Razorwire Cyber Security & InfoSec Insights

Are cybersecurity events still giving people a reason to turn up, or have too many become expensive sales floors with the same conversations on repeat?
Welcome to Razorwire, the podcast where we share our take on the world of cybersecurity with direct, practical advice for professionals and business owners alike. I'm Jim and in this episode I'm joined by James Bore, Chartered Security Professional, Gary Hibberd, co-founder of Consultants Like Us and Lisa Ventura, founder of the AI and Cybersecurity Association and Unity Group Solutions.
Cybersecurity events have changed. What were once places to discover new technology, catch up with people across the industry and exchange ideas have become a packed calendar of conferences, roundtables, dinners and vendor events competing for people's time. With InfoSec Europe introducing a £50 ticket charge, it raises a bigger question about whether the traditional conference model is still delivering enough value.
We look at why experienced security professionals are increasingly choosing community and fringe events, why the same conference conversations keep coming back and what actually makes an event worth attending. From vendor pitches and expensive exhibition stands to better speakers, smaller audiences and conversations in the pub next door, we discuss where cybersecurity events have gone wrong and what could make them useful again.
Three key talking points:
When a conference stops being worth it
A ticket might be free or cost £50, but the bigger investment is your time. We look at why established cybersecurity events are struggling to give experienced professionals a compelling reason to walk through the doors.
Why smaller events feel different
Community and fringe events come up repeatedly throughout the conversation. Discover why smaller audiences, more focused subjects and speakers who genuinely know their field can create something the biggest conferences struggle to replicate.
People don't go to events to be sold to
Expensive stands and polished sales pitches do not necessarily build relationships. We discuss why attendees increasingly value access to practitioners, useful conversations and genuine connections over another lap of an exhibition hall.

If you're choosing which cybersecurity events deserve a place in your calendar, or organising one and wondering what will actually make people turn up, this conversation is for you.

On why smaller events work:
" You actually make it small and targeted and tailored. And that's how you engage."
James Bore
Listen to this episode on your favourite podcasting platform: https://razorwire.captivate.fm/listen
In this episode, we covered the following topics:
How Cybersecurity Events Have Changed
Explore how major industry events have moved from places to discover technology and meet the community towards a much more commercial model.
Is InfoSec Europe Still Worth Attending?
A new £50 ticket charge sparks a wider discussion about what attendees actually get from one of cybersecurity's biggest events.
The Rise of Community Events
Discover why BSides and other smaller events are becoming the preferred choice for security professionals looking for different conversations and ideas.
Too Many Cybersecurity Events
The calendar is packed with conferences, dinners and roundtables. We discuss why more choice is making people increasingly selective about where they spend their time.
Escaping the Vendor Pitch
Learn why exhibition floors dominated by sales conversations can struggle to engage the CISOs and security professionals vendors most want to meet.
Why Relationships Matter
People still buy from people. We explore why informal conversations and genuine relationships can offer more value than another product demonstration.
What Makes a Good Conference Speaker
Interesting events need people with something meaningful to contribute. Find out why practitioners, specialists and different perspectives matter.
Having a Reason to Attend
Going to an event simply because it is there is not enough. We discuss why attendees need a clear idea of what they want from their day.
Can Big Conferences Be Fixed?
Bigger does not necessarily mean better. Explore whether smaller, targeted events built around particular audiences could offer a better model for cybersecurity.

Resources Mentioned
James Bore on LinkedIn
Infosecurity Europe
Black Hat
Security BSides
Hack Glasgow
SteelCon
The Real Cyber Awards and Conference
Connect with your host James Rees
Hello, I am James Rees, the host of the Razorwire podcast. This podcast brings you insights from leading cyber security professionals who dedicate their careers to making a hacker’s life that much more difficult.
Our guests bring you experience and expertise from a range of disciplines and from different career stages. We give you various viewpoints for improving your cyber security – from seasoned professionals with years of experience, triumphs and lessons learned under their belt, to those in relatively early stages of their careers offering fresh eyes and new insights.
With new episodes every other Wednesday, Razorwire is a podcast for cyber security enthusiasts and professionals providing insights, news and fresh ideas on protecting your organisation from hackers.
For more information about us or if you have any questions you would like us to discuss email podcast@razorthorn.com.
If you need consultation, visit www.razorthorn.com, We give our clients a personalised, integrated approach to information security, driven by our belief in quality and discretion.
LinkedIn: Razorthorn Security
YouTube: Razorthorn Security
TikTok: Razorwire Podcast
Instagram: Razorwire Podcast
Twitter: @RazorThornLTD
Website: www.razorthorn.com
All rights reserved. © Razorthorn Security LTD 2025

