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Crucial Tech

Unraveling the technology that affects us all but that few of us understand, in a format to give you a basic understanding in the time it takes to drive to and from the grocery store.

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All Episodes

00:21:19

Episode 10.19 - The "key" to security could be in...

Crucial Tech ·

2025/05/15

Physical authentication keys are a common trope in movies, TV and spy thrillers and they have been around for almost 20 years. But they are still hard to find in real life. We talked with Alex Summerer, head of authentication for Swissbit, which is a relatively new player in the field, headquartered in ...of course, Switzerland. Frankly, after talking with him I'm wondering why I haven't bought one of these things.

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00:14:04

Episode 10.18 - Battle of the bots: stealing student aid

Crucial Tech ·

2025/05/09

Still digging through dozens of hours of recordings and pages of notes from #RSAC_Conference last week. But while looking into the issue of bots, both good and bad, discovered a fairly recent story about how scammers use bots to steal financial ait. And as I always say, if I don't know about something, I know someone who does. So I called up an old friend, Craig Mosher, who teaches history and political science about what he has experienced with fake students and how to deal with them.

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00:24:26

Episode 10.17 - Bruce Schneier gives a stunning...

Crucial Tech ·

2025/05/03

This was another exhausting #RSAC in San Francisco but I think I'm finally getting a handle on it. There will be more to come, but Bruce Schneier gave a keynote on Tuesday that I think bodes well for journalism.And we had a visit with our friend at Safety National Insurance, Spencer Timmel, about just how far insurance can cover cybersecurity wweaknesses.

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00:11:53

Episode 10.16 - RSAC preview, Government doing good...

Crucial Tech ·

2025/04/25

This is a short episode previewing what I'll be doing at RSAC 2025 next week, kudos to the California Franchise Tax Board, and a how-to on working with the press.

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00:18:56

Episode 10.15 - Divorce the orange git!

Crucial Tech ·

2025/04/16

There comes a moment in many abusive relationships, when observant friends encourage the abused party to leave the abuser.I consider myself a friend of the cybersecurity industry, aside from its bad marketing practices, I see it as important to the well-being of society worldwide. And that’s why I say now, it’s time to leave the federal government, at least for the next two years.The actions persecuting Chris Krebs and SentinelOne for merely for doing their jobs without political bias, demonstrate

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00:28:26

Episode 10.14 - Encryption, Insurance and why you...

Crucial Tech ·

2025/04/10

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 encrypted and that knowledge has a direct bearing on how much cybersecurity insurance might cost. So we

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00:26:42

Episode 10.13 - The AI bubble and how it affects...

Crucial Tech ·

2025/04/05

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 CEO Danny Jenkins and Reality Defender CEO Ben Colman about what is and isn't real regarding the

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00:18:25

Episode 10.12 - Encryption is all around us, until it...

Crucial Tech ·

2025/03/28

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 should be secured, isn’t because users don’t know they have to turn it on For example, WhatsApp, the

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00:28:54

Episode 10.11 - The problem with surveys

Crucial Tech ·

2025/03/24

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 February, which was actually pretty good. Then I did one a couple of weeks ago about a less-than-good

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00:22:27

Episode 10.10 - The X DDoS attack was avoidable, and...

Crucial Tech ·

2025/03/14

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. We talked with Inversion6 CISO Ian Thornton-Trump about how the attack was allowed to happen and what

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00:23:30

Episode 10.9 - How bad marketing obscures the...

Crucial Tech ·

2025/03/07

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, which is to ensure the veracity of biometric identity, but it is a good example of how cybersecurity

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00:27:50

Episode 10.7 - Bob Ackerman, Generative AI, and...

Crucial Tech ·

2025/02/21

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 Bob because he sees the nuts and bolts of tech advancements and isn’t the kind of investor to get swayed

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00:23:28

Episode 10.6 - DORA, Insurance and the state of...

Crucial Tech ·

2025/02/13

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 January, is a good example of the former, and the insurance industry is a good example of the latter.We talk

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00:21:00

Episode 10.7 - Phishing on the rise, but there is hope

Crucial Tech ·

2025/02/07

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, we also report on how defensive technology from companies like DeepTempo and personal awareness can

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00:18:30

A reminder of where we come from

Crucial Tech ·

2025/02/04

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 when I became "woke." When I saw that book, I knew I had to buy it for my grandchildren,

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00:27:45

Episode 10.5 - Lawyers and insurance companies stand...

Crucial Tech ·

2025/01/31

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 and insurance companies, like our sponsor Safety National that are stepping up to remind companies

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00:11:35

Episode 10.4 - How moderation works (It ain't what...

Crucial Tech ·

2025/01/21

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.

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00:27:17

Episode 10.3 - James Bore on our fascination with...

Crucial Tech ·

2025/01/17

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 doubt to get people to buy their products. It drives us both nuts. The issue is not limited to

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00:25:12

Episode 10.2 - Bye bye, Zuck

Crucial Tech ·

2025/01/09

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 decision unanimous. We are leaving Meta behind for good. Instead, we will remain on Linkedin and join

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00:35:32

Episode 10.1 - China, oligarchs and tradewars with...

Crucial Tech ·

2025/01/02

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 systems and the need for proactive defense. Next we review the rise of corporate power and influence

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