Episode 4: The National Institute of Standards and Technology's (NIST) release of its new post-quantum cryptography standards last summer was the quiet start of a new chapter in cybersecurity. Now no longer something that can be filed away for future reference, post-quantum encryption has officially landed on the desks of cybersecurity leaders worldwide.

We wanted to explore what comes next, so we recruited some world-class experts to help get answers. This episode of Dark Reading Confidential digs the world of quantum computing from a cybersecurity practitioner's point of view -- with guests Matthew McFadden, vice president, Cyber, General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT) and Thomas Scanlon, professor, Heinz College, Carnegie Mellon University.

They give practical advice on how to manage the upgrade of post-quantum standards across an array of systems, and how to prioritize the most critical cryptography vulnerabilities inside your organization. From threat actors to regulators, the pressure to update to post-quantum standards is on. This episode of Dark Reading Confidential is focused on what to do about it.

Take a listen.

Episode 3: On September 11, 2019, two cybersecurity professionals were arrested in Dallas County, Iowa and forced to spend the night in jail -- just for doing their jobs. Gary De Mercurio and Justin Wynn ultimately found themselves used as pawns in a very public and ugly power dispute between the local county Sheriff's office and the state, forced to justify the physical penetration test that the state of Iowa had hired them to conduct. Despite the criminal charges against them eventually being dropped, the saga that night five years ago continues to haunt De Mercurio and Wynn personally and professionally. In this episode, the pair and Coalfire's CEO Tom McAndrew share how the arrest and fallout has shaped their lives and careers as well as how it has transformed physical penetration tests for the cybersecurity industry as a whole.

Episode 2: When a business gets infected with ransomware - its systems and data locked down by cybercriminals - there is rarely a quick fix to get back up and running. Sometimes the nature of the attack and the lack of backup options force the victim organization to pony up and pay ransom to the attackers. That's typically where a ransomware negotiator – often a third-party incident responder – steps in. These are the experts who communicate and negotiate with the ransomware attackers on the ransom demands, with the goal of decrypting locked-down systems so the victim business can get fully back up and running. In Episode 2 of Dark Reading Confidential, we meet two professional ransomware negotiators who share their real-world stories of the delicate deal-making process with cybercriminals who hold victims' computer systems and data for ransom. Among their stories: How they negotiated with cybercriminals to restore operations in a hospital NICU where lives were at stake, and a negotiation on behalf of a church, when the attackers themselves got "a little religion."