Episode #186. Extreme Visibility, Zero-Day Defense, and the Future of Critical Infrastructure, with Tony Scott, CEO of Intrusion

Summary

Risk Never Sleeps Podcast – Episode #186: “Extreme Visibility, Zero-Day Defense, and the Future of Critical Infrastructure”
Guest: Tony Scott, CEO, Intrusion
Host: Ed Gaudet, CEO and Founder, Censinet
Date: January 9, 2026

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Episode Overview

This episode features an insightful discussion with Tony Scott, CEO of Intrusion, a cybersecurity company focused on deep network visibility and zero-day threat prevention. Host Ed Gaudet explores Tony’s career journey, technical philosophies, and perspectives on protecting critical infrastructure—particularly in healthcare and other high-stakes environments. The conversation delves into the technical, operational, and personal elements of leading cybersecurity in an ever-evolving landscape, with Scott sharing candid career reflections and practical advice for future professionals.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Intrusion’s Mission and Core Technology

[00:48–06:49]

• Transformation at Intrusion: Tony joined amid a challenging transition, motivated by the company’s innovative IP and dedicated team.

  “At first ... I thought, well, maybe I could hire away some of the key people ... But when I saw the combination of the IP and the people ... I quickly switched to a whole different point of view.” – Tony Scott [01:38]

• Problem Solved by Intrusion:

  • Extreme Network Visibility: Continuous, packet-level monitoring—not just periodic sampling—even for traffic that bypasses traditional firewalls.

    “You need extreme network visibility all the time. And it's not just conversations, it's packet by packet by packet in real time.” – Tony Scott [03:10]

  • Institutional Memory: Retain historical records of bad actors for pattern recognition and detection of re-emerging threats.

    “...the bad guys are resurrecting things that people haven't seen in four or five years ... we never forget.” – Tony Scott [04:10]

  • Blocking Unauthorized Communications: Focused on blocking both inbound, outbound, and lateral traffic (east-west), preventing malicious code or compromised devices from communicating.

    “If you can block the communication, you can block the harm.” – Tony Scott [04:35]

  • Strength in Zero-Day Defense: The blend of these approaches is proven against never-before-seen attacks, as well as known threats.

• Modern Threats:

  • Tony highlighted the sophistication of seemingly innocuous surveillance and reconnaissance activities, amplified by AI-enabled attacks.

    “There's a lot of what looks like harmless activity, but it's actually surveillance ... With AI, you know, you can craft a very clever multipronged attack very easily.” – Tony Scott [06:02]

• Industry Reach:

  • Intrusion’s solutions serve a broad set of industries, reflecting the universal nature of cyber threats.

    “These problems are pretty universal. As it turns out. Nobody's immune.” – Tony Scott [06:53]

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Top Initiatives: Critical Infrastructure Protection

[07:07–08:44]

• Focus on OT (Operational Technology):

  • Expansion beyond IT into OT—including utilities, manufacturing, water, and telecom—which supports daily life but often relies on old, vulnerable equipment.

    “We have a critical infrastructure product that's really good at sort of protecting these OT environments from all the bad stuff that can come in from the Internet or other places.” – Tony Scott [08:22]

• Challenges in OT Security:

  • Much of the infrastructure was never designed for Internet connectivity or modern hostile threats but remains critical and difficult to update.

    “A lot of the protocols and equipment ... are still working ... built to last, it doesn't break. But ... it was never designed to be hooked up to the Internet.” – Tony Scott [07:48]

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Tony Scott’s Origin Story in Technology

[08:44–13:14]

• Unlikely Beginnings:

  • Tony considered a career in Parks and Recreation Administration before joining Marriott’s Great America theme parks.
  • His hands-on experience with Apple II computers to improve scheduling and operations ignited a love of technology.

    “I realized as a result of that experience that software was going to change the world.” – Tony Scott [12:28]

• Early Success:

  • Tony’s data-driven work using Apple IIs outperformed established mainframe systems—landing him in the first Apple Computer magazine.

    “We ended up being on the [cover] of the first magazine devoted to Apple Computer. That's how early it was…” – Tony Scott [11:49]

• Key Realization:

  “Software was going to change the world … This is a way better path for me than this Parks and Recreation Administration.” – Tony Scott [12:38]

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Transforming Manufacturing at GM

[13:14–16:58]

• Digitization at General Motors:
  • Led and witnessed the unification of design, engineering, and manufacturing processes—cutting the “design to rollout” car timeline from ~5.5 years to 18 months.

