33: The People Hacker, with Jenny Radcliffe

Security Stories

Jenny Radcliffe, AKA 'The People Hacker' joins us as our guest today. Jenny is a world renowned Social Engineer, hired to bypass security systems through a mixture of psychology, con-artistry, cunning and guile.
We learn about incidents in Jenny's childhood which led her to become a 'burglar for hire', including getting locked in the lion’s enclosure at the zoo! She has spent a lifetime talking her way into secure locations, protecting clients from scammers, and leading educational simulated criminal attacks on organisations of all sizes in order to help secure money, data and information from those with genuine malicious intent.
We also talk about how Jenny copes mentally with being in some of these situations, and how she works with organizations and helping them with their security culture.
There’s a great deal of advice here too about how to protect yourself and your friends and your families from social engineering attacks.
Jenny's podcast is available at https://humanfactorsecurity.co.uk/podcast-2/
Before that, it's Sana's last episode with us for a while (sob!) but she goes out on a high by telling the story of three military terms that have shaped the cybersecurity narrative in the last couple of decades. If you are like a movie buff, or geek out on military terminologies, or simply say ‘Roger that’ in response to everything, then you'll love this segment.
If that wasn't enough, we also have Nirav Shah join us in the pod booth. Nirav is new to Cisco, having joined us directly from Solar Winds. He was working then when the massive breach that was heard around the world happened. We hear the inside story, and learn how this was a catalyst in the threat landscape. Learn more in Nirav's blog here.
Episode time stamps:
0:00 - 15:31 - Intro topic with Sana - Three military terms that have shaped the cybersecurity narrative
15:32 - 42:29 - Interview with Jenny Radcliffe, Part 1
42:50 - 55:26 - Nirav Shah on the Solar Winds breach
55:38 - 73:24 - Interview with Jenny Radcliffe, Part 2
73:25 - 83:30 - Closing thoughts and outro