Join Sean Martin and Aviv Cohen as they embark on a fascinating exploration of the often misunderstood world of cybersecurity. They discuss the importance of recognizing cybersecurity professionals as the modern-day heroes they are, and the need for children to understand and appreciate their parents' roles in this field.
Join Sean Martin and Aviv Cohen as they embark on a fascinating exploration of the often misunderstood world of cybersecurity. They discuss the importance of recognizing cybersecurity professionals as the modern-day heroes they are, and the need for children to understand and appreciate their parents' roles in this field.
Cohen introduces a unique tool to bridge this understanding gap - a beautifully illustrated book titled "Castle Defenders: What Do Cyber Parents Do?". The book, written in engaging rhyme, uses the metaphor of a castle needing defense to explain the complex world of cybersecurity to children. It serves not only as a bedtime story but also as a platform for parents to discuss online safety and cybersecurity literacy with their children.
The book has been met with enthusiastic feedback, with parents sharing their experiences of reading it to their children, and children asking for repeated readings. It also includes ten cybersecurity rules, providing children with practical tools to stay safe online.
The conversation underscores the urgent need for more cyber defenders in our world and the importance of fostering understanding and respect for this role from a young age.
This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in the intersection of technology, cybersecurity, and society, and especially for those who wish to inspire the next generation of cyber defenders.
About the Book: Castle Defenders: What Do Cyber Parents Do?
Mommy is late for dinner again, and Emma and Oliver are frustrated. Daddy comes to the rescue with spaghetti and an enchanting tale of brave knights and mysterious castles, revealing how he and Mommy work tirelessly to protect the people on the internet from bad hackers and other online threats.
Castle Defenders by Dana Meschiany is a charming story, filled with delightful illustrations and playful storytelling, is perfect for young minds eager to explore the captivating world of cybersecurity.
Note: This story contains promotional content. Learn more.
Guest:
Aviv Cohen, CMO at Pentera [@penterasec]
On Linkedin | https://www.linkedin.com/in/avivco/
Resources
Learn more about Pentera and their offering: https://itspm.ag/pentera-tyuw
Catch more stories from Pentera at https://www.itspmagazine.com/directory/pentera
Book | Castle Defenders: What Do Cyber Parents Do?: https://www.amazon.com/Castle-Defenders-What-Cyber-Parents/dp/B0C51PCQ6Q
Are you interested in telling your story?
https://www.itspmagazine.com/telling-your-story
Please note that this transcript was created using AI technology and may contain inaccuracies or deviations from the original audio file. The transcript is provided for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as a substitute for the original recording, as errors may exist. At this time, we provide it “as it is,” and we hope it can be helpful for our audience.
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[00:00:00] Sean Martin: Hello, everybody. Sean Martin here, and you're very welcome to a new episode here on ITSP Magazine Podcast Network, where we talk about all things at the intersection of cybersecurity, technology and society. We can't, uh, ignore the fact that we all live with It's, it's around us, it's in us, we're in it, and, uh, we need to set ourselves up for a good future that, uh, takes advantage of this technology in a, in a mindful way, and actually helps define it, define it in a mindful way in the, in the first place.
Um, it's always not. It's not always a straight black line, single line to follow. You're on one side or the other. There's a lot of gray, um, and technology doesn't always work like it's supposed to, which is one of the reasons why Pentera exists, to find where things may not be working as designed to, uh, help uncover that and help organizations resolve and fix those gaps.
I'm here today with the CMO of Pantera, Aviv Cohen. Aviv, thanks for joining me.
[00:01:13] Aviv Cohen: Thank you, Sean, for having me. Great to be here on the show. That's
[00:01:16] Sean Martin: good. Good to have you on again. And, um, we're going to talk about something that appears to be a passion project for you and your team. And I think it's a really cool thing.
We're actually going to see it. You'll do a little show and tell for us shortly. Um, a book that the team has written, uh, for kids and parents, I believe, having, having gone through it. And, uh, it's super cool and I'm excited to talk about it and show it to folks. Before we get there, uh, Aviv, if you wouldn't mind.