    “We set a goal of 18 months ... by 2002 ... we achieved that goal. It was a huge game changer in the business.” – Tony Scott [16:23]

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Personal Interests & Reflections

[17:03–18:44]

• Hobbies:

  • Tony is a pilot, motorcyclist, boater, and guitar collector.

    “I have a pretty extensive guitar collection ... I think I have 40 or so at this particular point.” – Tony Scott [17:33]

  • Favorite guitar: Martin Acoustic; Favorite guitarist: Keith Richards (Rolling Stones). Also an admirer of Jerry Garcia, Bonnie Raitt, and Santana.

    “Keith Richards, number one … Just the best, you know?” – Tony Scott [17:48]

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Music, Memories, and Culture

[19:32–23:12]

• Desert Island Albums (Top Five):

  • Sticky Fingers (Rolling Stones)
  • A Bonnie Raitt album
  • A Dixie Chicks album
  • Santana
  • Grateful Dead (“Probably one of the earlier ones. American Beauty...” – Tony Scott [20:03])

• Concert Memories:

  • Seen Rolling Stones every U.S. tour; most recent LA show was “the best of the tour” per fellow fans.

    “This is the best tour they've ever done. And that concert in LA was the best of the tour.” – Tony Scott, via Stones fan [22:41]

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Life Lessons and Leadership Reflection

[18:49–19:23]

• Advice to Younger Self:

  “Don't be so hesitant ... I would have encouraged myself to be a little more experimental or assertive in terms of going after things.” – Tony Scott [18:49]

• Regrets:

  • Mostly hiring decisions where instinct was ignored for expedience or pressure.

    “Where I ... got succumbed to pressure or whatever and made a bad hiring decision that I tried to make work ... Should have followed your instinct.” – Tony Scott [25:58]

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Advice for New Graduates in Technology & Security

[27:00–28:21]

• Core Message:

  “Be open to the possibilities ... things come along that weren't in your field of vision. Maybe initially, but if you think about it ... maybe this is the right thing for me to consider doing.” – Tony Scott [27:10]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Intrusion’s focus:

  “If you can block the communication, you can block the harm.” – Tony Scott [04:35]

• On the reality of OT environments:

  “Stuff ... built to last, it doesn't break. But ... it was never designed to be hooked up to the Internet.” – Tony Scott [07:52]

• Career turning point:

  “Software was going to change the world.” – Tony Scott [12:28]

• Personal musical icons:

  “Keith Richards, number one ... just the best, you know ... I love Jerry Garcia.” – Tony Scott [17:48, 18:11]

• On hiring:

  “There's a couple instances ... not because they're bad people. It was just the wrong ... person in the wrong ... role.” – Tony Scott [25:58]

• Guidance to the next generation:

  “Explore, be open to possibilities and don't be too narrowly focused.” – Tony Scott [27:10]

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Timestamps for Important Segments

| Timestamp | Segment | |-----------|---------------------------------------------------| | 00:48 | Tony describes his entry and mission at Intrusion | | 02:53 | Core problem(s) solved by Intrusion | | 07:07 | Critical infrastructure focus | | 08:44 | Tony’s origin story in technology | | 13:14 | Digitization at General Motors | | 17:03 | Personal interests (guitar, music, flying) | | 19:32 | Desert island albums & favorite concerts | | 25:58 | Reflection on leadership/hiring mistakes | | 27:10 | Advice for new graduates in security & technology |

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Conclusion

This episode paints a comprehensive picture of Tony Scott’s approach to cybersecurity leadership—rooted in relentless visibility, institutional memory, and decisive threat blocking. Through stories ranging from theme park analytics to manufacturing revolutions, Scott underscores the importance of adaptability, learning from missteps, and staying open to new opportunities. The blend of technical rigor and personal candor, layered with a passion for music and adventure, makes for a lively and inspiring listen for anyone passionate about risk, technology, and leadership in the digital age.

