For our second installment of the Road to Interchange series (see the first one here), we interviewed Ivanti security guru, Chris Goettl. Chris is the Director of Product Management for Security at Ivanti and is famous for his monthly Patch Tuesday analysis webinars. He is also the owner of the Security Controls Lab at Interchange Madrid and Interchange Nashville.

2018 Security Round Up

Although this episode is technically about Interchange, you can’t have The Man, The Myth, The Legend, Chris Goettl on the pod without diving into security a bit. We asked Chris about the security matters that are keeping him up at night. The obvious answer to this is the Meltdown and Spectre chaos going on all year, although he mentioned Meltdown and Spectre were a lot of bark with less bite.

Here is the full podcast episode:

Chris also discusses the serious architectural vulnerability in the CPU (a physical vulnerability) that can be exploited in a number of ways. There has been a lot of fear and urgency around this vulnerability in 2018, especially with its many variants. It’s been exhausting to say the least, although it actually hasn’t been exploited in the wild yet as far as we know.

He also discusses the importance of coming back to the basics, the SamSam ransomware creators getting brought to justice, and the growing importance of application control. According to Chris, “There are four things you can do to eliminate 85 percent of threats out there today: Patching the operating systems, patching applications including third-party applications, application control, and privilege management. These four things are the core of a good security strategy.”

Interchange 2019

Chris gives us a sneak peek into what you can expect in the security track at Interchange Nashville and Madrid. The security track will be full of great product demos, new reveals and innovation unveilings, and hands-on labs where attendees can really play in our products.

We also have some best practices sessions scheduled. We’ll have one session that dives into the makings of a good security program with recommendations you can bring back to your team. We’ll have our popular annual Patch Management Best Practices session, and a new Application Control and Privilege Management Best Practices Session.

This is Chris’ sixth Interchange, and so he shares one of his favorite memories from past events. Last year, Interchange Madrid fell over Patch Tuesday. Chris was planning on missing the Patch Tuesday webinar and having it hosted by Todd Schell and Brian Secrist (the webinar co-hosts) instead. However, there were enough requests from Patch Tuesday regulars at the conference for a live webinar recording, they decided to make it happen. So last minute, the events team and Chris pulled together a Patch Tuesday webinar, scrambling to cover logistics like finding a room to use. It ended up working out and was a fun (albeit stressful) last minute addition to the conference.

Another fun memory from last year’s Interchange was the ongoing popularity contest between Chris and Ivanti Manager for Product Management for UEM, Rex McMillan. Chris and Rex had two of the most popular sessions at Interchange last year, the only problem was, they were scheduled at the same time. They were next door to each other, and many people stood in the hallways and tried to catch both. On the podcast, Chris determines the biggest reason you should attend Interchange is to decide once and for all who is more popular, Chris or Rex.

Jokes aside, Chris gives great insight into why you should attend the conference. “The number one reason why people should go to Interchange is it is a great opportunity to get up close and personal with the product teams, to hear about what we are doing from a product perspective, to get hands on with our designers to help shape the experience of the product, and to give feedback. We have every product manager in the company there and many experts, all are a captive audience for you.”

Information about Interchange

Interchange Madrid is March 11-14 at the Madrid Marriott Auditorium Hotel. For 50 Euros off the early bird price of Interchange Madrid, use code INTPODMAD19.

Interchange Nashville is April 29-May 2 at the Gaylord Opryland Resort. For $100 off the early bird price of Interchange Nashville, use code INTPODNASH19. Subscribe to the Interchange IT Podcast for more updates on the Road to Interchange.