3: Protecting democracy, and how to spot manipulation tactics in the cyber war: Theresa Payton

In the latest episode of Cisco's Security Stories, we have the incredible fortune to speak to Theresa Payton, who was named one of the top 25 Most Influential People in Security by Security Magazine and is one of the most respected authorities on security and intelligence operations. 

Theresa was the first female CIO of The White House, taking up the post in George W Bush’s second term. We chat about what life was really like working in the White House. She also starred in CBS’ ‘Hunted’ TV series which gives ordinary citizens to chance to try and evade police capture , running the intelligence operations side.  

Theresa is also very passionate about protecting people’s right to privacy, and has co-authored two books focused on helping others learn how to protect their privacy online.  Her third book is called ‘Manipulated: Inside the cyberwar to hijack elections and distort the truth’ which is coming out on 22nd April, and we talk in quite a bit of detail about the topic of hijacking elections, and what people can do to protect their voting rights.

Also in this episode, our ‘On this day’ feature takes us back to 1993 to discuss the announcement of the ‘Clipper chip’, which was designed to enhance the security of communications devices.  It’s a really interesting story that addresses people’s right to privacy and the balance with survelliance, so stay tuned for that.

And Ben chats to us about 'credential dumping', an increasingly popular technique whereby an attacker scours a compromised computer for credentials in order to move laterally and/or carry out further attacks. To learn more, visit https://blogs.cisco.com/security/stealing-passwords-with-credential-dumping