Transcript

[A]

Foreign. Welcome to Risk Never Sleeps, where we meet and get to know the people delivering patient care and protecting patient safety. I'm your host, Ed Gaudet. Welcome to the Risk Never Sleeps podcast in which we learn about the people that are on the front lines delivering patient care and protecting patient safety. I'm Ed Gaudette, the host of our program, and today I am pleased to be joined by Tony Scott, the Chief Executive Officer of intrusion. Welcome, Tony, to the program.

[B]

Well, thanks for talking with me today. Appreciate it.

[A]

Yeah. Great to have you on board. Let's start off with sharing a little bit about your current role in Intrusion, a little bit about your organization.

[B]

Sure. Well, I'm CEO of intrusion. I've been here, actually, in the next two weeks, it'll be my fourth anniversary here as CEO. And I joined INTRUSION at that time because the organization was going through a pretty big transformation. And I was very impressed with the core IP that Intrusion had, and on top of that, the team that was here fighting cyber issues every single day. And trust me, I'd looked at a lot of things over my career, and this was at the top of the list of sort of very cool, very innovative stuff. So it was a opportune time for me and I think also for the organization.

[A]

Were you a customer prior or no?

[B]

In fact, I'd never heard of Intrusion. The company was going through a pretty big transition. The former CEO had been fired by the board for some activities which we don't need to get into here. The company was kind of running out of money, and there clearly needed some different approaches. And at first when I saw the company, I thought, well, maybe I could hire away some of the key people for other companies that I'd been affiliated with or pick up their IP and sell it to somebody. But when I saw the combination of the IP and the people and their mission and how focused they were on it, I quickly switched to a whole different point of view. And it was, you know, how can we save this thing? How can we turn it around and make it grow and continue to serve the important mission that it was on? So presented that back of the envelope plan, and the board loved it and said, you got to come on as CEO to execute it.

[A]

So we are four years later.

[B]

Yeah, exactly. So.

[A]

So in a nutshell, what problem are you solving in Intrusion?

[B]

Well, there's a couple of core tenants that are, I call it the legs of our stool that we ride on. One is, in today's modern world, you need extreme visibility of what's going on in your Network, it's not just sampling or testing from time to time. And this is the traffic that makes its way through the firewall, by the way. The bad guys have figured out all kinds of ways to get past the firewall. And not only that, there's all kinds of things that get into your network that never came through the firewall in the first place. You can buy equipment that's already got malware embedded in it. You can have employees or suppliers or customers come into your network that might have things in it. And so our core belief is you need extreme network visibility all the time. And it's not just conversations, it's packet by packet by packet in real time. And we do that extremely well. The second sort of tenant or leg of our stool is you need to have institutional memory of bad actors and who they are and how they work and where they come from and so on. And you need memory on that like an elephant never forget. And because nowadays the bad guys are resurrecting things that people haven't seen in four or five years.

[A]

That's right.

[B]

And a lot of technology platforms tend to focus on what's been happening. Most recently, one of our patents is a way of storing all of that history and so on and all the inferences that we can do from that data forever. And so we never forget. And then the third leg of our stool is you really need to look at both in and outbound traffic as well as east west traffic. And our role is just to block that bad stuff from communicating. And if you can block the communication, you can block the harm. There's other tools that are good at remediating bad stuff, for cleaning up and all that stuff. We don't do that. We just keep it from communicating, isolated, and then you can deal with it in an appropriate manner. But those are the core sort of concepts that we rest our laurels on. And what we've seen in practice is the combination of these things. Is exceptionally good at stopping zero day attacks, things that people have never seen before. And we're exceptionally good at blocking the call homes that infected devices or things in the network often want to do. To figure out, what do you want me to do next? I'm here, I'm in Ed's network, what do you want me to do?

[A]

Yeah, also exfiltration of data, I assume as well.

[B]

Yeah, we, if it's going to a place that it shouldn't be going, we just block it. We don't even let it try.

[A]

Nice.

[B]

I would also say this is in the modern world There's a lot of sort of what looks like harmless activity, but it's actually surveillance. It's knocking on the door to see, hey, is there a window open here or a door that I can wedge myself in, or is there an unpatched vulnerability that I could take advantage of? And there's no actual malware, but it's surveillance that builds intelligence in the bad guys. About when I do want to launch an attack, here's the opportunities that I might have. And with AI, you know, you can craft a very clever multi pronged attack very easily. So that's an area that we're obviously focused on.

