Episodes

Equifax, one of the three major credit bureaus, was hacked - over 143 million U.S. accounts may have been leaked, making them much more vulnerable to identity theft and fraud. In this episode, I help you understand the potential impacts of this breach and give you several important actions you can take to protect yourself, including instituting a credit freeze on your account. Chris Romeo, CEO and Founder of Security Journey will help us understand the severity of this major news story and what ...

Do you have backup copies of all your family photos and home videos? What about your tax documents and other financial data? Maybe you have a collection of priceless family history information that you’ve painstakingly compiled over many years. Unless you’re keeping copies of those files in multiple places (including at least one place outside your home!), you’re flying without a net. You’re one minor or major disaster away from losing them forever. Luckily, there are several simple and cost-eff...

There are bills before Congress to use drones along our border for mass surveillance and provisions to capturing all manner of biometric data when you travel. How will that data be used and who will have access? We break it all down for you and tell you how to voice your opinions. India McKinney and Adam Schwartz from the EFF are with me this week to explain several ways that your privacy rights are under serious attack at the U.S. border. Your favorite PDF viewer is probably riddled with secur...

Jeffrey Ritter, author of “Achieving Digital Trust”, is back to help us understand the phenomenon of “fake news” and to explain why it’s not a new thing. We talk about how deception and misdirection have been around since the dawn of marketing and how we can train ourselves to navigate these treacherous waters in the Information Age. Google is claiming they can match your offline, real-world purchases with their online ad tracking and the US government is proposing legislation that might finall...

Chris Romeo regales us with tales of safe-cracking robots, demonic car washes, possessed Teslas, and hacking of voting machines! Where did this all happen? At the hacker conferences, of course! We’ll help you understand how hackers really think and what they really do every year in Las Vegas at the DEFCON and BlackHat conferences. Chris Romeo is CEO and co-founder of Security Journey. His passion is to bring security belt programs to all organizations, large and small. He was the Chief Security...

In this final segment, we address the classic conundrum: law enforcement believes that your servers hold key information that would prevent a devastating terror attack, but revealing the information may violate the privacy of the client, or even other unrelated people. What do you do? Ladar Levison answers that very question. Prior to the interview, I explain what "secure email" really means and what it entails - it’s not nearly as simple as it might seem. And time is running out to submit your ...

Ladar Levison is the CEO and Founder of Lavabit - a secure email service whose most famous customer was Edward Snowden. In part one of my two-part interview with Ladar, we discuss what happened when the FBI came knocking on his door, demanding access to his private security keys. Ladar shares some deep insights into the notion of privacy and intelligence gathering in this country, and how to strike the proper balance. I will also update you on the hot news from two top hacker conferences, inclu...

Is trust just an emotion or is it more than that? In this week’s episode, I speak at length with Jeffrey Ritter: a lawyer, diplomat, researcher and author of the book “Achieving Digital Trust”. We get to the heart of what it means to trust, how trust is gained and lost, and how living in the Information Age has had such a profound impact on all of the above. Jeffrey has some deep insights on how we can cope with the high rate of data and decision making inherent in this modern life - and shares ...

What could be more crucial to a democracy than a voting system we can trust? Today I speak with Barbara Simons, President of VerifiedVoting.org, on why so many of our US election systems are vulnerable to hacking without leaving a trace. The solutions to these issues are well known and straightforward, and yet we can’t seem to come together in a unified way to implement them. We’ll discuss why the current systems are so bad, what needs to be done, and tell you what you can do to help. I will al...

Passwords are the bane of our modern existence. Why the hell haven’t we figured out a better way to prove who we are? Today is the first in a series of educational shows that I’ve dubbed Castle Defense 101: Defending Your Digital Drawbridge. In our inaugural session, we’ll take a deep dive into the problem of passwords. What really makes a good password and how do I choose one? How can I possibly remember all these passwords? How often do I need to change my password? Why do we even need passwor...

Lawrence Abrams is the creator and CEO of Bleeping Computer, and he and I delve into the latest malware sweeping the globe called NotPetya (among other things). The supposed ransomware appears to be just plain mean, destroying all the data on your hard drive whether you pay the ransom or not. We’ll tell you what you need to know, including how to protect yourself and what to do if you think you might be infected. We talk about the usefulness of anti-virus software and give you the info you need ...

Are you ready for the next YouTube, Netflix or Hulu? Then you need to fight to save net neutrality. Today I discuss the threatened gutting of the hard-fought net neutrality rules with Ernesto Falcon from the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The new FCC chairman, Ajit Pai, is looking to undo the protections put into place that would allow the next Internet startup to compete on a level playing field. Internet Service Providers would like to put their massive thumbs on the digital scale, tipping th...

