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Crucial TechEpisode 11.21 - Vibe coding losing it's shine, but we're trying it anywayAt the beginning of 2025, vibe coding (using LLMs to create computer code) was all the rage. By June, the bloom had fallen off the rose. Studies showed professional coders were losing skill, and falsely believing they were made more productive using it rather than doing it themselves. This failure of AI to produce efficiency made the fad of vibe coding crash faster than any other AI-related application. Companies producing tools to support the work lost 60% of traffic by September.Undeterred the editorial staff of Cyber Protection Magazine jumped into the fad with both feet... because the practice...
2026-02-1122 minCrucial TechEpisode 10.1 - China, oligarchs and tradewars with Lou and IanWe 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 systems and the need for proactive defense.
Next we review the rise of corporate power and influence and how the increasing wealth and influence of individuals like Elon Musk is disrupting the traditional...
2025-01-0335 minCrucial TechPR, the Press, and Technology: A rantHad a disappointing two weeks trying to cobble together an interview for this week, and had no luck for a variety of reasons. Plenty of content, just little worth reporting. But as I head off to the #RSAC in San Francisco this week, I thought I'd give a history lesson about the relationship of public relations, the press, and technology companies, and explain our policies about press releases, embargoes, and interviews.
Thanks for listening to by LOU talk.
2024-05-0321 minCrucial TechEpisode 8.9 - Crystal Morin, tea ladies and personal responsibilityWe are neck-deep in politics here in the US, but did you know that by the end of this year, two-thirds of the planet will be making some sort of political decision about their country? That means election interference will be at a historical high. We will have a larger story on this next week in Cyber Protection Magazine but today we talk with Crystal Morin, the cybersecurity strategist for Sysdig about the ethical use of AI and social media and how we can all play our part in keeping all of us safe.
We also discuss...
2024-04-0423 min
Get Known. PR & Media PodcastGet Known. S3 E8 - Lou Covey from Cyber Protection MagazineIn this episode, we had the pleasure of talking with Lou Covey the editor of Cyber Protection Magazine and the Crucial Tech podcast. Although, we have a deep interest in both these subjects, in this podcast episode we dove into the world of industry-specific media both on the side of journalism and a bit on the economics of running and editing this type of publication. As you will hear, Lou has a background not only in publishing but also in PR and media. When you talk to someone with such a diverse background and experience you get a great...
2023-11-081h 01Crucial TechEpisode 7.19 - ETSI is doing the heavy lifting on AI protectionsAs generative AI (GAI) platforms become more commonplace, concern over their security issues is growing. As with any digital product, security relies on four arenas. User responsibility, corporate accountability, government regulation and industry standards. The first two are unreliable because users feel put out by having to protect themselves and corporations don’t like to spend money on security upfront. That leads to the third arena, legislation produced by people who don’t know the difference between a thumb drive and a thumbtack.
That put a lot of the load on industry standards and one of the most...
2023-08-0840 minCrucial TechEpisode 7.15 - VR Headsets: Boondoggle or Breakthrough?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.
2023-06-3030 min
Crucial TechEpisode 5.5 -- Bile sells... at least for now, but not for longSocial Media companies have no real incentive to reduce the vitriol that fills their servers. The fact is that content that makes people angry is what drives engagement... and engagement means advertising revenue. It also makes a profitable hunting ground for cybercriminals. But that might not be the case over the next few years. Joe Basques and Lou Covey sit down to consider the sea change that is coming for social content. They look at the social media companies claim they are nothing more than telecommunication companies and court cases that may change how libel laws are applied.
...
2022-02-1533 minCrucial TechEpisode 5.1: New engineering discipline predicted for 2022Welcome to the first episode of our fifth season and the first of 2022. Last year ended in a flurry of announcements, disasters, progress and new technology designed to keep us more secure and our last two interviews tied well into each other. We talked separately with Matt Morris, CISO at 1898 & Company, and Will Ruby, COO of FortifyIQ, and found that what Matt predicts is, in essence, the business model of Fortify IQ. So we glued them together. Patrick Boch handled the talk with Matt and Lou Covey spoke with Will at a live event, fully masked, in December (hence...
2022-01-0426 minCrucial TechEpisode 4:19--Phishing, smishing. Only you can stop it because Facebook sure ain't gonnaHad a fun conversation with Tim Callan, chief compliance officer at Sectigo on the un-fun topic of phishing, smishing and whether social media platforms even want to stop allowing criminals to scam their users. There is hope... just not from Facebook. See more at www.cyberprotection-magazine.com
2021-10-0128 minCrucial TechEpisode 4:18 - Convincing Real Estate Luddites to adopt good securityI've spent some long, frustrating hours trying to convince realtors to adopt proven technology. I can't imagine how difficult it must be, then, to convince them to practice good digital hygiene. David Moffat is trying to. We spent few minutes talking about how the industry's attitude can make everyone less safe.
2021-09-2422 minCrucial TechEpisode 4.17 - Modern vehicles, especially EVs, are rife with security holesI few weeks ago I was mercilessly cajoled by a PR firm to talk to the chief marketing officer of Sepio Systems, Bentsi ben Atar about their products and services. I don't do product announcements but I do talk about the problems the products were created to solve. So Bentsi and I talked for a while about how prevalent the potential for hacking modern vehicles is. And, apparently, public EV charging stations are a slam dunk for hackers. I hope this doesn't ruin your weekend.
