The NFL's George Griesler on securing the Super Bowl and reducing risk through collaboration

04/16/24 • 44 min

In this week’s episode of The Future of Security Operations podcast, Thomas is joined by George Griesler. George has been working in cybersecurity since 1997, when he assumed the role of Senior Network administrator at the United States Golf Association (USGA), eventually advancing to Director of Information Security. He currently serves as the Senior Director of Cybersecurity at the National Football League (NFL), where he works to secure events like the Super Bowl, which in 2024 was the most-watched telecast ever.

George and Thomas discuss:

What security operations looked like in 1997

Protecting the secrets of regulation golf equipment at the USGA

The shift in security and privacy needs at live sports events

Securing scents, flavors, and other chemical formulations at IFF

Preparing for Super Bowl LXXVIII in the wake of the MGM Resorts cyber attack

The Super Bowl threat profile, from scoreboard hacking to stadium credentials

Collaborating with cybersecurity experts from CISA, the FBI, Caesars Palace, and the MGM Grand.

Aligning security operations with physical security

The reality of working on high-pressure events

The benefits of knowledge sharing with other teams working on live sports events

The importance of relationship building across internal security teams:

The potential of automation, orchestration, and AI in incident response

The Future of Security Operations is brought to you by Tines, the smart, secure workflow builder that powers some of the world’s most important workflows. https://www.tines.com/solutions/security

Where to find George Griesler:

NFL: https://www.nfl.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/georgegriesler/

Where to find Thomas Kinsella:

Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/thomasksec

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomas-kinsella/

Tines: https://www.tines.com/

Resources mentioned:

A Cyberattack Shuts Down MGM Resorts In Las Vegas And Other Cities: https://www.forbes.com/sites/suzannerowankelleher/2023/09/12/a-cyberattack-mgm-resorts-las-vegas/?sh=c1b5096505c0

The 1,000-ton screen bringing Super Bowl LVI to the lucky fans inside the stadium: https://edition.cnn.com/2022/02/11/sport/super-bowl-lvi-samsung-infinity-screen-sofi-stadium-tech-spc-intl/index.html

In this episode:

[01:50] What infrastructure management and incident response looked like in 1997

[03:30] His projects at the United States Golf Association (USGA), including securing a golf handicap information network

[06:05] Witnessing the digital transformation of live sports events

[08:40] Securing flavors, scents and other chemical formulations at IFF

[13:20] Building a threat model for large OT environments

[15:30] Increasing security awareness and culture across the organization

[17:45] Moving to the NFL

[21:20] How George's team prepare for the Super Bowl

[24:10] Partnering with cybersecurity experts at CISA, the FBI, and local partners in Las Vegas like Caesars Palace and the MGM Grand.

[27:00] The Super Bowl's threat profile, from scoreboard hacking to stadium credentials to online identities of individual players

[29:20] Inside the NFL's Super Bowl command centre

[30:40] Ensuring the team is supported to handle high-pressure events

[32:55] Knowledge sharing with security teams on other live sports events, from The Olympics to the World Cup

[37:00] Reducing risk through collaboration across the security team

[38:35] AI as a defender tool and attacker tool

[41:50] The future of the SOC

[43:15] Connect with George

George and Thomas discuss:

What security operations looked like in 1997

Protecting the secrets of regulation golf equipment at the USGA

The shift in security and privacy needs at live sports events

Securing scents, flavors, and other chemical formulations at IFF

Preparing for Super Bowl LXXVIII in the wake of the MGM Resorts cyber attack

The Super Bowl threat profile, from scoreboard hacking to stadium credentials

Collaborating with cybersecurity experts from CISA, the FBI, Caesars Palace, and the MGM Grand.

Aligning security operations with physical security

The reality of working on high-pressure events

The benefits of knowledge sharing with other teams working on live sports events

The importance of relationship building across internal security teams:

The potential of automation, orchestration, and AI in incident response

The Future of Security Operations is brought to you by Tines, the smart, secure workflow builder that powers some of the world’s most important workflows. https://www.tines.com/solutions/security

Where to find George Griesler:

NFL: https://www.nfl.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/georgegriesler/

Where to find Thomas Kinsella:

Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/thomasksec

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomas-kinsella/

Tines: https://www.tines.com/

Resources mentioned:

A Cyberattack Shuts Down MGM Resorts In Las Vegas And Other Cities: https://www.forbes.com/sites/suzannerowankelleher/2023/09/12/a-cyberattack-mgm-resorts-las-vegas/?sh=c1b5096505c0

In this episode:

[01:50] What infrastructure management and incident response looked like in 1997

[03:30] His projects at the United States Golf Association (USGA), including securing a golf handicap information network

[06:05] Witnessing the digital transformation of live sports events

[08:40] Securing flavors, scents and other chemical formulations at IFF

[13:20] Building a threat model for large OT environments

[15:30] Increasing security awareness and culture across the organization

[17:45] Moving to the NFL

[21:20] How George's team prepare for the Super Bowl

[24:10] Partnering with cybersecurity experts at CISA, the FBI, and local partners in Las Vegas like Caesars Palace and the MGM Grand.

