Join us for an eye-opening conversation with Mike Wiacek, Founder and CTO of Stairwell, as he shares his unconventional journey from washing dishes to becoming a cybersecurity pioneer.

Mike takes us through his remarkable career spanning the NSA, Google (including his pivotal role in Operation Aurora), and his current mission to revolutionise threat detection.

Topics:

– The serendipitous “burrito moment” that changed cybersecurity history

– Why traditional cybersecurity approaches are fundamentally broken

– Variant discovery technology and its game-changing potential

– The future of proactive vs reactive security measures

– Essential career advice for cybersecurity professionals

Chapters:

00:00 Introduction to Mentorship

06:23 Early Mentorship in Amateur Radio

06:57 The Summer Job Experience

07:09 The Heat and Humidity Challenge

07:58 Seeking a Tech Job

08:23 First Job in Tech

08:58 Learning from Ed

09:31 Early Cybersecurity Experience

About our guest:

Mike Wiacek is a cybersecurity pioneer with experience at the US Department of Defense, NSA, and over a decade at Google, where he founded the Threat Analysis Group and co-founded Chronicle. Recognised with LaSalle University’s IT Leadership Award, he co-founded Stairwell to develop cutting-edge technology for enhancing threat detection processes in enterprise cybersecurity.

Website: www.stairwell.com

The Cybersecurity Matters Podcast is brought to you by neuco, a global recruitment agency that specialises in sourcing brilliant people for groundbreaking companies.