If you use public WiFi of any sort at the hotel, airport, or coffee shop (AND WHO DOESN'T), then you need to pay attention. A VPN could be a viable answer to protect your data and your devices. The other big challenge is your Internet Service Provider at home is probably capturing and selling your web browsing info - there is something you can do at home to protect yourself as well. Dave Peck helped to create one of the best Virtual Private Network products on the market, and today he and I wil...

The Internet of Things will soon include cars... what could possibly go wrong? If all the cars on the road could tell each other what they were doing, would that make us safer? Maybe. But if your car is constantly broadcasting this information, that would also make it trivial to track you everywhere you go. Worse yet, any time you put something on a network, it is immediately a target for hackers. Crashing a computer is one thing; crashing a car is quite different, but this is quickly becoming a...

Do you have a “smart” TV? Or an Internet-connected baby monitor? Then you are a part of the Internet of Things (IoT)! Welcome to the world of everyday devices being connected to the network, allowing you to change the temperature of your home while traveling, check up on your dogs from work, and have a Bluetooth speaker that can also fetch tomorrow’s weather forecast. While there are lots of great uses for these devices, their security (or lack thereof) is making many of us vulnerable to attack....

Summer is upon us and for many of us that means travel - but before you even pack your bags, you need to listen to this podcast! In my second interview with Michael Kaiser (the Executive Director of the National Cyber Security Alliance), we discuss all the cyber security and privacy issues you need to consider: before you go and while you’re traveling. Going abroad this summer? There are even more things you need to consider well before you leave! Also in this episode, I’ll tell you why Twitter...

The WannaCry virus hit over 200,000 computers in over 150 countries in a matter of days. While WannaCry spread quickly, it had some fatal flaws that prevented it from doing a lot more damage. However, these flaws will soon be fixed - Round 2 of this virus is already upon us. I speak with Michael Kaiser from the National Cyber Security Alliance to find the lessons we need to learn and what we need to do to protect ourselves from the next generations of this nasty malware. We also take a good look...

The WannaCry ransomware worm spread across the planet is a matter of hours, infecting over 200,000 computers in just a matter of hours - this included hospitals in the UK, phone service in Spain, and even a Russian ministry. The malware was stopped dead by one security researcher who basically got lucky. In today’s show, I will explain what WannaCry is and how to ensure that you are protected again this nasty bug and others just like it that will surely be coming. My guest today is security rese...

This week I’ll tell you why you should not be using Microsoft’s Edge Browser, how to find out if you were bitten by a very clever Google Docs phishing scheme, and why you can’t believe every voice you hear. Along the way, I’ll give you my recommendations on the best web browser to use as well as how to revoke permissions you may have granted to Twitter, Facebook and Google over the years that may be leaving your vulnerable. Finally, I’ll tell you how Intel finally found and fixed a flaw in their...

Would you write banking information, passwords, private conversation or any sensitive data on the back of a postcard? Sounds like a silly question perhaps - but this is the equivalency of writing private information in your public emails. Your emails are NOT secure. Today I'm going to help you understand the options available to you so you don't get caught with your drawbridge down! I have an insightful discussion with Dr Andy Yen, the CEO and Co-Founder of Protonmail. We discuss why regular em...

The Shadow Brokers have dumped a treasure trove of NSA secret hacking tools, proving that even the best secret-keepers in the country can’t always prevent info from leaking. Is it better for intelligence agencies to hoard software vulnerabilities for use against others, or to report those vulnerabilities so they can be fixed? I delve into this topic in detail, exploring the pros and cons. What if you could do one simple thing to protect your computer from most critical software bugs? It’s not o...

This week I talk with Chris Romeo on why humans are so horribly bad at picking good passwords and why this invariably makes you vulnerable to hacking. We discuss password managers and how to create the one and only password you should ever need. Along the way, we’ll explain things like two-factor authentication, how often you should be changing your passwords, and how to make sure your accounts can still be accessible if the worst happens. In the news this week, I’ll tell you about a nasty WiFi...

This week I discuss the stunning repeal of Internet privacy provisions with Ernesto Falcon from the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Congress narrowly passed a bill that would not only toss out the regulations that would have given consumers much-needed transparency and choice in how their web surfing data is collected and used, but also would effectively prevent any further regulations from being created. Mr Falcon explains how we got here, what this means for you (the consumer), and what we can...

What are your rights at the border? It depends on your immigration status, and even US citizens will not enjoy their usual Constitutional rights in this situation. This is an important topic that should not be overlooked. I have a insightful and revealing discussion with Adam Schwartz from the Electronic Frontier Foundation about the recent escalation in US border searches of electronic devices. We'll discuss what’s happening and how you can prepare for potential searches at the border, and why ...