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What if the reason your cybersecurity budget keeps getting cut isn't your security strategy, but how you negotiate? Every CISO negotiates. Whether you're fighting for a bigger cybersecurity budget, negotiating with vendors, retaining top talent, or navigating a ransomware crisis, your ability to negotiate can determine your success as a security leader. In this episode of CISO Tradecraft, G. Mark Hardy sits down with cybersecurity attorney and negotiation expert Mark Rasch to reveal the strategies that separate effective negotiators from everyone else. You'll discover why winning a negotiation doesn't mean the other side has to lose, how to shift conversations from cost to business value, and why understanding what someone actually wants can unlock deals that initially seem impossible. What You'll Learn: 💰 Win Bigger Cybersecurity Budgets: Why precise financial requests can outperform inflated budget proposals. 🧠 Master Negotiation Psychology: How anchoring, perceived value, and understanding motivations influence outcomes. 🔐 Navigate Ransomware Negotiations: How attackers think about money, credibility, risk, and leverage. 📈 Sell Security as a Business Enabler: Stop positioning cybersecurity as a cost center and start connecting security investments to revenue. 🤝 Negotiate Better Vendor Contracts: Resolve intellectual property disputes by understanding what each party actually needs. 👥 Retain Your Best Cybersecurity Talent: Negotiate salaries, benefits, flexibility, and career opportunities beyond compensation. 🚨 Know When to Walk Away: Recognize when legal, ethical, or financial risks make a deal unacceptable. The Biggest Lesson? The best negotiators don't simply ask for more money. They understand what the other side values, build credibility, and find solutions that benefit both parties. Whether you're preparing for your next board meeting, asking for additional resources, or negotiating a multimillion-dollar security contract, these lessons can help you become a more effective cybersecurity executive. Question for CISOs: What's the toughest negotiation you've faced as a cybersecurity leader? Share your experience in the comments! 👍 Like this episode if you found it valuable. 🔔 Subscribe to CISO Tradecraft for weekly insights on cybersecurity leadership, risk management, business strategy, and becoming a more effective CISO. 🌐 wwVisit us: https://cisotradecraft.com/

Should you get a PhD in Cybersecurity? In this episode of CISO Tradecraft, G. Mark Hardy sits down with Dr. Char Sample at the COSAC security conference in Ireland to unpack what it REALLY takes to earn a doctorate in cybersecurity. From her early work on the Gauntlet firewall to cybersecurity research at the Army Research Lab, INL, and Marshall University, Dr. Sample shares hard-earned lessons on research, funding, doctoral programs, and surviving the PhD journey. They also explore: Why a PhD can matter for cybersecurity research funding What makes a strong cybersecurity research problem How long a doctorate can take Research methods, proposals, and defending your work Remote vs. residency programs AI, hallucinated citations, and research reproducibility Why cybersecurity needs more focus on building securely, not just breaking thingsIf you're considering an advanced degree or want to understand where cybersecurity research is headed, this episode is for you. 🎧 Subscribe to CISO Tradecraft for more cybersecurity leadership insights.

In this episode, we reveal the biggest security awareness mistakes and the creative ways to make cybersecurity training actually fun in 2026. From AI-powered phishing and token theft to stronger MFA and gamified training, There are ideas every security leader should steal. Watch now and level up your security awareness game!

