Professionally Paranoid

Professionally Paranoid

From Firewalls Don't Stop Dragons Podcast by Carey Parker

February 16, 2026 · 1h 8m

About this episode

Carey Parker interviews Yahoo CISO Sean Zadig about cybersecurity, privacy, and the relationship between Big Tech and law enforcement.

Today I speak with Yahoo CISO Sean Zadig – aka, the Chief Paranoid. Sean has had a long and varied career in cybersecurity, working both in law enforcement (at NASA!) and working security for Big Tech. I’ll ask Sean how we can teach our kids about cybersecurity, and how to protect them from the worst of the internet without compromising anyone’s privacy. I’ll also get his perspective on the relationship between Big Tech, user data, law enforcement and the Fourth Amendment. Interview Notes The Paranoids (Yahoo): https://www.yahooinc.com/our-technology/paranoids Suddenly a CISO: https://www.yahooinc.com/paranoids/suddenly-a-ciso-four-pieces-of-transitional-advice Clipper Chip: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clipper_chip Further Info My book: https://fdsd.me/book My newsletter: https://fdsd.me/newsletter Support the mission: https://fdsd.me/support Give the gift of privacy and security: https://fdsd.me/coupons Get your Firewalls Don’t Stop Dragons Merch! https://fdsd.me/merch Table of Contents 0:00:13: Intro 0:01:20: Lingo 0:02:06: How did you become CISO at Yahoo? 0:05:38: Has AI made you job harder? 0:08:54: What the Paranoid ethos? 0:11:49: What a kids…

People in this episode

Guest: Sean Zadig

Topics covered

  • cybersecurity
  • privacy
  • Big Tech
  • law enforcement

Keywords

  • Chief Paranoid
  • Fourth Amendment
  • user data
  • teaching kids about cybersecurity

Mentioned in this episode

Products: Yahoo, Clipper Chip

Books & works: The Paranoids

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