Kevin Brazell

✨ Being a force multiplier for your team ✨ In promotion discussions with my team, someone was described as a “force multiplier” for the team. We ended up spending some time discussing what that meant. Some examples include: 🧘‍♂️ Being able to come into seemingly complicated problems where many people are spinning on a solution and creating clarity to keep everyone moving. 👯 Someone who brings people along, gets them excited and motivated. 👂 Making people around them more productive by helping them, listening to them, building on their work. 💪 The interesting bit is that this person wasn’t described as doing heroics - working all hours, saving the day, fixing messes. Many times they see a problem before it becomes a fire and get ahead of it. They can keep the team humming, excited, unblocked, and productive. Often these people aren’t even managers but great leaders on the team that people love to work with.

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Join my guys in this terrific session on how to use Q and Inspector to help your dev teams shift left by finding and fixing security issues in your first- and third-party code. 👏

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Will you be joining Mimecast for our July #ThreatIntelligence webinar? Our next session, July 11th will cover “The unintended consequences of email.” Despite advancements in email security these attacks persist. Register now to learn about the latest trends and how you should use this information to inform your security posture. #Cybersecurity

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Heading into 2025, here’s what’s challenging SIEM solutions across the globe: 📊 32% YoY increase in data sources 🔄 83% of companies ingest over 1TB of data daily ⚡ Fastest eCrime breakout time: 2 min, 7 sec Legacy systems just can’t keep up. Learn how modern SIEMs are transforming security operations in “The State of the SIEM Market” by Cribl and CrowdStrike 📖: https://gag.gl/vcVY2Q

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User (highest mileage segment) feed-back at its finest :-)

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Great option for your event planning needs.

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Today is the day. The #genai rollout has officially begun, and it's time to Secure AI by Design. Learn more about our latest advancements in AI Runtime Security and AI Access Security This isn’t Sci-Fi This is Precision AI™

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Day 269 of 366 As the relentless drive for innovation continues, security-first thinking has become The Non-Negotiable today. What happened to #beerbiceps isn't just another breach, crypto scam, or Tesla Cyberattack—it's a clear failure of layered security. These breaches don’t occur in isolation. Dependencies between platforms, apps, and third-party integrations create complex ecosystems where a single weak link can be exploited. Relying solely and madly on reactive measures opens the door to vulnerabilities, especially for high-profile accounts. The Non-Negotiables: - Proactive security measures - Continuous monitoring - Addressing vulnerabilities before they’re exploited Remember, Security is no longer just a feature—it’s the foundation. #Infosec #cybersecurity #digitalsecurity #techinnovation #dataprotection #securityfirst #accounthacked #tesla #elonmusk #cryptoscam

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🚨 50% of financial services professionals say cybersecurity has gotten easier, but challenges remain. 🔒 Hear what our experts say during this webinar about the latest insights from Splunk's State of Security in Financial Services report. #Security https://bit.ly/3Ujnylq

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A supportive environment can make all the difference. Angie Jones has lived that, and still does. I have to think it's no accident that she had a conversation with Pariss Chandler after the Resilient Coders 10th anniversary celebration was over on Friday night. ➡️ Black Tech Pipeline, Pariss' company, not only places engineers, but works with the companies to ensure they are doing right by these hires. While there is understandably much discussion about hiring a diverse team, that isn't the end of this. ⚠️ If you put together just such a team, but many leave in a year or two because they don't feel support for their growth, it was all for naught. 👎 As if that's not enough, this is also how we lose some people of color in tech. They work for companies with no support and start thinking this isn't for them, that they need to be in another industry. ❌️ And it comes after many of them likely had a few influential people not exactly encouraging them to get into tech in the first place. In fact, Angie said she almost left tech early in her career. She met the requirements with her work, but got a poor performance review. She didn't have the community that is necessary for her to succeed, either. 💭 Imagine how much poorer we would be in tech if we lost her back then. Angie went on to share how she has seen a supportive environment work wonders at her present employer. ✅️ She talked about the time she hired a community manager - a role with no coding - who then started coding on the job after feeling like she didn't belong at a prior job. That woman is now in an engineering role once again. ✅️ She talked about hiring Rizel Scarlett, one of the RC Champion Award winners on the evening, for a role two levels above her prior role, and thriving in it. In fact, Rizel moderated a panel at Startup Boston Week recently. ▶️ So if your job includes hiring in tech, hire a diverse team - heck I'll gladly lobby for you to hire those who go through Resilient Coders or Hack.Diversity. But once they're on your team, the work is only just beginning. #diversityintech #rcturns10 #resilientcoders