Most CISOs spend years learning cybersecurity. Almost nobody teaches them how to build a culture people actually want to be part of. In this episode of CISO Tradecraft, G. Mark Hardy and Ross Young break down the leadership lessons that separate average security organizations from world-class ones. You’ll learn how to: Build a security team people WANT to joinDevelop your employees into future CISOsReward behavior that actually changes cultureCommunicate like an executiveSpot when your company may NEVER promote you to CISOPrevent burnout before your best people leaveBuild trust across the businessCreate a culture of excellence, accountability, and curiosityRoss also shares how he turned phishing awareness into a company competition, complete with trophies, CEO recognition, and brisket parties. Because great cybersecurity leadership isn't just about stopping hackers. It's about building an organization where great people can do their best work. What’s the ONE leadership rule every CISO should follow?Subscribe to CISO Tradecraft for practical lessons on cybersecurity leadership, strategy, risk, and becoming a more effective CISO. Template for Command Philosophy: https://www.gmarkhardy.com/Navy_Articles/NRA-0306%20Template%20for%20a%20Command%20Philosophy.pdf

The biggest threat to a CISO might not be ransomware, it might be burnout. In this episode, G. Mark Hardy brings on We Hack Health to reveal why brilliant security leaders are sacrificing their health, how accountability can reverse the damage, and the one rule every CISO should follow: Never miss twice. Watch this before your career costs you everything. Link to CruiseCon https://cruisecon.com/events/cruisecon-privacy-ai-2026/ Use code: CISOTRADECRAFT10 for a 10% discount

Claude Code Is INSANE… But Is It Safe? AI coding just went from “autocomplete my code” to “give me the entire repository and let me run the company.” In this episode of CISO Tradecraft, G Mark Hardy and Ross Young break down what Claude Code can actually do, and the security implications that come with it. Claude Code can read entire codebases, create and edit multiple files, run commands, execute tests, and operate like an AI developer sitting directly inside your environment. But there’s a catch… Every token costs money. And every permission creates risk. We break down: 🔥 Tokenomics — How to get dramatically more AI coding for your dollar 🔥 PRDs — Why you should use powerful models to THINK before cheaper models BUILD 🔥 Security Risks — What happens when an AI agent can execute commands and modify your environment? 🔥 AI Licenses — Individual vs. enterprise and what CISOs need to worry about 🔥 Privacy & Regulated Data — When you may need offline or open-weight models 🔥 Harnesses — The policy-driven guardrails that can move security WAY earlier in the development process 🔥 MCP — How AI agents can connect to tools, systems, and data… and why permissions become a massive security issue 🔥 Agents & Skills — Serial vs. parallel agents, prompts, context, commands, hooks, and Markdown-based skills 🔥 Threat Modeling AI — Why you need to start threat modeling the prompts AND the toolsThe big question isn't: “Can AI write code?” It absolutely can. The question is: “What happens when we give AI the keys to the kingdom?” If you're a CISO, security leader, developer, or anyone trying to understand where agentic AI coding is heading, this episode is for you. 🎙️ Subscribe to CISO Tradecraft for more unfiltered conversations about cybersecurity, AI, leadership, and the future of the CISO. Check out the Harness that Ross is building: https://github.com/Clear-Capabilities/agentic-security

Most cybersecurity advice is built for massive enterprises. But what happens when you're a small or medium-sized business and you don't have a 200-person security team… or a massive budget? In this episode, Mark Hardy sits down with vCISO Carlota Sage to break down what actually works. Carlota shares lessons from her time at FireEye during its explosive growth and the Mandiant acquisition—and why being a great security leader isn't just about knowing cybersecurity. It's about IT fundamentals. Influence. Emotional intelligence. And knowing how to lead people. We also dive into: Why simply saying "thank you" can transform your security culture 💰 How cybersecurity can become sales enablement and revenue protection 📈 Why security teams should work directly with sales and finance 🔒 Why compliance isn't security—but ISO 27001 and PCI DSS can still be incredibly valuable for smaller companies 🤖 How AI is creating a massive new attack surface 🕵️ The growing risk of sensitive data leaking into AI tools 💸 Why the real cost of AI isn't just the subscription price 🎯 Who should be accountable when AI goes wrong The BIG takeaway? You don't need to be a Fortune 500 company to build a strong security program. But you do need to understand the business, influence people, protect revenue, and help your organization use technology without creating a disaster in the process. Watch now and let us know in the comments: What's the biggest cybersecurity challenge facing small and medium-sized businesses right now? 👇

AI can change your network in seconds… but your security approvals still take DAYS. In this episode, Tufin CISO Jeffrey Spear reveals how CISOs can use automation and AI without accidentally scaling security mistakes at machine speed. We break down network governance, compliance as code, AI agents, access debt, and the guardrails every security leader needs before handing AI the keys to the network. Automate the right way or build a faster way to be wrong. Get Your Network Exposure Assessment https://explore.tufin.com/assessment Big thanks to our sponsor Tufin.

