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The Cyber Security Recruiter Podcast

The Cyber Security Recruiter Podcast

By: Thomas Richard
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The mission is simple: To enhance your career growth within the Cybersecurity community & bring interesting and knowledgable guests onto the Podcast so that you can benefit from their experience.

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Politics & Government
Episodes
  • The Cybersecurity Recruiter talks to Dave Cronin, Founder & Managing Partner, Mission Security
    Jun 18 2026

    AI’s Impact on Cybersecurity: SOC Automation, GRC Limits, and the Rise of Boutique Advisory

    Tom welcomes cybersecurity veteran Dave Cronin, founder of Mission Security and vCISO/Head of Cyber Services with CyberTrust Massachusetts, who recounts his path from technical roles and teaching ethical hacking to senior leadership and nuclear compliance work across U.S. power plants.

    They discuss AI as a pivot point in cybersecurity, accelerating both defense and attacks, including uncovering long-standing vulnerabilities. Dave argues AI is rapidly replacing repetitive SOC/MDR Level 1 triage tasks, contributing to consolidation, while human judgment remains critical for response actions and for gray-area domains like GRC where politics and control tradeoffs matter.

    They cover market pressures from private equity, ROI scrutiny, workforce cuts, and CISO role changes, alongside increased demand for go-to-market, customer success, and relationship-driven services. Dave advises embracing AI, learning prompting, specializing skills, and he describes helping small organizations and municipalities with compliance needs such as CMMC.

    00:37 Dave Cronin Background

    02:10 Nuclear Compliance Stories

    04:51 Ethical Hacking Roots

    06:10 AI Finds Old Flaws

    06:31 SOC Automation Impact

    11:12 Human Relationships Matter

    13:23 GRC and AI Limits

    14:59 AI ROI and Cost Cuts

    17:37 CISO Role Shifts

    20:56 Future of MDR Vendors

    22:37 Anthropic and Legal Disruption

    23:28 AI for Legal Tasks

    24:51 Who AI Disrupts Next

    25:08 Future Proof Security Roles

    26:21 Go To Market Surge

    26:49 Human Service Comeback

    28:24 Career Advice Embrace AI

    29:36 Prompting and Learning Tools

    31:27 AI Clones and Trust

    33:54 Day Job Mission Security

    35:04 CMMC Compliance Reality

    38:42 Small Teams with AI

    40:15 Layoffs and AI Washing

    42:09 CISO Pay Compression Risks

    43:02 Closing Thoughts

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    43 mins
  • The Cybersecurity Recruiter talks to Dale Hoak, Chief Information Security Officer, RegScale
    Jun 15 2026

    In this Cybersecurity Recruiter podcast episode, Thomas chats with Dale Hoak, a former US Navy veteran who transitioned to the commercial sector and progressed from to senior director and now Chief Security Officer/CISO at RegScale.

    Dale explains that leaving the military is difficult because individuals must take ownership of healthcare, career planning, compensation negotiation, and resume-building, recommending an exit strategy starting two years before separation and seeking early help (including AI tools) while understanding one’s individual value.

    He credits his advancement to strong networks and mentors, hard work, and learning to understand business value and communicate cyber risk in non-technical terms to leaders and boards, using approaches like threat modeling and risk scoring. He discusses AI as a helpful but fallible tool requiring fact-checking, emphasizes continuous learning.

    Dale recommends as a starting point "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" and then progressing on to 2 series of books by Gary Hayslip. He listens to lots of podcasts

    including New CISO and CISO Tradecraft.

    00:00 Welcome and Introductions

    00:36 Dale’s Career Snapshot

    02:08 Life as a CSO

    03:06 Leaving the Military

    05:00 Certs Resumes and Value

    07:31 First Civilian Break

    08:51 Networking as a Superpower

    10:05 How Promotions Happen

    13:20 Building Business Awareness

    17:03 Speaking Board Level Risk

    17:40 Books and Daily Routines

    18:26 AI Needs Human Communication

    19:51 Phone Calls and Real Talk

    21:18 Using AI Responsibly

    22:15 AI Resumes and Hiring Reality

    23:29 Culture Fit and Honesty

    25:06 Never Stop Learning

    27:11 Learning Resources and Creativity

    30:26 AI Accelerates Skill Gaps

    32:22 Leadership Lessons and Quotes

    33:21 Books Podcasts and Wrap Up

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    36 mins
  • The Cybersecurity Recruiter talks to Chris Tjotjos, Co-Founder, Simvay & Promithia
    Jun 9 2026

    Chris Tjotjos on building businesses through crashes, advisory boards, and compounding growth

    Thomas chats with Chris Tjotjos on the Cybersecurity Recruiter podcast about his career from sales to leading Logos Communications and later co-founding Promithia and Simvay Systems

    Chris describes early entrepreneurial “full throttle” focus, reinvesting profits for years, and the power of compounding, including examples using pennies and leveraged real estate and recurring revenue.

    He recounts major disruptions - post-1999 internet implosion after buying out his partner and the 2008 crisis, and how transparency, profit-sharing via an EBIT plan, and shifting customer concentration helped stabilize and grow. A key turning point was meeting entrepreneur Jack Kale, starting an advisory board, and using book-based learning to reshape culture.

    Chris explains being approached to sell Logos to Black Box, scaling the division, and critiques lack of synergy in acquisitions. Book recommendations mentioned include "Financial Freedom" Mark Harrelson, "The Vital Difference," and "Leading From The Heart," by Jack Kale, "Rockefeller: The Titan," and "The 38 Letters Rockefeller Wrote to His Son."

    00:00 Welcome and Setup

    00:39 Meet Chris Tjotjos

    01:58 Focus Then Scale

    03:04 Early Entrepreneur Grind

    04:34 Compounding Mindset

    06:55 Leverage and OPM

    09:27 Life After the Exit

    13:22 Dotcom Crash Lessons

    15:29 Open Books EBIT Plan

    17:39 Jack Kale Book Club

    22:26 Partnership Synergy

    23:33 Faith Prayer Meditation

    25:31 Perspective and Mortality

    26:12 Greek Roots and Big Questions

    27:20 Faith Over Wealth

    27:50 Servant Leadership in Business

    28:12 Why Logos Was Founded

    32:26 Selling After the 2008 Storm

    36:55 Acquisition Lessons and Synergy

    38:54 Starting Again With Promethea

    40:18 Advisory Boards That Scale

    43:51 Building the Board and Jack Story

    47:53 Closing Reflections and Thanks

    48:27 AI as a Virtual Board

    49:42 When to Form a Board

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    49 mins
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