Uh, reminding folks who you are, maybe a little bit about your journey leading you to your role at Pentera. That'd be fantastic.
[00:02:00] Aviv Cohen: So thank you, Sean. Um, my name is Aviv Cohen. I'm the chief marketing officer for Pentera. I've been here for about six years. Um, and been in the industry for over 20 years. Um, you know, Pantera, first, for those who, just to refresh, builds a software platform to test and validate that your cyber security actually works.
Answer the question, does my cyber security defenses as a whole work against modern attacks? And the platform does so by emulating attacks on your infrastructure, cloud, external attack surface. And if your defenses hold, that's good. You get like a good score. And if not, the software tells you what you need to fix.
Actually one step ahead of anything bad happening from the real adversaries. So that's Pantera. As to myself, I had a few incarnations in terms of career. First one was I was an engineer. And that's unique for engineers to end up in marketing. After that, I was a product manager in enterprise software in different verticals.
And, um, after a few years, I kind of turned to be a marketeer. The opportunity prevailed never to look back. And this is my third, uh, CMO role as the head of marketing in a growth or hyper growth company. So that's my story. I can use that as a segue directly to the topic of the book. Like one of the things that, um, you know, my career taught me is that If you're just selling, selling, selling and marketing, whatever you have to sell, uh, it kind of loses its effect and loses its edge.
You need to be part of an industry. You can't just, you know, want people to go your way, that there is some kind of reciprocity of Of give and tape and participate and share. And if you embed yourself, uh, really, truly with intent, uh, with your prospects and customers and try and add value in the process, eventually it will come back to you in the form of good business, good, retailable business.
So that's my philosophy has to do a lot with respect. And as part of that, uh, of that journey of that being, and talking to customer, I had this. You know, random discussion, uh, over a beer with, uh, one of the CISOs that we serve, and we're talking about our family. And, you know, I told him, do your kids actually know what, what you do?
Say, not so much. They don't have much idea. You know, daddy does something with computers or, uh, mommy does something boring, say, you know, that's not okay. That's not okay. They should admire, should actually admire you. And then out of that discussion, thinking about it in the hotel. You know, I said, maybe we should do something about that.
Maybe we should actually help security professionals explain what they do at home. Let's, let's start with that to their own children, to their own offspring. So that's how it all started.
[00:05:43] Sean Martin: I love it. I love it. And you did a nice segue there. I was going to ask you about, uh, your LinkedIn profile, um, your description of your.
If your role talks about, uh, together with a dream team, you're forming and executing a marketing strategy and introduce automation to cyber risk validation around the world. And the word, and we've talked about automation before when we spoke, I believe, and I'm going to tie that to what you described in terms of helping people understand.
Because what, we're here to talk about the book. Let me, let me just mention the name of the book, as well. It's Cyber Defenders, What Do Cyber Parents Do? And it's an, uh, an animated book. And, um, yep, perfect. Thanks for showing that. And I heard somebody else say this before, and this is why I'm segwaying this, because you, you want to connect what we do with more people.
And, and how do you do that? Um, you get That message to as many people as possible. What's the best way to do that? You automate it. What's a good way to do that in written form through a book. And so I don't know if, if that played a role in your mind. And I'm, I'm being very technical. I too was an engineer, product manager, marketing person.
So I ended up, I ended up back in the engineering world sometimes and thinking about how things work. But did you think about how to, what's the best way? To get this story. I mean, I immediately think book when I think story now, I think podcast, cause I'm a podcaster, but what, what was your thought process?
Um, there, am I, am I making too much of it?
[00:07:29] Aviv Cohen: In that sense, the engineering, uh, the engineering hat, uh, wasn't of much help. It's true that when it comes to Pantera, uh, taking something that was completely manual and making it automated and computer based, computer powered. You know, uh, enables you to do a thousand times more when it comes to validating your security words.
