Joe South joins the Security Cocktail Hour to discuss the state of communication satellite security and the doctoral research he is doing to change it. Joe is Director of Cloud & AI Security at Abira Security and hosts the Security Unfiltered podcast, one of the larger independent cybersecurity podcasts. The conversation covers what satellite defense actually looks like today: why most of the security is at the ground station rather than on the satellite itself, what happens when CubeSats stay in orbit for 10 to 12 years without meaningful patching, and how a zero trust framework could be made to work on hardware that operates on less than three watts of power. Joe walks through his proposed approach, which combines TPM-based component authentication with a distributed trust ring across satellite orbits.We also get into cyber warfare and the attribution problem, the strategic implications of a compromised satellite fleet, and Joe's personal story about building self-sufficiency. If you work in cloud, infrastructure, or national security and have never had space in your threat model, this is a good place to start. Guest: Joe South, Director of Cloud & AI Security at Abira Security, host of Security Unfiltered (securityunfiltered.com), doctoral candidate at Capital Technology University.Subscribe to the Security Cocktail Hour newsletter at securitycocktailhour.com for a biweekly read on cybersecurity news and upcoming episodes.

Matt Sloane has spent 13 years in the drone industry, working with over 1,000 public safety agencies to build and operate drone programs. As Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer of SkyfireAI, he's at the intersection of drone operations, AI-enabled autonomy, and national security policy.

In this conversation, Matt covers how drone first response (DFR) programs are changing 911 operations, why the FAA's upcoming Part 108 framework will prioritize autonomy over human pilots, how counter-UAS mitigation actually works (with memorable stories from the Super Bowl and World Cup preparations), and what he told the White House about the Chinese drone ban's impact on American public safety agencies.

Supply chain risk from Chinese-made drones mirrors the Hikvision and Huawei debates. Counter-UAS involves signal jamming and RF detection. Autonomous drone systems are expanding the attack surface in ways most security programs haven't accounted for yet.

Amanda King was a Senior Director of Breakthrough Technology at an aerospace and defense company when she learned she was on a list of 77 people specifically targeted by Iran's Charming Kitten APT group. In this episode, she tells the full story: how the Associated Press tried to reach her three times, what the attackers accessed, how a US government agency got involved, and what she changed in her personal and professional life afterward.

The conversation covers the real-world experience of being targeted by a nation-state actor, the gap between corporate and personal security, what it's like when a three-letter agency asks for access to your life, and how the experience shaped Amanda's approach as she moved into executive roles. Amanda also shares her perspective on resilience, including her cancer journey, and a practical framework for processing difficult experiences.

Hosts: Joe Patti and Adam Roth. Recorded March 14, 2026.