No Password Required

From Best Buy to Cybersecurity: Curiosity, Confidence, and Finding Your Place in Tech In this episode of No Password Required: Next Gen, Yazzel interviews Karina Rosario, Applications SOP Writer at ThreatLocker. Karina shares how her curiosity about technology led her from working at Best Buy and Geek Squad to earning her bachelor's degree in cybersecurity and beginning her career in the industry. From building a strong IT foundation to learning how important networking can be, Karina keeps it real about what it actually takes to break into cybersecurity. She talks about why a career in cyber is a “slow burn,” the value of taking chances on yourself, and how experiences from outside of cybersecurity can become some of the most valuable skills in your career. Outside of cyber mode, Karina brings plenty of personality to the conversation, from being a Nintendo and Fortnite fan to imagining her own cybersecurity sidekick in the world of Kim Possible. She also opens up about being a first-generation college graduate and her goal of becoming a voice for young women and girls entering cybersecurity. Karina’s story is a reminder that there is no single path into cybersecurity. Sometimes the experiences you least expect can become the foundation for where you’re headed next. Find Karina on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karina-r-3088691b9/ Presented by ThreatLocker Supported by Derscanner

Bruno Lecoq is the Co-Founder, CEO, and CISO of BEMO, a Microsoft-focused cybersecurity and compliance firm serving small and mid-sized businesses across the United States. Before founding BEMO in 2010, Bruno spent nearly 20 years at Microsoft, where he worked on MS-DOS, Windows NT, Exchange, Xbox, and finished his tenure in HR. Born in a village of 1,200 people in France, Bruno moved to Seattle at 22 with a $10,000 loan, a backpack, and a dream he had announced to his mom at midnight after watching a late night TV show about two young American millionaires, one of which was Bill Gates. Today BEMO manages over 470 companies and is one of approximately 50 MSSPs in the United States that is CMMC Level 2 compliant. In this episode, Bruno traces his unlikely path from a French village to the Microsoft campus, through MS-DOS, Windows NT, Exchange, Xbox, and eventually HR, before launching BEMO in 2010 and pivoting to cybersecurity in 2018. He breaks down why CMMC compliance is like having a child, why most SMBs believe they are immune to cyberattacks, and why running AI agents inside your company without governance is a recipe for chaos. Jack Clabby and co-host Kayley Jerrell talk with Bruno about the day Bill Gates walked into his shipping party and canceled the product he had spent a year building, what it was like watching Microsoft decide to eat his lunch in 2012, and what he learned from eight years of working alongside his son Brandon before he left to start his own company. In the Lifestyle Polygraph, Bruno reveals his favorite French pastry is the éclair, explains how he got involved in owning a French bakery in Seattle, shares the story of watching France beat Brazil (his wife is a die-hard Brazil fan) at the 1998 World Cup two months before his wedding, tells us about the family intervention that ended his flying lessons, and explains why soccer will never be at the level of football in Seattle and he has accepted that. Follow Bruno on LinkedIn and learn more about BEMO at bemopro.com

Austin Walley - AP History Teacher Turned Cybersecurity Educator and a believer in figuring it out. Austin Walley is a cybersecurity educator at George Jenkins High School in Lakeland, Florida, where he leads the school’s cybersecurity academy. But unlike many people in the field, Austin didn’t start in technology. He started as an AP history teacher and was recruited into cybersecurity after his administrators saw something beyond technical skills: his ability to question, teach, build relationships, and connect with students. In this episode, Austin shares how he went from knowing almost nothing about cybersecurity to building and teaching an evolving cybersecurity program. He breaks down why teaching cyber means constantly rebuilding the curriculum, how to separate foundational skills from technology that will quickly become outdated, and why students don’t need to be “super, super technical” to get started. Live from CyberLaunch 2026, Austin shares his experience preparing high school students for cybersecurity careers, emphasizing the importance of teamwork and communication and how CTF competitions reveal natural leaders in the classroom. He also explains why resilience and the ability to “figure it out” may be some of the most important skills a future cybersecurity professional can develop. He also shares what it’s like when everyone assumes the cyber teacher knows everything about computers, why students from completely different backgrounds can thrive in cybersecurity, and how his school’s administrators took a chance on him and continued to support him every step of the way. Follow No Password Required Breakout room for more conversations with the innovators, creators, and game changers shaping the cybersecurity industry

Dr. Aleksandr Yampolskiy is the Co-Founder and CEO of SecurityScorecard, one of the world's most trusted cybersecurity brands with tens of thousands of customers, including half of the Fortune 100 and nine of the top 10 US banks. Before founding SecurityScorecard in 2014, Alex earned a PhD in cryptography from Yale, built authentication infrastructure for Goldman Sachs and Oracle, and served as CISO at Gilt Groupe, where a near-miss with exposed credit card data became the genesis for an entirely new category of cybersecurity. In this episode, Alek traces his journey from a fourteen-year-old immigrant kid whose friend handed him a virus-infected floppy disk with Prince of Persia on it, all the way to building a company that now scores the security of every organization on the internet. He breaks down what it takes to create a market category from scratch, why the CISO version of him was more fun to have a beer with, and why North Korea tried to recruit his developers through a fake hedge fund. Jack Clabby and co-host Kayley Jerrell talk with Alek about the difference between robustness and resilience, why SecurityScorecard banned PowerPoint slides, and the single most dangerous thing a board member can say in a meeting. Alex also argues that companies openly admitting security breaches actually makes the whole ecosystem stronger. In the Lifestyle Polygraph, Alek reveals he grades restaurants by their health inspection scores, shares what The Inner Game of Tennis taught him about trusting his gut, and tells us how chess got him a date with his future wife even though she had never played chess. Follow Alex on LinkedIn and reach him at [email protected]. Learn more at securityscorecard.com.

How Lead Cybersecurity Engineers Actually Think In this episode of No Password Required: Next Gen, Yazzel interviews Kieran Human, Lead Cybersecurity Engineer at ThreatLocker. From research to working directly with ThreatLocker's CEO on new security initiatives, Kieran gives an inside look at what it's really like to work on the front lines of cybersecurity. Kieran stands out as a cybersecurity professional by hares why curiosity, strong communication, and understanding the bigger picture are just as valuable as technical skills. He also reflects on one of his proudest career moments, writing a compliance white paper that earned praise from ThreatLocker's CEO Danny Jenkins, and explains how that experience reinforced the importance of research, writing, and always looking for ways to improve. Kieran also explains why Zero Trust security is becoming essential, teaches viewers a few cybersecurity terms that are guaranteed to impress at dinner, and even reveals why the Terminator would be his ultimate cybersecurity teammate! Whether you're exploring a career in cyber or looking for practical advice from someone working in the field every day, this episode is packed with insights for the next generation of cybersecurity professionals. Presented by ThreatLocker Follow Kieran on Linked in here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kieran-human-5495ab170/