Breach School
From Threat Vector by Palo Alto Networks by Palo Alto Networks and N2K Networks
April 23, 2026 · 34 min · Season 10 · Episode 114
About this episode
Steve Elovitz discusses his experiences in incident response and the importance of empathy in cybersecurity.
What does it take to go from staring at forensic images to sitting across from a CEO whose company is on fire? Steve Elovitz has spent his entire career in the room when things go wrong. He started in forensics and eDiscovery at PwC, moved to Booz Allen doing government work, then spent a decade at Mandiant before joining Unit 42 to lead North America consulting and incident response. The throughline across all of it: empathy. In this conversation, Steve reflects on what two decades of incident response actually teaches you about the people on the other side of a breach. The executives fighting for their jobs. The CISOs trying to communicate while everything's on fire. The analysts who need someone to have their backs. You'll hear how Steve's understanding of the job evolved as he moved from technical analyst to executive advisor, what the shift from forensic imaging to real-time response felt like from inside it, why identity keeps showing up in nearly every postmortem, and what briefing a board looks like when you get 15 minutes instead of the hour you planned for. Steve has advised Fortune 500 boards and C-suites through some of the most damaging breaches of the past two…
People in this episode
Guest: Steve Elovitz
Topics covered
- incident response
- forensics
- executive advisory
- cybersecurity
- breach management
- CISO communication
Keywords
- incident response
- forensics
- cybersecurity
- CISO
- executive advisory
- breach
- empathy
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: PwC, Booz Allen, Mandiant, Unit 42, Fortune 500
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