Firewalls Don't Stop Dragons Podcast

Phil Zimmermann fought a multi-year court battle and risked years in jail in order to defend your right to privacy. Phil created an email encryption system called Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) in 1991 that is still the gold standard for private email today. I sat down with Phil to discuss his legacy and why we are truly in the Golden Age of Surveillance, despite claims by law enforcement that all comm...

Our electronics and appliance manufacturers are desperately trying to turn all of their “dumb” products into “smart” ones by connecting them to the Internet - the new Internet of Things (IoT). And while dialing down your thermostat from the office and asking your portable speaker for today’s forecast is great, how can you trust that these devices aren’t spying on you or going rogue? In most cases,...

Google truly does know everything. Law enforcement is now turning to the search company to locate potential crime suspects. Google owns Android and Waze, along with several other smartphone apps - many of which have full access to your whereabouts. Police are now asking Google for lists of users who were near crimes when they occurred in hopes of finding suspects.  How does this jibe with our Four...

Chairman Ajit Pai and the FCC voted to gut net neutrality late last year - but the fight is not over. The United States Senate can overturn these rule changes with a simple majority of 51 votes. Right now, we have 50. We need just one more vote. This process has a 60-day deadline, which is April 23rd. We have one week left to reverse these changes and preserve Net Neutrality. If you have a Republi...

Would you take your computer in for repair if you knew the technicians would be scanning your hard drive looking for anything suspicious while they had the hood up? It’s something that apparently we all need to be considering now. A recent lawsuit against a California doctor has revealed that the FBI has been paying Best Buy Geek Squad technicians to search for illegal content on the computers tha...

At Facebook, it’s critically important to remember that you are not the customer, you’re the product. None of Facebook’s users pay a dime for its service and yet Facebook makes tens of billions of dollars a year. Facebook makes money off of you and your data. And as we’ve seen in the last two weeks, that business model is ripe for abuse. It’s long since time that we, as consumers, reject the curre...

Your privacy and 4th amendments rights were dealt another blow last week, while no one was really looking. Congress opened the door to more warrantless surveillance by tacking on a little-known, unvetted bill to the monster spending legislation passed last week. This bill, benignly titled the Clarifying Overseas Use of Data (“CLOUD”) Act, removes the need for foreign countries to obtain a search w...

Have you ever really stopped to consider the sheer amount of data Facebook has on you? How long have you had your Facebook account? How many pictures have you posted and tagged? How many relationships have you had? Facebook has all that data, and much more - all your posts, your messages, your status changes, your likes, your comments, your profile (every version), your photos and videos… Facebook...

If a vote falls in a ballot box, but there’s no one there to see it - does it count? Marian Schneider, President of Verified Voting, explains why so many of our national voting systems have absolutely no way of being audited. Digital technology has been a wonderful boon for this world, but when it comes to something as fundamental to democracy as casting a vote, you simply must have a physical rec...

Facebook has wants your face. Guess we should have seen that coming. While Facebook has been using face recognition for years now, it began notifying users in December of much broader use of this technology. Of course, they will tell you that you are the prime beneficiary, but by accepting this new feature you may be enabling Facebook to do much more. Tune in and I’ll tell you all about it, includ...

Should you cover your webcam? Is anti-virus software worth the money? How do you know if you’ve been hacked? How do you know what software you can trust? We’ll cover all of these topics and more with Patrick Wardle, a computer security expert and ex-NSA hacker. While Patrick’s focus is Mac security, we also discuss PCs and mobile devices, and much more! Patrick Wardle is the Chief Research Officer...

You know the best way to limit what malware can do on your system? Limit what YOU can do! Software on computers generally inherits the privileges of the current user. The problem is that the default account that comes with all computers has full administrator privileges - you can do anything. And whatever you can do, malware can also do. The solution is to always have a non-admin account that you...

Do you know where your software’s been? If you’re downloading your apps and driver software from third parties, you may be getting more than you bargained for. Software download sites may be attaching unwanted extras to your installers in order to make money. And bad guys are also hacking these sites to trick you into downloading malware. I’ll tell you how to ensure your software is pristine. In o...

