Crucial Tech
205 episodes - English - Latest episode: 14 days ago -Unraveling the technology that affects us all but that few of us understand, in a format to give you a basic understanding in the time it takes to drive to and from the grocery store. Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/crucialtech/support
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Episodes
As tech investors cower, Cybersecurity looks like a good bet
November 03, 2022 21:59 - 23 minutes - 21.8 MBYou've read the headlines about the stock market and the tech sector in particular. Self-proclaimed genius tech bros are hemorrhaging wealth, portfolios are crashing. But while the cybersecurity industry isn't completely unaffected, it is still attracting billions in new investment and private equity acquisitions. We talk to Brad LaPorte of Lionfish Advisors about why investments are falling in tech and why cyber is the new darling. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/crucialte...
Episode 6.14 - Are we turning the tide on cybercrime? Depends on who you talk to
October 20, 2022 19:02 - 25 minutes - 23.6 MBI'm working on a story about some interesting numbers regarding the state of cyber crime. The number seem to indicate that, overall, we might be making progress on reducing it, though not eliminating it. But to be sure I've spent the past two weeks talking to experts about the numbers who are totally pessimistic and doubtful. One of them is Gerry Kennedy, CEO of Observatory Strategic Management, an organization that advises industry and governments about insurance issues. In our discussion h...
Are we turning the tide on cybercrime? Depends on who you talk to
October 20, 2022 19:02 - 26 minutes - 24.1 MBI'm working on a story about some interesting numbers regarding the state of cyber crime. The number seem to indicate that, overall, we might be making progress on reducing it, though not eliminating it. But to be sure I've spent the past two weeks talking to experts about the numbers who are totally pessimistic and doubtful. One of them is Gerry Kennedy, CEO of Observatory Strategic Management, an organization that advises industry and governments about insurance issues. In our discussion h...
Finally, some good news is coming
October 17, 2022 16:51 - 1 minute - 1.52 MBWant some good news about technology? Stay tuned --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/crucialtech/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/crucialtech/support
Episode 6:13 - Finally, some good news is coming
October 17, 2022 16:51 - 1 minute - 1.52 MBWant some good news about technology? Stay tuned --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/crucialtech/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/crucialtech/support
Episode 6.12 -- Quad9: Where you should start your cybersecurity program
October 07, 2022 19:45 - 22 minutes - 20.9 MBI was pleasantly introduced to a non-profit cybersecurity company this week. Quad9 was established 6 years ago with the goal of reducing human error as the source of breaches, which makes of more than 90 percent of all successful cyberattacks. And they do it for free. Their website (www.quad9.com) has a lot of easy to understand and use tools to block malicious actors from accessing your systems and data. Check it out. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/c...
Episode 6:11 -- Office Phishing and the three Ms with Adam Levine
September 23, 2022 18:32 - 24 minutes - 22.9 MBThe most innocuous things can be open invitations to criminbals to hack your data, or infiltrate your company. Adam Levine, cybersecurity podcaster and founder of Credit.com talked with Crucial Tech about "office phishing" and the "three M's" of personal cyber protection. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/crucialtech/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/crucialtech/support
Episode 6:10 -- Quantum Computing: Not Just for Stealing Secrets
September 14, 2022 16:20 - 25 minutes - 23.3 MBQuantum computing is often in the news, mostly about how it's going to destroy the world as nation states bust the hardest encryptions around so they can steal national and corporate secrets. However, there are no quantum computers available today that can actually accomplish the task and, thankfully, there are whole industries popping up to deal with the worst aspects of the tech while encouraging some good things. We talked with Eric Garcell of Classiq, one of the companies dedicated to pr...
Episode 6.9 - Hybrid Vishing. It's such a thing.
September 01, 2022 14:37 - 27 minutes - 25.6 MBI get a new report from a different research company almost every week about the state of cybersecurity. Most of them say the same thing, but I do read them all the way through. Recently received a report from a company called HelpSystems, a cybersecurity services company that works with some pretty big name companies and they issued a report that got me yawning almost immediately. But their research subsidiaries, Agari and PhishLabs, buried a couple of items that perked up my ears so I said...
