The odds remain badly stacked against the defender. As we hurtle toward a digital ecosystem populated by a trillion AI agents, the Universal Threat Ecosystem (UTE) is expanding at an asymmetric rate. The traditional security stack—obsessed with detection and response—is fundamentally broken because it requires a "Patient Zero." It waits for the compromise to occur before it rings the alarm.

In this episode of The Defender’s Log, David Redekop sits down with Francois, CISO and partner at ADAMnetworks, to dismantle the "Whack-a-mole" approach to cybersecurity. From the high-stakes world of film production and technical diving to the front lines of cyber warfare, Francois shares how a life spent mitigating physical risk informed a "Default Deny-all" posture.

The Asymmetric Challenge

We are currently witnessing the rise of Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) in the hands of the adversary. Initial Access Brokers (IAB) and Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS) operators are using the defender’s own AI tools to train malware to be invisible. If your strategy relies on identifying "known bad," you have already lost.

Why "True Proactive" Defense is Mandatory:

• Neutralize Egress: If the malware cannot "call home" to its Command & Control (C2), the ATTACK IS DISRUPTED.

• Eliminate the Patient Zero Requirement: By moving the security boundary to the DNS layer with a Zero Trust Resolver, we stop connections to unknown and unverified entities.

• Sovereign Capability: Reclaim control over your network’s connectivity. Stop letting the internet happen to you and start shaping it.

Detection is a post-mortem. Prevention is sovereignty.

Francois and David explore the human element of the "Sheepdog mentality" and why the next generation of Blue Teamers must move beyond the application layer (Layer 7) and harden the foundation of connectivity itself.

Key Technical Concepts Discussed:

• Zero Trust Connectivity (ZTC): Moving beyond identity to strict connection control.

• OT & IoT Vulnerabilities: Why agentless protection is the only path forward for critical infrastructure.

• Preemptive Defense: Cutting off the attacker's resources before the infrastructure is even fully deployed.

In a world of a trillion AI agents, where the adversary uses your own defenses to train their attacks, can you afford to maintain a "Detect and Respond" posture? At what point does the convenience of an "open" network become an existential liability for your organization?

Defending the Internet, One Domain at a Time

In this episode of The Defender’s Log, host David Redekop sits down with Peter Lowe, the creator and maintainer of one of the internet’s most widely used blocklists, a resource quietly protecting users for over 27 years.

What started as a personal effort to block intrusive ads has evolved into a critical layer of modern cybersecurity infrastructure. Peter shares the technical, ethical, and human realities of maintaining a blocklist at internet scale, from DNS-based blocking and privacy challenges to dealing with criticism, threats, and constant technological change.

The conversation also explores unexpected territory: how language, culture, and communication shape security, why defaults in operating systems matter more than most users realize, and how Apple, Microsoft, and modern platforms influence privacy at scale.

This episode isn’t just about blocking domains; it’s about trust, responsibility, and defending the open internet without owning it.

The internet is a collision of legacy protocols and modern asymmetric threats. In this episode of The Defenders Log, I sit down with the man who built the foundation: Dr. Paul Mockapetris, the inventor of the Domain Name System (DNS).

We don't just reminisce about the 1980s; we dissect how the Universal Threat Ecosystem (UTE) has weaponized the very decentralization that made the internet possible. The failure today does not come from gross negligence, but the imperfect application of the current stack. The odds remain badly stacked against the defender. While generic tools focus on detection, which is fundamentally too late, this conversation pivots toward Zero Trust Connectivity (ZTC).

• The "Whack-a-Mole" Reality: Why chasing RaaS and IABs through traditional feeds is a losing game.
• Default Deny-All: Dr. Mockapetris explains his "day job"—making sure DNS doesn't work when you don't want it to.
• The DoH/DoT Trap: How hyperscalers are centralizing authority and eroding Sovereign Capabilities.
• Agentic AI: Preparing for a world with trillions of automated agents jabbering across your infrastructure.

If you want to survive the next evolution of cyber warfare, you must shut down egress to the attacker. It is time to move beyond simple resolution and toward a hardened state of prevention.

#CyberSecurity #ZeroTrust #DNS #ZTC #ThreatIntelligence #ADAMnetworks #InfoSec #CyberWarfare #PaulMockapetris #SovereignCapability #DefaultDeny