Crucial Tech

Instances of LinkedIn users having their accounts hijacked are a familiar occurrence on social media. Reddit has multiple discussions about the nightmare of trying to restore access to this crucial business tool. So when a friend called me in a panic about having it happen to him, I knew it would be a great opportunity to test out the advice I give to others who have been hit.

It isn't easy. It requires patience. And you need all the help you can get from friends. But it can be done.

Most people don't think about accessibility when it comes to the internet. We think of ramps and braille signs and audiobooks. But physical and developmental issues are much more complex than being able to get into a restaurant, especially when it comes to security. I talked with Justin Merhoff, chief of security for Deque (pronounced Dee-cue) Systems in Virginia about the need to make software and digital systems usable for all people, not just most people. And there is an action item for all you in the audience. The National Institute for Science and Technology is working on the first draft of NIST SP 800-50, a standard for cybersecurity and privacy learning, but this draft contains virtually nothing related to people with physical and learning disabilities. If you or people you care about fit that category, now is your chance to give feedback for that standard≥ Go to the site and download the form for comments. Make your voice heard now.

As 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 active is the European Telecommunications Standard Institute (ETSI). Cyber Protection Magazine’s (CPM) editors Lou Covey and Patrick Boch sat down with Scott Cadzow, chair of ETSI’s Specification Group for Securing Artificial Intelligence about the progress and problems of standardizing safe GAI.

Most of the discussion about generative AI is either focused on how good or bad it is, without ever discussing that it is JUST a tool. We talked with Anurag Gurtu, chief product officer of StrikeReady, about how the technology can enhance, not replace human involvement.

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.

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.

#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.

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.

“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.

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. 

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.

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.

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. 

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.

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.

You've read the headlines about the stock market and the tech sector in particular. Self-proclaimed genius tech bros are hemorrhaging wealth, portfolios are crashing. But while the cybersecurity industry isn't completely unaffected, it is still attracting billions in new investment and private equity acquisitions. We talk to Brad LaPorte of Lionfish Advisors about why investments are falling in tech and why cyber is the new darling.

Want some good news about technology? Stay tuned

One of my favorite security gurus, Ian Thornton-Trump sent me a text recently about the top-five security failures in recent history that we have yet to learn from. So I decided to call him and ask what he meant. It's worth listening to.

I'm going to the RSA Conference in San Francisco this week, so I didn't do a full episode yet. This is a preview of what's to come so stay tuned.

The realities of cyberattacks are not going away. Based on what we know, we have no idea how big the problem is because a lot of individuals and organizations just don’t report attacks. Conservatively, Cyber Protection Magazine estimates that half of all the attacks are unreported. More knowledgeable people than us say it's more like 90 per cent. As we have reported in past podcasts, that is likely due to a combination of complacency and just not knowing what to do.

We talked to Emil Sayegh, CEO of Ntirety, a company that helps small to midsize organizations reach security compliance with best practices and new privacy legislation. Ntirety is one of dozens of similar companies that are doing quite well. Sayegh claims they have 2400 customers, which is impressive in and of itself. But 2400 customers is a long way from any one industry being protected. Even 240,000 would be a drop in the bucket. That doesn’t mean you have to be their customer, or a customer of any competitor to get started.

Sayegh outlined a five-point plan in our discussion. Grab a coffee and have a listen.