Episode 6.8 Virtru offers privacy in period trackers
August 24, 2022 20:40 - 24 minutes - 22.9 MBPeriod and ovulation trackers have been around for quite a while but they are not, for the most part, privacy forward. In fact, according to the Mozilla foundation, only a few even have privacy policies. That is problematic for women in states that are criminalizing abortion where they are subpoenaing records of women even searching for options. Virtru, a security software company decided to fix that problem at and Def Con 2022 the demonstrated a concept app that put complete control of acce...
Virtru offers privacy in period trackers
August 24, 2022 20:40 - 24 minutes - 22.9 MBPeriod and ovulation trackers have been around for quite a while but they are not, for the most part, privacy forward. In fact, according to the Mozilla foundation, only a few even have privacy policies. That is problematic for women in states that are criminalizing abortion where they are subpoenaing records of women even searching for options. Virtru, a security software company decided to fix that problem at and Def Con 2022 the demonstrated a concept app that put complete control of acce...
Episode 6.7 - Bruce Schneier on Cryptocurrency and Blockchain. It's not pretty.
August 10, 2022 16:38 - 21 minutes - 20 MBAs a journalist, I am morally bound to be objective. That's why, because I'm not a big fan of cryptocurrency, I have made an effort to give enthusiasts of the technology every chance to defend their positions. But I got a chance to interview Bruce Schneier about the subject and had to take it. I tried very hard to be supportive of the innovative uses of blockchain and its primary application in this interview. It didn't go well. But, boy, was it entertaining. --- Send in a voice message: h...
Episode 6.6 - A Quantum Cryptography Primer from SandboxAQ
August 03, 2022 17:52 - 25 minutes - 23.9 MBQuantum computing has been in the news for some time but most people don't know why they should care. They should. Jack Hidary, CEO of SandboxAQ explains why. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/crucialtech/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/crucialtech/support
A Quantum Cryptography Primer from SandboxAQ
August 03, 2022 17:52 - 25 minutes - 23.9 MBQuantum computing has been in the news for some time but most people don't know why they should care. They should. Jack Hidary, CEO of SandboxAQ explains why. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/crucialtech/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/crucialtech/support
Episode 6.5 - Passwords. I hate them. You hate them. Can’t quit them.
July 22, 2022 15:21 - 22 minutes - 21.2 MBEven the promising announcements from Apple and Google about the end of passwords is going to take a long time to spread through the user base. But the technology exists to make them disappear if only we weren’t so stubborn about using them. We talked to Boian Simic, CEO of HYPR, a company making true passwordless tech… that is yet available to anyone but the wealthiest among us. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/crucialtech/message Support this podcast:...
Passwords. I hate them. You hate them. Can’t quit them.
July 22, 2022 15:21 - 23 minutes - 21.7 MBEven the promising announcements from Apple and Google about the end of passwords is going to take a long time to spread through the user base. But the technology exists to make them disappear if only we weren’t so stubborn about using them. We talked to Boian Simic, CEO of HYPR, a company making true passwordless tech… that is yet available to anyone but the wealthiest among us. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/crucialtech/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/cru...
Ep. 6-4 -- Roblox and other MMO games vulnerable to lateral attacks
July 07, 2022 19:12 - 22 minutes - 21.2 MBThe wildly popular massive-multiplayer online games don't make the news much for big security breaches, but it appears they are vulnerable to lateral attacks that can steal data and abuse children. The companies that run these platforms tend to blame the users for breaching security. We spent some time with Raj Dodhiawala, CEO of Remediant, a cybersecurity SaaS company that defends networks against lateral attacks. He was pretty hard on companies that expect users to protect the network. Loo...
Ep. 6.3 - Those who ignore history are the most likely to be hacked.