What does it actually look like to break into InfoSec from the outside, with no technical background, no industry contacts and no idea what half the acronyms mean?
Welcome to Razorwire, the podcast where we share our take on the world of cybersecurity with direct, practical advice for professionals and business owners alike. I'm Jim and in this interview episode, I'm joined by Irina Sordiya, a GRC and compliance professional based in Montreal who came into information security from a finance background.
Not everyone who works in information security started out in IT. Irina's route in began at a career fair where she stumbled into a fintech startup looking for someone who could translate financial regulation into language a dev team could understand. From there she moved into auditing at KPMG and eventually crossed to the other side, leading security posture and compliance in-house.
This is a conversation for anyone considering a career in InfoSec or in the early stages of one. Irina talks openly about feeling like an outsider, not understanding the acronyms and slowly realising that GRC isn't about technical knowledge, it's about understanding risk, building trust and communicating with people. She and Jim also get into the growing problem of grifters in GRC, where Canadian regulation is heading and why the InfoSec community is one of the most welcoming places to build a career.
Three key talking points:
You don't need a technical background
Irina came from a finance degree with no IT experience and a job interview where she was asked if she knew what an auditor does. She got the job. This episode is proof that soft skills, empathy and a risk mindset can take you further than most people expect.
G is for grifter in GRC
As regulatory pressure has increased, so has the number of people selling shortcuts. Overpriced courses, AI-generated templates, agents claiming to replace the CISO. Irina and Jim discuss why this preys on people trying to break in and why there's no substitute for doing the work.
The risk mindset as a North Star
The best advice Irina received early on was to develop a risk mindset. It's what helps you step back from hundred-page policies and ask what you're actually trying to protect, and why it matters more than technical knowledge for anyone in GRC.

If you're thinking about getting into InfoSec or wondering whether you belong, this conversation is for you.
On what she'd tell herself on day one:
"I would have told myself not to be scared going into this and that there will be always helpers along the way who care about what they do and put ego on the side."
Irina Sordiya
Listen to this episode on your favourite podcasting platform: https://razorwire.captivate.fm/listen
In this episode, we covered the following topics:
From Finance to InfoSec
Irina's journey started at a career fair with no IT knowledge. Find out how a finance background opened the door to a career in information security.
Auditor to In-House
As an auditor, an exception means "see you next year." In-house, it means "see you next week." We discuss what changes when you cross to the other side.
Building Trust as a GRC Professional
Discover why empathy and relationship building matter more than policy enforcement.
AI Governance Is Still Anyone's Guess
No country has got AI governance right yet. We discuss why most organisations are working it out as they go, why ISO 42001 is becoming a starting point and what that means for anyone working in GRC.
AI as a Tool for InfoSec Professionals
We discuss where AI can genuinely help with the grunt work of GRC without replacing the thinking that makes the role valuable.
G Is for Grifter in GRC
With overpriced courses, AI-generated templates and agents claiming to replace the CISO, we get into why the noise is making it harder for genuine newcomers.
The Risk Mindset
The best advice Irina received: develop a risk mindset. We discuss why it matters more than technical knowledge.
Why the InfoSec Community Is Worth Joining
Irina's experience has been overwhelmingly positive. We talk about why InfoSec professionals tend to share and support rather than gatekeep.
The Future of Entry-Level Roles
If AI takes over the grunt work that junior professionals learn from, how does the next generation develop?

