About
Fearless Paranoia
Stuff about us and the podcast
Our Goals and Vision
Our goals are to provide education – clear, understandable, and digestible – on essential issues of modern cybersecurity. That education must come in a format that encourages learning about cybersecurity generally, but also of topics that are of special interest or importance. As such, each episode focuses on one topic, and are intended to be relatively brief. (Apologies for some of those topics which we will inevitably fail to accomplish our goals, especially the brevity part!)
Our Vison is that owners and managers (and anyone else, really) in small and medium sized businesses have the knowledge they need about important cybersecurity issues to make critical decisions within their business, and feel comfortable in those decisions. Importantly, they will be able to acquire that knowledge without significant cost and in relatively short periods of time.
Who We Are
We are Brian and Ryan. Brian is a cybersecurity lawyer. Ryan is an IT Professional, cybersecurity architect, and the person who tells Brian how not to sound stupid when talking about this stuff.
Brian is the writer. Ryan is the guy who puts most of the website stuff together. In the end, there’s really no way of knowing which one of us is responsible for what’s actually on these pages.
We both work with small businesses on cybersecurity-related issues. We also both recognize that, in ways both intentional and accidental, the subject of cybersecurity is dense, opaque, full of acronyms, and complex to the extent it would take years for anyone to learn what they need.
We also both believe that we can help.
Who We Are
We are Brian and Ryan. Brian is a cybersecurity lawyer. Ryan is an IT Professional, cybersecurity architect, and the person who tells Brian how not to sound stupid when talking about this stuff.
Brian is the writer. Ryan is the guy who puts most of the website stuff together. In the end, there’s really no way of knowing which one of us is responsible for what’s actually on these pages.
We both work with small businesses on cybersecurity-related issues. We also both recognize that, in ways both intentional and accidental, the subject of cybersecurity is dense, opaque, full of acronyms, and complex to the extent it would take years for anyone to learn what they need.
We also both believe that we can help.
Our Story
We’ve been friends for almost 30 years. Over that time, our shared interests in computing, technology, and cybersecurity have continued to grow, even though they’ve done so in vastly different fields and careers.
We’re also both very partial to Science Fiction and Fantasy, both consider Dungeons & Dragons to be one of humanity’s greatest achievements, and both consider the deck of the U.S.S. Enterprise 1701-D to be the site of some of the greatest scenes ever recorded. We both firmly believe that 42 is the answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything.
We are both cynical. It helps us to look at the bad in the world and understand that it will always be there, and thus force us to plan for a world where bad continues to be a problem. And yet, we are both idealistic. It helps us to believe that the world can be made better; that through our efforts we can leave it better than we found it.
We also both believe that the Star Wars Prequel Trilogy should be disowned, like Rocky 5.
Meet The Hosts
Brian Focht
Co-Host
Cybersecurity Attorney
About Brian: Brian is a civil litigation and cybersecurity attorney in Charlotte, North Carolina at The Law Offices of Brian C. Focht. Since he was young, he has been interested in both practicing law and fascinated by technology, particularly how it can be used to improve our daily lives. And, of course, how it will make video games better.
He has written extensively on the use of technology tools to improve the practice of law on his blog The Cyber Advocate, addressing topics such as cybersecurity, ethical use of technology, and reviews and analysis of new software, systems, and other tools used in the practice of law. His writing earned him invitations to present on technology topics at the Clio Cloud Conference and the ABA Techshow.
He is also the author of Resilience Cybersecurity & Data Privacy, where he provides advice and information to small businesses to help them improve their cybersecurity without unreasonable and burdensome costs.
Ryan Maltzen
Co-Host
Cybersecurity Architect
About Ryan: Ryan is a cybersecurity enthusiast and currently a cybersecurity architect based out of the Twin Cities. He has been involved in IT and all things technology for most of his career with a heavier focus on cybersecurity and systems administration for the last decade.
He is an active participant in our local cybersecurity and systems administration user groups, and occasionally presents or speaks at local group events, most recently at the Cloud Security Alliance as part of a panel discussing modern cloud security architecture.
©2022 Fearless Paranoia