Zero Trust, Real Talk: A Conversation with Dr. Chase Cunningham

How do you know your cybersecurity investments are actually making you safer? That’s the question at the heart of the latest TechSpective Podcast episode, where Dr. Chase Cunningham—better known to many as “Dr. Zero Trust”—joins me for an unfiltered, candid conversation about the state of modern cybersecurity. And no, this isn’t a puff piece on policy frameworks or the latest silver bullet tool. If you’ve read Chase’s recent LinkedIn post “Misaligned Zero Trust Spend = 1999 Firewall FOMO, But Worse,” you already know where this is going: straight into the hard truths about how organizations are still getting Zero Trust fundamentally wrong. In his post, Chase makes a blunt observation that became the foundation for our discussion: too many companies treat Zero Trust like a shopping list—buying products instead of outcomes. “If your ‘Zero Trust’ line items don’t move incident frequency, blast radius, or time to contain, you’re not buying security—you’re buying feelings.” That line stood out to me and was part of why I reached out to invite Chase to join me on the podcast. No Silver Bullets, Just Smarter Questions This isn’t an episode full of buzzwords or vendor shout-outs. It’s a reminder that there’s no shortcut around the work. Whether we’re talking about identity-anchored access control, microsegmentation, or reducing dwell time through automation, Chase repeatedly returns to a central theme: strategy over spectacle. He compares some security spending habits to crash diets and “cyber fat pills”—quick fixes that sound great in a pitch deck but collapse under scrutiny. Just like with fitness, real security gains come from consistency, not gimmicks. We also explore the often-overlooked relationship between breach economics and stock price behavior—another area where Chase has done deep research. The myth that a breach will destroy a brand? It’s more complicated than that. Sometimes (pro tip: most of the time) the dip is a buying opportunity, not a death sentence. Why You Should Listen If you’re a CISO, security architect, board member—or just someone trying to make sense of your security stack—this conversation will challenge your assumptions in all the right ways. It’s part therapy session, part strategy clinic, and entirely grounded in real-world experience. Check out the full episode: