This episode focuses on a security incident that prompts an honest discussion about transparency, preparedness, and the importance of strong processes. Sean Martin speaks with Viktor Petersson, Founder and CEO of Screenly, who shares how his team approaches digital signage security and how a recent alert from their bug bounty program helped validate the strength of their culture and workflows.

Screenly provides a secure digital signage platform used by organizations that care deeply about device integrity, uptime, and lifecycle management. Healthcare facilities, financial services, and even NASA rely on these displays, which makes the security posture supporting them a priority. Viktor outlines why security functions best when embedded into culture rather than treated as a compliance checkbox. His team actively invests in continuous testing, including a structured bug bounty program that generates a steady flow of findings.

The conversation centers on a real event: a report claiming that more than a thousand user accounts appeared in a public leak repository. Instead of assuming the worst or dismissing the claim, the team mobilized within hours. They validated the dataset, built correlation tooling, analyzed how many records were legitimate, and immediately reset affected accounts. Once they ruled out a breach of their systems, they traced the issue to compromised end user devices associated with previously known credential harvesting incidents.

This scenario demonstrates how a strong internal process helps guide the team through verification, containment, and communication. Viktor emphasizes that optional security features only work when customers use them, which is why Screenly is moving to passwordless authentication using magic links. Removing passwords eliminates the attack vector entirely, improving security for customers without adding friction.

For listeners, this episode offers a clear look at what rapid response discipline looks like, how bug bounty reports can add meaningful value, and why passwordless authentication is becoming a practical way forward for SaaS platforms. It is a timely reminder that transparency builds trust, and security culture determines how confidently a team can navigate unexpected events.

Learn more about Screenly: https://itspm.ag/screenly1o

Note: This story contains promotional content. Learn more.

GUEST

Viktor Petersson, Co-founder of Screenly | On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vpetersson/

RESOURCES

Learn more and catch more stories from Screenly: https://www.itspmagazine.com/directory/screenly

LinkedIn Post: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/vpetersson_screenly-security-incident-response-how-activity-7393741638918971392-otkk

Blog: Security Incident Response: How We Investigated a Data Leak and What We're Doing Next: https://www.screenly.io/blog/2025/11/10/security-incident-response-magic-links/

Are you interested in telling your story?
▶︎ Full Length Brand Story: https://www.studioc60.com/content-creation#full
▶︎ Spotlight Brand Story: https://www.studioc60.com/content-creation#spotlight

Keywords: sean martin, marco ciappelli, viktor petersson, security, authentication, bugbounty, signage, incidentresponse, breaches, cybersecurity, brand story, brand marketing, marketing podcast, brand story podcast, brand spotlight

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⬥EPISODE NOTES⬥

Understanding the Startup Engine Behind Cybersecurity

This episode brings Sean Martin together with Ross Haleliuk, author, investor, product leader, and creator of Venture Insecurity, for a candid look at the forces shaping cybersecurity startups today. Ross shares how his decade of product leadership and long involvement in the security community give him a unique perspective on what drives founders, what creates market gaps, and why new companies keep entering a space already full of tools.

Why Security Produces So Many Products

Ross explains that the large number of security tools is not evidence of an industry losing control. Instead, it reflects a technology ecosystem where entrepreneurship has become easier and where attackers, not practitioners, define what defenders need. Because threats shift constantly, security leaders must always look for clues on what could fail next. That constant uncertainty fuels innovation.

What Motivates Founders

Despite outside assumptions, Ross observes that most founders are motivated by the problems they have lived themselves. Some come from enterprise teams. Others come from military backgrounds. Many find traction with early open source work. Few come into cybersecurity to chase quick wins, and most do not survive long enough to chase profits even if they wanted to.

Security as Business Enablement

Sean and Ross discuss the role of security as a business driver. In regulated sectors, companies invest because they must. In technology companies, strong security is a sales enabler that gives customers confidence to use their products. Outside of tech, the priority is more about resilience and operational continuity.