2021-09-1728 minCrucial TechEpisode 4.16 - Apple's porn scan is bad, unless you think it is goodThe term “slippery slope” is applied to a lot of hypothetical outcomes of everything from legislation to technology. In the case of Apple monitoring the use of products and services for distributing child pornography it appears there are more than one or those lubricated hillsides.
At Cyber Protection Magazine we are internally debating the benefit/risk ratio of this decision and decided to air our thoughts in real time in this episode of Crucial Tech. US editor Lou Covey thinks the GDPR, CCPA and a host of other potential legislation has already begun a slide toward government cont...
2021-08-2413 minCrucial TechEpisode 4:16 - How security researchers are fueling cybercrime, and more from Black Hat 2021I attended Black Hat 2021 virtually again this year and wrap it up in this grab bag of issues including #AI ethics, #cybercrime legislation, #ransomware growth and control, and building #cybersecurity community to compact the organization of cybercrime. Grab a coffee and take 25 minutes to get up to speed.
2021-08-1025 minCrucial TechHave we reached Peak ransomware? George Finney says, probably notI interviewed George Finney, chief information security officer for Southern Methodist University, a couple of weeks ago for a Cyber Protection Magazine article about the state of ransomware. It wasn't encouraging. But George is a very nice guy who also helps people and companies get their act together regarding good security practices. The entire conversation was illuminating, even though I had to do it over my iPad due to a tech glitch. Ah the modern digital age....
2021-07-3021 minCrucial TechEpisode 4.14 -- How marketing makes it harder to buy products intelligently: A rantI'm being bombarded with companies trying to get me to interview them about product announcements. If I can figure out a theme to put them in context I will do it. The past couple of weeks though, it's been almost impossible. But I needed to get a podcast out and this is it.
2021-07-2311 minCrucial TechEpisode 4:13 - Search for the Holy Grail in Security: Penetration Testing with Ronin-PentestThis episode of Crucial Tech is the beginning of a search for Holy Grail of cybersecurity: Products and services that actually make us safer without breaking the budget. There is no one company that delivers everything, but we found one that provides the crucial service of penetration testing that can give a small business a starting point for securing their data with both automated tools and enhanced with professional services cost below $100. Ronin Pentest offers an automated, web-based tool that can be used by anyone to go through the top 10 vulnerabilities as listed by the Open Web Application Security...
2021-07-0124 minCrucial TechEp. 4-12: To pay the ransom or not to pay? That is one of the questionsFor a journalist to decide what to cover and when takes some discussion and this week we decided to do our editorial meeting in a public setting so you can see how we pick what to report. In this episode, Joe Basques, Patrick Boch and Lou Covey look at the changing paradigm of Ransomware, the ethics of paying ransoms, Webscraping, Amazon Sidewalk and the state of security jobs.
2021-06-2531 minCrucial TechEpisode 4:11 - That time when the business world got serious about cybercrimeCybercrime has been with us for a while, but the business world saw it as a minor annoyance. Luckily, the criminal world kept the cost low, requiring small ransom amounts and cash cards as a delivery mechanism. #Cryptocurrency kicked the demands up because it was easier to demand more money and easier to hide the money trail. Big ransomware demands hit the news and infrastructure was threatened. But in 2020 and 2021, law enforcement figured out some ways to track those criminals down. Extraditions began and ransoms were recovered. The gloves are coming off and CEOs find themselves squarely in the...
2021-06-1421 minCrucial TechSpecial episode: Revital Libfrand of OdiX on tech opportunities for womenThis week the WomenTech Global Conference ( #WTGC2021 ) is happening on the web and we thought it would be a good idea to interview a leader in the security industry, Revital Libfran of OdiX about her career and opportunities in #cybersecurity. Plus it gives us a chance to plug this great conference. Sign up at www.womentech.net and learn more.
2021-06-0817 minCrucial TechEpisode 4:10--Truth in marketing: It doesn't have to be that hardAfter several decades working in and with marketing professionals we've learned a couple of things about how marketing is done. One of the more important lessons is that marketers make their jobs much harder than it needs to be. And maybe one of the worst offenders is in the world of #cybersecurity. Patrick Boch, my cofounder of Cyber Protection Magazine, share some of our frustrations insights on how companies can promote their products and services more effectively. It really isn't that hard.
2021-06-0424 minCrucial TechEpisode 4:9--Hacking is not spoofing, plus a case studyI had two conversations this week about spoofing attempts that turned into educational moments. There will be more to learn at Cyberprotection-magazine.com but this revealed a lot.
