Crucial Tech

When it comes to polite discussion, there are two things you should never discuss: Politics and Religion. At the same time, most people would also rather not talk about insurance or data encryption. Well, I can’t say I’m all that polite, because that is exactly what this episode is about. The need for encryption on or data has never been more important, but msot of us don’t know what is or isn’t e...

Microsoft haw cancelled plans for a massive build out of AI data centers and China is shutting down gigawatts or AI processing due to lack of demand. It seems the AI boom is on the verge of busting as big as the Dotcom collapse. And since cybersecurity companies seem dependent on the AI buzzwords to sell their services, that is going to mean change for the industry. We chatted with ThreatLocker CE...

The "Signalgate" scandal has raised the issue of encryption to a broader audience in the past week.  On the plus side, many sources say that 95% of digital traffic is encrypted now, compared to 43% in 2014, but most people have no idea that their personal data is being encrypted. It’s one of those invisible technologies that touch many people. But there is a basic fact, that a lot of stuff that sh...

As I've said before, I get a lot of "studies" and "surveys" from cybersecurity firms with breathless and urgent warnings about a coming cyber-pocalypse of one sort or another. Funny thing, it's always about something that they supposedly defend against. As I started writing this note, I got another one. I did one podcast about a survey from Huntress about phishing in Fe...

The DDoS attack on X.com this week provided a certain amount of schadenfreude for people less than enamored by Elon Musk. It also rang alarm bells in the cybersecurity community as that style of attack seems to be making a comeback, and not for financial gain. All indications are corporations, and, in particular, government institutions are not ready to repel attacks motivated by political revenge...

I get a lot of "studies" about the state of cybersecurity and most of them are poorly done. In Episode 10.8 I talked about one I like, from Huntress and the week it came out I got pitched another report from iProov that was, well, less than well done. And as much as I tried to help them focus on reality, the more they pushed back. Again, this is not a knock on what the company does, whic...

Artificial Intelligence is all the rage right now with broad claims about how it is going to change the world as we know it. I have my doubts about the hype and so does Bob Ackerman, the granddaddy of cybersecurity venture capital, founder and managing director of AllegisCyber Capital (for the past 29 years) and cofounder of the cyber incubator, DataTribe in Maryland. I always enjoy chatting with...

Today we are talking about insurance and government regulation... No! Wait! It's good stuff so bear with us. As the US administration seems intent on dismantling government protections in cybersecutiy, we will all rely heavily on foreign governments and private industries, like insurance, to keep us safe from cybercrime. The Digital Operations Resilience Act, that the EU put into force in Janu...

Phishing attacks are on the rise again with the help of sophisticated generative-AI tools. But new defenses and increased wariness among potential victims are blunting the potential for widespread harm. We talked with Greg Linares, Principle Threat Intelligence Analyst for Huntress regarding their annual Threat Intelligence report. It sounds grim, but in a new article on Cyber Protection Magazine,...

I am very far behind in writing stories and making podcasts. The events since January 20 have made it difficult to keep up. But today, while walking downtown I came across a brand-new independent book store That had a copy of a book dedicated to Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Dream" speech. I attended that event, with my mother, when I was 11. It was a foundational moment for me. It is wh...

This week, we are talking to a lawyer. Maryam Meseha is a founding partner of Pierson Ferdinand LLC, a relatively new and large firm dedicated to digital security. In the first few weeks of the year, the new US administration has castrated the governmental infrastructure to make sure corporation keep customer data safe, especially in the area of retail fraud. It’s law firms, like Pierson Ferdinand...

I've had several discussions about the nature of censorship, the freedom of speech and moderation and I came to the realization that most people have no idea what sociial media moderation is. So I did a bit of a rant. We also are bringing back the top threat reports from Fletch for a bit of lightheartedness before the rant.

James Bore is a cybersecurity consultant, speaker and publisher based in the UK. He has a refined sense of cynicism that clicks with my own, so we've been chatting back and forth for several months on various subjects and decided it's probably time to record some of our interaction. Today, we are looking at the preferred marketing practice (shiny objects) of sewing fear, uncertainty and do...

For about two years, the team at Cyber Protection Magazine has debated whether Meta platforms (Facebook, Instagram and * shudder * WhatsApp) were valuable or even necessary for the reach of our magazine. For two years, I've been outvoted every time. Instead, I unilaterally decided to divorce from the platforms. Providentially, Mark Zuckerberg made two announcements in as many weeks that made the d...

We open a new year and a new season with our friend, Ian Thornton-Trump, chief information security officer at the MSSP Inversion6 and in 30 minutes we take on some pretty meaty subjects. First we discuss how China strategically infiltrated technology systems in the US and other countries as a geopolitical message rather than attacks. He discusses the challenges of securing complex, interconnected...

The available guests for this last podcast of the year dried up pretty quickly so I thought I would give some closing thoughts on a big issue facing the world: Trust and the lack of it. Also, our last threat reports courtesy of Fletch.ai

Our friends at Fletch provide a grand slam of threats for Thanksgiving week, covering Apple, Android, AWS and Microsoft vulnerabilities No regular podcast this week but we will be back next week with a possible new way to abuse AI.

This is part two of our mashup of recent surveys. This time we talk with Tom Tovar, CEO of Appdome about their comprehensive annual survey of consumer attitudes regarding security in digital technology. The good news is there is a groundswell of security "consciousness" regarding the subject. The bad news is the consumers are not confident that corporations even care.

This week, a two-parter. I’m still trying to make sense of all the surveys and studies sent to me. Between trying to figure out if they are plagiarized, use inadequate samples, are a lame attempt at self-promotion or are actually good data is almost a full-time job. Luckily I got a couple of good ones this month and am doing another mashup. Today’s interview is with Frank Teruel, CFO of Arkose Lab...

This episode includes our weekly top cyber threats with help from Fletch and this week Cyjax , and a shot interview with cybersecurity contrarian James Bore, a consultant in the UK with a kindred spirit. The interview is introducing the theme for Cyber Protection Magazine next year. Put up or shut up. The past decade has been filled with optimism in the tech sector about what they thought they cou...

I received more than dozen studies and reports on the "state of cybersecurity" all with different foci depending on the company that was pushing the document. It seems like they are replacing press releases as a primary marketing tool. But there was one thing that jumped out of me. Almost every one of them had a throwaway line that customers had #zerotrust in the effiicacy of the tools and service...

Here's our top three threat reports for the week. Hackers are targeting gambling apps on mobile devices and obsolete Microsoft products. Thanks to the folks at Fletch for the info

Our friends at Fletch. AI dropped a bunch of threat reports this week, here's what we see as the top three.

I bet you never heard of FHE. Me neither. Then I got a pitch about it. Tried to ignore it because I had never herd of it, but they were insistent. Turns out to be interesting. Fully homomorphic encryption, or FHE, has been talked about for about five years but not it has its very own industry association and NIST is starting to take it very seriously. It doesn't eliminate quantum encryption standa...

After getting knocked for a loop with a dose of Covid I'm slowly crawling back to the desk and providing some timely advice regarding current and predicted threat reports from our friends at Fletch .