Videos

And yep, thanks to his altruistic streak even Rich is affected. We don’t spend much time on blame or the history of it, but more the personal impact. How do you move on once you know much of your most personal information is now out there, you don’t know who has it, and you don’t know how they might want to use it?

Once again we have a major security story slumming in the headlines. This time it’s Hackers on a Plane, without all the Samuel L goodness. But what’s the real story? It’s time to face the reality that the only people who know are the ones who aren’t talking, and everything else you hear is most certainly wrong

Do bigger numbers mean we are any better than last year? And how can we possibly balance being an industry, community, and profession simultaneously? Not that we answer any of that, but we can at least keep you entertained for 13 minutes.

The RSA Conference is the biggest annual event in our industry (really – there are tens of thousands of people there). But bigger doesn’t mean everything is better, and it can be all too easy to get lost in the event and fail to get value out of it. Even if you don’t attend, this is the time of year a lot of security companies focus on, which affects everything you see and read – for better and worse. This week we discuss how we get value out of the event, and how to find useful nuggets in the…

Last week we saw a security company hit the $2.4B valuation level. Yes, that’s a ‘B’, as in billion. This week we dig into the changing role of money and investment in our industry, and what it might mean. We like to pretend keeping our heads down and focusing on defense and tech is all that matters, but practically speaking we need to keep half an eye on the market around us. It not only affects the tools at our disposal, but influences the entire course of our profession.

Last week the US Director of National Intelligence said cyberattacks are a greater risk than terrorism. This week we debate what that means, and whether terminology is getting so muddled that it becomes meaningless. Plus we rip into Rich’s post claiming security people need to stop thinking of themselves as warriors, and start thinking like spies.

Last week President Obama held a cybersecurity summit out in the Bay Area. He issued a new executive order and is standing up a new threat sharing center. This is in response to ongoing massive attacks such as the Anthem breach and (as we heard this weekend) hundreds of millions stolen in bank thefts. But what does it all mean to security pros and the industry? The truth is, not much in our day-to-day (yet), but you certainly had better pay attention.

Rich, Mike, and Adrian each pick a trend they expect to hammer us in 2015. Then they talk about it, probably too much. From threat intel to tokenization to SaaS security.

Rich, Mike, and Adrian each pick a trend they expect to hammer us in 2015. Then we talk about it, probably too much. From threat intel to tokenization to SaaS security.

Yes, people, the disclosure debate is still alive and kicking. But now it is basically a pissing match between two of the largest tech companies. With Google setting rigid deadlines, and Microsoft stuck on their rigid schedule, who will win? Grab the popcorn as we talk about egos, internal inconsistencies, and why putting the user first is so damn hard.

In our last Firestarter for this year, Mike, Adrian, and I take on some of the latest security predictions for 2015. Needless to say, we aren’t impressed. We do, however, close out with some trends we are seeing which are likely to play out next year, and are MOST DEFINITELY NOT PREDICTIONS.

SSLmageddon V12. Polar Vortices. Ebola. APT123. We live in an era when every week it seems some massive new vulnerability, exploit, or attack is going to take down society. This week Rich, Mike, and Adrian tackle the endless progression of bad news; and how to maintain focus when everyone wants you to save the children.

Adrian is out, so Rich and Mike cover the latest Amazon Web Services news as their big re:Invent conference closes in. We start with the new Frankfurt datacenter, and how a court case involving Microsoft could kill off the future of all US-based cloud companies (it’s always the little things). Then we discuss directory services in the cloud, and how this indicates increasing cloud adoption and maturity at a pace we really haven’t ever seen before.

Mike, Adrian, and I start off a little rough around the edges, but eventually get to the point. Travel is taking its toll so we won’t be able to keep our usual weekly schedule, but we will stay as close as possible – until I run off to Amsterdam for a week, for Black Hat Europe. We catch up on the inane for a few minutes, before jumping into a discussion of the bash vulnerability and disclosure debacle. We agree it is often valuable to analyze an event after the initial shock waves (See what I…

After a short break, the boys are back and here to talk about Apple. No, not the new wrist-mounted toy, but the first mobile payment system you might actually use. Or so says Rich’s Macworld editor, based on his article title.

After our little Black Hat and DEF CON induced hiatus, the boys are back to talk about the latest vendor suing Gartner. Yes, there is a Gartner Tax. No, it isn’t what you think. No, there is no pay for play. Yes, there are better ways to handle this. Yes, end users love Magic Quadrants no matter how much you trash talk them. And yeah, somehow we know a bit about how all this works from all sides.

In the latest Firestarter, Rich, Mike, and Adrian discuss the latest controversial research to hit the news from HOPE and Black Hat. We start with a presentation by Jonathan Zdziarski on data recoverable using forensics on iOS. While technically accurate, we think the intent he ascribes intent to Apple shows a deeply flawed analysis. We then discuss a talk removed from Black Hat on de-anonymizing Tor. In this case it seems the researchers didn’t really understand the legal environment around…

This week we kept it simple with two topics. First up, China’s accusations that iOS and iDevices are a security risk.

This week they discuss some of the latest news from a particular conference held out in Washington DC last week which Mike stopped by (well, the lobby bar) and Rich used to help run.

Rich and Adrian join up to talk about some interesting developments in Apple privacy, and how Apple may be using it to get some competitive advantage.

The question of the day is: Are we in a Sputnik moment? Did the Target breach shake things up so much that security is moving up the chain? Or are these short-term reactions, which will fade with our memories of what happened?

We apologize for the quality of this week’s show… but Rich is on the road and can’t seem to understand the word ‘bandwidth’.

A lot is going on in security land, so Rich, Mike, and Adrian return with another 3 for 5 episode.

Adrian is off at the altar of Buffett (the other one – not the one I wear a coconut bra for), so Mike and I delved into SecDevOps, triggered by a post from Andrew Storms over at DevOps.com.

After missing a week, Rich, Mike, and Adrian return to talk about birthdays, the annual Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report, and child-induced alcohol consumption.