John Martinez

Technical Evangelist, has had a long 30+ year career in systems engineering and architecture, but has spent the last 13+ years working on the Cloud, and specifically, Cloud Security. He's currently the Technical Evangelist at StrongDM, taking the message of Zero Trust Privileged Access Management (PAM) to the world. As a practitioner, he architected and created cloud automation, DevOps, and security and compliance solutions at Netflix and Adobe. He worked closely with customers at Evident.io, where he was telling the world about how cloud security should be done at conferences, meetups and customer sessions. Before coming to StrongDM, he lead an innovations and solutions team at Palo Alto Networks, working across many of the company's security products.

StrongDM has been featured in Forbes, The New Stack, VentureBeat, DevOps.com, TechCrunch, and Fortune.

Expertise

Access, Compare, Identity and Access Management, Dynamic Access Management, Security, Zero Trust, DevOps, Compliance, Team, AWS, Kubernetes, Secure Access Service Edge

Latest blog posts from John

StrongDM vs. AWS SSM Session Manager: Side-by-Side Comparison

Both AWS Systems Manager (SSM) Session Manager and StrongDM are solutions for gaining remote access to critical infrastructure. Yet, while they share some of the same capabilities required of an enterprise access management platform, the execution and the ultimate goals they accomplish for security and compliance teams are very different.

Unauthorized Access: Types, Examples & Prevention

Unauthorized access—the unauthorized entry or use of an organization's systems, networks, or data by individuals without permission—is a common way for bad actors to exfiltrate data, inject malicious code, and take advantage of all types of breaches, and can have severe consequences for an enterprise and its customers.

XZ Utils Backdoor Explained: How to Mitigate Risks

Last week, Red Hat issued a warning regarding a potential presence of a malicious backdoor in the widely utilized data compression software library XZ, which may affect instances of Fedora Linux 40 and the Fedora Rawhide developer distribution. CISA, or Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency, confirmed and issued an alert for the same CVE.

Unmasking Cozy Bear (APT29): The Urgent Need for Continuous Authorization

Cozy Bear specializes in targeting governments, diplomatic entities, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and IT service providers, primarily in the U.S. and Europe. These state-sponsored groups aim to clandestinely gather strategic and sensitive information for Russia, maintaining prolonged access without raising suspicions.

Leveraging CSA CCM with StrongDM for Enhanced Cloud Security

The CSA CCM is a cybersecurity control framework specifically designed for cloud computing. It outlines a comprehensive set of best practices and security controls across 17 domains that are designed to ensure that cloud environments are secure and resilient against an ever expanding threat landscape. The CCM framework is structured to provide clarity and actionable guidance for the implementation of security measures in a prescriptive and adaptable way for recognized compliance standards and

AWS re:Invent 2023 Recap: RDS for Db2, EKS Pod Identity & More

re:Invent 2023 was AWS’ 12th conference, and it did not disappoint. More than 50,000 of us descended onto Las Vegas for a week of learning, networking, and discussing all things cloud. The campus was insanely large, spanning most of the Las Vegas strip, so that meant we got our steps in! We had some fun along the way, as well, at the many social gatherings, parties and amazing musical experience re:Play.

AWS Well-Architected Framework Security Best Practices

The AWS Well-Architected Framework has been a staple for many years for AWS practitioners of all sorts, including cloud architects and platform engineers. It’s a blueprint for architectural and design best practices that will lay the foundation for resilience, operational efficiency, and security on the AWS Cloud.

MITRE ATT&CK Framework Containers Matrix for Kubernetes

If you’re Kuberntes admin and you’re not familiar with the tactics outlined in the MITRE ATT&CK framework, this blog post is for you. MITRE ATT&CK framework is an extensive knowledge base of tactics and techniques employed by bad actors that defensive security experts use to help defend their organizations against attack, and many times, used by their offensive security counterparts to test their weaknesses.

CIS Kubernetes Benchmark Implementation Recommendations

The CIS Kubernetes Benchmark is a set of prescriptive recommendations assembled to guide administrators to achieve good security hygiene and results in strength security outcomes for their Kubernetes environments.

Simplifying AWS Access with StrongDM Without Compromising Security Posture

Since Amazon Web Services first announced it in 2011, AWS IAM has evolved to become the gateway to the AWS Cloud. Organizations cannot interact with their cloud resources and its many services without it. Identity, not networking, is the real access boundary.

Alternatives to AWS Secrets Manager

AWS Secrets Manager is a popular and highly intuitive secrets management tool that lets organizations automate secrets rotation processes and securely store, manage, and audit IT credentials. However, certain AWS Secrets Manager alternatives are available if you are looking to avoid getting tied down exclusively to AWS products or prioritize efficient user onboarding. In this product comparison guide, we evaluate AWS Secrets Manager competitors that can fill in some of its product gaps.

Alternatives to Azure Key Vault

Microsoft Azure Key Vault is a cryptographic and secrets management solution for storing encryption keys, certificates, and passwords. While known for its interface simplicity and robust security, users should look to Azure Key Vault alternatives if they prioritize employee onboarding automation or need quick and easy implementation. This article evaluates Azure Key Vault competitors regarding security features, pricing, and usability to identify the best alternative options.

Alternatives to Google Cloud Secret Manager

Google Cloud Secret Manager is an intuitive platform for managing API keys, user passwords, digital certificates, and other sensitive data and administering access control policies for business resources. While cost-friendly and reliable for securing Google Cloud applications, you should look to other Google Cloud Secret Manager competitors if you manage complex infrastructure and need multiple integrations.

Zero Trust vs. SASE: Everything You Need to Know

Concerned about providing secure access to the data and tools employees need to do their jobs in a cloud or hybrid environment? Don’t worry. Solid strategies exist for protecting distributed resources. Zero Trust and SASE are two architectural approaches that provide strong security in today’s cloud-first world. The information in this article will help you decide which strategy works best for your business. Robust cloud security is attainable.

Want to learn more?
See StrongDM in action. 👀

Book a Demo