Top 15 Cybersecurity Voices who Actually Give A Damn

We are listing fifteen voices building and redefining security's future. OK, those are big word. But believe me, there are a lot of voices who speak the truth and are worth worshiping. 

Most "influencers" in cybersecurity talk like they're reciting from an ad spot script in a commercial. Buzzwords. Theoretical stuff. Zero edge.

What is different in those people who we recommend you to follow?

They're the ones who really do it, the smell of the gunpowder, the trenches that they have all been in several times. If you find anybody who does not belong here, just write us and we are happy to revisit our list. This is Axoflow's list of cybersecurity voices to listen to, thinkers, builders, and who tell it like it is in the industry. If you have more in your pocket, just let us know!

Why follow them? 

• You get the truth, and nothing but the truth, even if it is not what some vendors want you to hear.
• If you want to avoid vendor lock in. They are independent people, with independent thoughts. So you can be independent with your choices.
• Most of them release open source tools, so they can help you directly.

When you search "cybersecurity experts to follow," this list is your must-follow guide. So let's see this list of “The 15 Cybersecurity Voices Who Actually Give a Damn”

1. Anton Chuvakin

Let's start with him, not because he is the first in the alphabet with his first name, but because he has been in this space for a very long time with a very unique mindset. Very few are as assertive as Anton Chuvakin, ex-Gartner analyst and Research VP, Security Advisor at Office of the CISO at Google Cloud. He is to the point and seasoned and has set the tone for organizations approaching SIEM, detection, and cloud security. Nowadays, with Google Cloud, he co-hosts the not-to-be-missed Cloud Security Podcast on which he and Tim Peacock explore what's on the horizon in detection engineering. Join Anton on Medium in his blog to understand why things break and learn from those mistakes so you can figure out how to fix them. 

Listen to his podcast episode, the title is “What CISOs Must Know to Future-Proof Their SOC”.

Here is a little video from it.

2. Jerich Beason

Jerich (CISO at Epiq and host of CyberSide Chats) brings the human element back into cybersecurity. He talks about burnout, meaning, and the dark reality of leadership. He's the kind of leader who has scars, not buzzwords. His lectures on Hacker Valley Studio and CISO Talk are masterclasses on leading with humility and empathy.

3. Ross Haleliuk

Ross is the strategist that every cybersecurity startup founder needs to follow. He runs Venture in Security, a no-BS blog and newsletter, and runs his own podcast, taking the business of security apart: funding, product-market fit, and how half the gear you buy never sees the light of day. He also wrote a book called Cyber for Builders: The essential guide to building a cybersecurity startup. All-in-all, he's the anti-hype man, not holding the ecosystem to the megaphone but to the mirror. Ross writes as though calling out the industry - because he is a builder also who walks the talk. 

4. Filip Stojkovski

A never-sleeping researcher, engineer, Filip is a quietly powerful figure of turning technical depth into light. His slides and blog posts dive deep into vulnerability management, SOC automation, and making life for blue teams more bearable. Follow him if you want to know what works when theory meets production. He is also an author of the SecOps Unpacked blog and podcast. 

Listen to his podcast episode, the title is: How to Automate What Really Matters in the SOC? 

5. Joshua Copeland

Security Operations Director, Adjunct at Tulane University and blue-team veteran, Joshua works while writing with purpose, passion, and no ego. A real teacher at heart with an unpopular opinion….why do I say that? Because he has his book published recently with the title: UNPOPULAR OPINION: Burning Down the Bullsh*t to Rebuild Cybersecurity. 

His teardowns of threat detection workflow, tool selection, and analyst culture are brutally and starkly honest. When Joshua talks, you listen, because it's field-tested first. He's the kind of voice that reminds you to keep your feet on the ground while everyone else runs for the acronyms.

Listen to his podcast episode, the title is: Burning Down Security Theater: Rebuilding Cybersecurity.

6. Miko Pawlikowski

Cloud resilience and chaos engineering are his best practice tools. Miko weaves security and systems design into stories that make you wonder what "uptime" actually is. His book Chaos Engineering is a gateway drug to the practice of wiser infrastructure defense. If you care to understand how real systems fail, and how to make them failure-proof, Miko's your man.

