Practical Cybersecurity with Jen Stone

PCI DSS 4.0.1 has been the standard for a while now, but a lot of organizations are still stuck on the same handful of requirements. In this episode, Jen Stone sits down with Matt Halbleib, Director of Assessments at SecurityMetrics, to break down where SMBs keep getting tripped up — and how to fix it. Key topics covered: Why you need to read the actual standard (not just the summary of changes) — and why the PDF version matters Getting senior management buy-in and putting a real p...

You can pass your PCI assessment and still be leaking cardholder data. In e-commerce, compliant and secure are not the same thing — and AI just made the gap between them a lot harder to ignore. In this episode, SecurityMetrics Principal Security Analyst Jen Stone is joined by forensic investigator Aaron Willis and [HOST NAME] for a practitioner panel on how AI is reshaping attacks on cardholder data — and why passing PCI DSS 4.0.1 isn't the same as being safe. It's a repurposed webinar buil...

How much of your business actually needs to be PCI compliant? Almost always less than you think. Every system inside your PCI scope is something you have to secure, document, and prove — year after year. So the fastest way to cut the cost and effort of compliance isn't working harder on controls. It's making your scope smaller. In this episode, Principal Security Analysts Jen Stone and Michael Simpson break down how PCI scope actually works — the three buckets every system falls into, the con...

About 100 authorized assessors. An estimated 118,000+ companies that need to be assessed. That math is the reason CMMC can't wait — and it's where this conversation starts. Brett Cox, lead CMMC Certified Assessor and head of Boeing's DFARS CMMC Program Management Office, joins host Jen Stone to explain what the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification actually requires, why the November 2026 third-party assessment deadline is creating a bottleneck, and how a small or mid-sized contractor sh...

First time filling out a PCI SAQ? In this episode, two QSAs who've scoped hundreds of payment environments walk you through how to pick the right one—so you don't end up with the wrong form, the wrong security controls, and the wrong amount of risk. Choosing the right PCI DSS Self-Assessment Questionnaire (SAQ) isn't just a paperwork decision. Pick the wrong form and you can leave blind spots in your network security or lock yourself into compliance requirements you never needed. In this epis...