore the myth of “normal operations,” reframing recovery as a large-scale reconfiguration of identity, trust boundaries, and vendor dependencies. We dive into planned degraded modes and deliberate sacrifice decisions, then move into a portfolio view of recovery using named operating states rather than a single DR script. Finally, we turn to the leadership side: how to communicate that “normal has changed,” how to align boards and regulators on new baselines, and how to reward sustainable resilience instead of just fast restores. It is a practical guide for leaders who know incidents are inevitable and want their recovery story to match reality.

  4. Jul 16

    Culture of Disclosure

    In this narrated edition of “Culture of Disclosure: From ‘Don’t Tell Anyone’ to ‘Report Early, Fix Faster’”, we walk through what really decides whether your organization hears the truth in time to act. You will hear how informal stories, career incentives, and leadership reactions quietly create a shadow “don’t tell anyone” policy, even when formal reporting channels exist. We connect those patterns to hard security outcomes: time-to-discovery, who finds your issues first, and how much room you have to maneuver when something goes wrong. This is a practical listen for leaders who suspect they are getting a filtered view of reality. The episode then breaks down the architecture of a healthy disclosure culture in plain, leader-ready terms. We look at psychological safety as a security control, the design of simple pipes for early reporting, and the metrics that reward high-signal disclosures instead of only counting fires. Finally, we explore what it looks like to lead when disclosure gets painful, from late-breaking findings before a launch to regulatory and customer communications. The narration is based on my Wednesday “Headline” feature in Bare Metal Cyber Magazine and is designed to help you pressure-test your own culture of disclosure.

  5. Jul 16

    Metrics That Move Money

    Security budgets rarely shift because of bigger dashboards. They shift when leaders can see, in plain business terms, how specific security gaps shape financial exposure and how targeted investments change that picture. This narrated edition of Metrics That Move Money: Turning Security Data into Budget Decisions walks through how senior teams can move past activity counts and into a shared financial language for cyber risk. Grounded in my Wednesday “Headline” feature from Bare Metal Cyber Magazine, the episode explores why so many familiar metrics fail to influence funding, and how narrative metrics built around coverage, exposure, time at risk, and resilience create a clearer basis for capital allocation. Across the article’s major sections, you’ll hear how to translate technical posture into impact ranges executives can use, how to compare very different security initiatives using a portfolio lens, and how the psychology and politics of budget conversations can either support or undermine your case. The episode also breaks down how to build a repeatable metrics operating system—one that survives tool changes, leadership turnover, and shifting business priorities. Whether you’re a CISO preparing for annual planning or a technology leader aiming to strengthen your financial storytelling, this narrative offers a durable model for making security metrics matter where it counts: in real budget decisions.

  6. Jul 16

    Citizen Developers Enterprise Risk

    Citizen developers are no longer the exception in large enterprises; they are quietly building the workflows your business now depends on. In this narrated edition of “Citizen Developers, Enterprise Risk: Low-Code Apps You Didn’t Approve,” we explore why low-code and no-code platforms have become the default escape valve for backlogs and rigid roadmaps, and what that really means for risk. The episode walks through the core concept of citizen development as an inevitable pattern, not a fringe behavior, and reframes “unapproved” apps as a governance and ownership problem rather than a simple policy violation. This narration is based on my Wednesday “Headline” feature from Bare Metal Cyber Magazine. From there, the episode unpacks the key sections of the article in practical language for security and technology leaders. You will hear the anatomy of typical low-code failures, the recurring patterns behind outages and data exposure, and a governance model that channels citizen energy into sanctioned platforms with guardrails instead of pushing it underground. We talk through the idea of a two-speed control plane, how to tier controls based on data sensitivity and blast radius, and what it means to measure and own citizen risk alongside your other technology risks. The goal is to give you a clear mental model you can carry into leadership meetings and risk discussions, not a checklist to memorize.

  7. Jul 16

    Post-Quantum Paralysis

    In this narrated Headline, “Post-Quantum Paralysis: Preparing for a Crypto Shift Without Freezing Roadmaps,” we unpack what post-quantum cryptography (PQC) really means for long-lived data, trust systems, and roadmaps that stretch over years. Instead of chasing a mythical “Q-day,” this episode focuses on the quieter but more dangerous problem: adversaries harvesting encrypted data now, uneven vendor timelines, and platforms that cannot evolve their crypto assumptions fast enough. You will hear how quantum risk shows up in real planning conversations and why the biggest threat is often organizational paralysis rather than a single breakthrough in a lab. The episode walks through the key sections of the article in plain, leader-focused language. We explore how to identify the “crypto gravity wells” in PKI, identity, embedded, and vendor-heavy systems; how to treat PQC as a portfolio of bets based on data lifetime and refactor cost; and how to design for crypto agility so future algorithm changes feel like platform maintenance, not emergency surgery. Finally, we look at governance, budgets, and board communication, showing how PQC work can be integrated into existing roadmaps instead of competing with them. This narration is based on the Wednesday “Headline” feature from Bare Metal Cyber Magazine.

  8. Jul 16

    Access Broker Auction House

    This narrated episode, based on the Wednesday “Headline” feature in Bare Metal Cyber Magazine, takes you inside the underground market where initial access brokers (IABs) quietly auction off entry into corporate networks. Across the episode, we unpack how access gets found, stabilized, and turned into inventory, and why seemingly small design choices in identity, segmentation, and remote access show up as selling points in those listings. The focus stays firmly on leader-level questions: what makes your environment easy to productize, how attackers think about your “street value,” and why this problem will matter over the next several years.

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About

Welcome to Bare Metal Cyber, the podcast that bridges cybersecurity and education in a way that’s engaging, informative, and practical. Hosted by Dr. Jason Edwards, a seasoned cybersecurity expert and educator, this weekly podcast brings to life the insights, tips, and stories from his widely-read LinkedIn articles. Each episode dives into pressing cybersecurity topics, real-world challenges, and actionable advice to empower professionals, educators, and learners alike. Whether navigating the complexities of cyber defense or looking for ways to integrate cybersecurity into education, Bare Metal Cyber delivers valuable perspectives to help you stay ahead in an ever-evolving digital world. Subscribe and join the thousands already benefiting from Jason’s expertise!

Information

  • Creator
    Dr. Jason Edwards
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    111
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2025 All rights reserved.
  • Show Website
    Bare Metal Cyber