How Buyers Should Think About Startups

Ross outlines the tradeoffs. Startups deliver speed, responsiveness, fresh architecture, and modern user experience. Large vendors provide stability, predictability, and broad coverage. Neither is perfect. Security leaders should decide based on the importance of the capability, the level of influence they want, and the outcomes they need.

This conversation highlights the practical realities behind the security products organizations choose and the people who build them. Listeners will hear both the optimism and the honesty that define today’s cybersecurity innovation economy.

⬥GUEST⬥

Ross Haleliuk, Security product leader, author, advisor, board member and investor | On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rosshaleliuk/

⬥HOST⬥

Sean Martin, Co-Founder at ITSPmagazine and Host of Redefining CyberSecurity Podcast | On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/imsmartin/ | Website: https://www.seanmartin.com

⬥RESOURCES⬥

Inspiring Blog: https://ventureinsecurity.net/p/not-every-security-leader-works-at

⬥ADDITIONAL INFORMATION⬥

✨ More Redefining CyberSecurity Podcast:

🎧 https://www.seanmartin.com/redefining-cybersecurity-podcast

Redefining CyberSecurity Podcast on YouTube:

📺 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLnYu0psdcllS9aVGdiakVss9u7xgYDKYq

📝 The Future of Cybersecurity Newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/7108625890296614912/

Contact Sean Martin to request to be a guest on an episode of Redefining CyberSecurity: https://www.seanmartin.com/contact

⬥KEYWORDS⬥

sean martin, ross haleliuk, cybersecurity, startups, venture security, founders, innovation, risk, resilience, product strategy, redefining cybersecurity, cybersecurity podcast, redefining cybersecurity podcast

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Author Kate O'Neill's Book "What Matters Next": AI, Meaning, and Why We Can't Delegate Creativity | Redefining Society and Technology with Marco Ciappelli

Kate O'Neill: https://www.koinsights.com/books/what-matters-next-book/
Marco Ciappelli: https://www.marcociappelli.com/

When Kate O'Neill tells me that AI's most statistically probable outcome is actually its least meaningful one, I realize we're talking about something information theory has known for decades - but nobody's applying to the way we're using ChatGPT.

She's a linguist who became a tech pioneer, one of Netflix's first hundred employees, someone who saw the first graphical web browser and got chills knowing everything was about to change. Her new book "What Matters Next" isn't another panic piece about AI or a blind celebration of automation. It's asking the question nobody seems to want to answer: what happens when we optimize for probability instead of meaning?

I've been wrestling with this myself. The more I use AI tools for content, analysis, brainstorming - the more I notice something's missing. The creativity isn't there. It's brilliant for summarization, execution, repetitive tasks. But there's a flatness to it, a regression to the mean that strips away the very thing that makes human communication worth having.

Kate puts it plainly: "There is nothing more human than meaning-making. From semantic meaning all the way out to the philosophical, cosmic worldview - what matters and why we're here."

Every time we hit "generate" and just accept what the algorithm produces, we're choosing efficiency over meaning. We're delegating the creative process to a system optimized for statistical likelihood, not significance.

She laughs when I tell her about my own paradox - that AI sometimes takes MORE time, not less. There's this old developer concept called "yak shaving," where you spend ten times longer writing a program to automate five steps instead of just doing them. But the real insight isn't about time management. It's about understanding the relationship between our thoughts and the tools we use to express them.

In her book "What Matters Next," Kate's message is that we need to stay in the loop. Use AI for ugly first drafts, sure. Let it expedite workflow. But keep going back and forth, inserting yourself, bringing meaning and purpose back into the process. Otherwise, we create what she calls "garbage that none of us want to exist in the world with."

I wrote recently about the paradox of learning when we rely entirely on machines. If AI only knows what we've done in the past, and we don't inject new meaning into that loop, it becomes closed. It's like doomscrolling through algorithms that only feed you what you already like - you never discover anything new, never grow, never challenge yourself.

