CyberCap Interview: Yan Bellerose (Google)

Recorded live at GoSec for the CyberCap podcast CyberCast, this interview follows Yan Bellerose, cloud security and compliance specialist at Google, from a fine-arts background through Ubisoft and Cirque du Soleil to his current role. He explains how a curiosity for understanding systems, not a computing background, led a team director at Ubisoft to recruit him into security with no prior experience, and how he still uses his design skills to make security presentations clear, once teaching a client security concepts by solving a Rubik's cube live. He describes cloud security in plain terms as placing the right controls so data is used and modified only by the people who should, compares security to a Formula One car's brakes that let the business go faster rather than slow it down, and stresses that his work is collaborative, spanning most large companies across North America. The conversation turns to youth: Google's free Coursera cybersecurity grants, the lifelong permanence of a digital footprint, the need to educate both kids and parents on password hygiene, and why events like GoSec matter for building an industry-wide, cross-competitor culture of sharing.