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I wrote this for my X audience. Before critiquing, please consider the intended audience. The growing number of people who believe this was an intentional act and are labeling it as a massive conspiracy is truly concerning. 🚨 The CrowdStrike Outage: A Wake-Up Call for the Tech Industry 🚨 Folks, if you’re not in tech, you might have missed the hullabaloo over CrowdStrike's recent IT outage. But let me tell you, this was a close shave, and we’re lucky it wasn’t worse. For those of you who don’t speak "nerd," here’s a quick rundown. CrowdStrike, a big player in cybersecurity, experienced a significant outage affecting corporate Windows servers. Now, you might be thinking, "Okay, so some office computers went down, big deal!" But here’s the kicker: Windows dominates the corporate environment, making up roughly 80% of the infrastructure. Imagine the chaos if your entire office's computer network suddenly went kaput. Yikes, right? Now, here's where it gets scarier. The Internet itself? That's a different beast altogether. It’s about 95% Linux, and for every corporate server, there are at least a thousand Linux servers humming away behind the scenes, keeping the digital world spinning. If this same issue had hit Linux, we’d be talking about a potential internet meltdown, not just a hiccup. So, what happened? Well, it boils down to a few things: overworked staff, lack of resources, and astonishing tech-debt. The tech industry has been hemorrhaging experienced talent for years, and companies are struggling to keep up with the workload. Imagine a rookie surgeon being thrown into a complex operation with little support, mistakes are inevitable. These issues should ideally be caught during testing in lower environments, but that’s often not the case. Routine work gets outsourced to internal offices where staff are even less experienced and under even more pressure. It's a recipe for disaster. To put it bluntly: a minor mistake in a single line of code by an overworked newbie could take down the entire internet. Let that sink in. Had the recent update that crashed Windows servers hit Linux instead, we might have lost the Internet for days. So, what can we do? It’s clear we need to invest in our tech workforce. Companies must prioritize training, adequate staffing, and proper oversight. We can't afford to keep cutting corners. The stability of our digital world depends on it. Let’s use this CrowdStrike incident as a wake-up call. It's time to address the underlying issues and ensure that our tech infrastructure is resilient enough to withstand future challenges. After all, the Internet isn't just a convenience—it's the backbone of our modern world. Stay vigilant, folks. And let’s hope the powers-that-be in tech heed this warning before it’s too late. 💻🔧🌐

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Having retired from the military and spent over 21 years as a tech executive, I can't help but scoff at the use of "war rooms" for product launches. Here are my suggestions 👇 If you’re in the tech industry, “war room” is so ubiquitous that nobody even thinks about it. I catch myself asking where the “war room” is, even when those responsible for the launch have called it something more appropriate. We are creatures of habit, and this is a hard one to break. I’ve even heard leaders lean heavily into “war room,” declaring that the company is “at war” with bugs or with their competitors. When I hear this, I think of the corporate raiders in Monty Python’s “The Meaning of Life.” Unless you work for The Crimson Permanent Assurance, you should avoid the war room theme. I know what is meant by "war room," and it is widely understood. But I believe we can do better. I’ve been in TOCs (Tactical Operations Centers) and CNCs (Command and Control Centers). There certainly are a similarities to the information flow and decision making going on. But even these comparable operations centers are not called "war rooms" by the military. You can call the room whatever you want, just know that some of your employees are cringing at the attempt to increase gravitas with such a hefty title. You’re not at war. Most of us are not launching products that could endanger our customers. Using an app or browsing a website is at most going to cause emotional damage if customers can't get to their content. Lives are rarely at stake; but even during a space launch, they don't use a "war room." NASA has built out Launch Control Centers (LCCs) and Mission Control Centers (MCCs) to support spacecraft operations. Following their lead, I prefer to use “launch control” or “mission control" to name our rooms. These terms are much more accurate descriptions of how we monitor and react during a product launch. Some people will insist that "war room" is appropriate. I'd love to hear their reasoning. I'd also love to hear what other people call their product launch monitoring and why.