2021-05-0829 minCrucial TechEpisode 4:8 -- How I learned to fear my computer and ignore the bombThe potential of nuclear warfare is being eclipsed by the potential of cyber warfare as the ender of civilization, so I guess their is that upside. No, seriously, it's becoming apparent to rogue nations that cyber warfare is more effective, cheaper and has less chance for retaliation than a nuclear strike. We talk to cyber warfare experience Pano Yannakogeorgos from New York University about the potential devastation from cyber attack. A more in depth article on the subject is coming next week on Cyberprotection Magazine
2021-05-0524 minCrucial TechEp. 4:7 -- The massive upside of Apple's transparent tracking featureWhen you peel back all the layers, digital marketing and consumer tracking on social media apps presents the most significant security flaw in our digital world. Apple's giving individual IoS users control over that decision is a big step forward into making us all safer. It also removes a lot of the hype and fraud that comes from unrestricted tracking. Joe Basques and Lou Covey answer a user question about the significance of the new feature.
2021-04-3020 minCrucial TechEp. 4:6 -- It's Earth Day. Are your batteries exploding?Lithium-ion batteries are in almost all electronics, all electric vehicles and are expanding through the power grids worldwide to store energy during system outages. They are crucial to continued operation of “green” data centers. When you talk about renewable energy, you have to talk about where lithium-ion batteries fit in the discussion.
That’s not necessarily a good thing.
Lithium-ion technology is fraught with social, environmental, and security downsides. Forced child labor, the lack of effective recyclability, potential poisonous fires and explosions and complex, imminently hackable control systems are all aspects of the industry that just w...
2021-04-2229 minCrucial TechEpisode 4.5 -- Supply chain headaches abound along with potential fixesThis interview with Warren Savage, guest researcher t the University of Maryland in IoT security is a follow up to an interview I did with him last year at the @DesignCon conference in Santa Clara. In the interview and his keynote at the show, he talked about how vulnerable the electronics supply chain was. A year later we are stuck in a semiconductor supply chain slowdown and one of the reasons is the inability to secure it. Things haven't gotten much better but Savage sees progress. This is part two of a series on supply chain.
2021-04-0818 minCrucial TechEpisode 4.4: The year we became painfully aware of the supply chain2021 is quickly becoming the year we realize that supply chains are what make the developed world. SolarWinds, the Suez Canal, the worldwide semiconductor shortage, and the “snowpocalypse” in Texas has shown us that one glitch can wipe out our standard of living for weeks, months and years. With that in mind we start a series of podcasts and articles in cyberprotection-magazine.com on the supply chain, with special focus on semiconductor security. Stay until the end. You will learn something and get pissed off.
2021-03-3128 minCrucial TechEpisode 4.3 -- Boring technology can be the most important to understand.We talk to Harry Haramis, GM of Prime Key, about public key infrastructure (PKI) and certificate authority (CA), which may be the most boring technologies you come in contact with, but are foundational to keeping you secure on the internet and even in your car. The problem is that few companies will let you know what they are doing about managing those things and if it is done badly, you are screwed. Time to start tasing questions.
2021-03-2917 minCrucial TechEpisode 4.2 -- Cyber insurance may be a good idea... or notWe started looking into insurance coverage for cyber attacks a few weeks ago and contacted analyst Maxine Holt of Omdium about it. And then more questions came after the talk. So this episode is a part of additional coverage you will see in Cyber Protection Magazine and additional podcasts. It's the complex, but we are going to try to make it understandable.
2021-03-1017 minCrucial TechEpisode 4.1 -- CDR: another security acronymn that you need in your arsenalSecuring an organization's data isn't easy, or cheap, but relatively tiny section of the cyber-protection industry, known as content disarm and reconstruction (CDR) might be a solid beginning. If only they would spend enough on marketing to build awareness. We open the fourth season on Crucial tech with Taeil Goh, CTO of OPSWAT, about his companies threat detection and removal technology and why he ain't rich yet. Read the full story of Cyber Protection Magazine
2021-03-0323 minCrucial TechEpisode 3:20 The launch of Cyber Protection MagazineSeason 3 concludes with Joe Basques interviews Lou Covey and Patrick Boch, co-editors of the recently launched Cyber Protection Magazine (www.cyberprotection-magazine.com), an international joint project between the Footwasher Media in the US and Fabogi in Germany. The new publication will focus on practical implementation of cybersecurity for businessmen and the non-technical among us.
2021-02-2320 minCrucial TechEpisode 3:19 -- California small business grant program is a security nightmareIf you are a small business hoping for a grant from California to stay alive during the COVID-19 lockdown, you need to listen to this podcast. The state has chosen to work with third-party financial institutions to transfer the funds to banks, but those organizations are asking applicants to violate basic good practices for maintaining security. Moreover, some business banks have internal security mechanisms that prevent the connections being made between the state and the banks. You can do this safely, but you need to take precautions. We give your those precautions in this podcast.
2021-01-2924 minCrucial TechEpisode 3:18 --Stupid stuff in techThere is important stuff in tech, and then there is stupid stuff. And lately the stupid stuff has been a bit more interesting. We take a look at four or the more interesting stupid stories.
2021-01-2022 minCrucial TechEpisode 3:17 The hackers won't let you go. Time to go after themFor about 10 years the conventional wisdom about #ransomware was to just pay it and start improving your security. According to John Flory III, CISO for Harbor Networks, that just doesn’t work anymore. In our interview with Flory he explains why it is absolutely necessary to go on offense now and hunt the hackers down. He gives us a preview of a case he worked on with international law enforcement that resulted in the arrest, extradition and prosecution of a ransomware ring. We will hear more from Flory in the coming weeks but his recommendations can bear fruit as ha...