[27:00] The Super Bowl's threat profile, from scoreboard hacking to stadium credentials to online identities of individual players

[29:20] Inside the NFL's Super Bowl command centre

[30:40] Ensuring the team is supported to handle high-pressure events

[32:55] Knowledge sharing with security teams on other live sports events, from The Olympics to the World Cup

[37:00] Reducing risk through collaboration across the security team

[38:35] AI as a defender tool and attacker tool

[41:50] The future of the SOC

[43:15] Connect with George

Previous Episode

Barracuda's Adam Khan on AI-driven XDR and plugging the cybersecurity skills gap

In this week’s episode of The Future of Security Operations podcast, Thomas is joined by Adam Khan. Adam is a cybersecurity and technology leader with over 25 years of experience working at Fortune 500 companies. He has a proven track record of building and managing global security teams, leading engineering, infrastructure, application, and product, and is currently VP of Global Security Operations at Barracuda.

Adam and Thomas discuss:

Building discipline and resilience by working on SRE teams

How a well-known DDoS attack changed his career path

Using automation to reduce alert fatigue

Strategies for plugging the security skills gap

The potential of AI-driven XDR

How cyber attacks are evolving in the age of AI

Lessons learned from researching the history of cybersecurity

Empowering teams to do their best work

Creating a culture of continuous learning

The Future of Security Operations is brought to you by Tines, the smart, secure workflow builder that powers some of the world’s most important workflows. https://www.tines.com/solutions/security

Where to find Adam Khan:

Adam's website: https://www.adamkhancyber.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamkhan-cyber/

Barracuda: https://www.barracudamsp.com/ and [email protected]

Where to find Thomas Kinsella:

Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/thomasksec

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomas-kinsella/

Tines: https://www.tines.com/

Resources mentioned:

2023 Global Cyber Threat Report by Adam Khan: https://www.adamkhancyber.com/post/2023-global-cyber-threat-report

Adam's five-part cybersecurity history series on smartermsp.com: https://smartermsp.com/author/akhan/

DarkReading: https://www.darkreading.com/

BleepingComputer: https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/

In this episode:

[02:10] Switching from site reliability engineering (SRE) to SecOps

[03:40] How the DDoS attack on Amazon, eBay and Priceline in 2008 piqued his interest in security

[04:37] Building discipline and resilience by working on SRE teams

[09:05] Navigating Barracuda's acquisition of SKOUT

[10:22] How growing companies can benefit from a external XDR platform

[11:50] Prioritizing the alerts that matter most to customers

[13:03] Using automation to enrich threat intelligence and root out false positives

[14:50] The potential of AI-driven XDR

[16:40] How cyber attacks have evolved as adversaries use AI tools like FraudGPT and WormGPT

[19:30] Adam's three key takeaways from researching the history of cybersecurity

[23:20] Strategies for tackling the talent shortage

[25:15] Empowering teams to do their best work

[28:10] How Adam stay on top of the latest security trends

[31:35] The importance of making mistakes

[32:20] Promoting a culture of blameless incident reviews

[34:40] Predictions for the future

[35:50] Connect with Adam

Next Episode

Ask Sage's Nicolas Chaillan on moving the DOD to zero trust and deploying Kubernetes in space

In this week’s episode of The Future of Security Operations podcast, Thomas is joined by Nicolas Chaillan. Nicolas is a security leader who has held several high-profile roles in US federal agencies including Chief Software Officer for the US Air Force and Space Force, Special Advisor for Cloud Security and DevSecOps at the Department of Defense (DOD), and Special Advisor for Cybersecurity and Chief Architect for Cyber.gov at the Department of Homeland Security. He is also the founder of no less than 13 companies, including Ask Sage, a GPT-powered platform that brings Generative AI capabilities to government teams.

Nicolas and Thomas discuss:

Building the US government's first zero trust implementation

Putting Kubernetes on jets and space systems

The challenges of bringing new technologies to the federal government

How the threat landscape will continue to evolve for US federal agencies

The biggest mistakes entrepreneurs make

How cross-team collaboration helped him create meaningful change at the DOD

The future of AI in security

The inspiration behind his AI-powered platform, Ask Sage

The Future of Security Operations is brought to you by Tines, the smart, secure workflow builder that powers some of the world’s most important workflows. https://www.tines.com/solutions/security

Where to find Nicolas Chaillan:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolaschaillan/

Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/NicolasChaillan

Nic's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCt7jKHaxWS8W_4rcKGg7X9w

Ask Sage: https://www.asksage.ai/

Where to find Thomas Kinsella:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomas-kinsella/

Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/thomasksec

Tines: https://www.tines.com/

Resources mentioned:

Making An Impact: Nicolas Chaillan, CEO Magazine: https://www.theceomagazine.com/executive-interviews/government-defence/nicolas-chaillan/

In this episode:

[02:20] Becoming a self-taught coder at 7 and founding his first company at 15

[05:02] Shipping 187+ technology products as a founder, in verticals as varied as healthcare, retail and banking

[07:08] The biggest mistakes entrepreneurs make

[08:40] His latest product, generative AI platform Ask Sage

[11:30] The challenges of bringing a new product to the US government

[13:45] Building the first zero trust implementation in the government as Special Advisor for Cybersecurity at the Department of Homeland Security

[15:20] Advocating for new technologies at federal agencies

[19:40] Deploying Kubernetes on 50-year-old hardware on the F16 jet at the Department of Defense

[22:02] Dealing with pushback and internal resistance to change

[24:50] Recruiting internal help to establish force-wide DevSecOps at the DOD

[29:00] Becoming Federal Chief Technology Officer at Qualys

[30:30] Reflecting on the changes he implemented while working for the US government

[33:12] Deciding which companies to work with as an advisory board member

[36:40] How the threat landscape will continue to evolve for US federal agencies

[40:50] TikTok as a channel for misinformation and national security weapon

[44:18] Nicolas' predictions for the future of security

[47: 10] Connect with Nicolas

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