Resources Mentioned
Irina Sordiya on LinkedIn
KPMG
ISO 27001
ISO 42001 (AI governance)
SOC 1 / SOC 2
EU AI Act
CISM certification
PCI DSS
Connect with your host James Rees
Hello, I am James Rees, the host of the Razorwire podcast. This podcast brings you insights from leading cyber security professionals who dedicate their careers to making a hacker’s life that much more difficult.
Our guests bring you experience and expertise from a range of disciplines and from different career stages. We give you various viewpoints for improving your cyber security – from seasoned professionals with years of experience, triumphs and lessons learned under their belt, to those in relatively early stages of their careers offering fresh eyes and new insights.
With new episodes every other Wednesday, Razorwire is a podcast for cyber security enthusiasts and professionals providing insights, news and fresh ideas on protecting your organisation from hackers.
For more information about us or if you have any questions you would like us to discuss email podcast@razorthorn.com.
If you need consultation, visit www.razorthorn.com, We give our clients a personalised, integrated approach to information security, driven by our belief in quality and discretion.
LinkedIn: Razorthorn Security
YouTube: Razorthorn Security
TikTok: Razorwire Podcast
Instagram: Razorwire Podcast
Twitter: @RazorThornLTD
Website: www.razorthorn.com
All rights reserved. © Razorthorn Security LTD 2025

Social engineering has been around since humans started talking to each other. The psychology hasn't changed, but AI has made the execution almost unrecognisable.
Welcome to Razorwire, the podcast where we share our take on the world of cybersecurity with direct, practical advice for professionals and business owners alike. I'm Jim and in this episode, I'm joined by Richard Cassidy, Field CISO at Rubrik, and Bec McKeown, a chartered psychologist specialising in human performance under pressure.
Social engineering isn't a technology problem, it's a human one that cybersecurity has inherited. The psychology behind it hasn't changed since Cleopatra was using it to outmanoeuvre empires, but AI has transformed the speed, scale and sophistication of every stage, from automated reconnaissance that builds a complete profile in 30 minutes to real-time voice cloning that references your actual projects and travel schedule.
Bec and Richard bring two very different perspectives to the same problem. Bec explains how attackers engineer the conditions in which people make decisions rather than just crafting a convincing message, and why "people are the weakest link" misses the point. Richard shares what he's seeing as a practising CISO, from family members being targeted through gaming platforms to why measuring phishing click rates gives organisations a dangerous false sense of security.
Three key talking points:
They're not hacking people, they're shaping decisions: Social engineering works because attackers engineer the conditions under which decisions get made, not because people are careless. Bec explains why most security awareness training is solving the wrong problem by focusing on the message rather than the environment in which people are operating.
AI has turned social engineering into an automated pipeline: What used to take weeks of manual reconnaissance now takes 30 minutes. AI-powered OSINT can build a complete profile of a target and generate a tailored attack that references their projects, travel and communication style. Combined with real-time voice cloning, these layered attacks are becoming almost impossible to distinguish from a legitimate request.
Your family is now part of the attack surface: If the executive is too well protected, attackers go to the people around them. Children on gaming platforms are being cultivated to unknowingly share information about their parents' work and routines, and a compromised family device on a shared home network becomes a route into the corporate environment.

The psychology behind social engineering hasn't changed in thousands of years, but the tools to exploit it have. If your defences are still built around phishing simulations and click rate metrics, this episode will make you rethink.

On why social engineering isn't about fooling people:
"They're not hacking people, they're shaping the conditions in which people make decisions."
Bec McKeown
Listen to this episode on your favourite podcasting platform: https://razorwire.captivate.fm/listen
In this episode, we covered the following topics:
The History of Social Engineering From Cleopatra to Cold War intelligence operations, social engineering has worked for as long as humans have communicated. We discuss why the psychology behind it hasn't moved an inch.
Influence vs Manipulation Bec explains the difference between making someone do something they don't want to do and making them want to do it, and why that distinction matters for how we build defences.
AI-Powered Reconnaissance Find out how AI has turned open source intelligence into a fully automated pipeline that can build tailored attack scenarios from public data in under 30 minutes.
Deepfake Voice and Video Attacks We get into why real-time voice cloning combined with genuine project data and manufactured urgency makes modern social engineering attacks almost impossible to spot.
Layered Context Attacks Discover why the most dangerous attacks don't rely on a single trick but layer urgency, authority, familiarity and isolation together until there's no reason to doubt what you're seeing.
Family as an Attack Surface Children on gaming platforms are being cultivated to share information about their parents' work and routines. We discuss why the family network is now a recognised route into executive environments.
Gut Feeling and When to Trust It Bec and Richard explain why intuition is often the first signal that something is wrong and why corporate culture has trained people to ignore it.
Confirmation Bias in Action A group of colleagues all received the same phishing email, checked with each other and decided it must be legitimate because they'd all got it. We discuss why that instinct is exactly what attackers rely on.
Why Security Awareness Training Measures the Wrong Thing Phishing click rates going down doesn't mean your organisation is safer. We discuss why this metric wouldn't have prevented any of the major social engineering incidents of the last few years.

Resources Mentioned
Bec McKeown
Mind Science Ltd
Richard Cassidy
The Psychology of the Machines
Rubrik
Cialdini's Six Principles of Influence
Gary Klein / Recognition-Primed Decision Making
Trend Micro AI-powered OSINT research
Deepfake fraud - regulatory warning
Connect with your host James Rees
Hello, I am James Rees, the host of the Razorwire podcast. This podcast brings you insights from leading cyber security professionals who dedicate their careers to making a hacker’s life that much more difficult.
Our guests bring you experience and expertise from a range of disciplines and from different career stages. We give you various viewpoints for improving your cyber security – from seasoned professionals with years of experience, triumphs and lessons learned under their belt, to those in relatively early stages of their careers offering fresh eyes and new insights.
With new episodes every other Wednesday, Razorwire is a podcast for cyber security enthusiasts and professionals providing insights, news and fresh ideas on protecting your organisation from hackers.
For more information about us or if you have any questions you would like us to discuss email podcast@razorthorn.com.
If you need consultation, visit www.razorthorn.com, We give our clients a personalised, integrated approach to information security, driven by our belief in quality and discretion.
LinkedIn: Razorthorn Security
YouTube: Razorthorn Security
TikTok: Razorwire Podcast
Instagram: Razorwire Podcast
Twitter: @RazorThornLTD
Website: www.razorthorn.com
All rights reserved. © Razorthorn Security LTD 2025

The EU just pushed back its AI Act enforcement by 16 months. The US is deregulating. China is governing through infrastructure. And the UK is doing nothing and hoping for the best.
Welcome to Razorwire, the podcast where we share our take on the world of cybersecurity with direct, practical advice for professionals and business owners alike. I'm Jim and in this episode, I'm joined by Richard Cassidy, Field CISO at Rubrik, and Jonathan Care, Head of the AI Practice at KuppingerCole.
We're not in an AI revolution. We're in an AI accountability crisis with the most incredible marketing budget the technology industry has ever seen. That's how Richard Cassidy frames it, and it sets the tone for a conversation that goes well beyond the usual AI hype into the governance, sovereignty and regulation questions that nobody has convincingly answered.
The US, EU, China and the UK have each taken fundamentally different approaches to AI governance and they're diverging, not converging. Meanwhile, the companies building the most powerful models are increasingly the ones defining how they should be used, because governments simply can't keep pace. The conversation also gets into why AI's ability to solve complex mathematical problems is starting to worry the people responsible for the cryptography that underpins modern banking, payments and secure communications.
Three key talking points:
Four governance models, zero compatibility
The US over-innovates, the EU over-regulates, China governs through infrastructure and the UK has principles without law. None of these models is compatible with the others, and the largest organisations in the world operate at the intersection of all of them.
When companies define the rules because governments can't
Anthropic publicly refused to provide certain capabilities over concerns about surveillance and military use. That exposed the governance vacuum that exists when legislation can't keep pace with innovation. The companies building the most powerful models are now the ones deciding how they should be used.
Cryptography is on borrowed time
AI is solving mathematical problems that have never been solved before. The cryptography that underpins banking, payments and the digital economy is based on the assumption that certain problems are too hard to solve. If AI and quantum computing change that assumption, those foundations look fragile.

