Show Notes
This episode features Drew Russell, Identity Resilience Platform Owner at Rubrik. Jim McDonald and Jeff Steadman explore the intersection of backup, recovery, and identity security. Drew explains how Rubrik evolved from data backup into a cyber resilience platform with identity as a core pillar. Topics include recovering Active Directory, Okta, and Entra ID after ransomware, Rubrik's "bunker in a box" appliance for immutable air-gapped recovery, proactive posture management, CrowdStrike and Defender integrations, and where AI and non-human identities fit into Rubrik's roadmap. The episode wraps with measuring success for a product you hope to never use, and a detour into watch collecting.
This episode was made possible by the support of Rubrik. Learn more at rubrik.com/idac
Connect with Drew: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drew-russell-3762411b/ Learn more about Rubrik: https://www.rubrik.com/idac
Connect with us on LinkedIn: Jim McDonald: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimmcdonaldpmp/ Jeff Steadman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffsteadman/
Visit the show on the web at idacpodcast.com
TIMESTAMPS 00:00:00 - Welcome and Introduction 00:01:19 - Introducing Drew Russell 00:01:36 - How Drew Got Into Identity 00:02:43 - What Is Rubrik and What Sets It Apart 00:03:38 - From Backup to Cyber Resilience 00:05:31 - Where Rubrik Fits in the IAM Landscape 00:07:08 - Rubrik's Scale: Clients and Growth 00:07:51 - Primary Use Cases: Post-Incident Recovery and AD 00:09:09 - Kicking Out Compromised Accounts and ADR 00:10:11 - Proactive Threat Detection and Mandiant Integration 00:11:28 - Scanning Backups to Find the Clean Recovery Point 00:12:14 - The Bunker in a Box Explained 00:13:18 - Posture Management and Upstream Tool Integration 00:14:19 - AI Agent Swarms and the Future Attack Surface 00:15:37 - The Taiwan Bank Case Study: Six Weeks to Rebuild AD 00:17:16 - The State of Nevada Incident: $400K and 30 Days 00:17:56 - What Recovery Covers: AD, Okta, and Entra ID 00:19:26 - Post-Restore Change Management and Whitelisting 00:20:08 - How Long Should You Store Backups? 00:21:19 - Indexing Identity for Intelligent Recovery Points 00:22:29 - Excluding Malicious Actions During Restore 00:24:41 - Zero Trust for Rubrik's Own Backups 00:26:21 - No Windows, No Virtualization Architecture 00:27:49 - Proactive Posture Management 00:29:00 - CrowdStrike and Defender Real-Time Integration 00:30:48 - Why Tabletop Exercises Often Fall Short 00:31:53 - AI Roadmap and Non-Human Identities 00:34:22 - The Three Pillars: Data, Identity, and AI 00:35:29 - Deployment: SaaS vs. On-Prem 00:38:37 - Appliance Sizing and Redundancy 00:42:23 - Measuring Success for a Product You Hope to Never Use 00:43:46 - The Ludacris Rubrik Commercial 00:45:31 - Watch Collecting and the Omega Speedmaster 00:53:39 - Drew's Closing Words
KEYWORDS Identity at the Center, IDAC, Jeff Steadman, Jim McDonald, Rubrik, Drew Russell, identity resilience, cyber resilience, Active Directory recovery, AD backup, Okta recovery, Entra ID recovery, identity backup, ITDR, ISPM, non-human identity, NHI, agentic AI, ransomware recovery, bunker in a box, immutable backup, CrowdStrike integration, Microsoft Defender integration, Mandiant integration, identity disaster recovery, ADR, zero trust, tabletop exercises, posture management, IAM, identity security podcast, cybersecurity podcast
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