Episode 20: Valon Kolica and Ryan Heffernan – The Microsoft Security Community

In this episode of the #AzureLateShow podcast, we had the opportunity to speak with our special guests Valon Kolica, Program Manager at Microsoft Cybersecurity Engineering, and Ryan Heffernan, Security Community Lead at Microsoft to discuss how you can get involved in the Microsoft Security Community.

We will explore all the learning opportunities available which will be great for anyone wanting to know more about Cloud security; and how you can connect with security professionals in the industry.

As always, special thanks to our Co-Host for these series of the podcast, Pablo Chacón, Security Community Lead at Microsoft.

Episode Highlights

• Introductions [0:33]
• Valon and Ryan’s role at Microsoft [2:22]
• The born of the Microsoft Security Community [4:39]
• Content localization strategy [6:53]
• Value added and benefits for members of the Microsoft Security Community [7:49 ]
• Recent webinars available on-demand in the Security Community [10:20]
• Upcoming webinars in the Security Community [12:33]
• Announcements from Microsoft Ignite 2021 [15:45]
• Valon and Ryan’ s recommendation on how to engage with the security community [18:48]

Resources:

• ASC Github community
• Microsoft Security Community on TechCommunity
• Azure Security Center community forum
• Azure Security Center blogs
• Forums for all Microsoft security Engineering Team and Services: aka.ms/securitycommunity
• Online public forums, and recorded and upcoming public webinars: aka.ms/securitywebinars
• Microsoft Ignite 2021 announcements: https://news.microsoft.com/march-2021-ignite
• Azure Security Center Ninja Training

About our Special Guests

Valon Kolica Program Manager at Microsoft Cybersecurity Team.

20 years of experience in tech field, started fresh out of college working for Retalix – POS (Point Of Sale) company, later acquired by NCR corporation.

Moved to telecom industry working on various CRM, mobile, infrastructure, as well as cloud solution projects for telco industry leaders such as AT&T and T-Mobile. Two years ago is when I joined Microsoft, CxE Security team at the HQ in Redmond office. “There’s no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothes”, I’m a big outdoor enthusiast, which is the reason I moved to PNW!

Ryan Heffernan Security Community Lead at Microsoft.

Ryan Heffernan is a Security Community Lead at Microsoft, where helps customers speak directly to the engineering teams for Microsoft’s security products. He has worked in technology for 20 years, with 10 of those years focused on security. He’s a former adjunct professor at the University of Washington and holds an MS in cybersecurity from Norwich University

Co-Host

Pablo Chacón – Security Community Lead at Microsoft.

Pablo is Senior Program Manager in the Cloud Security group in Azure. He is responsible for leading community security communities that Microsoft engineering teams engage with the goal of learning from customers, and gathering their feedback for the roadmap of Azure security services.

Pablo’s first experience with Microsoft was in 1994, when he became an intern at Microsoft’s subsidiary in Ecuador, his home country. As an intern, he traveled the country educating customers on Microsoft Office, Widows 95, Windows Server and other Microsoft products. He then joined Microsoft as an employee, and its internal IT division, in 2001, helping manage and protect computers within the Microsoft network around the world. In 2009 he joined an incubation team focused on remote device management, and which later became Microsoft Intune. He was responsible for the incubation of Intune’s customer support service, as well as the implementation and leadership of Intune’s Incident Management processes.

Pablo joined Azure security in 2018 on his current role, where he enjoys connecting customers with security engineering teams in Microsoft.

Episode source