This isn't about what AI can do. It's about who gets to decide what it should do.

On what's really driving the AI narrative:
"We're not in an AI revolution, we're in an AI accountability crisis that appears to have the most incredible marketing budgets we've ever seen in the history of investment in companies."
Richard Cassidy
Listen to this episode on your favourite podcasting platform: https://razorwire.captivate.fm/listen
In this episode, we covered the following topics:
The EU AI Act and Why It's Already Behind
The deadline got pushed back 16 months. We discuss what that tells us about the gap between regulatory intent and enforcement.
US Deregulation and Innovation at Speed
The US is betting that innovation matters more than regulation. We get into what that means for everyone else.
China's Infrastructure-First Approach
China isn't writing big laws. It's governing through 50-plus technical standards and sector-specific measures. We discuss why that model is fundamentally different.
The UK's Principles Without Law
Five non-statutory principles, enforcement delegated to existing regulators. We explore why that creates the lowest compliance burden but the highest uncertainty.
AI Sovereignty
Everyone says they want it. Almost nobody can explain what it means. We get into why the conversation matters.
When the Model Builders Make the Rules
Anthropic drew a public line on what it would and wouldn't provide. We discuss what happens when companies, not governments, define how AI is used.
AI and the Threat to Cryptography
AI is solving problems that have never been solved before. Find out why that has implications for the mathematics that underpins modern encryption.
Post-Quantum Cryptography
Discover why the convergence of AI and quantum computing could undermine the foundations the entire digital economy is built on.
The AI Jobs Debate
Industries predicted to be at high risk haven't seen the job losses forecast. We discuss why the "AI will take all the jobs" argument is too blunt.
Europe's Innovation Problem
Investment in Europe is so hard to get that you need a working company before anyone will fund you. We discuss what that means for competitiveness.

Resources Mentioned
EU AI Act
Anthropic
Fable (guardrailed Mythos)
KuppingerCole
Rubrik
BSA
NIST post-quantum cryptography
DeepMind AlphaGeometry
World Economic Forum
Oliver Rochford

Connect with your host James Rees
Hello, I am James Rees, the host of the Razorwire podcast. This podcast brings you insights from leading cyber security professionals who dedicate their careers to making a hacker’s life that much more difficult.
Our guests bring you experience and expertise from a range of disciplines and from different career stages. We give you various viewpoints for improving your cyber security – from seasoned professionals with years of experience, triumphs and lessons learned under their belt, to those in relatively early stages of their careers offering fresh eyes and new insights.
With new episodes every other Wednesday, Razorwire is a podcast for cyber security enthusiasts and professionals providing insights, news and fresh ideas on protecting your organisation from hackers.
For more information about us or if you have any questions you would like us to discuss email podcast@razorthorn.com.
If you need consultation, visit www.razorthorn.com, We give our clients a personalised, integrated approach to information security, driven by our belief in quality and discretion.
LinkedIn: Razorthorn Security
YouTube: Razorthorn Security
TikTok: Razorwire Podcast
Instagram: Razorwire Podcast
Twitter: @RazorThornLTD
Website: www.razorthorn.com
All rights reserved. © Razorthorn Security LTD 2025

