Cybersecurity and AI for Small Businesses: Expert Insights with Chuck Brooks

Season 3 /
/Episode 2

Cybersecurity and AI for Small Businesses: Expert Insights with Chuck Brooks

Cyber & AI authority Chuck Brooks joins Jeff Edwards to give SMBs a no-nonsense playbook. Learn how agentic AI turbocharges phishing, why unmanaged IoT/OT opens doors, and the exact first steps—MFA, segmentation, backups, IR plan—that raise your resilience fast. We also cover using NIST and CMMC as practical roadmaps and when to rely on an MSP.

Resources: Free guides/checklists: SafeHouseInitiative.org (no tracking, no fees)
Guest: Chuck Brooks
Host: Jeff Edwards

🎬 Production Team: Alan Gin – Executive Producer Jen Carpenter – Editor & Post Production Supervisor Keith Fukuhara – Production Manager & Technical Director Dorian Naveh – Marketing & Social Media Manager

#️⃣ Hashtags (place first 3 above the title): #CyberSecurity #SMB #AI #Phishing #MFA #ZeroTrust #CMMC #NIST #IoT #OTSecurity #RiskManagement #BusinessContinuity #IncidentResponse #SafeHousePodcast

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If you’ve ever wondered what you would actually do in that moment, this episode walks you through it step by step.

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In this episode of The SafeHouse, Jeff Edwards speaks with Michael Phillips, Global Head of Cyber at Coalition, about how insurers evaluate cyber risk and why mitigation and insurance must work together.

Building on a previous discussion about the elements of risk management, the conversation explores how underwriters think about cyber exposure, what signals insurers look for when assessing organizations, and why operational resilience is becoming central to modern cyber insurance.

The result is a practical discussion about how businesses should approach cyber risk today.

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James walks through his path from early technical support roles to federal cybersecurity leadership and now to protecting Maryland’s digital ecosystem. He explains Maryland’s IT Master Plan, the state’s five-pillar cybersecurity strategy, and how partnerships, talent, and resilience come together in practice.

This episode offers a behind-the-scenes look at how cybersecurity decisions are made at scale, how states collaborate with one another, and why taking care of people matters as much as taking care of systems.

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