Securing Innovation — Insights on Trust, Risk & Cyber Resilience | DisrupTV Ep. 67

In DisrupTV Episode 67, hosts R "Ray" Wang and Vala Afshar are joined by:

  • Mike Kail, CTO at Cybric
  • Jim Rutt, CIO at Dana Foundation
  • Tim Eades, CEO at vArmour

They explore how organizations can innovate securely, the evolving threats in cybersecurity, risk management strategies, and how trust is built (or lost) in modern enterprise technology.

Key Takeaways

Innovation & Security Must Coexist
A recurring theme: you can’t treat security as an afterthought if you want innovation to scale. Mike Kail & Tim Eades emphasize embedding security early in design and development rather than bolt-on.

Risk Assessment & Visibility Are Foundational
To manage threats, organizations need visibility across systems, the ability to assess risk proactively, and real-time insight into vulnerabilities. Having metrics and dashboards to monitor risk is vital.

Trust Is Built Through Transparency & Governance
Jim Rutt & Tim Eades discuss how trust with stakeholders (users, customers, boards) comes from transparency in policies, clear governance, and maintaining accountability when incidents happen.

Adversaries Evolve Rapidly; Defenses Must Too
Threat actors keep adjusting — whether through sophistication, novel attack vectors, or supply-chain exploits. Defenses must similarly adapt, investing in continuous learning, threat intelligence, and monitoring.

Culture & Leadership Matter in Cyber Resilience
Security isn’t only a technical problem. Leadership support, cultural norms (e.g. of reporting vulnerabilities, not blaming), continuous training, and mindset around risk are critical. The most secure technologies will fail if people & process are weak.

Final Thoughts & Implications

  • For Tech Leaders & CTOs: Make security a built-in dimension of every project — from product design, architecture, to deployment. Budget and time invested early on in secure design saves far more later.
  • For Boards & Governance Bodies: Ask hard questions: What is our risk visibility? What is our incident response plan? How do we communicate transparently to stakeholders when breaches or near misses happen?
  • For Security Teams: Prioritize tools & processes that improve observability, threat intelligence, continuous testing, and integrated incident preparedness. Also invest in the human side: culture, training, communication.
  • For Organizations: Cyber resilience isn’t just defensive — it’s strategic. Being able to adapt, respond, recover well can become a competitive advantage and a trust differentiator for customers and partners.

Related Episodes

To further explore themes around cybersecurity, innovation, trust, and tech governance, check out:

 

Business Research Themes

Digital Safety, Privacy, and Cybersecurity, Future of Work, Tech Optimization

Roles

Chief Digital Officer, Chief Executive Officer, Chief Information Officer, Chief Information Security Officer, Chief Technology Officer