That's true. When it came to the book, it was much more like a touch with actual people. Uh, the book Castle Defenders, again, uh, it was about respect. So, you know, I was, I was thinking and, you know, I read, I visit, I speak a lot. And I realized... And it all began back in the COVID days. I realized that we admire some of the workers in our society.
We, we think very highly of fire people, firefighters, essential healthcare workers, of course, soldiers who protect us, policemen who help us, uh, you know, keep things in order and protect us from criminals. But we don't think of cyber security personnel as those people who help keep our way of life and protect us from criminals as well in the same way.
Maybe because their life per se are not in line. You know, as, as, as a course of their duty. But if you think about it like a bit deeper, what happens if for one day, one day only all our firewalls and cyber defenses go down instantly. You don't have transportation, communication, finance. Health care, food, energy, all of that just goes, you know, comes to a halt.
We actually owe a lot to these people, to these cyber defenders in the private and public sector, who actually, uh, preserve, preserve our society from cyber criminals. And so I think, you know, whatever, you know, what we do here in Pantera is really helping society. And I also think that our customers deserve more, deserve more respect from society for what they do.
So that was the, you know, another, let's say, um, basis that brought the book, um, you know, from a dream to something that happened. When it comes to validating it, you know, after a few discussions, we came out with the idea and let me just tell you a little bit about the book that I'm showing here. It's a book, it's like a bedtime book.
You read it to your children. And the analogy is that there's a castle to be defended and How do you defend it has a direct analogy to how do you defend the enterprise from cyber attackers. Uh, it talks about the castle, the keys, the doors, the moat, and the children in the book actually join their parents and Idealize the parents at the end of it.
Here's another nice page, uh, and drawing about joining the fight, helping the Paris protect the castle. The nice thing about it is that as people grow up, you know, the idealize and follow suit. You know, they're role models. So how can your parent be a role model if you don't understand what he does? You understand if your parent is a doctor.
And I, so I want to be a doctor. But if my, my, um, my father or mother do something like some cyber thing, how would I grow to want to go about the same path? We want that to start in an earlier age. Cybersecurity, uh, professionals are actually heroes in my mind, and I think the book kind of makes them that, you know, in front of their kids who would understand for the first time, uh, what they do.
[00:11:47] Sean Martin: Yeah, it's, it's, uh, it's a beautiful thing of even that, and I have to say it's, it's beautifully illustrated as well, um, and... When people read it, they'll see that, that it's, it, it starts off in a, in a home setting with the parents and the kids and they start talking about things and, and, and there's, it's interesting because I've, I often view...
Technology and cyber security is a bit of magic. There's a magical moment where the kids envision this castle that needs to be defended. And, and to your point earlier where it said it's a bedtime story, they end up in bed, in, in a different, different place of understanding, right? Um, so it's, I'm not going to give away the story, that's why I'm being very obtuse here.
But, um, but it's... I love that it's for giving parents a way to help their kids understand, which does a number of things. One helps the kids understand and respect and look up to that role, and then perhaps even want to play a part. In cyber defense in some form or another, which we all know we sorely need in this world.
More, more cyber defenders. Um, can you tell me, I mean, you're in my feedback. I think, I think it's, uh, it's beautifully done. What, what other feedback have you received from, from, uh, parents and others that have, I've read the book.
[00:13:25] Aviv Cohen: So, um, a lot of people, uh, got the book and actually without us asking, put up, uh, a LinkedIn post with them reading it to their children.
They had their bedtime. Uh, and, and actually we, they also said that the, the, the children wanted like a second reading. Read it again. Read it again, Dad. Um, so, uh, that's the best feedback we could have. Definitely, uh, people are, uh, you know, raving about the book. It's very well received, and it seems that it kind of fit in the place that that was.
That's missing or lacking. And that place also has to do with parenting. Like we know when we grow our children, we say, don't go to that place. Don't talk to strangers. Don't give out your key information. That's when it comes to the real world. But it seems that in many cases, parents don't have these talks when it comes to the online world.