[A]

Nice. I assume you're horizontal. You, you service multiple industries.

[B]

Yeah, we have customers, you know, kind of across the board. You know, these problems are pretty universal. As it turns out. Nobody's immune.

[A]

That's right. What are some of your top initiatives over the next couple years?

[B]

Well, one of the big ones, and we've done a couple of press announcements on it, is critical infrastructure. So many IT environments are pretty well protected. I wouldn't ever call them perfect, but there's been a lot of investment in the sort of IT environments. But we have a lot of technology that's classically called ot. It's shop floor manufacturing stuff, it's utilities, it's all of the or many of the things that sustain life on this planet. It's water systems, it's telecom environments. They're very distributed. A lot of this equipment was put in 10, 20, 30 years ago. I started actually in this world working for Sun Microsystems doing shop floor systems. And a lot of the protocols and equipment that I was familiar with now, a really long time ago, are still working. This stuff, it's built to last, it doesn't break. But at the same time, it was never designed to be hooked up to the Internet. And it was never designed to have the deterrence that is needed to survive some of these kinds of attacks that we're seeing today. So we have a critical infrastructure product that's really good at sort of protecting these OT environments from all the bad stuff that can come in from the Internet or other places. And we see that as a big growth opportunity for us.

[A]

How did you get involved in tech? You worked at a number of great companies. Microsoft, VMware, Walt Disney Corp, General Motors. My dad worked at GM. How did you get involved in tech?

[B]

Oh, it's a crazy story, but it's kind of the story of my life, which is a series of accidents that were never planned. I was actually early in my Life as a young man thinking of being in the field of Parks and Recreation Administration. The theory at the time was that people were going to, because of technology, have way too much time on their hands and way too much money. And a lucrative career was going to be helping people figure out what to do with all the extra money and time that they had. Would have been great if that prophecy had ever occurred. But after a pretty short period of time, I figured out that's not going to happen. We need to figure out something else. And I went to work at Marriott Corporation when they were starting up theme parks called Great America Theme Parks. One was in Santa Clara, California, one was in Gurney, Illinois. This was in 1976. And we opened both parks that year to great success. These were really fun theme parks. The Santa Clara one right in the middle of Silicon Valley, obviously. And I was there about two or three years, had gotten several promotions, and one day our. We didn't call it it then. We called it Management Information Systems or something. He came to me and he said, hey, Tony, I know we've been having trouble forecasting attendance and scheduling labor. There's this new computer out called an Apple II that I think we could write software for that would do a better job at forecasting attendance and scheduling labor than this timeshare mainframe thing that we've been using. And I looked back at him and I said, what do you mean, we? I had taken one Fortran class and high school and that was it. And I said, what do you mean we? And he said, well, I can teach you to write software, but you know the business better than anybody else around here, and I need your brain to help do this. And so we worked together for a few weeks. And sure enough, about 10 or 12 weeks later, we had a prototype that was beating the timeshare mainframe in terms of accuracy on both fronts. And so in the end, we went and bought a whole bunch of Apple computers. I started using them for all kinds of different things. Inventory control. We put some in our cash department to count cash at the end of the day. With the first primitive forms of spreadsheets, we used it for maintenance, ride maintenance, all kinds of different things. I think we must have bought 12 or 15 of these things.

[A]

Oh, wow.

[B]

Apple Computer got wind of this and sent a reporter out to talk to us. And this reporter followed me around for a full day, and I was showing her all the things that we do with Apple Computer. And we ended up being on the COVID of the first magazine devoted to Apple Computer. That's how early it was in that whole cycle.

[A]

That was during the VisiCalc years, Dan Brooklyn and.

[B]

Yeah, exactly, exactly. I still remember some of those slash commands. Visical because I used them so much.

[A]

That's right, yeah. So you know the acronym VMS and AX and DCL and.

[B]

Yeah, sure. Oh yeah, it's great. Important thing is I realized as a result of that experience that software was going to change the world. Yeah, it was going to change everything that we dead. And I said this is a way better path for me than this Parks and Recreation Administration.

[A]

So did you ever watch that show Parks and Recreation?

