Defending Your Cyber Systems and Your Mental Attack Surface with Chris Hughes

Defending Your Cyber Systems and Your Mental Attack Surface with Chris Hughes

When your firewall forgets to buckle up, the crash doesn’t happen in the network first, it happens in your blindspots.

In this episode, Ron is joined by returning guest Chris Hughes, Co-Founder of Aquia and host of the Resilient Cyber podcast. Chris helps reframe vulnerability work as exposure management, connect technical risk to human resilience, and break down the scoring and runtime tools security teams actually need today. Expect clear takeaways on EPSS, reachability analysis, ADR, AI’s double-edged role, and the one habit Chris swears by as a CEO. This episode fuses attack-surface reality with mental-attack-surface strategy so you walk away with both tactical moves and daily practices that protect systems and people.

Impactful Moments: 00:00 - Intro 02:00 - Breaking: Fortinet WAF zero-day & visibility lesson 05:00 - Meet Chris Hughes: CEO, author, Resilient Cyber host 08:00 - Mental attack surface explained and why it matters 18:00 - From CVSS to EPSS, reachability, and ADR realities 21:00 - AI as force-multiplier for attackers and defenders 24:30 - Exposure vs vulnerability naming, market trends 26:00 - Chris’s book & how to follow his work 30:00 - Ron’s solo: 3 pillars to patch your mindset 34:00 - Closing takeaways and subscribe reminder

Links: Connect with our guest, Chris Hughes, on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/resilientcyber/

Check out the article on the Fortinet exploit here: https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2025/11/14/fortinet-fortiweb-zero-day-exploited/

Check out our upcoming events: https://www.hackervalley.com/livestreams

Join our creative mastermind and stand out as a cybersecurity professional: https://www.patreon.com/hackervalleystudio

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Episoder(422)

Episode 14 - Quality Time with ITSP: A Podcaster's Podcast

Episode 14 - Quality Time with ITSP: A Podcaster's Podcast

In this episode, Ron and Chris are joined by Sean Martin and Marco Ciappelli from ITSPMagazine.com. Both set of podcasters have ambitious goals to start unique conversations and bring more diversity t...

20 Aug 201929min

Episode 13 - A Journey Through Venture Capitalism: Mentoring and Leading in Silicon Valley

Episode 13 - A Journey Through Venture Capitalism: Mentoring and Leading in Silicon Valley

Mentors and Leaders help shape our profession and our future. In this episode, Didi Dayton from Wing Venture Capital joins the podcast to discuss the importance of mentoring and leadership. Didi has s...

14 Aug 201927min

Episode 12 - Physical Red Teaming: No Lock Left Secured

Episode 12 - Physical Red Teaming: No Lock Left Secured

Robert Pingor is the equalizer to Physical and Network Red Teaming. Chris has had the opportunity to moonlight his career with Robert and witness him obtain mastery at his craft. During this interview...

13 Aug 201915min

Episode 11 - Selling Cybersecurity: Doing Business in an Increasingly Connected World

Episode 11 - Selling Cybersecurity: Doing Business in an Increasingly Connected World

Information Security vendors offer a wide variety of products and services that can enable success for organizations. Derek Eid joins us this episode to share wisdom in selling products and services. ...

23 Jul 201937min

Episode 10 - Breaking Barriers, Gatekeepers, and Glass Ceilings

Episode 10 - Breaking Barriers, Gatekeepers, and Glass Ceilings

Neelima Rustagi joins Chris and Ron in this episode to share her experiences creating valuable work to dissolve barriers, gatekeepers, and glass ceilings. While transitioning from Software Engineer to...

16 Jul 201939min

Episode 9 - The Intelligence Easy Button

Episode 9 - The Intelligence Easy Button

In this Episode, Ron and Napoleon put Chris in the hot seat and reviewed his EASY framework for making an impact in threat intelligence.   - Elicit Requirements - Assess Collection - Plan Strive for I...

7 Jul 201919min

Episode 8 - Serverless Threat Intel Bot

Episode 8 - Serverless Threat Intel Bot

New Member Alert 🚨! Napoleon Bing joins forces with Chris and Ron and present a Serverless Threat Intel Bot. As organizations mature and scale their security infrastructure, it's vital that analysts,...

7 Jul 201913min

Episode 7 - Layer 8 - Vulnerability And Diversity

Episode 7 - Layer 8 - Vulnerability And Diversity

How important is being vulnerable in life and in your career? In Episode 7, our guest of honor - Charles Nwatu (https://www.linkedin.com/in/cnwatu/) joins Ron and Chris in starting the conversation ab...

7 Jul 201944min

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