Josh Grossman, Avi Douglen, and Ofer Maor -- AppSec in Israel and Three Talks to watch from AppSec USA

What can the wider AppSec community learn from Israel’s unusually dense security ecosystem? Josh Grossman, Avi Douglen, and Ofer Maor join Chris at AppSec USA to discuss how military experience, universities, startups, and a thriving OWASP chapter feed the local community. Each guest also introduces a conference talk with a practical lesson: getting better value from penetration tests, connecting threat modeling to business priorities, and automating security work alongside development. The conversation examines black-box testing, tester skill, clearer reporting, and feedback into engineering backlogs. Along the way, the guests explain how community events grow through consistent participation and shared ownership. It is both a snapshot of AppSec in Israel and a guide to three talks worth revisiting.The Application Security Podcast is brought to you by Security Journey.About Security JourneySecurity Journey provides application security education for developers and everyone in the software development lifecycle.→ Learn more about Security JourneyConnect with Josh Grossman, Avi Douglen, and Ofer Maor:→ Josh Grossman on LinkedIn→ Avi Douglen on LinkedIn→ Ofer Maor on XMentioned in this episode:→ OWASP Israel→ OWASP Global AppSec conferences→ Maker’s Schedule, Manager’s ScheduleFollow the Application Security Podcast:➜ Home➜ X➜ LinkedIn➜ YouTube➜ Instagram➜ FacebookChapters:00:00 AppSec in Israel and three conference talks02:31 How security experience shapes AppSec work04:20 Avi Douglen’s security origin story07:16 Israel’s security ecosystem08:52 Growing the OWASP Israel community11:04 Universities and the security talent pipeline14:00 Community lessons after the break16:18 Getting value from penetration testing19:07 Black-box testing and development teams23:01 Value-driven threat modeling25:23 Automating application security work27:26 Feeding security results into the backlog29:05 Talks and final recommendations