[B]

I have, yeah. It's a little different than I was running programs for what we would call at risk youth now.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Taking kids backpacking and skiing and getting them out of the inner city kind of thing. So it wasn't exactly like the TV show. But anyway.

[A]

And I wonder if we cross paths. You were gm. Did you build your manufacturing with Korba? Did you ever use Korba or.

[B]

I was there late 99 to about 2006 to mid 2005. 2006. And our big work at that particular time was two sort of big things. One was GM had bought EDS.

[A]

Oh, right, okay.

[B]

And had used EDS as its internal IT department for many years. In 96 there was an agreement signed where EDS was spun back out as an independent company. But There was a 10 year agreement that EDS would primarily provide services to GM with the ability for GM to compete some parts of the IT business to other suppliers and so on. And so that was a big set of activities, you know, transitioning some of the technology platforms that we had from EDS to other suppliers. But the biggest initiative was really the digitization of the whole manufacturing process. So this is an effort that had been underway a year or two before I got there, but it continued. It turned out that, and I've seen this many times since, every part of the business had access to the best tools money could buy from a technology standpoint, but they just weren't connected together. So the design guys would use the state of the art CAD systems to do all these really cool creative concepts, cars and so on, and then they would actually go to clay and create some of those designs and so on. But the handoff to engineering the actual guys who make the parts and figure out how it's all going to fit together was a paper handoff. And then the handoff to the actual manufacturing guys and procurement guys who had to go buy the parts and all that. That was a manual handoff. And again in each Case. They all had wonderful tools, but they just weren't connected together. Yeah. And so our effort was, let's connect all those things, create a very streamlined digital highway between all of these really good systems. And what that allowed GM to do, quite frankly, was design and build cars much faster than they ever had before. And I tell this story, the state of the art as I joined, and I was part of a big team that all this. It wasn't just me, but the state of the art meant that you could conceive of a car and actually have one roll off the end of an assembly line in about five and a half years. Now, cars are a fashion business, let's face it, right? You tell me what fashion is going to be five and a half years from now.

[A]

Nothing.

[B]

You know, it's a wild guess. Yeah. And so we set a goal of 18 months. We said we want the ability to conceive of a car, design it, engineer it, and have it roll off the assembly line in 18 months. And at that point, you can be pretty responsive to fashion Trends. And by 20, I'd say by 2002 or three kind of time frame we achieved that goal is a huge game changer in the business.

[A]

Incredible. If you weren't doing this job, what would you be doing? What are you most passionate about outside of work?

[B]

Oh, I have tons of interests.

[A]

All right.

[B]

Not enough time to do them. I fly airplanes, I ride motorcycles, I boat are probably the primary ones. I. I have a pretty extensive guitar collection and.

[A]

Oh, now we're talking. All right. What's your favorite guitar?

[B]

Oh, I've got several. My favorite acoustic is a Martin that I've had for years. I have a couple of Gibson robot tuner guitars.

[A]

Oh, no way.

[B]

I think I have 40 or so at this particular point.

[A]

So what guitars inspires you the most? Like, what type of music do you listen to?

[B]

Mostly 60s rock and roll stuff, some folk music.

[A]

Okay, good. So who's your favorite guitarist?

[B]

Oh, Keith Richards, number one. Oh, man. Okay, good.

[A]

Wow. Okay, well, he's rhythm. So you're a rhythm guitarist or.

[B]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right. All right. Yeah, but just the best, you know? I mean, things that guy has figured out how to do just don't impress me. Yeah.

[A]

Yeah. You Mick Taylor fan?

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

How about a Garcia? You like Jerry Garcia?

[B]

I love Jerry Garcia.

[A]

Oh, here we go. Gotta hold it up. Another Jerry fan.

[B]

Yeah, there's very few that I don't fully appreciate, at least some of what they do. But if I go on a road trip, I just love to crank up the radio and blast rock and roll.

[A]

Oh, man, I'm going on your road trip.

[B]

Yeah, well, I found that, you know, if I have a podcast, like a book on tape or something, it just puts me to sleep. So. Yeah, I'm much more attuned to that, you know.

[A]

Nice. If you could go back in time until your 20 year old self something, what would it be?

[B]

Don't be so hesitant. I think early on in particular, when you realize that you have a lot to learn and so on, it can make you more, I'll say, overly cautious than you need to be. And I would have encouraged myself to be a little more experimental or assertive in terms of going after things. I realized later I had some instincts that had I acted on them sooner, might have altered even my own trajectory. Although I'm not complaining at all.

