The Killing IT Podcast

Topic 1: China mucking around with Iran and Israel China attacks Israel and makes it look like Iran did it. Meanwhile, Iran really is attacking Israel. And now Israel is attacking Irananian fuel supplies and Iran is exposing personal dating profiles of Israelis. It looks like Israel is attacking Iranian train systems, and Iran is attacking Israeli water systems. Attacks against citizens are causin...

Topic 1: Apple goes after the NSO Group Apple takes companies to court to prevent them from cracking into Apple phones. This touches on privacy as well as treating huge corporations as nation-states. Science fiction or reality? Links: https://www.protocol.com/newsletters/sourcecode/taking-down-pegasus   https://www.theverge.com/2021/11/23/22798917/apple-nso-group-spyware-pegasus-cybersecurity-rese...

Topic 1: New Fad - Work from Work Wednesdays Zooming from the office is what the NYT calls the “Worst of both worlds.” https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/16/business/return-to-office-hybrid-work.html   Topic 2: Apple has killer deals with several State DMVs Apple having states pay for their tech rollout -- how much is their responsibility, when Apple controls the tech? https://www.theverge.com/2021/1...

Topic 1: Skimpflation: Will this affect us? Aside from basic inflation, will the labor shortage cause this for IT services? https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2021/10/26/1048892388/meet-skimpflation-a-reason-inflation-is-worse-than-the-government-says-it-is   Topic 2: China’s Privacy Law China's new policy looks "western" at first, but is used for strick tracking of citizens. The Personal Informat...

Topic 1: Looking at Tech Companies as nation states When one organization has so much money and does so many things that they "compete" with nation states, should we begin to treat them that way? Note that one article is from Foreign Affairs magazine. Links: https://www.axios.com/newsletters/axios-login-0e7854d2-2b30-44e4-921a-e78b4e2db256.html?chunk=1&utm_term=emshare#story1   https://www.foreign...

Topic 1: Trolls Are Born, Not Made While self esteem is a factor, Internet trolls don’t have low self esteem. They have a high tendency to sadism. When mixed with high self esteem, you get a troll. Who are these people and how did they become trolls. Research gives us some insights. https://theconversation.com/new-research-shows-trolls-dont-just-enjoy-hurting-others-they-also-feel-good-about-thems...

This special edition of The Killing IT Podcast was recorded before a live audience in a special presentation made possible by Cisco. If you missed the “Live” portion, register at killingitlive.com to listen to the bonus topic and receive announcements about the next Killing IT Live broadcast. -- -- -- Topic 1: After much fanfare, what’s up with The Contract for the Web two years later? Sir Tim Ber...

Interesting tidbit of the day: Statistics Don't forget to join us for Killing IT Live - October 20th - https://www.killingitlive.com   Topic 1: Slack upended the workplace -- and gave power to the employees Slack (and other technologies) are revealing some inner turmoil at companies such as Apple. Is this something caused by the technology, or merely revealed by the technology? We discuss culture...

Fun question of the day . . . If you were offered the position of mayor of your city, would you take it? . . . wherein two of our hosts determine that they are two halves of a politician. -- -- -- Promo: Join Us for Killing IT Live - October 20th Info and registration at killingitlive.com No editing. No second takes. Join hosts Dave Sobel, Ryan Morris, and Karl Palachuk for this special live event...

Question of the Day: What was your first W2 job? Topic 1: Vendors Selling Around their Partners Listener Lucy asks: "Why the **** do vendors keep overlooking the sales rep who owns the customer in their Channel program?" There's natural tension between vendors and their solution provider partners. Why do we have to keep revisiting this topic? (Also, she agrees with Dave that a sandwich requires tw...

Question of the Day: What is a photo? Topic 1: When AI Breaks Bad Once again we address the question of ethics and AI. From Axios: "A new report about artificial intelligence and its effects warns AI has reached a turning point and its negative effects can no longer be ignored." Have we reached the point where we should automatically look for the negative effects first? Link: https://www.axios.com...

Question of the day: What is a sandwich? Topic 1: Apple Pay . . . Again The headline says Apple lost … but the article makes it clear that Epic is the one who is disappointed and is appealing. Let see: Epic violated their agreement and owes Apply $3.5 Million. But Apply can’t have those kinds of agreements going forward. And Apple’s not a monopoly. Seems confusing, but it does mean there will be o...

Topic 1: CISA Guidelines for MSP Clients Like it or not, the US Government has defined Managed Services, and published guidelines for your clients and prospects to evaluate you! We expect a lot of heat - and maybe some light - to come out of this document. Related Links: - https://us-cert.cisa.gov/ncas/current-activity/2021/09/03/cisa-insights-risk-considerations-managed-service-provider   - https...