7. Francis Odum

Francis breaks down cybersecurity in a manner that remains valid without reducing it to the ridiculous. He is the founder of SACR (Software Analyst Cyber Research). He is reaching the heights of industry giants Gartner and Forrester with his vendor deep dives. His tutorial strands, explainers, and instructions dismantle difficult forms into tools for all. Join him to remain vigilant and remember simplicity as security. You can read an interesting article on his blog about our space The Rise of Security Data Pipelines & How SIEMs Must Evolve.

8. Gadi Evron

A legend in the Israeli cyber scene, Gadi’s been leading global defense efforts since before “threat intelligence” was a buzzword. As CEO and founder at Knostic and a former national CERT leader, he knows what coordinated defense really looks like. His posts mix strategy, geopolitics, and first-hand experience with nation-state threats. Gadi’s voice reminds the industry that defense is both art and war.

9. Christophe Parisel

Christophe does not scream; he cuts. His threat models, risk assessments, and cybersecurity policy studies are laser cuts. He's one of those rare strategists with technical authority and political awareness. To get advice from him is to get a masterclass in cyber maturity - minus the PowerPoint fatigue. You can learn a lot from his Via Nebulosa newsletters.

10. Cory Minton

Cory lives at the intersection of AI, data, and infrastructure. As a technologist and storyteller, he breaks down how to scale securely in an era where everything learns, both systems and AI. He dives into how to make trustworthy AI systems by design, not by patch. If you are an enterprise architect, you have to listen when he speaks.

11. Dylan Williams

Honest and low-key: Dylan is a pragmatist when it comes to vulnerability management. He writes of the ugliness of patching, prioritization, and persuading leaders to care. Each entry is a field note from somebody still getting their hands dirty. He is sharing practical advice on integrating AI into security applications, just like his resource collection that you can find here. 

12. Alex Teixeirα

Builder first, communicator second, Alex bridges threat detection engineering and defense with unorthodox exactness. No LinkedIn profile picture, but more wisdom. His writing combines hands-on security architecture and coding discipline, it's where technical discipline meets hacker personality. He's a must-follow for individuals crafting secure systems from the ground up.

13. Mike Privette

Mike may be an odd one out because he prioritizes the money side of cyber at his Return on Security page. His weekly newsletter breaks down security funding rounds, startup nuggets, and market trends as if it's your daily sports page.He’s uniquely fluent in both SOC strategy and venture capital, two worlds that rarely meet. Reading him is earning your cyber MBA, blog post by blog post, newsletter by newsletter. Follow him for insights into major industry shifts, not just from a technological standpoint, but also from financial and economic perspectives. Understanding the economic logic that drives markets allows you to anticipate and prepare for where the industry is heading.

14. Paul McCarty

Automation is Paul's favourite. He is obsessed with it. He provides security with no excuse to slow down development. His blog posts on NPM, CI/CD pipelines, IaC, and new app security are manifestos of doing it right and doing it fast. Paul's the kind of engineer who will never make speed and security an either-or situation; he requires both.

15. Balázs Scheidler

CEO during the day and open-source enthusiast at night. Balázs is the creator of syslog-ng™️ and CEO of Axoflow. Recently started a podcast called “Data Strikes Back” and he is always ready to help the open source community on Reddit and Discord. 

These fifteen don't follow trends. They create them. They don't craft personal brands. They create solid ground for those who come behind. And in an era of slicked panels and hollow buzzwords, they're the ones preserving the craft.

Why Axoflow Made This List

At Axoflow, we don't chase buzzwords. We solve real problems. This list matters to us because it celebrates the people who actually work on cybersecurity, not just talk about it. 

They show that cybersecurity is about grit, curiosity, and persistance. It’s about showing up every day to make systems tougher and teams smarter.

We see a lot of ourselves in them. Practitioners who go deep, challenge everything, and don't settle until things are really secure.

Cybersecurity will never be flawless. But it can be authentic. It can be tough. And it can get progressively better when people like them take the lead.

That's why we also started our podcast: to collect these voices, share these stories, and discover the next ones who will land on this list.

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