Every trail ride ends at the, well, end of the trail.

This is the end of the trail for The Cyber Ranch Podcast.

Drew and Allan offer final parting thoughts and conduct brief interviews with 3 folks whose presence was vital to the show: Chris Cochran, Ron Eddings, and Rich Salim.

It's been an amazing journey and we thank ALL of you who ever listened to even just one snippet of one episode.

Y'all stay good now!

Howdy, y’all, and welcome to The Cyber Ranch Podcast. Today we tackle WHY? Why do we have this show? Why do we ask the questions we ask and host the guests we host? Why does any of this matter?

More importantly, WHY do we all keep doing the same things over and over, saying the same things over and over, and expecting better results?

WHAT can we change?

Join Allan Alford, many times CISO, and cybersecurity podcaster of many years now. Joining Allan is Drew Simonis, who has been co-hosting the show now for 21 episodes, and a guest a few times before that.

This show is a chance to understand the premise of the show better, to understand Drew better, and to find out why we're all here. Drew's bonafides:

• CISO @ Juniper Networks
• Former CISO and Deputy CISO @ HPE
• CISO @ Willis
• And various other roles including an industry role at Symantec

Drew joined as co-host because he’s a deep thinker, and because he applies that deep thinking to challenging the status quo.

Allan's WHY? Is very simple. We’ve not grown or progressed as an industry in years now. Which means we are clearly doing something wrong. Mostly, IMHO, resting on our laurels, making the same assumptions, trying the same techniques, and not questioning any of it.

Drew offers a more nuanced take on the idea of "speaking the language of the business". It's a great show. Y'all be good now!

We have all had a vague sense that our world is being manipulated, informed and fed by various conscious manipulation tactics - influence on political campaigns on social media, culture wars, class wars, etc. But we can glean out the facts and figure out who is telling what story if we embrace a new discipline - Narrative Intelligence.

Our guest this week is Joe Stradinger, Founder and CEO of EdgeTheory, who are out to understand and leverage the conversations that shape our world. Specifically, social media campaigns and presences. Think threat intelligence but at a global/sociopolitical level. Joe has been an investor, he has worked in DC, and he has a lot of academic ties as well. His knowledge in this space is immense, and we are tickled pink to have him here at the ‘Ranch.

We ask Joe:

• What are the goals of a robust threat intelligence program?
• What is narrative intelligence and why does it matter?
• Compare and contrast this to traditional threat intelligence?
• How do adversaries influence the narratives? Is this the realm of bots and deepfakes?
• Does narrative intelligence replace, complement, or improve on traditional approaches?
• How can narrative intelligence enable you to get in front of problems?

It's an excellent conversation, well worth a listen.

Y'all be good now!