2021-01-1142 minCrucial TechEpisode 3:16 Human error can still defeat any cyber security technologyAs soon as the SolarWinds breach hit the news, press releases started pouring out of the cyber security industry with claims that their products or services would have prevented the breach, but talking to people in the trenches, that is a dangerous claim to believe. The truth is, human error and intention can defeat any security protocol or technology. We talked to Matthew Rosenquist and Steve Hanna about the only way to deal with security: vigilance.
2021-01-0428 minCrucial TechEpisode 3:15-- 2021 is looking good for controlling disinformationWe were going to do this after the first, but the queue is getting long with 2021 interviews and articles for Cybersecurity-Magazine.com so here's our Christmas gift to you.
Legislation, litigation, public opinion and technology are combining in 2021 to put the breaks on #disinformation and #Trumpism next year and the foreseeable future. It looks bad for social media but good for print journalism. That makes this a happy Christmas as fare as we are concerned.
Thanks for the support this year. We've grown 400 percent in listenership a engagement. Looking for great things in the coming year.
2020-12-2331 minCrucial TechEpisode 3:14 -- A steaming crock of corporate awards programsBefore we get into be thankful of stuff on Thursday we need to get one thing off of our chest, namely the wasteful use of time and money spent on corporate awards programs that are nothing more than a naked attempt to build valuable mailing lists and take money from startups that they can't afford or leave them vulnerable to a corporate raider. And there are no more blatant efforts than the Red Herring 100.
2020-11-2418 minCrucial TechEpisode 3:13 --The catch 22 about hydrogen economy: It needs fossil fuelPresident-elect Joe Biden has been catching flack for stating that we will transition out of fossil fuel in favor of green energy, but that has less to do with government regulation and more to do with market forces. And in the case of hydrogen, we cannot decouple that clean energy from fossil fuel extraction. We look at this in a short podcast because it is that simple.
2020-11-1316 minCrucial TechEpisode 3:12 -- What's wrong with Journalism today? Part 3In part three of this series, we take a look at the debate over Section 230 in Title II of the Federal Communications Act that is targeting social media political bias and discuss why it is a misdirected controversy, and how it might restore the fortunes of and trust in #MSM. We will conclude the series with a couple of tools to help you create your own mental filter on what you see online.
2020-11-0526 minCrucial TechEpisode 3:11 -- What's wrong with journalism? Look in a mirrorIn part two of our miniseries on journalism in a digital world, we take a look at the causes of bias in the press. Some of that is legitimate, but a lot of it is just personal perception and crowd think. The bias most of us see is actually a mirror image of our own. We talk about some of the ways you can combat bias but we admit it may be beyond one's desire to seek balanced news. THERE WILL BE A PART THREE! In the meantime, consider becoming a sponsor so I can get rid of the a...
2020-10-2322 minCrucial TechEpisode 3.10--What's wrong with Journalism?It is popular to say you don't trust the news media. Some of that distrust is valid, but few people can actually identify why. Joe Basques and I decided to do a deep dive into the subject in this episode... that went so long we had to make it a multiparter. There may even be a part 3. In this day and time we need all the help we can get to find the truth and randomly cutting off reliable sources of information is self-defeating.
2020-10-2127 minCrucial TechWhat's wrong with Journalism today?Next week, on Crucial Tech, more about journalism and digital content than you've ever known.
2020-10-1501 minCrucial TechEp.3.9--Airgap.io: the Holy grail of ubiquitous digital security?I have talked to a lot of companies developing digital security devices and systems. Virus scans catch about 50 percent of the attacks at best but don't stop them from happening. Network equipment and software services are way too expensive and do very little to protect against people doing stupid things behind the firewall. It has really seemed hopeless for a while and very frustrating.
Then I ran across Airgap.io. Holy crap. Is this what I've been searching for? It's affordable, scalable from a home network to a #Fortune100 company, and it stops ransomware from spreading throughout all...
2020-10-0223 minCrucial TechEpisode 3.8--A piece of living history explains 5G without hypeBob Frankston is an e engineer whose work has arguable been more responsible for how most people interact with the internet. You probably have never heard of him... but I have. After following Bob Frankston's IEEE column off and on since 2013 we were thrown together earlier this year on social media and was absolutely star struck when he agreed to this interview about 5G networks. As I suspected, 5G is more about marketing than technology, but it is also about getting around net neutrality. Listen and learn.
2020-09-2330 minCrucial TechEp. 3.7 - Sometimes, a digital breach just isn't your faultEven the most security-conscious people and organizations get hacked, so it's not always something you can stop. We go back to talk with #Sectigo's VP of IoT security, Alan Grau to talk about how a security training from got hacked through a common phishing scam, how deep the flaws in our technology are and finally, how Sectigo is helping companies make secure technology.
2020-09-1728 minCrucial TechEpisode 3.6: Phishing is on the rise and it threatens the 2020 Election in the USBetween January 1 and August 23, The number of phishing sites detected by Google rose by more than 200,000 to 1,892,980. Three years ago there were less than 560,000.
