This episode features Andreae Pohlman, Cybersecurity strategist and former member of Microsoft’s Corporate Incident Response and Compromise Recovery team.

Careers in cybersecurity rarely follow a straight line—and that’s where the real strength is built. In this episode, we sit down with Andreae Pohlman—Air Force veteran, former Microsoft incident responder, and enterprise security advisor—to chart a journey from the identity trenches to global ransomware recovery and the architectural backbone that holds it all together.

Andreae shares hard-won lessons from Pass-the-Hash defenses, ESAE bastion forests, and privileged access workstations, connecting them to today’s Entra ID and the Defender suite. She breaks down how identity-first practices evolved into full-stack defense, why compromise recovery deserves equal footing with incident response, and how AI can sharpen—but not replace—discipline and process.

Threaded through it all is community: from Scholarship for Service to Women’s Society of Cyberjutsu, where Andreae now helps others build both skill and confidence. Her closing message? Kill the password. Passkeys and passwordless authentication aren’t just convenience—they’re liberation from whole categories of attack.

If you’re navigating your cyber career, maturing your IR program, or seeking a community that runs on grit, this episode delivers clarity, connection, and a call to evolve.