Episode 81: Inman's Rules: The Enduring Principles of Operational Intelligence
Release Date: 09/24/2021
Episode 117: Leading Cyber Change: Allan Friedman on the Revolution of SBOM & Future Cybersecurity Initiatives
OODAcast
Allan Friedman is a senior strategist at CISA (the Cyber Security and Infrastructure Security Agency) where he coordinates all of their cross-sector activities on the topic of SBOM: The Software Bill of Materials. Allan is widely known as a change agent in both the public and private sector. In government he led initiatives that created positive change in major community-wide initiatives around vulnerability disclosure and vulnerability management. He also championed efforts that made dramatic improvements in the ability to reduce risk due to the proliferation of Internet of Things devices...
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Episode 116: Joe Sullivan on Managing Complex Security Challenges
OODAcast
Joe Sullivan has been at the forefront of managing security risk in rapidly growing high tech companies over the past 20 years serving as the Chief Security Officer at Facebook from early start-up through the IPO, CSO of Uber and CloudFlare, and as a security leader at eBay/PayPal. Joe was also involved in a landmark legal case for a breach at Uber which resulted in a criminal conviction that serves as a precedent for executive liability in cybersecurity going forward. In this OODAcast we discuss: Joe's early career and how he got interested and involved in technology and started his...
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Episode 115: Joe Tranquillo on the Revolution in Biological Science
OODAcast
Joe Tranquillo is a Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Bucknell University and a provost at the school. He is also and author and speaker with a knack for helping make new and at times complex subjects understandable. In this OODAcast we discuss many aspects of the revolution in biological sciences with Joe including topics like: New ways of delivering medicines that target specific tissues Discovery of the structure of almost every human protein Methods to synthesize biomolecules, which can result in ways to manufacture a wide range of materials like therapeutics, flavors, fabrics, food,...
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Episode 114: MITRE Futurist Charles Clancy on our Quantum Enabled Future
OODAcast
Charles Clancy has successfully led technology efforts in government, industry, academia and continues to lead and innovate in his current position as Senior Vice President and GM of MITRE Labs. He is MITRE's Chief Futurist. His role in technology leadership and his tracking of tech across multiple domains made for an incredibly insightful OODAcast. We review Charles' insights into: Quantum Computing Quantum Security Artificial Intelligence Microelectronics and Friendshoring/Reshoring The March 2023 National Strategy for Cybersecurity Governance in the age of ubiquitous computing ...
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Episode 113: Mark McGrath: John Boyd Is Far More Than The OODA Loop
OODAcast
Mark McGrath has applied the teachings of John Boyd to a career that began in the Marine Corps, included leadership positions in financial services firms and consulting with businesses with a need to learn to thrive in volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) environments. He co-founded the consultancy AGLX and serves as its Chief Learning Officer. He is the co-host of the popular podcast “No Way Out” which is dedicated to examining and advancing the use of the theories of John Boyd to help both individuals and businesses seeking to improve their capacity for free and independent...
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Episode 112: Serene - The Hacker Pianist Saving Cyberspace
OODAcast
Serene is a hacker in the truest sense of the word. She's applied a hacker mindset to learn coding, piano, and blend art and engineering in fascinating ways. You'll find her collaborating on-stage with Grimes one night and coding censorship resistant technologies the next day. As a self-taught coder she was the first engineer hired into Google Ideas when she was just a teenager. At Google she pioneered work on WebRTC proxies that she continued as a fellow at the Open Tech Fund and was eventually released as a Tor-enabling tool called Snowflake. Serene took a hiatus from working as a...
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Episode 111: Andy Bochman on Countering Cyber Sabotage
OODAcast
Andy Bochman is the Senior Grid Strategist-Defender for Idaho National Laboratory’s National and Homeland Security directorate. In this role, Andy provides strategic guidance on topics at the intersection of grid security and climate resilience to INL leadership as well as senior U.S. and international government and industry leaders. Andy is a frequent speaker, writer, and trainer who has testified before the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on energy infrastructure cybersecurity issues and before FERC on the maturity of smart grid cybersecurity standards. He has had...
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Episode 110: Spencer Ante on Creative Capital and Disruptive Innovation
OODAcast
Spencer Ante is the author or "Creative Capital: Georges Doriot and the Birth of Venture Capital", which was on my Top 10 book list for 2022. In fact, I found Doriot's story so compelling that a portrait of him hangs on the wall at the Hack Factory start-up studio in Reston, VA. Doriot is a compelling figure with an incredible story as told in Spencer's book. He was a Harvard Business School professor, responsible for launching the modern American industrial management movement, served as a General in World War II where he solved critical supply chain and logistics issues while also...