[A]

No, no, no. I'm. Same way like utility comput, cloud based storage. I had a million ideas way too early, but if I had, you know.

[B]

Stuck with them, that's often the case, I think.

[A]

Yeah, you're on a desert island. I think you're going to nail this question. What five albums would you bring with you?

[B]

I'd probably be Sticky Fingers, Rolling Stones. Nice. I'd have to pick one of the Bonnie Rate albums. I love her music. Yeah, I'd probably pick a Dixie Chicks album.

[A]

Okay, nice.

[B]

Probably have Santana.

[A]

Okay, nice.

[B]

Grateful Dead.

[A]

Which Dead?

[B]

Oh, I mean, right. Probably one of the earlier ones.

[A]

American Beauty or. Yeah, nice.

[B]

Probably one of the older albums.

[A]

Did you ever see him in concert?

[B]

I never did, but all the others I mentioned I have. But you did? Yeah. I have several friends who are Deadheads, so.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

Whenever I'm around them, we get, you know.

[A]

Well, you know, they're still playing and this year I saw six shows at the Sphere in Vegas. So you can go. If they come again, you can go to the Sphere in Vegas.

[B]

I definitely want to do that. Yeah.

[A]

John Mayer is amazing as a guitar. I mean he's not Jerry, but he's. Yeah, he's so good and he makes it his own and I mean, it's special to watch them continue.

[B]

Yeah, I've watched a whole bunch of the concert films and yeah. Things that they've done. So. Yeah, it's. What's your favorite feel? Like I've been there.

[A]

What's your favorite concert? What's your favorite show you've been to?

[B]

Oh, it's Stones and they've gotten better. Actually there was a period 10 years ago where Keith would be so out of it. That you weren't even sure if he was playing half the time. But he's cleaned his act up a lot.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And he's in fine form these days. And the last concert I went to was in la at the Coliseum. Well, no, the new stadium down.

[A]

Oh, the new. Same.

[B]

Okay. Yeah, yeah, it was fantastic. They just put on a phenomenal show. Probably one of the best ones I've ever seen.

[A]

Did you ever see the 72 stones? That's my favorite year. Like, yeah, yeah.

[B]

I've been to every tour that they've done. Oh, in the States, at least one concert. And here's proof of it. After the last concert, I was in Los Angeles Airport, lax, in the lounge, American Airlines lounge. And across from me was a guy who was decked out in stone gear. And I said, oh, were you at the concert last night? He said, yes. I said, oh, well, what did you think of it? And he said, this is the best one I've ever been to. And I said, how many have you been to? And he said, I've gone to every concert on this American tour in every city. This guy must have been independently wealthy or something. And I said, wow, that's a lot of, you know, a lot of shows. And he said, and I've done that the last 10 years. Anytime do they come to the U.S. i go to every show. Wow. And I said, and so you think this was the best. And he said, this is the best tour they've ever done. And that concert in LA was the best of the tour. This year was the last one. They. Wow. Last stop on the tour, I think. But it's like.

[A]

Yeah, I love Exile on Main Street. It's my. I've seen him 25 times. Not much comparatively to other show, like dad, I've seen a couple hundred times, but.

[B]

And the video Havana Moon is one of my favorites as well. It is.

[A]

It's so good, isn't it?

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

I assume you've seen Ultimont.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

Yeah. Give me shelter.

[B]

That.

[A]

That's crazy, huh?

[B]

Y.

[A]

That. You weren't at Ultima, were you?

[B]

I wasn't, but I almost was to be.

[A]

Oh.

[B]

I was supposed to go with a friend of mine and he got really, really sick and I didn't want to go by myself, so I bailed at the last minute and I'm glad I wasn't. That was not.

[A]

Yeah, no, no, not a good scene. The other thing, too, which was interesting, is they played a couple years in 16, 2016, they played this desert trip concert. Did you. You Able to go to that.

[B]

I didn't go to that. Oh, yeah, okay.

[A]

That was in Coachella, Indio, California. Yeah, that was pretty cool. What's the riskiest thing you've ever done?

