Lights On Data Show

George Firican interviews Chris Bevil, former CISO and principal consultant at Commvault, about identity resilience—recovering to a clean, trusted state after an identity attack succeeds. They discuss why identity has become a primary target as cloud/SaaS, hybrid work, federation, and AI agents expand the attack surface and speed of compromise. Using examples like the Change Healthcare incident and an incident-response case where attackers stole session tokens, escalated privileges, created privileged accounts, and disabled defenses, they emphasize business impact, downtime, and loss of trust. Chris Bevil argues teams must break silos, define minimum viable operations, and technically test recovery in small chunks. He outlines Commvault’s pillars: assess attack paths and exposures, detect with continuous visibility, recover precisely (down to objects like users/groups), and keep tools/procedures accessible, stressing evidence-based readiness over tabletop-only plans.

Most organizations treat "human in the loop" like a solved design pattern. Dr. Fern Halper, VP of Research at TDWI and author of Data Makes the World Go 'Round, says it's often just a checkbox — and that the real risk isn't agents replacing us, it's losing the judgment we'd need to supervise them.In this episode, George Firican talks with Fern about why organizations stall on AI, what's actually different about agentic AI, automation bias, the erosion of original thought, and why trust deserves equal billing with data and technology in any AI strategy.AI Foundations Group: https://www.aifoundationsgroup.com/Data Makes The World Go Round: https://datamakesworld.com/

Join George Firican on the Light On Data Show as he discusses the concept of Data Governance 2.0 with Nagim Ashufta, founder and CEO of Driva. They explore the shift from traditional data governance to a collaborative, AI-powered model. Learn about the importance of stewardship, connecting data creators and consumers, ethical AI interactions, and practical steps for successful data governance implementation.

Join George Firican in this insightful episode of the Lights On Data Show as he interviews Matthew Le Merle, Silicon Valley investor and co-founder of Fifth Era Partners. They discuss how blockchain technology is revolutionizing banking, payments, and asset management. La Merrill shares his perspective on blockchain's ability to enhance speed, transparency, and cost-efficiency in financial transactions, and the inherent challenges for legacy financial institutions. He also delves into the role of innovative startups in driving this transformation and provides an overview of his investment strategies at Fifth Era Partners.

In this episode of the Lights On Data Show, host George Firican and guest Scott Eganhouse, Salesforce Address Data Evangelist, discuss the critical role of National Change of Address (NCOA) in data governance, compliance, and AI readiness. They delve into how NCOA updates can significantly improve CRM accuracy, reduce costs from return mail, and enhance trust and analytics. Scott also shares insights on the common misconceptions about address verification and the importance of a people-first data strategy. Tune in to learn how investing in NCOA can yield high dividends for your organization.