Uh, some of them because they didn't grow up having these discussions from their parents, right? It's a, it's a, it's a change of generation. So the book provides an opportunity about talking about online safety. And online fraud and actually understanding that not everything and everyone that you meet is actually exactly who you think they may be.
And it does also promote, uh, online, online safety in terms of children and also cyber education to understand how the internet runs and goes and, um, making them more aware, let's say, of phishing attacks and such. So after the first big motivation of paying respect to our customers, the second one was actually helping in parenting and educate, educating in this area of Cyber security literacy, if I may, and online safety.
The book actually, at the end, has also the ten... Yes, the cyber rules. Ten cyber security rules. Here we go. Ten cyber security rules, right? Uh, to stay safe online. And after the story, it ends up with a few rules about, um, maintaining, let's say, you know, keeping your passwords and your personal data to yourself.
So I think that ends up with the kids not only understanding what the parents do, not only having that wonderful family moment, but also getting some tools to protect themselves better and, uh, see things for, for what they are. And it starts, you know, everyone has. An iPad and, and children have iPhones or, or phones in a much younger age than they used to.
So I hope that that helps as well.
[00:16:24] Sean Martin: Su super important. And I wanna point out one last thing, uh, before we wrap up here is that it's not just beautifully illustrated book written to bring kids to a place, a fantasy world. That's that's real right, for their parents. But it does it. with rhyme. So it's not just telling, not just telling a story.
It's a rhyme. I was reading through some of the, some of the lines and, and they're, they're really great. Uh, the way they, they kind of, they bounce and, and at least as for me, as I was going through it, they kind of. Kind of keep me going and uplifting me and bring drag and not dragging but bringing Leon bring me along the story Which I think is is also goes probably great to to hear as a kid Having it read to you.
[00:17:18] Aviv Cohen: Yeah, I think rhymes kind of make it roll where you're looking for the next rhyme. And by the way, we got children psychologists also kind of Reviewing the book and giving comments to make sure like it's right. So let's say one sentence here, uh, with your permission, the internet is a connected web of fiber creating what we call the world of cyber.
There is a thing where it kind of rolls over your tongue and, um, and together with the pictures, it, Turns it to more of an experience rather than just, uh, something dull. I think, I think it was part of the fun of making the book this way.
[00:18:03] Sean Martin: Absolutely. I mean, a rhyme is fun to listen to and also fun to read.
Like you just said, it rolled off your tongue as well. And that's what I felt. It just naturally comes out, which is fun for a parent to have too. It makes it fun. Well, Aviv, it's a pleasure to have you on the show again. Pleasure to see you and, uh, and, uh, hope all is well there for you and yours. And, uh, thanks to you and Ben Terra for putting this together.
[00:18:36] Aviv Cohen: Yeah, I just want to say that the book... Castle Defenders, What Cyberparents Do, can be found on Amazon at a very affordable price. Um, you can send us, of course, a mail if you'd like us to send you one and you're a cyber security professional. But otherwise, it's, uh, you can pick it up off Amazon and get it, like, audiobook.
Uh, version of it and future versions in different languages, but, uh, due to its great success. So, just adding this plug about where you can actually get it.
[00:19:17] Sean Martin: Absolutely. And I was going to do that plug for you, but, uh, you know best where it is, but, uh, for all the listeners and watchers, there will be a link to access this straight away.
So you don't have to remember anything. Just click the link in the notes and away you'll, away you'll go to, uh, to get your own book, Cyber Defenders, uh, Council Defenders, sorry, what do cyber parents do? Uh, brought to you by the good folks at Pantera Aviv. Thank you so much, and thanks to the rest of the team for all that you do to, uh, keep everybody safe, and thanks everybody for, for listening and reading and learning and recognizing that, uh, cyber defenders deserve our respect and, uh, and support in every way possible.
So, thanks everybody. Thank you, Sean.