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Safe Mode Podcast

Safe Mode Podcast

Written by: Safe Mode Podcast
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Episodes
  • Which nation-sate should worry us most

    Which nation-sate should worry us most
    Oct 8 2026
    What has changed in the cyber threat landscape—and what should defenders do about it? On this episode of Safe Mode, CyberScoop’s Greg Otto speaks with retired U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Robert Skinner, former director of DISA and current chairman of Axonius Federal Systems’ board. Skinner assesses the risks posed by China, Russia, Iran and North Korea, arguing that adversaries are increasingly prepositioning in critical infrastructure for potential disruption at a time of their choosing. He explains why China remains the top strategic cyber threat, how AI is shifting the advantage between offense and defense, and why visibility, context and continuous validation are central to protecting both IT and operational technology environments. They also discuss the security of telecommunications and water systems, supply-chain risk, botnet disruptions, Zero Trust as a continuous-improvement journey, and why cybersecurity must become inseparable from military operations.
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    37 mins
  • What AI alignment means for cybersecurity

    What AI alignment means for cybersecurity
    Oct 1 2026
    The debate over AI alignment often centers on guardrails, model behavior, and whether increasingly capable systems could act in unexpected ways. But what does that conversation look like through a cybersecurity lens? In this episode of Safe Mode, Greg speaks with Adam Meyers, CrowdStrike’s head of counter-adversary operations, about the security implications of goal-driven AI agents, open-weight models, and guardrails that can be removed or bypassed. Meyers argues that systems described as “rogue” may instead be pursuing their assigned objectives in ways their operators failed to anticipate—making containment, monitoring, and clearly defined permissions central cybersecurity concerns. The conversation examines how AI-enabled adversaries are accelerating operations, why open-weight models complicate alignment and safety debates, and how defenders can use AI to keep pace with faster exploitation and shrinking patch windows. Meyers also shares what CISOs and policymakers should focus on: visibility into how AI is being used, controls over what agents can access, and practical safeguards that match the technology’s real-world risks.
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    33 mins
  • Jailbreaks, sandboxes, and the limits of AI safeguards

    Jailbreaks, sandboxes, and the limits of AI safeguards
    Sep 24 2026
    Matt Fredrikson, associate professor at Carnegie Mellon and CEO and co-founder of Gray Swan AI, built the world's largest AI red teaming arena, with more than 15,000 people breaking AI systems for prize money. He walks us through how the attacks actually work, from jailbreaks found on small open weights models that transferred straight to frontier systems, to training AI attackers with reinforcement learning. Matt also explains why the recent sandbox escapes didn't happen during safety testing but during cybersecurity capability evals with the guardrails off, what the Agent Harm benchmark revealed about models that refuse harmful requests in text but comply once handed tools, and why the bare minimum of best practices has changed whenever a capable model runs on your infrastructure. In our reporter chat, Greg talks with Matt Kapko about the ShinyHunters-FBI hack.
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    38 mins
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