“When you get that all too familiar barrage of spam emails, social engineers are betting that if you’re a MAGA supporter who received spoofed emails pitching progressive candidates or causes, you’ll click unsubscribe about as fast as a progressive will if they’re on the receiving end of a MAGA blast,” says Adam Levin, founder of Cyberscout. Levin explained that the emails are rigged to download malware, ransomware, or access your accounts whe...
2020-09-0326 minCrucial TechUPDATE!!!!! SOCIAL MEDIA ADVERTISING IS IN BIG TROUBLEWe have a few episodes this month talking about drastic changes in advertising and marketing and until this week, it looked like everything was under control... until Facebook admitted this week that the changes are going to severely hamper their ability to send those creepy targeted advertising posts your way. And that's going to affect their revenues.
2020-08-2908 minCrucial TechEp. 3-4: Wanna Cookie? You have more control over what companies do with your data then you thinkYou have probably seen notifications during web searches the tell you that the website you are visiting will use “cookies” to “give you a better search experience.” or some sort of nonsense, and you click “OK” just to get on with it. You might know what cookies are, other than a delicious snack, but most people don’t. In this episode, we are going to tell you what they are, how they work, and why you should pay more attention to them. We also interview Content marketing specialist Adam Helweh of Secret Sushi regarding how the digital marketing industry is adapting to th...
2020-08-2530 minCrucial TechEp. 3-3 Quantum computing is a security nightmare, but making it safe is a priority for SectigoYou may have heard of quantum computers. You may actually think they are mostly hype. They are. We won't see them come into real use for a decade. In the meantime, people are freaking out over how they can be used to makes us all less safe. The good news is some companies, like Sectigo, are working on ways to make sure we are all safe when they actually become a reality. So grab a coffee and listen to our take on quantum computer security.
2020-08-1824 minCrucial TechEp. 2:23 Using technology to stop a pandemicWe have the means and ability to take this pandemic down to nothing, but we all need to cooperate, be smart about it, and be ready to give up things that don't really exist, like #privacy. #Contact_tracing needs the cooperation of companies like #Google and #Apple even if it means they let us know exactly how much data they are collecting on us. Let's face reality and get out of this alive
2020-08-1820 minCrucial TechEpisode 3.2: BlackHat wrap up on how foreign elections are being hacked Part 2In our last episode we reported on presentations at BlackHat USA 2020 about election interference. In this second part, we look specifically at the Russian and Chinese approaches to disinformation campaigns and how it is less technology hacking and more about strategic use of social media.
2020-08-1428 minCrucial TechHow hostile states are hacking elections, Part 1Our first re-run of the season is going back to our report on election hacking, a two-parter, that doesn't dwell on the technology of elections as much as how they can be influenced. For several years we have heard about how technologically vulnerable our elections systems are, but it turns out that physically hacking a system is a lot harder and yields insignificant fruit in national elections. It is much easier to sway voters with disinformation.
2020-08-1325 minCrucial TechCookies, Black Hat Conference and the coming third seasonAre you concerned about how social media seems to know exactly what you are thinking about? Are you’re that they are listening to you and your friends on mobile devices? Well, they don’t and they aren’t. You’ve been freely telling them what your concerns are and what you want to buy. But all that may be coming to an end. Find out how in the next episode of Crucial Tech.
2020-07-2402 minCrucial TechEpisode 2:29 - Recap on AI and facial recognition, and an updateWe thought we would be able to wrap up the last three episodes featuring Tim Bajarin and Matthew Rosenquist, but then life happened and more AI disasters occurred. This is yet another launching point for our coverage of surveillance technology.
2020-07-1324 minCrucial TechEpisode 2:28 Matthew Rosenquist talks ethics, facial recognition and the potential benefits of AILast week, we had @TimBajarin give a fairly pessimistic view of the future of #AI and #facial recognition. This week we bring in the positives (sort of) with security and AI guru @MatthewRosenquist. This technology is probably inevitable but to make it a global issue we are going to either have to give up some freedom and privacy, or we are going to have to work hard to fix the deficiencies. either way, the combination of this and the last two episodes will make you well informed enough to be the expert in most conversations even if you aren't...
2020-07-0633 minCrucial TechEpisode 2:27 Tim Bajarin, ethics, facial recognition, AI, and how Apple is keeping us safeBy the time we finished last week's episode on security settings a lot happened. So I started making some calls to those who know what was going on. This week, we talk to the Analyst di tutti Analysts, Tim Bajarin of Creative Strategies about ethics, facial recognition and AI, why it's so hard to do any of that well, and how Apple's announcement of iOS 14 is so earth-shaking.
2020-06-3024 minCrucial TechEpisode 20:26 How to keep Facebook secure, facial recognition technology, and so much moreMy business partner, Joe Basques called me up and started asking questions about #Facebook security, which morphed into #AI, which moved into #facial_recognition. So we decided to start from the beginning of the conversation and record it. You will find out some tricks about how you can make your Facebook experience safer, what Facebook can actually track even when you think you are secure, and what the future holds for you in a corporate surveillance state.
However, the subject got even more interesting in the days following our talk so this becomes part one of a...
