Akira Brand -- Gaining Experience by Threat Modeling

Akira Brand joins Chris to talk about her journey into threat modeling, her early experiences, some lessons learned, and how she knew her threat model was successful. Akira's experiences emphasize the importance of collaboration, understanding the application, and using tools and diagrams to aid the process.

Akira is a visual thinker and draws parallels between surgical checklists and the STRIDE model. Akira emphasizes the importance of a comprehensive approach, likening the STRIDE model to a surgeon's checklist that ensures all potential threats are addressed.

In her initial foray into threat modeling, she identified a significant security risk due to excessive permissions in an application. To understand and address this, she delved deep into the application's architecture, relying on data flow diagrams and a hands-on approach rather than a purely theoretical one.

Akira's story underscores the power of collaboration. Her challenges were overcome by the combined efforts of teams from engineering, data analytics, and security. She believes that the true measure of success in threat modeling is when diverse teams come together to create holistic security solutions.