Lost in Translation: Bridging the Cyber Policy Communication Gap with Brandy Vargas

Season 2 /
/Episode 34

Lost in Translation: Bridging the Cyber Policy Communication Gap with Brandy Vargas

Brandy Vargas, Senior Manager of Cyber Solutions at Crum & Forster, offers crucial insights for small to midsize businesses (SMBs) on cyber insurance. She emphasizes that these policies are not like traditional insurance and require proactive engagement. Brandy stresses the importance of thoroughly understanding your policy’s nuances, like sublimits and exclusions, to avoid being caught off guard. She also highlights the immense value of the free resources often included with policies, such as phishing simulations and incident response templates, which can dramatically improve an SMB’s cyber defenses at little to no cost.
 
The episode also focuses on proper incident response. Brandy warns against the common mistake of reacting to a cyber event by acting alone, as it can jeopardize legal protections and insurance coverage. She strongly advises that SMBs immediately engage their insurer’s emergency response teams to ensure the incident is managed correctly and privileged communications are preserved. Her core message is that SMBs must build strong relationships with their brokers and carriers to access expert support, prevent recurring attacks, and ultimately strengthen their cyber resilience.
 

Protecting Rural America from Cyber Threats: Inside the PISCES Mission with Mike Hamilton

What happens when rural hospitals, public utilities, schools, and small governments become targets of cyberattacks but lack the resources to defend themselves?

In this episode of The SafeHouse Podcast, Jeff Edwards welcomes Mike Hamilton, former Seattle CISO and CTO of PISCES International, a nonprofit organization delivering free cybersecurity monitoring and real-world workforce training to underserved communities across the United States.

This conversation is based on a real-world, three-part series designed for everyday people who suddenly find themselves dealing with a hacked account, fraud, or a suspicious alert.

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What to Do If You Get Hacked: A Practical Survival Guide with Alan Gin

In this SafeHouse episode, Jeff Edwards and Alan Gin break down what actually happens when a cyber incident hits and what you should do next.

This conversation is based on a real-world, three-part series designed for everyday people who suddenly find themselves dealing with a hacked account, fraud, or a suspicious alert.

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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Cyber Risk: Where Mitigation Meets Insurance With Michael Phillips

Cyber risk management is often framed as a choice between prevention and insurance. In reality, the most resilient organizations combine both.
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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Making Sense of Risk Management with Davis Hake

Cyber risk management is often discussed in technical language. But at its core, risk is financial.

In this episode of The SafeHouse Podcast, Jeff Edwards interviews Davis Hake of Venable to break down how cyber risk should be measured, communicated, and quantified inside organizations.

For CISOs, risk managers, brokers, underwriters, and resilience professionals, this episode provides a practical framework for thinking about cyber exposure beyond compliance checklists.

If you want to understand cyber risk in terms that boards and CFOs actually respond to, this conversation is essential listening.

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When Cybersecurity Became a State Responsibility with James Saunders

Federal cybersecurity responsibility has shifted to the states. What happens next?

In this episode of The SafeHouse Podcast, Jeff Edwards welcomes James Saunders, Chief Information Security Officer for the State of Maryland, for a deep conversation on state-level cybersecurity, resilience, and leadership.

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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