2020-06-2428 minCrucial TechEpisode 2:25 Ethical technology development is not easy but has become crucialI'm deep into writing a book with Richard Bach, a security guru from the UK, on the ethical development of #AI technology and have found that there are really not a lot of books offering practical guidelines for ethical thought in engineering. There are lots of books about why it's important and about ethical lapses, so maybe it's time for an Ethics for Dummies (Boy, am I qualified). In my research, I came across Jamais Cascio, a general futurist who does a lot of work with the Institute for the Future (www.iftf.org, @iftf) and who has a...
2020-06-1228 minCrucial TechEp. 2:24 A follow up on contact tracing and putting my money where my mouth isLast week I talked about the importance of tracking apps to help do contact tracing for the #Coronavirus epidemic and after I did that podcast I signed up for a study to get tested myself and I signed up for one of the apps (I chose one from Johns Hopkins University.) You can also see this podcast on Youtube so you can see what I am using and how I set it up. I am a big believer in controlling what you allow to go out on the internet but I'm also a big believer in being a responsible...
2020-05-2714 minCrucial TechEp. 2:22 We told you so, Part 2: venture capital and entertainment changesIn the last episode, we looked at changes in how tech media and businesses are changing during the #COVID19 #pandemic and how @FootwasherMedia has been predicting these changes for decades. We've also had our thoughts about entertainment and #venturecapital are going to change, but we kept that to ourselves because we aren't entertainers nor are we investors. But we do know some people who are and in this interview with Fabrizio Capobianco of @MinervaNetworks we take a look at how the current crisis is changing that, as well.
2020-05-0417 minCrucial TechEp. 2:21 Hey, we told you so, Part 1Joe Basques and I have been working in the tech world and media for several decades. We have often warned clients of what was to come and that they should be ready for it and almost universally we have been ignored or ridiculed. The funny thing is within 3-5 years things we warned of have come true, like the slow death of tech media and the rise of social media to replace it. Each time companies have raced and struggled to adapt. the #COVID19 #pandemic has rushed even more of our predictions to the forefront, including #videoconferencing, #telemedicine, and...
2020-05-0126 minCrucial TechEp. 2:20 Trusted Computing Group: You've never heard of them but their work is keeping us safe onlineIn this episode, we talk to Steve Hanna from the Trusted Computing Group (@TrustedComputin) to talk about the organization's work in making computing secure. You probably haven't heard of them, but their standards form much of the #security basis for the #IoT. Steve is VERY accomplished and a very nice guy. In fact, it was kinda like talking to Mr. Rogers about technology so it was knowledgeable and comforting all at the same time.
Remember, if you'd like to leave a comment, listen to this podcast at Anchor.fm and record your question or comment in the...
2020-04-1323 minCrucial TechEpisode 2:19 What the hell are certificates and why you should care.When searching the web, do you ever get a request to renew or accept a certificate? Yeah, you have but you probably had no idea what it was about. It's kind of important, it should be more widespread and there are a few companies involved in the process. One of them is @Keyfactor. They would like to be more widespread, I can assure you. Listen in and maybe you can push your providers to look into them. #security #authenticatiion
2020-04-0329 minCrucial TechEpisode 2:18 Digital corporations are selling your data to foreign governmentsI hope that headling caught your attention. It should. We hear a lot about how the US government is watching us, but the information that Edward Snowden said was being collected on us pails in comparison to what Google, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft are allowing other corporations and foreign governments to collect from us. And those companies are getting paid to allow them that access even if they aren't saving and sharing that data for themselves. What's more, there is little you can do to stop it except for eliminated digital devices from your life. But there are things...
2020-03-1838 minCrucial TechEpisode 2:17 Fingerprints? Probably not.This week I found opt that is it probably less likely that the government is watching you than Amazon is. More importantly, to law enforcement you may not exist at all. Check out how tech firms are helping the good guys catch the bad guys.
2020-03-1529 minCrucial TechEpisode 2:16 The coming death of Amazon?The title is a bit melodramatic but history shows us that nothing devised by man lasts forever and, thanks to state, national and international laws as well as new technology, the hegemony of Amazon, Facebook, Ebay and Google over retail may be coming to an end. We talk to the CEO www.maikeinc.com and look at the increasingly hostile environment facing online behemoths.
2020-02-1221 minCrucial TechEpisode 2:15 - The vulnerability of the internet of thingsThe Internet of Things (IoT) is growing faster than the original internet. Cisco Systems predicts that internet-connected devices will represent 75 percent of all the internet traffic in less than 10 years, and Gartner predicts that there will be five times more IoT devices in use than there are people on the planet. But more than 90 percent of all those devices are easily hackable and will remain so for the foreseeable future. There are some companies working hard to fix the problem but until manufacturers decide to start designing for security, it's going to be a long road, indeed.
2020-02-0354 minCrucial TechEp. 2.14 - GDPR and CCPA are changing social media for the betterYou've probably heard of the data privacy laws in the EU and California but you might not know what they do for you. A lot. We talk to an international expert, Patrick O'Keeffe on the subject of privacy and regulation, You need to meet this guy. He's the real deal.
2020-01-2431 minCrucial TechEp. 2:13 - The rise of private social networksIt has been a bad couple of years for Facebook and it isn't getting easier. This week, we look at social networks that do not have advertising and don't sell your information to anyone. In fact, they don't even collect it. Both ways that all social media platforms have traditionally made their money. We talk to David Glassco, CEO of one of those networks, Neone (nay o nay) and their pay-for -play paradigm. Will it work? Only you have that answer.
