Tag: IT Leadership
Women Who Secure the World: Breaking Barriers and Building the Future of Cyber Leadership (Ep. 7)

Women Who Secure the World: Breaking Barriers and Building the Future of Cyber Leadership (Ep. 7)

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Most cybersecurity conversations focus on tools and threats. The better ones focus on people, trust, and how leaders actually show up when things go sideways.

In this episode, Tony Pietrocola, President and Co-founder of AgileBlue, and Joe Marquette, CEO and Co-founder, sit down with Becky Cross, Vice President of Client Partnerships at FIT Technologies.

They get into how cybersecurity leadership is shifting, what clients actually need in high-pressure moments, and why the way we communicate risk matters just as much as the technology behind it.

Becky brings a perspective that’s grounded in real client experience. Less noise, more clarity. Less fear, more trust. And a clear argument for why different perspectives lead to better decisions when it matters most.

Key takeaways:

  • What it looks like to lead with clarity when clients are under pressure
  • How asking better questions changes the outcome of client relationships
  • Where confidence and perception can get misaligned in leadership roles
  • Why diverse teams tend to make stronger, more balanced decisions
  • How representation continues to shape the future of cybersecurity
  • And more!

Connect with Tony Pietrocola:

Connect with Becky Cross:

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Who the Hack Is AgileBlue? (Ep. 1)

Who the Hack Is AgileBlue? (Ep. 1)

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A deal fell apart at the worst possible moment, and instead of ending the story, it sparked the idea that became AgileBlue. In Episode 1 of Zero-Trust Issues, the founders share how a setback at Black Hat helped shape their approach to cybersecurity, automation, and resilience.

In this first episode of Zero-Trust Issues, host Tony Pietrocola, President and Co-founder of AgileBlue, sits down with co-host Joe Marquette, AgileBlue CEO and Co-founder, and Chief Technology Officer Stephen Smith to tell the company’s origin story and what it revealed about the cybersecurity market. The conversation begins in August 2019 at Black Hat in Las Vegas, when the team learned they’d lost what they believed would be their first major deal—sparking an immediate “are we done?” moment. From there, they unpack what it takes to build a security business that can scale without simply adding more headcount. They also discuss why visibility matters when communicating cyber risk to executives and boards, and why “AI-native” security is quickly becoming table stakes as attackers adopt the same tools.

Key takeaways:

  • How resilience after a setback can become a competitive advantage
  • Why scaling security operations requires automation—not just more people
  • What “AI vs. AI” means in practice, and why AI-native defense is no longer optional
  • How to make cyber risk visible and understandable for CEOs and boards
  • The real-world pain points in legacy security models that led AgileBlue to build differently
  • And more!

Connect with Tony Pietrocola:

Connect with Joe Marquette:

Connect with Stephen Smith:

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