June 30, 2022 21:11 - 36 minutes - 33.7 MBOne of my favorite security gurus, Ian Thornton-Trump sent me a text recently about the top-five security failures in recent history that we have yet to learn from. So I decided to call him and ask what he meant. It's worth listening to. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/crucialtech/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/crucialtech/support
Ep. 6.2 - Those who ignore history are the most likely to be hacked.
June 30, 2022 21:11 - 36 minutes - 34.2 MBOne of my favorite security gurus, Ian Thornton-Trump sent me a text recently about the top-five security failures in recent history that we have yet to learn from. So I decided to call him and ask what he meant. It's worth listening to. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/crucialtech/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/crucialtech/support
Ep. 6.2 - The Metaverse for Education is here... but not yet
June 23, 2022 21:44 - 18 minutes - 17.4 MBThe Metaverse can be used for immersive education that can engage students and enhance the experiential aspects of education. It certainly makes for more interesting field trips. But the potential for disaster looms. Luckily there are some, while recognizing the upsides of the technology, who take a very realistic view of the potential downsides. One of them is Jaime Donnelly. Donnelly is an author, and speaker on immersive technology for education. She’s also the engagement director for I...
Ep. 6-1 Defending against imposters at RSAC2022
June 14, 2022 15:21 - 21 minutes - 19.8 MBThe week after #RSAC2022 seems to be a good time to start a new season of Crucial Tech, so here we go. I talked to a lot of people at the conference about how to keep foreign agents out of your network and some of what I learned is in a larger article in Cyber Protection Magazine, but.I went to someone who wasn't there -- Grant Wernick, CEO of #Fletch -- to chat about the problem, how to find them and how to stop them from doing real damage. Grant gave me a view into how you can find them a...
RSAC preview and tips
June 04, 2022 20:43 - 5 minutes - 4.73 MBI'm going to the RSA Conference in San Francisco this week, so I didn't do a full episode yet. This is a preview of what's to come so stay tuned. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/crucialtech/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/crucialtech/support
Episode 5.14 - A starting place for the most vulnerable to cyber attack
May 19, 2022 15:28 - 14 minutes - 13.5 MBThe realities of cyberattacks are not going away. Based on what we know, we have no idea how big the problem is because a lot of individuals and organizations just don’t report attacks. Conservatively, Cyber Protection Magazine estimates that half of all the attacks are unreported. More knowledgeable people than us say it's more like 90 per cent. As we have reported in past podcasts, that is likely due to a combination of complacency and just not knowing what to do. We talked to Emil Sayegh...
Ep. 5:13 -- Ending cybersecurity complacency is the cure for cybercrime
May 12, 2022 16:49 - 35 minutes - 33.1 MBJoe Basques and I took our time to talk about personal priorities in cybersecurity and in the process we ended up talking about secure browsers, privacy, abortion, state surveillance and recalling recent podcasts with Chase Cunningham and Supreet Manchanda. The upshot is we are entering a time where personal responsibility remains the single biggest determinant of vulnerability. Don't skip over and don't ignore this episode. Your finances, personal privacy and the fate of the nation is is yo...
Ep. 5:12 - Blazing the Trail to Zero Trust
May 05, 2022 16:39 - 11 minutes - 10.5 MBMost individuals and businesses know they need to address cybersecurity, but they don't know where to start. That's understandable because the digital world is like a sieve with thousands of holes. You may patch most of them but there are always a few for criminals to slip through. The question is, what are the most important holes to plug. The Zero Trust approach is proving to be the most comprehensive solution to security, but even then there are dozens of ways and companies dedicated to a...
Ep. 5:11 Venture Capitalists Can Improve Security
April 28, 2022 18:17 - 24 minutes - 23 MBThe SEC is considering requiring corporations provide a board seat to the CISOs. It's something I've seen as long overdue especially considering how security illiterate most boards are. And in the start-up world that literacy needs to start with venture capitalists. I decided to talk to one of my favorite entrepreneurial investors, Supreet Manchanda, and ask him what he thought an investor's role in security would be. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/cr...