2020-01-1737 minCrucial TechEp. 2:12 Cryptocurrency is vague, possibly corrupt ... and inevitableHappy New Year and welcome back after the holiday break. This season on Crucial Tech we will be looking at changes in social media, consumer privacy laws, new security challenges for the common man and more, but today we kick-off the first in a random series on cryptocurrency and blockchain technology with two friends, Joe Basques and Matthew Rosenquist. As always, donations will help us eliminate advertising and you can make audio comments on the Anchor.fm platform that could make you a star on a future episode
2020-01-1043 minCrucial TechBuckle up for 2020, it's gonna be a bumpy rideAfter two months of holiday partying, travel, illness and unavailable interviewees I'm ready to kick off the new year with a big portfolio. We'll be looking at Cryptocurrency, social media, renewable energy, security, threats to the 2020 election, Russia, private social media and a bun ch more. Here's a short preview. And check out my book, The Stupid Side of Renewables now available on Amazon. You can leave a message here.
2019-12-2707 minCrucial TechCryptocurrency, Mysterious Market forces and BSI'm starting to to do something I have long dreaded: start talking about cryptocurrency. We introduce the concept and the problem about talking about it in the opening and then we get into something that explains why companies are moving to automation... and it is more than just greed. I'd like to hear from you about this episode. you can leave a message here.
2019-11-1824 minCrucial TechBringing Finnish education tech to the USI had a chance to interview a handful of Finnish tech start-ups at the 2019 TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco and was m,ore then pleasantly surprised by what I heard. There are many reports about how Finnish publlc education is exceptional but exporting all the techniques are difficult for a variety of reasons. The technology I saw changes that.
You m ight want to be ready to turn up the sound in a couple of the interviews, because the Finns are often softspoken and there was a lot of background noise and electronic interference in Moscone Hall...
2019-10-2828 minCrucial TechWhere did we go wrong on Autonomous Vehicles? Part 4, finaleJosel L:orenzo, VP of product development for Axiado and an AI guru talks about the different levels of autonomous vehicles and whether humans can have any actual presence in controlling them. This is the last of 4 parts
2019-10-1821 minCrucial TechWhere did we go wrong on autonomous vehicles, part 3We went to San Jose to talk to Chet Babbla, vice president for automotive technology for Arm Ltd., about a new consortium focused on autonomous vehicles. Cooperation in a multi-faceted and challenging technology like autonomous vehicles is a good idea. But in this case, do we have enough knowledge about the components needed to make a dent?
2019-10-1116 minCrucial TechWhere did we go wrong on autonomous vehicles?: Part 2Besides the difficulty in getting the technology to work, we still have a significant problem in making autonomous vehicle safe from hackers. We talk with Matthew Rosenquist, cybersecurity guru.
2019-10-0423 minCrucial TechWhere did we go wrong on autonomous vehicles, part 1We're starting this three part series with Rik turner, principal analyst at Ovum, a british analysis firm, to get a history of how long vehicle automation has been with us, where it is today and how far we have to go before we have what we think is just on the horizon.
2019-09-2727 minCrucial TechPreview: Where did we go wrong with autonomous vehiclesFriday, September 27 we will start a three-part series on the state of autonomous vehicles. Tune in and find out the 411
2019-09-2600 minCrucial TechSpecial episode: Catfishing and what to do about itCatfishing is the biggest scam on the internet. It is not easy to get out of it once you fall into the trap and it is very embarrasing, but it can be done with a minimum of effort, some patience and honest self-reflection., But avoiding it is very easy. Thism episode is brought to you without commercial interruption. So chip in at https://anchor.fm/crucialtech.
2019-09-2024 minCrucial TechCatphishing and what you can do about itIt’s the biggest problem on the internet and it affects 1 in 7 people. Find out how you can defend yourself
2019-09-1700 minCrucial TechWhy is Scandanavia the most secure place in the world?We are starting season two of Crucial Tech with a look at security-conscious culture. A few months ago I met Jarno Limnell (@jarnolim), CEO of Tosibox (https://www.tosibox.com) to talk about cyber security . This seemed like a good time to trot out the interview considering the increasing occurrence of cyber attacks around the world. So why is Scandanavia, and Finland in particular so secure. You might be surprised that it isn't just technology.
2019-09-1319 minCrucial TechEpisode 19: What banks are doing... and not doing to protect your fundsThis week we talked with Ugan Naidoo who, besides having a pretty neat name, is the CTO of Inetco, a Vancouver, BC company that monitors financial transactions for banks and large retailers worldwide. This is a pretty technical discussion, but once you hear it, you will understand how not paying attention to this ussue is costing you and everyone else, money.
2019-08-2327 minCrucial TechCryptojacking: It's a thingHackers can appropriate you computer system to make money on cryptocurrency without you knowing it's happening. It's annoying but not bad for individuals like you and me. For big corporations and governments it can be lethal.
