Crucial Tech

It's hard to stay positive about the state of the world as long as you listen to everyone complain about it. One truth overrides that for me: Nothing is as bad as it seems nor as good as some people might tell you. The trick is to focus on the goal. When you see progress... anywhere... take heart. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/crucialtech/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/crucialtech/support

The team at Cyber Protection Magazine doesn't just look at cybersecurity technology. Sometimes we just argue about tech in general. Chief editor Lou Covey and co-founder Patrick Boch have been talking about the Apple Vision Pro headset since it was first announced and still don't agree on it, but we thought the discussion would help others make up their mind on whether to invest $3500 now or wait until the price comes down, So we recorded our last discussion. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/crucialtech/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/crucialtech/support

Generative AI is BIG business. Maybe too big. In the rush to commercialize and cash in on billions of dollars of investment, Big Tech is letting security slip through the cracks again. Adversaries are weaponizing AI to supercharge phishing attacks, destabilize governments and blackmail innocent people. This episode is the first entry in a months-long series of storeis, podcasts, videos and panels on "Defense Against the AI Arts (with Apologies to Harry Potter". Our first subject Vijay Balasubramaniyan, CEO of Pindrop. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/crucialtech/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/crucialtech/support

Telesign is part of a growing security niche market dedicated to providing the infrastructure companies need to keep customer data safe. We talked with company CMO Kristi Melani about how the industry needs to educated not just corporations but the users in what is available to them. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/crucialtech/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/crucialtech/support

This episode is our very first book review. I edited Data for All late last year and had my eyes open to both the massive amount of customer data collected by almost every corporation in the world, and the amount of digital waste produced by the effort. There is also a mini-review of Not with a Bug, but with a Sticker. These are two books that if you read them (and they are both easy reading) will make you sound like an expert in AI and data science in any gathering of people. That may not be a good thing but I enjoy it. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/crucialtech/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/crucialtech/support

#GenerativeAI was front and center at the RSA Conference 2023 in San Francisco. Companies were either promoting it as a means of improving security or warning against it as a security weakness. It was even the keynote on Tuesday by RSA CEO Rohit Ghai, who took a neutral position that leaned positive on its potential. But as he spoke, for the most part, glowingly about the AI age we are entering there were some questions that arose. So we contacted him through his PR agency and he graciously accepted an interview appointment to answer those questions. Our focus was, primarily, on the ethical use of generative AI and the failure of the tech industry to live up to its own stated ethics. The conversation was frank and illuminating. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/crucialtech/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/crucialtech/support

You cannot spit without hitting a news story about generative AI (AKA ChatGPT, Bard, etc.). Some of the news is good, some of it bad, and all of it fairly confusing. ⁠Cyber Protection Magazine⁠ has been digging through the detritus and find what really is good or bad about it and today we continue that with an interview with a very smart man: Dr. James Norrie, a full-time professor in the Management, Marketing, and Entrepreneurship department at York University and founder of the cybersecurity company CyberconIQ. He holds advanced degrees in cybersecurity and intelligence analysis, copyright law, and project management. And he has a very specific take on generative AI. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/crucialtech/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/crucialtech/support

TikTok has been in the news for quite a while, but at Cyber Protection Magazine, we are pretty sure we aren't getting the whole story, so we are starting a series of articles and podcasts to get to the bottom of the issue, starting with this episode. We talk to Ian Thornton-Trump -- raconteur, iconoclast, cyberwarrior, and CISO for Cyjax -- and he, as usual, has a lot to say. As you listen you will find that the real problem is not in the app, but in ourselves... and in bad algorithm design. Also, this is an ad-free episode. If you want to support the work we are doing, go to Cyber Protection Magazine and donate to the cause. The button is on the bottom of the page. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/crucialtech/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/crucialtech/support

You can't talk in polite company about politics or religion, but everyone can talk about how they hate advertising. And for good reason. I take a break from discussing technology to rant about what tech companies do to get you to buy their stuff, and why you don;t trust them. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/crucialtech/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/crucialtech/support