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Episode 109: Bob Zukis and the Digital Directors Network: Helping corporate boards mitigate systemic risk
OODAcast
ob Zukis is a man on a mission to improve the ability of corporate America to succeed in a complex digital world, even when under constant cyber attack. Bob is the CEO and founder of the Digital Directors Network, the global pioneer in helping corporate directors advance their understanding of systemic risk. We consider Bob to be the world's leading advocate for improving cybersecurity governance. His many articles published in major business journals and impactful books on the topic make this case well. Bob has worked with, studied, and been on corporate boards for years and now teaches...
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Episode 108: Adam Shostack on Cybersecurity and What Every Engineer Should Learn From Star Wars
OODAcast
Adam Shostack is widely known in the cybersecurity world for his pioneering work on disclosing and discussing computer vulnerabilities (the CVE (common vulnerabilities and exposures) list). He also helped formalize and train leading approaches to threat modeling and wrote the foundational book on the subject (). In this OODAcast we seek lessons from Adam’s career and experiences (which range from startups to nearly a decade at Microsoft, as well as the Blackhat review board, as well as being an Affiliate Professor at University of Washington). We then dive deep into Adam’s most...
info_outlineIn this OODAcast we ask retired Admiral Bobby Ray Inman for insights into his approach to analyzing complex situation and managing intelligence efforts. Admiral Inman served in the Navy from November 1951 to July 1982, retiring with the rank of four star admiral, the first military intelligence officer to ever reach that rank. On active duty, he served as director of naval intelligence, then later director of the National Security Agency and as deputy director of Central Intelligence. After retirement Inman was chairman and CEO of the Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation (MCC) in Austin, Texas, for four years and chairman, president and chief executive officer of Westmark Systems Inc., a privately owned electronics industry holding company, for three years. Inman also served as chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas from 1987 through 1990. He became a adjunct professor at The University of Texas at Austin in 1987 and was appointed a tenured professor holding the Lyndon B. Johnson Centennial Chair in National Policy in August 2001. He recently retired from that position.
Decades ago he codified his principles in a list of rules he used to teach and lead others with. They are still exchanged and studied by leaders today, and they provided a good framework for our discussion in this OODAcast.
Inman’s Rules
1. Conservation of enemies: Be slow to anger and quick to build allies
2. When you are explaining you are losing: In most cases trying to explain away something never convinces the listener and just wastes your time. Learn from your mistake and move on. Sometimes the same thought is captured by the adage: When in a hole stop digging
3. Something too good to believe probably is just that, untrue: This remains important not just in national intelligence but in fighting fraud.
4. Go to the Hill alone: Supporting governance processes are just too important.
5. Wisdom in Washington is having much to say and knowing when not to say it: Never overwhelm decision makers.
6. Never sign for anything
7. The only one looking out for you is you: Take personal responsibility for your actions.
8. If you think your enemy is stupid, think again: Arrogance results in failure and surprise.
9. Never try to fool yourself: Too frequently it is easier to deceive ourselves rather than believe reality
10. Never go into a meeting without knowing what the outcome is going to be.
11. Don’t change what got you to where you are just to get to the next place.
12. Intelligence is knowing what the enemy doesn’t want you to know: It is about stealing secrets, not reading the news.
13. Nothing changes faster than yesterday’s vision of the future: Don't try to simply predict, you probably need to conduct scenario planning over multiple futures.
14. Intelligence users are looking for what is going to happen, not what has already occurred: Intelligence is not about history. Just because history is easier does not mean it is the mission.
15. It is much harder to convince someone they are wrong than it is to convince them they are right: This observation leads to the important point that intelligence professionals need a high emotional intelligence and ability to convey the truth in ways that get it accepted even when it is not welcome.
16. For Intelligence Officers in particular there is no substitute for the truth.
17. By the time intelligence gets back to a user with the answer the question usually has changed: Especially in operational intelligence.
18. Always know your blind spots, get help to cover them.
20. You can never know too much about the enemy: Do not fear information overload, manage it.
21. Tell what you know, tell what you don’t know, tell what it means: This framework helps decision-makers contextualize insights into ways that make intelligence more actionable.
22. Tell them what you are going to say, tell them, then tell them what you told them, they might remember something.
23. Never have more than three points.
24. Never follow lunch or an animal act.
25. Believe is correct, intelligence officers never feel.
26. The absence of evidence is not evidence of absence: Be proactive and seek more insights on the situation
27. Boredom is the enemy, not the time to any briefing.
28. If you can’t summarize it on one page, you can’t sell it to anyone.
29. Always allow time to consider what the enemy wants me to think, is he succeeding or am I?
30. If you can’t add value, get out of the way.
31. Beware of mirror imaging: Thinking the adversary or others are the same as we are has contributed to most major strategic failures through the years, including the 20 year involvement in Afghanistan.
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