Fortinet Cybersecurity Podcast · Fortinet Cybersecurity Podcast

Brass Tacks S1E04 - Translating Cyber Jargon Into Business Language

August 26, 2024·22 min·1 clip

Patrick Grillo says permanent data like your name, date of birth, and Social Security number is more valuable than a credit card number.

1. Fortinet’s Brass Tacks S1E04 focuses on translating cybersecurity jargon into business language for executives and board members. 2. Host Joe Robertson, an executive consultant, interviews Patrick Grillo, Senior Director of Solutions Marketing at Fortinet, because Grillo spends his work turning technical language into plain English. 3. The episode asks how “geek speak” becomes business risk language that non-technical leaders can use. 4. Grillo starts with denial of service attacks and explains that a slow online banking page is not the same as a site that never responds. 5. He then separates malware from ransomware and says the ransom demand is only “the end of the process.” 6. Grillo argues that the network is the place where attacks move, because “nothing happens without the network.” 7. He says attackers usually exploit people through email scams, including the “Nigerian prince” example. 8. Robertson and Grillo connect those scams to social engineering, which aims to get a foothold in the corporate network. 9. Grillo explains that attackers want money, disruption, and data theft, but permanent data has the highest value. 10. He contrasts transient credit-card numbers with lasting identifiers like a name, date of birth, and Social Security number. 11. Grillo cites his own American Express card being hit by a $9,000 attempted charge, which American Express’s anti-fraud software blocked. 12. He says regulations such as GDPR, DORA, and NIS have become more stringent in response to these attacks. 13. Robertson then asks about staff, and Grillo says employees can be the weak link in the chain or the first line of defense. 14. He says training matters because many people with devices do not understand the consequences of their technology. 15. The terminology segment defines convergence, consolidation, firewall, antivirus, VPN, ZTNA, MFA, endpoint protection, EDR, IPS, SecOps, AI, and SASE. 16. Grillo calls a firewall a “traffic cop,” describes ZTNA as zero trust applied to application access, and says MFA uses a code sent to email or a phone. 17. He says EDR is the next generation of endpoint protection and that SecOps is moving toward more proactive monitoring with AI support. 18. The interview stays conversational, with Robertson using playful prompts and Grillo answering with direct definitions and examples. 19. Listeners who manage teams, budgets, or security decisions will get the most value from this episode. 20. Listeners seeking a technical deep dive on architecture and product specifics may skip it.

As heard by us

A plain-English primer on cybersecurity terms for business leaders.

This episode treats cybersecurity as a business problem first and a technical one second. Joe Robertson opens Brass Tacks by making the field feel like its own language, then setting up a plain-English walkthrough for executives and board members.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

Start here if cyber acronyms keep turning into blank stares.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from Fortinet Cybersecurity Podcast