“Sextortion” is a popular theme in media and the news, but it may or may not be a big deal. No one can really come up with a consensus about what it is and how widespread it is. It’s even difficult to pin down whether it is a crime. We talked with Ken Kuglin from Digital Forensics Corporation, a cybersecurity firm in Ohio, about how to deal with the attacks and their free services to educate people about how to avoid or deal with sextortion. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/crucialtech/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/crucialtech/support

Cybersecurity has a healthier and older relationship with artificial intelligence (AI) than pretty much any other industry niche.  That’s because the information available on cyber threats is better vetted than 90 percent of what is fed into ChatGPT and the Google and Microsoft versions of generative AI.  But putting that data to use in security is not that easy… yet. Cyber Protection Magazine has been tasing with companies for several weeks as we study the constructive uses of AI in security, and try to find a way through the hype. We interviewed the CEO of one company recently, Gopi Sirineni of Axiado.  They are about to launch a security co-processor driven by a unique AI that will be based on the Sirineni calls a “data lake” of attack schemes.  This information is a “living” database that will constantly be updated. But to make sure it is as comprehensive as possible, they are enlisting the help of the worldwide cybersecurity community.  To participate, you can contact Axiado thro

Vishing, short for "voice phishing," is on the rise again.  But then, it’s been rising almost exponentially for the past two years.  Last summer various organizations were reporting anywhere between 500-650 percent increases over the previous six quarters.  Now, as US citizens prepare their tax returns, the scam is getting another bump. We had a chat with Brian McDonald, director of product development and Mutare, about their technology and the problem of vishing. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/crucialtech/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/crucialtech/support

Being a security company that gets hit with a data breach or malware attack is embarrassing, besides the fact that it scares the hell out of your customers. But the current tech fad of "decentralization" has a pretty good lesson for anyone thinking about establishing a security operations center, virtual or otherwise. We talked with the CEO of Dispel about how they've been decentralizing security operations in infrastructure clients for years now.  --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/crucialtech/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/crucialtech/support

If you're like us, #dataprivacyweek snuck up on you and almost got by before you knew it. But we were still busy. This podcast includes an interview with Brandon Rogers, a senior security engineer at Halo Security, an attack surface management company, who discusses the rash of data breaches at T-Mobile over the past couple of years and what they SHOULD be doing about it (Note, T-Mobile has not responded to requests for input), and then we have our first All Hands discussion with the team at Cyber Protection Magazine as we talk about the larger issues of data privacy. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/crucialtech/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/crucialtech/support

It's Martin Luther King day today, which is an important holiday for me. This interview was incredibly satisfying because it demonstrates how far we've come since Dr. King Spoke in Washington DC in 1963. We have a long way to go, but this is a celebration of what is being accomplished. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/crucialtech/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/crucialtech/support

To kick off the new year and our seventh season, Joe Basques and I tackle the conundrum of distrust in media and why marketing doesn't work the way it's supposed to in the technology world. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/crucialtech/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/crucialtech/support

For the second year we are publishing predictions for 2023 in Cyber Protection Magazine by asking people and organizations to submit a brief, one-paragraph statement. Our friend and Cyjax CISO sent an entire presentation. And it was fun and scary all at the same time.,So we went with it. Check out the other predictions on the magazine and let us know what you think. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/crucialtech/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/crucialtech/support

A personal bank account was hacked this week, but because I was getting regular alerts from my bank we kept the damage at a minimum. As luck would have it, I had scheduled this interview with Bruno Farinelli of Clearsale who explained how even when you do everything you can to keep your finances safe, criminals have a way to get around your protections.  --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/crucialtech/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/crucialtech/support

Guess what? Black Friday doesn't give you good deals and the ones you may be looking at may be scams. Take 15 minutes and get smart. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/crucialtech/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/crucialtech/support

A few weeks ago I was on a panel at San Jose State, #yesyoucan, about the future of democracy and how it intersects with technology and media. It went over an hour, which twice longer than what I normally do, but it included Harry Hursti speaking on election security and Sari Stenfors regarding a "hopeful future." After what we've been through the past few months, it might help. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/crucialtech/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/crucialtech/support