We're living in a Hybrid Analog Digital Society where these tools are unavoidable and genuinely powerful. The question isn't whether to use them. It's how to use them in ways that amplify human creativity rather than flatten it, that enhance meaning rather than optimize it away.

The dominant narrative right now is efficiency, productivity, automation. But what if the real value isn't doing things faster - it's doing things that actually matter? Technology should serve humanity's purpose. Not the other way around. And that purpose can't be dictated by algorithms trained on statistical likelihood. It has to come from us, from the messy, unpredictable, meaningful work of being human.

My Newsletter?
Yes, of course, it is here: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/7079849705156870144/

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Growing up, I always wondered: why can't cars just recharge themselves as we drive? Turns out, someone finally built exactly that.

Robert Hoevers and his team at Squad Mobility created a solar-powered city car that does something brilliantly simple—it charges itself. There's a solar panel on the roof that continuously feeds the battery whether you're parked at the grocery store, sitting in your driveway, or cruising around town.

The engineering is impressive, but the user experience is even better. For most people living in sunny climates—anywhere between 45 degrees north and 45 degrees south latitude (roughly Spain to South Africa)—you'll never need to find a charging station. Ever.

Here's the reality: the average person drives about 12 kilometers a day for daily errands. School runs, grocery shopping, meeting friends. The Squad solar car has a 150-kilometer maximum range, and the sun replenishes what you use. You just drive it, park it, and forget about charging infrastructure entirely.

This is what smart urban mobility looks like. It's street legal with proper crash structures, seat belts, and rollover protection. It tops out at 45 or 70 kilometers per hour depending on which model you choose—fast enough for city streets, not built for highways. In Europe, you only need a moped license for the slower version.

The design sits somewhere between a golf cart and a Smart car, which makes perfect sense. Squad isn't trying to replace your family vehicle. They're solving the "second car" problem—those short daily trips where driving a massive SUV feels ridiculous.

The market is responding. Squad Mobility has over 5,300 pre-orders and secured 1.5 million euros in European subsidies. They're currently crowdfunding on Republic to bridge the final gap before production starts in about a year.

What surprised me most? Ten percent of their pre-orders come from American gated communities and golf cart neighborhoods. These communities already understand the value of compact, efficient vehicles for daily errands. Squad just made them solar-powered and street legal.

Yes, you need consistent sunlight. If you live in perpetually cloudy climates, you'll still need to plug in occasionally. But for millions of people in sunny regions tired of hunting for charging stations or paying electricity bills to charge their second car, Squad Mobility built the obvious solution that somehow nobody else did.

Sometimes innovation isn't about reinventing the wheel. It's about putting a solar panel on the roof and letting the sun do the work.

This is the future of urban mobility, and it's arriving next year.

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THE SEASONS IN A BREATH

Autumn appeared at the window and looked around
— it was November.

"The leaves are yellow and red.
The swallows fly away in flocks over the rooftops.
The crisp air smells of roasted chestnuts and burning wood.
I like it this way,"
Autumn exclaimed.

Winter opened the door and looked around
— it was January.

"The snow and the freezing wind.
In the woods, mistletoe on branches beneath a blanket of ice.
The marmot sleeps in her covered den, dreaming of the stars.
How lovely it is to be warm and cozy!"
Winter exclaimed.

Spring stepped out onto the terrace and looked around
— it was April.

"The flowers bloom and the birds chirp, returning to their nests.
With the mild temperature, joyful life vibrates in the air.
How wonderful!"
Spring exclaimed.

Summer went into the garden and looked around
— it was July.

A cat rests in the shade of a pine tree.
The air smells of cut grass and ripe fruit.
The butterflies dance carefree to the song of the cicadas.
The sun makes me smile!"
Summer exclaimed.

The months pass and the year spins at great speed,
but they will always bring something beautiful.

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