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.

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Connect with Josh Grossman, Avi Douglen, and Ofer Maor:
→ Josh Grossman on LinkedIn
→ Avi Douglen on LinkedIn
→ Ofer Maor on X

Mentioned in this episode:
→ OWASP Israel
→ OWASP Global AppSec conferences
→ Maker’s Schedule, Manager’s Schedule

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Chapters:
00:00 AppSec in Israel and three conference talks
02:31 How security experience shapes AppSec work
04:20 Avi Douglen’s security origin story
07:16 Israel’s security ecosystem
08:52 Growing the OWASP Israel community
11:04 Universities and the security talent pipeline
14:00 Community lessons after the break
16:18 Getting value from penetration testing
19:07 Black-box testing and development teams
23:01 Value-driven threat modeling
25:23 Automating application security work
27:26 Feeding security results into the backlog
29:05 Talks and final recommendations