Our mobile phones today are chock full of private information and are constantly tattling about our whereabouts and activities. Most phones today have GPS, WiFi, Bluetooth, motion detectors, magnetic field detectors, microphones, cameras, and of course cellular radios. Some even have facial recognition built right in. With all this personal data and telemetry information, is it even possible to pr...

It's that time of year again: tax time. And that means it's also high season for identity thieves and scammers. Millions of people are affected by fake tax return filings every year. Phone and email scams lure unsuspecting victims to give away their money or identity. In today’s episode, I’ll tell you how to protect yourself. In this week’s news, we’ll talk about why California won’t let you cover...

Data Privacy Day is upon us, and today is the day you take back your online privacy. And I’m going to help you do it. There’s no more standing on the sidelines and hoping someone else will fix this for you. You need to get off your butt and do something - and today is the day to do it. Corporations have sold loads of compelling and powerful “free” tools and services. But if the product is free, th...

Bitcoin has been all over the news lately, and rightly so. The digital “coin” was worth $1000 a year ago, and peaked at nearly $20,000 last month - an increase of 2000% in one year! And yet it’s lost almost half that value in the last two weeks. What is Bitcoin, anyway? Should you invest in it? How would you even do that if you wanted to? I’ve invited Berkley security researcher Nick Weaver back t...

Despite being available for seven years, less than 10% of Google users have taken advantage of two-factor authentication. And yet, two-factor (or “two-step”) authentication is probably the best option today for most people to truly lock down their most important online accounts. I’ll tell you why it’s so effective and explain how you set it up. We’ll also talk about the security news of the week i...

When can anyone search through your most intimate records and belongings? When you throw them away, of course! The US Supreme Court has already ruled that the Fourth Amendment doesn’t protect your garbage can or recycle bin. Today we talk about a very interesting case in Oregon where local reporters turned the tables on the authorities, with very interesting results. I’ll also update you on the la...

This week a couple of truly nasty computer hardware bugs were revealed by security researchers. Dubbed Meltdown and Spectre, the exploits take advantage of performance features found in Intel CPU chips as far back as 1995 and most other modern CPUs from AMD and ARM. Luckily, chip and software makers have been working in the background for months on fixes and mitigations, and many of them have alre...

Can law enforcement force you to divulge your passwords? How do you limit the scope of a search warrant on an iPhone? Is powerful encryption technology creating ‘warrant-free zones’ in cyberspace? Or are we actually in the Golden Age of Surveillance? Today I speak with Andrew Crocker (Staff Attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation) about how our Constitutional rights work in cyberspace. We’l...

It’s that time of year again - time for New Years Resolutions! While you consider going to the gym or maybe drinking a little less, we’re in the Information Age now - and that means you need to get your digital house in order, too! In our first show of 2018, I’ll give you several great projects to improve your cybersecurity and privacy - some easy, some that will take some time - but all of them a...

While you have some down time over the holidays, it’s a great opportunity to learn something new. I humbly suggest some cybersecurity and privacy “homework” that is both entertaining and educational! Like watching documentaries? Maybe you prefer to curl up by the fire with a good book? I’ve got you covered! In the news this week, we have yet another staggeringly large data breach - though it’s not...

Net Neutrality suffered a severe but expected setback this week when the new FCC repealed the protections enacted in 2015 by a 3-2 party line vote, without any public hearings or investigation into flawed comment system. Call your Congressman! Bitcoin value has soared in the last few months… but what the heck is a Bitcoin? I’ll explain what all the buzz is about. I’ll also tell you about massive d...

Many of the most important voices on the web today are individuals or small, low-budget organizations: human rights groups, investigative journalists, political dissidents, and fighters for democracy in repressive regimes. These groups don’t have the wherewithal to defend themselves against hackers and bad state actors that would prefer their voices not be heard. Projects like Cloudflare’s Galileo...