103. Why your zero trust stops at the sticker on the box

Roei Ganzarski is the President and CEO of Alitheon, and he calls himself a mercenary CEO because he isn’t one of the founders. This is the 4th time somebody has brought him in to take remarkable technology and turn it into a business. This time the technology is biometrics for physical things. Full show notes, chapters, and transcript: https://ysecurity.io/podcast/103-your... His argument for this audience starts with zero trust. You verify everything that connects to your network, and then the whole thing runs on hardware you trust because a sticker names the manufacturer. He’s made that case to rooms of cybersecurity people who told him hardware wasn’t their problem. He and host Jon McLachlan, co-founder of YSecurity and Cyberbase.ai, get into how the math works, which is manufacturing tolerances read by an off-the-shelf industrial camera, and why Roei keeps saying there’s no machine learning in it anywhere. Also the aircraft engine supplier in the United Kingdom caught selling real used parts with paperwork saying they were new ([14:05] for that one), why counterfeit and gray market are 2 different problems, and the Friday all-hands he runs that opens with who made a good mistake this week ([40:19]). CHAPTERS 00:00 Sponsor 01:39 The mercenary CEO 03:17 Biometrics for things 06:11 Tolerances, and what a FeaturePrint is 09:35 No machine learning, just discrete math 11:28 Your zero trust is running on a sticker 12:40 Counterfeit and gray market are different problems 14:58 High consequence items, and who buys this 17:28 What a deployment actually looks like 26:43 The proudest moment 32:00 The hardest day 39:17 Critical thinking, and Friday mornings. GUEST Roei Ganzarski, President and Chief Executive Officer, Alitheon, Inc., Bellevue, Washington. Alitheon builds FeaturePrint, an optical identity system for physical objects. He previously ran magniX, where the team flew an all-electric aircraft 12 months after starting. https://alitheon.com   / roeiganzarski   HOST Jon McLachlan, Co-founder, YSecurity and Cyberbase.ai   / jon-mclachlan   ABOUT THE SHOW The Security Podcast of Silicon Valley invites founders, engineers, and security leaders to share how they tackle compliance, growth, and real-world security challenges—turning obstacles into strategic advantages. Brought to you by YSecurity. SPONSOR YSecurity is the security team that works next to yours. Your buyer wants SOC 2, a pen test, and a clean due diligence questionnaire, and YSecurity handles all three as part of your team, with 40+ senior security engineers who ran security at Apple, Robinhood, and Netflix. Your first 8 hours are free: https://ysecurity.io/startups LISTEN All episodes: https://ysecurity.io/podcast/ Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast... Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5lK5Zeo... #zerotrust #hardwaresecurity #supplychainsecurity #cybersecurity #counterfeit