Episode Overview

Title: Fail Fast, Learn Faster: Protecting People, Machines, and Data
Host: Ed Gaudet, CEO and Founder of Censinet
Guest: Matt Topper, CEO of UberEther
Date: December 2, 2025

This episode features an insightful conversation between Ed Gaudet and Matt Topper, who delve into how the rapidly evolving healthcare environment is transforming the way we secure people, devices, and data. Matt shares his journey from tech intern to cybersecurity leader, offers a deep dive into the future of identity and security, and reflects on lessons learned in a high-stakes industry where failure becomes a foundation for success.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Matt Topper & UberEther: Identity Beyond Humans

• Company Origin (00:34–01:17)

  • UberEther, founded by Matt while at Oracle, focuses on identity and access management (IAM) for both humans and devices.
  • Humorous confusion with ride-sharing calls due to the company name.

• Expanding "Identity" (01:34–03:13)

  • Modern IAM must secure not just people, but devices: IoT, pacemakers, MRI machines, and HVAC systems all need identities and relationships managed at scale.
  • “The castle walls have fallen… Identity is kind of that last security thread to hold onto.” — Matt Topper (02:36)

2. Security Career Path: From Data Nerd to Identity Leader

• Early Career in Data (03:41–07:12)

  • Matt’s IT journey started as a data intern managing massive auto sales/registration data, moving mainframes to open systems, and developing BI tools—all before cloud and modern mapping tech.

• Pivot to Security (07:16–07:54)

  • Risky, “hard stuff” in consulting drew Matt into security and identity (“Nobody wanted to do the security stuff… The fire in me went, cool.” — 07:44)
  • Admits to being addicted to solving hard problems.

3. Identity’s Evolution: From Compliance to Enterprise Security

• Past & Present of IAM (08:16–11:35)

  • Identity’s legacy is compliance-driven (HIPAA, financial audits), often siloed from security.
  • Large organizations struggle with fragmentation—different vendors for governance, SSO, directories, API security, leading to slow, expensive implementations.

• UberEther's Approach (09:40–11:29)

  • Their model: integrate best-of-breed tools tailored by vertical (federal, healthcare, education), simplifying and speeding adoption.
  • Observing demand for higher security certifications (FedRAMP, DoD IL5) in healthcare as standards rise.

4. What’s Next: AI, Machine Identity & Zero Trust

• Future Focus (11:35–15:39)

  • AI integration is outpacing security: “When the MCP spec first came out from Anthropic, the security section… was literally listed as ‘//to do’” — Matt Topper (10:51)
  • Urgent problem isn’t just human identity—machine/non-human identity (API keys, service accounts, AI agents) is emerging as the weak point, as seen in high-profile breaches.

• Industry Maturing (12:50–14:52)

  • Security and identity teams are finally collaborating on standards (IETF’s dynamic client metadata registration just finalized).
  • Moving toward “trust fabric”: federated, quorum-based, more resilient identity models for both humans and machines.

5. Cloud Risk & The Return of On-Prem Resilience

• Recent Outages Highlight Weaknesses (15:39–17:57)
  • Cloud reliability can be overstated: AWS/DynamoDB and similar outages reveal underlying dependency risks.
  • Calls for internal reflection and resilience, not just blaming vendors.
  • Identity providers on-prem are regaining attention (especially in retail, manufacturing, and healthcare), for fail-safe critical operations if cloud/internet access goes down.

6. Reflections, Wisdom, and Risk

• Advice to 20-Year-Old Self (18:41–20:43)

  • “I don’t think I’d change much… Learn to trust other people who are experts in their areas too, especially for the stuff you really don’t enjoy doing.” — Matt Topper (20:43)
  • Valuing tangible impact (“I built the site that helped you sell those cars… and lets you play Spotify on that radio securely.” — 19:28)

• Riskiest Professional Moment (21:07–23:34)

  • At 22, Matt led a make-or-break project, refusing to let his mentor take the fall. The effort transformed an $8M/year product into a $200M success story.

• Advice for New Cyber Pros (25:08–26:19)

  • “Never stop learning… You will learn as much, probably more from your failures than you do from your successes.” — Matt Topper (25:08)
  • Toxic employers punish mistakes; real growth comes from learning and adapting.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the Perpetual Challenge of Security

  • “What are they going to throw at us next, huh? It keeps it interesting though, right? You're never bored.”
    — Ed Gaudet (01:17)

• On Zero Trust and Identity Models

  • “Too many organizations, I see, their zero trust initiative is just putting their VPN 2.0 out there… Well, guess what, like no, you’re dead.”
    — Matt Topper (13:45)

• On Cloud Outages

  • “Sure enough, personally I enjoy those events because it proves a lot of the industry bullshit…”
    — Matt Topper (15:58)

• On Leadership and Taking Risks

  • “I don’t put other people in the firefight if I’m not going to be on the front lines, too.”
    — Matt Topper (23:06)

• On Continuous Learning

  • “Whether it’s IT, whether it’s healthcare, whether it is being a woodworker—as soon as you stop learning and you think you’ve mastered something is when it’s over.”
    — Matt Topper (26:02)

Timestamps for Key Segments

| Timestamp | Segment/Topic | |-------------|----------------------------------------------------------| | 00:34–01:17 | Origin and culture of UberEther | | 01:34–03:13 | Devices as identities; changing security landscape | | 03:41–07:54 | Matt’s early tech and security journey | | 08:16–11:29 | IAM’s compliance roots; need for integration | | 11:35–15:39 | AI, new standards, machine/non-human identity challenge | | 15:39–17:57 | Recent cloud outages; resilience risks | | 18:41–20:43 | Advice to younger self; trusting others | | 21:07–23:34 | Riskiest career moment | | 25:08–26:19 | Advice for new professionals: fail fast, learn always |

Lightning Round: Personal Side of Matt Topper

• Five Desert Island Records: Seeger, Dave Matthews, Tupac, Eminem, Taylor Swift (chosen for his daughters) (23:39–24:32)
• Music as Community: Hosted concert series, “rock boat” adventures (24:00)
• On Family and Resilience: His son would be the one “building the raft and getting us out of there” (24:48)

Conclusion

A fast-paced discussion blending humor, hard-earned wisdom, and technical insight, this episode highlights how—and why—the identity security landscape is evolving. Matt Topper’s journey from data intern to CEO underscores the industry’s shift to protecting both people and machines, while his advice champions resilience, lifelong learning, and humility in the relentless pursuit of patient safety.