Ep. 5:10 - Arqit lawsuit roils quantum crypto industry
April 21, 2022 17:18 - 13 minutes - 12.3 MBWoke up this morning to the news that high-flying quantum cryptography company, Arqit, is being hit with fraud lawsuits in the UK and US throwing shade on the viability of its technology. In preparation for an article on the news for Cyber Protection Magazine I had a chat with Gerry Kennedy, CEO of Observatory Holdings, about the importance of the case not only for future standardization but to companies looking to keep data safe when quantum computing becomes a thing. --- Send in a voice...
Arqit lawsuit roils quantum crypto industry
April 21, 2022 17:18 - 13 minutes - 12.9 MBWoke up this morning to the news that high-flying quantum cryptography company, Arqit, is being hit with fraud lawsuits in the UK and US throwing shade on the viability of its technology. In preparation for an article on the news for Cyber Protection Magazine I had a chat with Gerry Kennedy, CEO of Observatory Holdings, about the importance of the case not only for future standardization but to companies looking to keep data safe when quantum computing becomes a thing. --- Send in a voice...
Episode 5.9: "Nukes! Cyberwar! Russians!"... Calm down. It isn't that bad.
April 06, 2022 15:00 - 30 minutes - 28.2 MBMuch of the West has feared Russian aggression since the Cuban Missile Crisis 1962. Then it was their technologically superior military. Most recently it’s been their vaunted cyber warfare capabilities. This podcast episode is about the one positive coming out of the Ukraine war: the Russians are not as scary as we thought they were. Oh, they are still scary, but scary like a feral, rabid house cat, rather than a man-eating tiger. The genesis of this interview was a Linkedin post by Ian Tho...
Guess what!? Today is World Backup Day!
March 31, 2022 17:09 - 11 minutes - 10.4 MBThis is the day you should not just THINK about backing up your data, but actually DO it. It really isn’t that hard. It can be done while you re getting a cup of coffee. It can be done automatically, and it can be done for free for most people. We spent a bit of time outlining all ways it can be done without muss or fuss. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/crucialtech/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/crucialtech/support
Episode 5.7 -- Gerry Kennedy weighs in on secure messaging apps
March 11, 2022 14:00 - 10 minutes - 9.59 MBIf you aren't a regular reader of Cyber Protection Magazine, shame on you. But this podcast might change your habits. We've created a list of secure messaging apps for you in the accompanying article with this podcast. And because we started with the article instead of the podcast, the details are there. But we decided to call Gerry Kennedy, CEO of Observatory Holdings and get a reality check on our qualifications for the list. He said we were on the right track but got into some detail. Ger...
Special Episode: Open Warfare in the Cyber World
February 25, 2022 23:05 - 29 minutes - 27.3 MBCyber warfare has been an open secret for many years, but the conflict in Ukraine has brought it out into the open and includes more than government-sponsored hacking. Anonymous took out the broadcast network, Russia Today (RT) with a massive DDoS attack, and the Russian Duma and several military servers were similarly hit within the past 48 hours. Meanwhile, Ukrainian hackers aligned with Russia have been attacking the Ukrainian infrastructure, hoping to get on the payroll of the GRU. We t...
Episode 5.6 -- Schools may be more secure than your business
February 24, 2022 17:53 - 30 minutes - 28.1 MBThe security of our schools is always a concern. Many have been targeted by criminals with ransomware, so when a PR rep talked me into an interview on "What teachers need to know about cybersecurity?" I thought it was a good idea. That interview didn't work out but I remembered I knew a guy. Kyle Brumbaugh is the Director of Technology and Innovation at the Redwood City School District and has been an educator for decades. We had a great talk about how his district had prepared for the pande...
Episode 5.5 -- Bile sells... at least for now, but not for long
February 15, 2022 21:01 - 33 minutes - 31 MBSocial Media companies have no real incentive to reduce the vitriol that fills their servers. The fact is that content that makes people angry is what drives engagement... and engagement means advertising revenue. It also makes a profitable hunting ground for cybercriminals. But that might not be the case over the next few years. Joe Basques and Lou Covey sit down to consider the sea change that is coming for social content. They look at the social media companies claim they are nothing more...
