In this episode of Ctrl-Alt-Secure, Valentina Flores, CEO of Red Sentry, sits down with Brianna Martinson, Director of Engineering at Tepia, to explore what it truly means to build secure, resilient systems around humans — not in spite of them.

Brianna shares how her background as a longtime developer shapes Tepia’s people-first engineering philosophy. Rather than treating software as isolated features, Tepia partners with clients to understand entire system flows, user behavior, and business constraints — especially when working with complex or legacy environments.

The conversation dives into why “user error” is often a design failure, how discovery and design should be just as rigorous as development, and why tiny usability decisions can make or break adoption and security outcomes. Brianna and Valentina also discuss holistic system thinking, DevOps principles, microservice architecture, and the emotional realities teams face when legacy tech becomes a liability.

The episode closes with a candid discussion on why leaning into discomfort — even when it risks short-term losses — leads to stronger trust, better systems, and more meaningful impact.

Key topics covered:

• Why human-centered design improves security outcomes
• The hidden risks of blaming users instead of systems
• Designing intuitive systems that people actually use
• Navigating legacy code, technical debt, and hard rebuild decisions
• Holistic engineering, DevOps, and microservice architecture
• Why doing things “the right way” builds long-term trust over short-term profit

Who should listen:
This episode is ideal for engineering leaders, security professionals, product teams, founders, and anyone building or securing complex systems where humans, technology, and business intersect.

About Ctrl-Alt-Secure
Ctrl-Alt-Secure is brought to you by Red Sentry, a human-led, tech-powered penetration testing firm helping companies identify and fix vulnerabilities before attackers can exploit them.

🔗 Learn more about Tepia: https://tepia.co/
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