Topic 1: Gartner's Latest Hype Cycle - Emerging Technology How can you use Gartner's research in your business? Does it matter if truly useful changes are at least two years out? Gartner Hype cycle graphic: https://www.techrepublic.com/article/gartner-identifies-3-themes-to-watch-for-in-emerging-technologies/   Topic 2: AI for Changing Accents Is this cool? What are the best uses for it? And, as a...

Topic 1: Change the storage to change ransomware? Can you create storage that cannot be changed? Is ransomware-free data storage possible . . . and right around the corner? Related Link: https://www.protocol.com/newsletters/protocol-enterprise/cloud-storage-ransomware-zero-trust   Topic 2: Shadow IT: Is it Real? Not real? Are you the shadow IT? Does it really just mean outsourced IT? And that lead...

Topic 1: Apple Privacy Revisited We talked about this last week. Well, so did everyone else. Apple introduced a new technology to screen for child pornography . . . and a spirited debate has ensued. Last week the Killing IT guys weighed in on the topic and now we want to revisit the ongoing debate and address some of the concerns about the “slippery slope” and the “permission” to access data on pe...

Topic 1: Drones.. May not be coming. We've been ushering drones for years. But where are they? Why in the age of the drone advancing so slowly? Amazon is slowing things down a bit. https://www.wired.co.uk/article/amazon-drone-delivery-prime-air   Topic 2: What should the penalty be for data misuse? Data misuse is a growing topic. In addition to the recent Supreme Court case, we're seeing companies...

Topic 1: The Disconnect Between Marketing, AI, and Reality AI is awesome . . . until it's not. We look at the need for transparency with AI data. How do you challenge AI bias in court? Should IA data be used in legal cases? Most importantly, how do YOU make money helping your clients with AI? https://www.vice.com/en/article/qj8xbq/police-are-telling-shotspotter-to-alter-evidence-from-gunshot-detec...

Topic 1: Why is there derision for "alternative" solution stacks? Dave asks . . . why do people like to put down Chromebooks and Macs? Do they actually love their Windows-centric world? We have fun, and we hope we make some points worth considering in a modern world. Link: https://www.thurrott.com/mobile/chrome-os/chromebook/253503/a-tale-of-two-chromebooks   Topic 2: Forget work/life balance: Now...

Topic 1: The Impact of China on the Cybersecurity Industry & Data Protection China was on both sides of the cybersecurity story last week. On one hand, they were accused by the whole world of orchestrating the attack on Exchange servers. On the other hand, they starting cracking down on cybersecurity internally. This also has direct implications for US companies selling into China. What will be th...

Topic 1: Revising RMM - Ready for Disruption? Question - Is the problem super sophisticated and difficult or crazy simple and easy? We summarize a few arguments as well as look at the next topic: IOS. One of us is ready to drop RMM; one is not; and the tie goes to . . .. Links: https://www.wired.com/story/it-management-tools-hacking-jamf-kaseya/   https://www.datacenterknowledge.com/security/kasey...

Episode 120 - Riffing on Cybersecurity and the IT Industry After the Kaseya attack, there really was nothing else to talk about.  In a slightly different format, we take the full show to just enjoy a totally unrehearsed discussion of the state of cybersecurity and what it means for the IT industry. Lots of opinions here. Give us your feedback. Share with a friend.  Always more good Killing IT Podc...

Topic 1: Neuro Diversity - a different approach to thinking about thinking. We're always looking for people who think differently. But we also put some serious limits on how different we are willing to accept. In this article, TechCrunch looks at the idea of inviting a wider variety of people into the world of cybersecurity hiring. Link: https://techcrunch.com/2021/06/22/addressing-the-cybersecuri...

Topic 1: Apple Healthcare. Are you onboard? Apple is considering direct health care. So, they're testing out a service with their own employees. Of course it all started with data. Now they're connecting devices and data to actual hands-on clinical care. Are you comfortable with this care from an IT company? If so, is Apple the company? Link: - https://www.theverge.com/2021/6/16/22536623/apple-pri...

Topic 1: Is "Patch and Zero Trust" Even Possible? What does doing something different look like? How much do we need to rethink all this? Or, perhaps, is it possible to provide appropriate security at the small end of the market but impossible at the enterprise level? With the explosion of IOT, security may in fact be impossible. If that's true, what else can we do? Link: https://doublepulsar.com/...