2019-08-1612 minCrucial TechBill and Lou's excellent adventure in Linux and IoT securityI wrote a column in EEWeb.com a few weeks ago talking about the security issues developing in open source software, Linux in particular. And old friend popped up in the discussion. Meet Bill Weiberg. We will probably be hearing more from him in the future/
2019-07-1616 minCrucial TechCertificates? We don't got to show you any stinkin' certificates!In this episode we learn about certificates, securing Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), botnets, DDOS, secure boot... It's jam packed. We interview Alan Grau, CTO of the Icon Labs division of Sectigo.
Thanks to the late, great Alfonso Bedoya for the headline
2019-07-1232 minCrucial TechEp. 1-15 Dishonest telemarketing, Consumer privacy laws and a way to deal with them effectivelyI've been aware of a marketing technology for sometime and have been thinking about doing a podcast on them, but recent issues in the European Union over the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) and similar legislation in a dozen states in the US made it crucial to all of us now. Businesses rely on telemarketing to deliver "qualified leads" to them. But they don't actually work as claimed. This technology could make telemarketers obsolete and end the annoying calls without regulation.
2019-06-2816 minCrucial TechThe standard you never heard of: GlobalPlatforms... and moreThis episode is packed into 40 minutes with news of the week, an interview with the director of Global Platforms and much more. This is stuff you need to know.
2019-06-2140 minCrucial TechDon't trust a company to keep you safeThis is an interview I did a few months ago with Matt Rosequist, former senior security analyst for Intel. It's a wide ranging interview that cov ers a lot of issues you may not be aware is affecting you.
2019-06-1224 min
Crucial TechSquirrels are the greatest threat to the internet and the power gridYes, you read that right. The biggest threat to our infrastructure are cute, furry rodents. We interview the CEO of Critter Guard who is saving the world one pole at a time.
2019-05-0929 minCrucial TechEthics in tech: It is a thingGovernment hearings are all the rage now for tech CEOs trying to justify massive breaches in privacy, security and basic trust within their markets. The discussion on how to make sure development of new tech, especially in artificial intelligence is bubbly to the surface. Maija-Riita Ollilie, an ethics scholar in Finland, was our guest this week with a view on how ethics will develop naturally with adoption of technology.
2019-05-0319 minCrucial TechA good path for STEM careers for womenA few weeks ago I met Lisa Jiggetts, founder and president of the Women's Society of Cyberjutsu, dedicated to helping young women start careers in cyber security. A fascinating and important effort. Check out the website at https://womenscyberjutsu.org.
2019-04-2518 minCrucial TechThe Arrest of Assange: What is it all about?Julian Assange was arrested last week in London. Some call it the death of free journalism, but it might be something else. And what it reveals about your personal security is probably more important.
2019-04-1509 minCrucial TechA special edition of Crucial Tech: the arrest of AssangeWhile you won’t get into the guilt or innocence of the man, what he is accused of is important to understand. So stay tuned.
2019-04-1201 minCrucial TechCyber predictions from Forresters are scaryA few weeks ago I interviewed Forresters senior analyst Amy DeMartine about her predictions for cyber security in 2019. Now that I have a chance to publish it, two of those predictions have already come true and it is just mid April. And the reasons for the growth of cybercrime are sitting in out pockets.
2019-04-1224 minCrucial TechThe Green New Deal isn't as bad... or as good as you have heardThe Green New Deal in Congress is going to be debated for at least two years and I thought it was worth tying in a tech angle to the debate. We interview Evan Johnson, CTO of Hytech Power in Redmond, Washington about how his technology can actually make this happen with a minimum of fuss and a maximum of results.
BTW, If you listen to this podcast on Anchor.fm, you can leave messages, ask questions and make recommendations for inclusion in future episodes. Otherwise you can contact me on the Footwasher Media Facebook page, on my...
2019-04-0531 minCrucial TechArtificial Intelligence: Good or Bad?Artificial intelligence (AI) is a major theme in technology news, investment and science fiction and the conventional wisdom is that it can be very dangerous. Is that true? Maybe not. In this episode we talk to Axel Kloth, CTO of Axiado Corporation, about the potential dangers of AI and the potential benefits.
2019-03-2922 minCrucial TechApplying artificial intelligence in hardware for securityIt's been a busy week with ransomware at the top of the list. How can we stop it? Maybe with artificial intelligence (AI) applied directly to hardware. We are back with Axiado's CEO Ashok Babbar for the second in three episodes about AI
2019-03-2218 minCrucial TechCreating decoys to catch and stop hackersDr. Prasad Calyam at the University of Missouri is working with a team of researchers to create a novel way of stopping hackers from staling data or installing malware in cloud-based systems.
2019-03-1516 minCrucial TechWill hardware companies survive digital protection legislationThe European Unions General Data Protection Regulations and the California Consumer Protection Act do not apply to the hardware manufacturers that suppy equipment to the companies that collect and store our personal data...yet. Eventually someone is going to figure out that our data is vulnberable in the hardware and will want to sue the hardware companies. We talked to Axiado Corporation CEO Ashok Babbar about how difficult it is to secure data on current hardware, and what we have to do to secure it.
2019-03-1013 minCrucial TechThe big hole in the cloudThe last week of February was a bad one for digital security and we thought it would be a good time to start this podcast, focusing on the biggest news of the weeK: The Cloudborne vulnerability in cloud servers... all of them.
2019-03-0827 min