Defence in depth has evolved every time the technology landscape has shifted. The internet, virtualisation, cloud, SaaS. AI is the next shift, and the old model isn't keeping up.
Welcome to Razorwire, the podcast where we share our take on the world of cybersecurity with direct, practical advice for professionals and business owners alike. I'm Jim and in this episode, I'm joined once again by Martin Voelk, co-founder of SpartanX and an ethical hacker with nearly 26 years in cybersecurity.
Every major technology shift has forced security teams to rethink how they protect their organisations. The internet moved data outside the building. Virtualisation and cloud meant infrastructure was no longer yours to control. Each time, defence in depth had to evolve. AI is the latest shift, and it may be the one that breaks the model entirely.
We trace the journey from on-prem data centres and ISDN routers through to a world where AI agents act autonomously, supply chains are built on unverified code and the offensive side of AI is outpacing the defensive side at a rate security teams can't match. They get into why every AI agent needs its own identity, why shadow AI is a problem most organisations haven't begun to address and why the only realistic answer to AI-powered attacks is AI-powered defence.
Three key talking points:
Defence in depth has always evolved, but this time it's different:
Every previous technology shift gave security teams time to catch up. AI isn't offering that. The pace of change is faster than most organisations can respond to, and the defensive tooling hasn't kept pace with what the offensive side can already do.
AI agents need to be treated like people:
Every AI agent needs its own identity, authentication and authorisation policies. Without that, a compromised agent can act under a human user's name with no way to tell the difference. The legal and forensic implications are enormous and largely unsolved.
The offensive side is winning:
AI is finding vulnerabilities faster than teams can fix them. Alert volumes are overwhelming SOCs, attackers are using AI-generated noise to mask real attacks and human in the loop is becoming unworkable at scale. The only realistic counter is defensive AI, but it isn't mature yet.
Defence in depth has survived every technology shift so far. AI is testing it in ways we haven't seen before. If you're responsible for securing an organisation that's adopting AI, this is the conversation to listen to.
On why security teams are always one step behind:
"We don't have the ability to figure out what's going on until it's already happened. We don't have that technology yet."
James Rees
Listen to this episode on your favourite podcasting platform: https://razorwire.captivate.fm/listen
In this episode, we covered the following topics:
The Evolution of Defence in Depth
From ISDN and on-prem data centres to cloud and SaaS, we trace how defence in depth has evolved with every major technology shift.
Why AI Is Different
Previous shifts gave security teams time to adapt. We discuss why AI isn't offering that luxury.
Supply Chain Risk and Unverified Code
Open source code from GitHub, AI skills downloaded from the web, integrations nobody has reviewed. Discover why the modern supply chain is built on foundations most organisations haven't verified.
Third Party Risk Management Is Broken
AI fills in vendor questionnaires and AI reviews the answers. We get into why the current TPRM process is fundamentally flawed.
Shadow AI
Learn why unapproved AI usage is one of the hardest risks to detect and why most organisations have no way of monitoring it.
Continuous Authentication
Single sign-on isn't enough anymore. We discuss why continuous authentication is becoming essential in environments where AI agents operate alongside human users.
AI Agent Identity and Accountability
Find out why every AI agent needs its own identity and access controls, and what happens when a compromised agent acts under a human user's name.
Alert Fatigue as an Attack Vector
Flooding a SOC with noise to mask a real attack isn't new, but AI makes it possible at a scale that's almost impossible to manage.
Prompt Injection via Log Files
Find out how a prompt injection hidden in a standard HTTP header was used to trick a summarisation agent into exfiltrating data.
The Case for Defensive AI
Offensive AI is outpacing the defensive side. We discuss why AI-powered defence is the only realistic answer and why it isn't mature yet.

Resources Mentioned
SpartanX
Martin Voelk - LinkedIn
Kali Linux
Docker
Ollama
Hugging Face
DeepSeek
CrowdStrike
GitHub

Connect with your host James Rees
Hello, I am James Rees, the host of the Razorwire podcast. This podcast brings you insights from leading cyber security professionals who dedicate their careers to making a hacker’s life that much more difficult.
Our guests bring you experience and expertise from a range of disciplines and from different career stages. We give you various viewpoints for improving your cyber security – from seasoned professionals with years of experience, triumphs and lessons learned under their belt, to those in relatively early stages of their careers offering fresh eyes and new insights.
With new episodes every other Wednesday, Razorwire is a podcast for cyber security enthusiasts and professionals providing insights, news and fresh ideas on protecting your organisation from hackers.
For more information about us or if you have any questions you would like us to discuss email podcast@razorthorn.com.
If you need consultation, visit www.razorthorn.com, We give our clients a personalised, integrated approach to information security, driven by our belief in quality and discretion.
LinkedIn: Razorthorn Security
YouTube: Razorthorn Security
TikTok: Razorwire Podcast
Instagram: Razorwire Podcast
Twitter: @RazorThornLTD
Website: www.razorthorn.com
All rights reserved. © Razorthorn Security LTD 2025