Bile sells... at least for now, but not for long
February 15, 2022 21:01 - 34 minutes - 31.5 MBSocial Media companies have no real incentive to reduce the vitriol that fills their servers. The fact is that content that makes people angry is what drives engagement... and engagement means advertising revenue. It also makes a profitable hunting ground for cybercriminals. But that might not be the case over the next few years. Joe Basques and Lou Covey sit down to consider the sea change that is coming for social content. They look at the social media companies claim they are nothing more...
Episode 5.4 -- Don't put your data in one basket
February 03, 2022 20:00 - 21 minutes - 20.3 MBBiometrics is something of a broad topic because it relates to any piece of information about you connected to your body that can be used to identify you. That includes fingerprints, DNA, eyes, voice, faces, and even medical and dental records. As a result, biometrics are a hub for personal security, identity theft and government surveillance. Protecting that stuff is kind of important. The problem is that companies tend to keep their data in just one or two places and that makes it attracti...
Episode 5.3--Collecting some personal data is a good thing
January 27, 2022 13:00 - 27 minutes - 25.9 MBPersonal data isn’t just about your name, phone number, credit cards and social security numbers. It’s also about your online habits. All that stuff is recorded, filed and analyzed by various companies, including your employers. That data can identify who you are and are as much a part of your digital identity as your user name and password. In fact, that data might be more accurate than your password. But whether a company is employing that kind of protection is a question that needs asking...
Collecting some personal data is a good thing
January 27, 2022 13:00 - 28 minutes - 26.4 MBPersonal data isn’t just about your name, phone number, credit cards and social security numbers. It’s also about your online habits. All that stuff is recorded, filed and analyzed by various companies, including your employers. That data can identify who you are and are as much a part of your digital identity as your user name and password. In fact, that data might be more accurate than your password. But whether a company is employing that kind of protection is a question that needs asking...
Episode 5.2: US privacy laws are entirely inadequate
January 20, 2022 13:00 - 33 minutes - 30.8 MBThis was one of the scarier interviews I’ve done on this podcast. I’m talking with Paul Smith, country manager for Sweeft Digital, a UK agency helping companies manage their digital presence, including compliance with UK and Europe privacy regulations in the UK and Europe. He confirmed many of the concerns I have about the US versions of the GDPR, which do more to regulate whether users can stop companies from selling personal data than they do the companies collecting it. Bottom line is, ea...
Episode 5.1: New engineering discipline predicted for 2022
January 04, 2022 14:00 - 26 minutes - 24.6 MBWelcome to the first episode of our fifth season and the first of 2022. Last year ended in a flurry of announcements, disasters, progress and new technology designed to keep us more secure and our last two interviews tied well into each other. We talked separately with Matt Morris, CISO at 1898 & Company, and Will Ruby, COO of FortifyIQ, and found that what Matt predicts is, in essence, the business model of Fortify IQ. So we glued them together. Patrick Boch handled the talk with Matt and L...
Semiconductor industry gets dragged into security
December 13, 2021 16:00 - 15 minutes - 13.9 MBAt the 58th annual Design Automation Conference in San Francisco, it seemed, at long last that the semiconductor industry is considering making their products secure, if only because they are being forced to. Standards organizations, not the least being the National Institute of Science and Technology, are creating mandatory minimums forcing hardware companies to force their chip suppliers to consider closing gaping holes before they go to manufacturing rather than create patches. At one of ...
Episode 4:24 - Fletch provides an early Christmas gift (audio only version)
December 07, 2021 22:48 - 17 minutes - 16 MBA few weeks ago we did a video demonstration of the Fletch.ai on the Cyber Protection Magazine Youtube channel, but wanted to share just the audio portion in this week's podcast because it's a solid tech gift for Christmas. Check it out. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/crucialtech/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/crucialtech/support
Episode 4:23a - Mozilla Foundation lets you know when "privacy not included"
November 23, 2021 16:00 - 25 minutes - 23.2 MBFor the past five years, the Mozilla Foundation has published reviews of products rated on their relative privacy aspects. The least private products are labelled "Very, Very creepy. We interviewed Jen Caltrider, Mozilla's lead in their Privacy Not Included Division and found what makes a product or service creepy. Hint: the better the price, the creepier it becomes. This will be available on Spotify in video or on all other platforms in audio only. --- Send in a voice message: https://p...