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My department had a massive role in achieving the separation from engineering perspective mentioned in the article and that makes me so proud that I can't hold myself posting this here. This 2+ years long journey was the most grandiose leadership experience of my career so far (we will see what about to come next :)). It provided me great many insights and lessons learned both professionally and personally that I can leverage on my journey of becoming a better leader and a better human being. I can't be grateful enough for the opportunity and for the people who were alongside me during this challenging period. All the people in my department, their dedication, all their efforts were the reason to be able succeed here. On the solid foundations we have laid down as part of the separation, with establishing new tooling, new environments, new processes to serve the standalone operation of LastPass, many new improvements and innovations are about to be built. Eagerly waiting for all that is about to come, especially because we have great people in place to thrive. For me personally couple of things has changed as well, especially around how I see my future opportunities and aspirations on the way forward (under the flags of LastPass, do not worry if you are from LastPass reading this :)). Already made some significant decisions, commitments and started to take steps to be able to better serve the people who I have the luck to work with. Solution Focused Coaching (by Solutionsurfers Hungary) and the Leadership Circle Universal Model & Profile (by Leadership Circle) are two methods/tools/techniques/label them whatever that were two great gifts, mindset and game changers and were opening my eyes towards new horizons. Most probably thanking for them too, curiosity towards people with different backgrounds and their stories is higher in me than ever before. People in my LinkedIn network please do not get surprised if after long time (or first time ever) I might message you and want to hear your story. It is not a threat. :) https://lnkd.in/daCTaUGU

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I am throwing together a bunch what I have learned over the last few years in the crypto industry in hopes that it helps get some folks thinking about working on this side of tech. If you have any questions you'd like me to answer, please hit me up on Substack and I will do my best to answer.

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There’s been a lot of buzz about Andy Jassy’s recent post (https://lnkd.in/geHCNFJZ) on reducing managers and the RTO mandate. Leaving the RTO part aside, I had two reactions: 1. I was surprised by how directly he addressed something everyone has talked about for years: “pre-meetings for pre-meetings for decision meetings, a longer line of managers reviewing everything, and initiative owners feeling like decisions are made elsewhere.” 2. Over time, many companies (not just Amazon) started promoting people for their “leadership” skills—framing problems, communicating status, enforcing top-down decisions. This led to layers of managers acting more like messengers. Meetings became more about how you say things than what you're actually saying. Now, the pendulum seems to be swinging back. #amazon #managers #hitech #rto #effectivemeetings #meetings #productivity #innovation #efficiency #leadership #management #bureaucracy #futureofwork #workplace #CEOs #csuite #work

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Anyone who has ACTUALLY been following technology their entire life will tell you one thing: NEVER be an early adopter. Everyone I see enamored with AI and telling me it's "already everywhere", "the future" or is "here to stay" all have one thing in common... they're the same types of people who call IT for help logging into their own email address three years ago. I guess they ask ChatGippity for that now. So far that's the only use case I can think of helping me and the rest of humanity out. Being an early adopter in tech has always been about speculation, risking only what you can afford to lose, and above all else - being in an existing position of investment in that particular space. You've believed in it longer than anyone else, and you have good reasons, and are taking your shot. Jumping on a moving train because a whole lot of other people are on it is an age-old story of failure that so many fables and cautionary tales caution us end in the same way. It has NEVER been about deserving it just because you're doing it. THE BURDEN OF PROOF IS ON YOU AND YOUR HOBBY. LIVE THAT. EMBRACE THAT. BE THE UNDERDOG. OWN IT! That is where on innovation comes from. Not this.... disgusting, attempted forced buy-in that is oh-so-transparent at this point. The entitlement and desperation I see from people pushing their risky investment in AI down other people's throats is the kind of person we used to all make fun of for not sitting and enjoying life with the rest of the group, and tried to push everyone on the pyramid scheme he or she just joined instead. ...and you're HUMBLE. You're joking about how it might not work out. You're joking about how crazy you feel. You're joking about losing sleep at night. This is okay. Because you took a risk. That's part of the deal. You don't deserve success just because you asked for it. AI doesn't deserve to succeed. of all the tech hype cycles of the past - and I've seen them all - this one, just like any other, need stop prove its worth on its own two feet. The problem is.... this time, a lot of people are on failed speculative hype investment round number 6. Look deeper and it's mostly people in marketing who are simply tasting what a simulation of technical literacy is like, and they're getting drunk, and some addicted. It really does have the vibe of a high school kid announcing to a room full of 40 year old how amazing alcohol is. Again. And again. And again....

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