Sound Check from Zero Trust World (966)

Hello, friends, Uncle Marv here with another episode of the IT Business Podcast. And I am coming at you sort of live from Orlando, Florida. We are at Zero Trust World 2026 at the Rosen Shingle Creek.

And I'm using this as kind of a, I don't know, sound check, my first recording here. And I want to get a sense of how it feels. Plus, I want to be able to do some things that I probably will forget to do when I start doing interviews.

One of the things that I always forget to do is thank the sponsors that have helped me get here. First of all, a huge shout out to ThreatLocker for allowing me to come and be a member of the media and be able to record these podcasts here. My setup is a little different.

Normally, I have a dedicated table and I have the option to record when I want, and I can get guests scheduled and stuff like that. This time it did not happen. I'm actually in a shared space.

It is a ThreatLocker branded location that I'll be sharing with other podcasters and media persons here. Depending on how I edit this after the show, you might hear a lot of background noise. We are in the vendor hall.

This happened last year where I was in the vendor hall. There will be food and dinner plates and glasses and all sorts of noise coming through here. Expect that.

I apologize ahead of time. I don't know exactly how much I'll filter out, but that is also going to happen. That's where we're at this year.

I also don't know how many interviews that I will get. Some of you will be happy because I'm sure it won't be 20 as usually happens on some of the conferences that I go to. I don't have any... Well, let me rephrase that.

I have one tentatively scheduled now, so I'm going to have to be scrambling to get my interviews set up for the next couple of days. I don't think I'm interviewing any of the ThreatLocker people either. I usually have access to Danny Jenkins while I'm here.

That did not happen ahead of time. The person that I worked with last year is no longer with ThreatLocker, so I had some new people and I'm probably low on their totem pole. Well, I probably shouldn't have said that, but hopefully we'll get more access next year.

I do want to also thank NetAlly and 1Stream. They are the technology sponsors this year for 2026, so normally they would have a banner here with their logo on it. And because of the way the branding is here, I told you I don't have a dedicated space, so most of the branding is going to be ThreatLocker.

But I do want to make sure that I specifically call out NetAlly and 1Stream as technology partners this year. I also want to acknowledge TruGrid. TruGrid is one of the travel partners and they also will not have their banner up as well.

But these are the people that are helping me to make these events and be able to travel and bring you the good news. So for those that may not know Zero Trust World, what is it? Well, it is basically three days of practical cybersecurity content, real world strategies, live demos and sessions. This is one of those. 

It is super, super security focused. And every time, everybody always talks about the content being right on point. You don't really feel like you're sitting in a wasted session.

Even the keynote speakers, all the people up on stage, they are all fantastic and bring something. This year, they have gone all out. There are a ton of names that you should know, starting with Adam Savage.

He's the gentleman that was on the show MythBusters. He is going to be one of the keynote speakers. Jason Silva.

I know that he's one of these technology speakers. He hosts a show and sorry, I did not do enough research. I didn't bring any paper with me.

I think he's on National Geographic. Channel, he does a lot of forward thinking when it comes to technology, AI and where we might be going. Linus Sebastian, you may know him only as Linus.

Why am I going berserk here? The Linux text guy, the Linux guy. Linus is here. Who else is here? Oh, Teresa Payton, the first female CIO at the White House.

I interviewed her a few years ago when she was down at one of the ASCII events. She is going to be here as well. And of course, your usual suspects, Danny Jenkins, Rob Allen are going to be all over the place.

There again is going to be the challenge, the Control Alt Hack, the PC contest. There is a custom PC that is sitting here in the vendor hall. It is supposedly worth $5,000.

It is a custom-made machine. And if you hack it, you get it. And that should be very interesting there.

And one of the other things here, if you've got staff and you want them to become certified as a cyber hero, each morning, ThreatLocker gives them the opportunity to do the test, pass the exam. I don't know if they did this before, but I know that this year, if you pass the exam, you get your full registration fee refunded. And that's huge, $595, not so shabby.

And then, of course, you get the CPE credits that you can take back to the office. Let's see here. Last night, I got in last night.

Today is Wednesday. I got in late last night. I worked in Fort Lauderdale, drove up last night.

I did make it in time to visit the welcome reception. You probably saw me post a few pictures already. There will be an after-party Thursday night after we are all done here.

It's not going to be Florida, not going to be Nelly or anything like that. It is going to be a space themed party. No, you will not see me dressed up in a costume, but there will be lots of people there.

I think that's probably it. I think that's all the stuff I wanted to get out there. Again, do this mic check.

And if you are not, well, I can't say it this way, because by the time you hear this, the show will be over. So I can't tell you to stop by, say hello. But I will say Orlando, Florida, next year, folks, Zero Trust World, Thet Locker, plan ahead, come down.

Fantastic space here. I don't know if it'll be at the Rose and Shingle Creek again next year. But this is that venue.

Everybody loves it. It's big. It's spread out.

The accommodations are nice. And of course, you get to hang out here. Oh, I do know that.

So they're going to be doing. Let's see. I think there's not only Microsoft 365 security tuning, SQL injection training, but apparently they give out rubber duckies.

So if you're somebody who wants to be able to practice with your cyber exploits and stuff, I don't know if I'm going to get one. Again, I don't know. I know my schedule for podcasting, but I haven't yet checked to see if I can make the sessions where these things are handed out.

But that's another thing. If you are big in security, you can come here and get a rubber ducky and all of that. So, all right, that's it.

Let me get finished setting up here, get my banners up and get ready to go. You'll get, I don't know, five, six, hopefully episodes here from Zero Trust World. Thank you very much for tuning in and we'll see you all soon.

And until then, Holla!