Episode 4:22b - Mozilla wants to show you where "Privacy is Not Included"
November 23, 2021 16:00 - 26 minutes - 25 MBWe interviewed Jen Caltrider of the Mozilla Foundation about the fifth annual Privacy Not Included list the foundation publishes annually and if you are thinking of buying some electronics as gifts or for yourself, you might think about referring to the list at www.privacynotincluded.org. Let us know if you ever consider privacy features when you are gift shopping. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/crucialtech/message Support this podcast: https://podcas...
Mozilla wants to show you where "Privacy is Not Included"
November 23, 2021 16:00 - 27 minutes - 25.5 MBWe interviewed Jen Caltrider of the Mozilla Foundation about the fifth annual Privacy Not Included list the foundation publishes annually and if you are thinking of buying some electronics as gifts or for yourself, you might think about referring to the list at www.privacynotincluded.org. Let us know if you ever consider privacy features when you are gift shopping. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/crucialtech/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/crucialtech/support
Mozilla Foundation lets you know when "privacy not included"
November 23, 2021 16:00 - 25 minutes - 23.2 MBFor the past five years, the Mozilla Foundation has published reviews of products rated on their relative privacy aspects. The least private products are labelled "Very, Very creepy. We interviewed Jen Caltrider, Mozilla's lead in their Privacy Not Included Division and found what makes a product or service creepy. Hint: the better the price, the creepier it becomes. This will be available on Spotify in video or on all other platforms in audio only. --- Send in a voice message: https://a...
Episode 4:22 - Quantum computing is not really here, yet. But companies are getting ready for it
November 12, 2021 17:48 - 20 minutes - 18.9 MBQuantum computing is one of those technologies that causes hyperbole, confusion, and concern. A lot of the discussion is not much more than wishful thinking or uninformed fear. For most people, it will not affect them in their lifetime. That’s not to say it isn’t something to completely ignore. We talked to Alan Grau, VP of business development for the startup company PQShield in this week’s episode of Crucial Tech to get an overview of where we are in quantum security and what their compan...
Quantum computing is not really here, yet. But companies are getting ready for it
November 12, 2021 17:48 - 20 minutes - 19.4 MBQuantum computing is one of those technologies that causes hyperbole, confusion, and concern. A lot of the discussion is not much more than wishful thinking or uninformed fear. For most people, it will not affect them in their lifetime. That’s not to say it isn’t something to completely ignore. We talked to Alan Grau, VP of business development for the startup company PQShield in this week’s episode of Crucial Tech to get an overview of where we are in quantum security and what their compan...
Episode 4:21 – Upheaval's Ironweave might actually fix data security with blockchain
October 26, 2021 17:12 - 33 minutes - 30.8 MBIt is a rare thing when a company claims to be the first to do something and actually is the first. Rarer still is when that company is actually solving a significant problem with their product. Upheaval (upheaval.io) appears to be among those rarities with a data security platform that prevents data theft, intrusion and could solve the problem of social media privacy. This interview may be the most encouraging thing that has happened in data security in a long time and has earned them membe...
Episode 4:20 -- Why does bad marketing happen to good products?
October 14, 2021 16:44 - 33 minutes - 31.3 MBThe tech world sees marketing as a necessary “evil” and does it poorly. The cybersecurity industry sees it as a mystery but duplicates what the tech world does, so their efforts are generally poor and clueless. Good marketing explains the reason budgeting a particular product is a good idea and where that product is most useful. Mediocre marketing looks for the lowest hanging fruit when the ripest fruit is at the top of the tree. Journalists have to cut through mediocre marketing to make th...