Five Years of the Cloud Security Podcast by Google

Co-Author: Timothy Peacock

Looking back on season five of the Cloud Security Podcast by Google, we are stoked to have had so many wonderful guests contribute their time, energy, and expertise to our show. Every year we talk about doing a reflections blog, this year we’re actually publishing it. 

As we look back on the year we want to thank our listeners who join us every week, our listeners who are joining us for the first time, and our guests who join us every episode. For season six, we are launching all video all the time, which you can get at our brand new YouTube presence: https://www.youtube.com/@cloudsecpodcast 

Anton: My picks are a bit predictable but they are very fun!

1. EP236 Accelerated SIEM Journey: A SOC Leader's Playbook for Modernization and AI   This fun episode provides a playbook for SOC leaders on accelerating their SIEM modernization journey. We go into the steps the bank took for moving beyond legacy systems, focusing on how to integrate AI for transformative results and build a truly modern Security Operations Center.
2. EP254 Escaping 1990s Vulnerability Management: From Unauthenticated Scans to AI-Driven Mitigation  This essential episode with Caleb Hoch tackles the "fractions of a century" time lag in vulnerability management, moving beyond endless unauthenticated scans. We discuss how to establish a Gold Standard prioritization model and why running VM Tabletop Exercises is the vital, transformative practice needed for true modernization.
3. EP223 AI Addressable, Not AI Solvable: Reflections from RSA 2025  The single most important lesson from RSA 2025 was captured in this episode: AI is merely "Addressable, Not Solvable." We cut through the hype to discuss where AI can deliver real, practical security value, and where we still need our smart human colleagues to lead the way. This is essential listening for anyone trying to navigate the flood of vendor claims.
4. EP242 The AI SOC: Is This The Automation We've Been Waiting For?   This vital episode tackles the most pressing question for security operations: Can "The AI SOC" deliver the transformative automation we've been waiting for? We discuss - with Anton’s former colleague - the real-world applications of AI in the SOC, focusing on practical gains and what it means for the future role of the human analyst.
5. EP238 Google Lessons for Using AI Agents for Securing Our Enterprise  This fun episode brings you practical lessons from Google's own experience using AI agents to secure our enterprise at scale. We dive deep into the real-world application of this transformative technology, focusing on the wins, the challenges, and what it means for your security program. This is essential listening for any leader looking to leverage AI agents effectively without falling into the hype cycle.
6. BONUS: EP237 Making Security Personal at the Speed and Scale of TikTok   This unique episode goes into what it takes to secure a hyper-scale, global platform like TikTok. We discuss how to move beyond legacy compliance to a modern microservices architecture, balance a consistent global security posture with localized regulatory demands, and, most importantly, empower every user with practical tips (like 2FA and strong passphrases) to make security personal. 

Tim:   My picks are almost entirely not overlapping with Anton, we started our lists separately but then realized that we scooped each other on two episodes. We both liked our episode with Manija Poulatova enough to keep her on both of our lists! 

1. EP256 Rewiring Democracy & Hacking Trust: Bruce Schneier on the AI Offense-Defense Balance This episode is a total delight for both of us. For me, I got to not only meet one of my security heroes, I got to see Anton do the same! We named Bruce in our early planning docs as somebody we’d like to have on the show someday when we’re all grown up. Not a bad way to wrap up five years of weekly podcasting! 
2. EP236 Accelerated SIEM Journey: A SOC Leader's Playbook for Modernization and AI    Manija and I were on a panel together in Las Vegas during Google Cloud Next 2025. A few themes from that panel came through in our episode together that I love and think are vital for anyone. First, aim for transformation not migration. As an industry we are not doing so well compared to air transport safety. We cannot cling to our old ways and hope for a better set of outcomes. Second, AI is here to enable our human colleagues, not replace them. We can find greater meaning, joy, and productivity in our work, even as SOC analysts, once we embrace what AI can automate for us. 
3. EP239 Linux Security: The Detection and Response Disconnect and Where Is My Agentless EDR  Craig was introduced to me by a Friend Of The Show (and friend of mine!) Vijay Ganti (EP196) as someone building an innovative approach to EDR security. Scheduling this episode ended up a little tricky, and I got to do an episode without Anton. That ended up ok, because in Craig I found a totally kindred spirit. We’ve both built systems to secure Linux without agents, though from two different approaches. His stories of finding badness in places we couldn’t previously look, and doing so scalably even for phone towers up the hill behind his house, really resonated with the part of me that spent four years building out Virtual Machine Threat Detection here at Google Cloud. This is definitely an episode for listeners who like to question conventional security thinking. 
4. EP252 The Agentic SOC Reality: Governing AI Agents, Data Fidelity, and Measuring Success  Another fun origin story: this episode was conceived in a karaoke booth in Singapore. Alex and Lars are two of our early design partners for the SecOps Triage Agent and their feedback to the team, and on this episode, is super valuable. Alex gets bonus points on this episode for using the word squelch which I’ve been pushing internally as a metaphor for our noise control systems. This is a must-listen for anyone interested in real AI adoption in their SOC. If Alex and Lars can do it across an unbelievable number of regulatory jurisdictions, you can too!
5. EP255 Separating Hype from Hazard: The Truth About Autonomous AI Hacking Bringing Heather back to the show has been a goal of ours for ages. When I read her article, coauthored with Gadi Evron and Bruce Schneier, I knew I’d found our topic. As I said on the show, if I’d seen this article written by anybody else I’d laugh, but with this trio of authors I knew it was something to take seriously. Read the article, listen to the episode, let us know in the comments if you’re as scared as I was!
6. Bonus: EP232 The Human Element of Privacy: Protecting High-Risk Targets and Designing Systems I get one bonus episode for our top ten, so I’m going to include my classmate Sarah Aoun. She is an amazing Googler, and on this episode, she offers advice that’s useful almost universally, but especially if you believe that you’re a person who is at risk of being targeted online. This is firmly outside of our “cloud security” wheelhouse, but well worth a listen to understand threat modeling and security response for individuals. \

Top 10 episodes by listens (excluding the oldest 3)

1. EP75 How We Scale Detection and Response at Google: Automation, Metrics, Toil 
2. EP47 “Megatrends, Macro-changes, Microservices, Oh My! Changes in 2022 and Beyond in Cloud Security”
3. EP153 Kevin Mandia on Cloud Breaches: New Threat Actors, Old Mistakes, and Lessons for All
4. EP8 Zero Trust: Fast Forward from 2010 to 2021
5. EP109 How Google Does Vulnerability Management: The Not So Secret Secrets!
6. EP150 Taming the AI Beast: Threat Modeling for Modern AI Systems with Gary McGraw
7. EP17 Modern Threat Detection at Google
8. EP103 Security Incident Response and Public Cloud - Exploring with Mandiant
9. EP156 Living Off the Land and Attacking Critical Infrastructure: Mandiant Incident Deep Dive
10. EP12 Threat Models and Cloud Security

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• 250 Episodes of Cloud Security Podcast by Google: From Confidential Computing to AI-Ready SOC