What happens when AI stops behaving like a tool, and starts operating beyond the boundaries we gave it? Live from Black Hat, G Mark Hardy sits down with cybersecurity veteran John Strand of Black Hills Information Security for a wide-ranging conversation about the future of AI, cybersecurity careers, penetration testing, automation, and the skills that will actually matter next. They dig into reports of AI systems escaping controlled environments, why blindly replacing security professionals with AI could backfire, and why John believes offensive AI may become more powerful than defensive AI in the near future. But the biggest takeaway may be surprising: AI doesn’t necessarily make deep technical knowledge less important. It may make it more valuable than ever. In this episode: Why AI could completely reshape cybersecurity careers The skills security professionals need to survive the AI transition Why understanding TCP/IP, operating systems, and fundamentals still matters How John built an AI-powered security workflow in minutes The danger of autonomous penetration-testing tools Why “human in the loop” may be critical for AI security The hidden business problem with OpenAI and Anthropic-dependent products Why cheaper open-weight AI models could disrupt the industry What CISOs should understand before deploying AI across their organizations Why trust, not another AI dashboard, may become cybersecurity’s biggest differentiator And John explains why, despite all the uncertainty, he’s more excited about cybersecurity today than he has been in years. If you work in cybersecurity, lead a security team, or are wondering whether AI will replace your job, this is a conversation worth watching to the end.

What Every CISO Needs to Know Before AI Leaks Your Company's Crown Jewels Your AI policy won't save you if your trade secrets walk out the door. In this episode of CISO Tradecraft, attorney and technologist Lee Kim explains the legal blind spots most security leaders miss, from AI prompt retention and vendor contracts to insider risk, shadow AI, and protecting your organization's most valuable intellectual property. If you're deploying AI without thinking like a lawyer, this conversation could save you millions. Lee Kim's LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/leekim/

In this CISO Tradecraft episode, host G Mark Hardy and guest Gadi Evron discuss a recent incident involving OpenAI model testing in an “exploit gym,” where an agent escaped its sandbox, attempted to access Hugging Face, created new exploits, stole credentials, and generated high-volume, unusual activity that initially blended into background noise. They describe how Hugging Face quickly shared details with the CISO community and outline observed behaviors (repeated attempts, simultaneous operations, novel paths, classic attacks like package manager flaws and credential theft, and hallucinated artifacts in logs). Key lessons include instrumenting and defending agents, using coding agents for faster response, enabling mass credential rotation and cluster rebuilds, considering deception technology, preparing for noisy forensics, maintaining access to open-weight models, budgeting for token costs, and adapting security planning to compressed timelines. CISO Retreat - https://www.cisotradecraft.com/cisoretreat Cloud Security Alliance - https://cloudsecurityalliance.org/ CSides - https://luma.com/jf8ej87e Hugging Face Analysis on ChatGPT - https://www.linkedin.com/posts/gadievron_my-analysis-from-hosting-hugging-face-at-share-7486340715514437632-Xs-b/ Knostic - https://www.knostic.ai/ Unprompted - https://unpromptedcon.org/

