When your firewall forgets to buckle up, the crash doesn’t happen in the network first, it happens in your blindspots.

In this episode, Ron is joined by returning guest Chris Hughes, Co-Founder of Aquia and host of the Resilient Cyber podcast. Chris helps reframe vulnerability work as exposure management, connect technical risk to human resilience, and break down the scoring and runtime tools security teams actually need today. Expect clear takeaways on EPSS, reachability analysis, ADR, AI’s double-edged role, and the one habit Chris swears by as a CEO. This episode fuses attack-surface reality with mental-attack-surface strategy so you walk away with both tactical moves and daily practices that protect systems and people.

Impactful Moments:

00:00 - Intro

02:00 - Breaking: Fortinet WAF zero-day & visibility lesson

05:00 - Meet Chris Hughes: CEO, author, Resilient Cyber host

08:00 - Mental attack surface explained and why it matters

18:00 - From CVSS to EPSS, reachability, and ADR realities

21:00 - AI as force-multiplier for attackers and defenders

24:30 - Exposure vs vulnerability naming, market trends

26:00 - Chris’s book & how to follow his work

30:00 - Ron’s solo: 3 pillars to patch your mindset

34:00 - Closing takeaways and subscribe reminder

Links:

Connect with our guest, Chris Hughes, on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/resilientcyber/

Check out the article on the Fortinet exploit here: https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2025/11/14/fortinet-fortiweb-zero-day-exploited/ 

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