[B]

There's probably too many to mention in some sense, but motorcycle riding can be pretty risky. I'm a pretty, these days, chicken rider. I'm very cautious. Same thing with flying. If the weather is at all goofy or anything at all is wrong with the plane, I just. I won't go. And I used to ride horses and they're very finicky animals. So I've been injured a bunch of times because of that activity. I used to play ice hockey until I was about in my mid-50s. So, you know, I've engaged in some pretty interesting activities over the years.

[A]

What kind of bikes you ride?

[B]

I was all over the Harley V Rods for a long time.

[A]

Nice.

[B]

At one point, at three of them. But my favorite bike now is a brand new Honda Goldwing.

[A]

Oh, yeah.

[B]

And it's just an incredible touring bike.

[A]

I was going to say nice cruiser.

[B]

Yeah, it is. On the highway. It is just the best.

[A]

We rented Indian Chiefs when we were out at Indio. You Indian?

[B]

Yes, I have.

[A]

That's a nice bike.

[B]

Been on all kinds of different Harleys and all kinds of different bikes.

[A]

Sturgis.

[B]

I haven't. Here's the thing that I have discovered about myself, and this is true of boating, flying. I love doing things for defined periods of time, but I must have ADD or something because you get the boat or the motorcycle after a certain period of time. I just want to have nothing to do with it for a while. So riding the motorcycle, I'll go for a few hours, but a few days is like, nah, not doing that. It's just kind of.

[A]

You do any painting or writing creatively or.

[B]

No, not so much. I found that I'm a better editor of Things than I am a creator per se. But in retirement, whenever that is, maybe I'll. I'll find a way to.

[A]

That is to do that. Well, if you go back in time and change one decision you made, what would it be?

[B]

Boy, it's probably a hiring decision where I can think of a couple cases where I didn't follow my instinct and kind of got succumbed to pressure or whatever and made a bad hiring decision that I tried to make work and then ultimately came to the conclusion, yep, that was a mistake. Should have followed your instinct and not done it. That's probably the. There's a couple instances that. Where I. And that because they're bad people. It was just the wrong. Not a fit person in the wrong. Yeah. Wrong role.

[A]

I'm having this conversation right now with my team.

[B]

It's.

[A]

Yeah, it's. Hiring is so critical. It's so important. And sometimes we want to bring in people we've worked with in the past and let's just say familiarity breeds contempt. Right. Like there's something that works sometimes and there's. Oftentimes it doesn't work.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

For various reasons.

[B]

Yeah. So those are probably the ones. If I had a do over, I'd. Yeah, pull that card.

[A]

All right, last question. Any advice to someone graduating out of school that wants to get into technology, security or otherwise? What would you give them?

[B]

I would say just be open to the possibilities. I think in talking to young people who are just starting off, they've often narrowed their focus so narrow that they don't consider other possibilities that might be adjacent or leverage their skill set better than the thing that they have picked. And often they've picked the thing because of a mentor or somebody they want to emulate or some other influence that might not fully reflect their actual skills and abilities and so on. And so my advice would be explore, be open to possibilities and don't be too narrowly focused. And it doesn't hurt to be specific or organized or thoughtful or whatever. But at least in my experience, things come along that weren't in your field of vision. Maybe initially, but if you think about it a little more, you go, maybe this is the right thing for me to consider doing.

[A]

You went to Michigan or.

[B]

No, I put two kids through school there. So. Okay, fans, vicariously.

[A]

That the Wolverines or.

[B]

Yeah, exactly.

[A]

Is that Go blue? Is that the Go Blue? Yeah, Go blue. Yeah.

[B]

Yeah. So we've become big fans and.

[A]

Yeah, I saw that. Is that a pillow or something?

[B]

Exactly.

[A]

It's really cool. All right, well, thank you, Tony. We here with Tony Scott talking about his organization and his origin story and experience. It's been a great conversation. I'm Ed Gaudette from the Risk Never Sleeps podcast. And if you're on the front lines protecting patient safety or delivering patient care, remember to stay vigilant because Risk never sleeps. Thanks for listening to Risk Never Sleeps for the show, notes, resources and more information and how to transform the protection of patient safety. Visit [e-mail] that's C-E N S I N-E-T.com I'm your host, Ed Gaudet. And until next time, stay vigilant because Risk Never Sleeps.