Three major legal changes. One question every CISO should be asking: Is your cybersecurity program ready? Congress let a key FISA surveillance authority expire. The Supreme Court raised the bar on geofence warrants. The Department of Defense paused mandatory CMMC Level 2 certifications. At first glance, these seem like unrelated legal headlines. In reality, they all point to the same challenge: cybersecurity leaders must understand how changing laws affect data access, privacy, compliance, and personal liability. In this episode of CISO Tradecraft, host G. Mark Hardy sits down with attorney and cybersecurity expert Larry Dietz to break down what these legal developments actually mean for CISOs, not from a political perspective, but from a practical leadership perspective. You'll learn: Why the FISA Section 702 debate still matters to private-sector CISOsHow the Supreme Court's geofence warrant decision could impact data retention and privacy programsWhat the CMMC certification delay really means for defense contractorsWhy self-attestation can create legal riskHow GDPR principles can strengthen your cybersecurity governanceWhat every CISO should negotiate before accepting the top security jobIf you're responsible for protecting data, managing compliance, or advising executive leadership, this episode will help you separate headlines from real business risk. Subscribe for weekly insights that help cybersecurity leaders become more effective.

What separates great CISOs from everyone else? It isn't knowing more about CVEs, ransomware, or the latest security tools. It's understanding the business. In this episode of CISO Tradecraft, Ross Young and G Mark Hardy reveal why many cybersecurity leaders spend too much time protecting systems and not enough time protecting the capabilities that generate revenue, keep operations running, and create shareholder value. You'll discover: 1) Why most vulnerability management programs prioritize the wrong assets. 2) The six business capabilities every CISO should understand before making security decisions. 3) How executive leaders evaluate cyber risk differently than security teams. 4) A practical framework for aligning cybersecurity investments with business priorities. 5) Why traditional third-party risk questionnaires often fail—and the questions that actually predict ransomware risk. 6) Lessons learned from real-world breaches, mergers & acquisitions, business resilience, and executive decision making. Free Resources Mentioned • Ransomware Risk Assessment Questionnaire - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1L4spXwrB7nFgdSP5at2uJfFKvG_7ppmz/ • Mission-Critical Business Capability Framework - https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1zHjxcJXvAkJNQKXCVbVoR7yzexD3KKEu

How has the role of the CISO changed over the last 15 years? In this episode of CISO Tradecraft, G. Mark Hardy interviews Rafeeq Rehman, creator of the CISO Mind Map, to discuss its latest update and the biggest challenges facing cybersecurity leaders today. You'll learn: Why the CISO Mind Map was updated after 15 years How AI security is reshaping cybersecurity leadership Why the remote work category was removed How a RACI matrix helps CISOs delegate while staying accountable Why consolidating security tools reduces complexity and risk How to support your team's mental health in a high-stress industry What tomorrow's cybersecurity leaders need to succeed Whether you're an aspiring CISO or an experienced security executive, this episode provides practical insights to help you lead more effectively in the AI era. Link to the Mind Map - https://rafeeqrehman.com/2026/04/11/ciso-mindmap-2026-what-do-infosec-professionals-really-do/

Nation-state adversaries are vacuuming up encrypted traffic today, waiting for quantum computers to decrypt it tomorrow. This attack strategy, "Harvest Now, Decrypt Later," isn't theoretical. It's happening right now. G Mark Hardy sits down with Marcus Sachs (former White House cyber advisor, CSO of NERC, now SVP and Chief Engineer at CIS) to break down two executive orders just signed by the White House on post-quantum cryptography and what every security leader needs to do before the clock runs out. What you'll learn: Why TLS, VPNs, and PKI are your most urgent exposureThe Harvest Now, Decrypt Later threat model and what it means for your data retention policiesHow to build a Cryptographic Bill of Materials (CBOM)What cryptographic agility means and why hard-coded crypto is a ticking time bombLessons from Y2K that apply directly to the quantum migrationYou can't name a date certain. But your adversaries are already running the clock. Links, NIST resources, and both executive orders in the show notes. https://www.nist.gov/cybersecurity-and-privacy/what-post-quantum-cryptography https://www.nist.gov/pqc