Rethinking Secure Communication With Mrinal Wadhwa

Episode Summary

In this episode of The Secure Developer, Danny Allan sits down with Mrinal Wadhwa, CTO at Ockam, to explore the evolving landscape of secure communication in distributed systems. They discuss the challenges of securing microservices, IoT networks, and Kubernetes environments and how traditional TLS-based security models may no longer be sufficient. Mrinal shares insights into Ockam’s approach to end-to-end encrypted, mutually authenticated channels and the impact of WebAssembly, passkeys, and modern cryptographic identity management on security. Tune in for a deep dive into how organizations can rethink security at runtime to minimize risks in today’s complex digital ecosystems.

Show Notes

Security in modern applications is more challenging than ever, with microservices architectures, IoT deployments, and distributed computing environments introducing new risks. In this episode, Danny Allan welcomes Mrinal Wadhwa, CTO at Ockam, to discuss how secure communication models need to evolve beyond traditional TLS and perimeter-based defenses.

Topics covered include:

• The challenges of securing microservices and Kubernetes clusters
• How end-to-end encryption and mutual authentication can minimize risk
• The importance of cryptographic identities and key rotation at scale
• How Ockam enables secure channels across multiple transport layers (TCP, Bluetooth, Kafka, etc.)
• The role of WebAssembly and passkeys in rethinking security models
• Shifting from perimeter-based security to secure-by-design communication

Mrinal shares key insights on how organizations can rethink risk at runtime, considering the number of people and systems involved in data flow rather than just static build-time dependencies. Whether you're a security leader, developer, or architect, this episode provides actionable insights on building trust in your infrastructure without compromising performance or agility.

Links

• Ockam
• Passkeys Overview
• Private Compute Cloud by Apple
• Snyk - The Developer Security Company

Follow Us

• Our Website
• Our LinkedIn