Podcast
Crucial Tech
Hosted by Lou Covey · EN
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.
23episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
Episode 11.12 - Escape Meta's hellscape
6d ago00:19:42Tap to summarizeMeta is like Hotel California. You can enter but you can't leave.That's the story I hear over and over. It isn't true. I did and have never looked back.The claims that Meta platforms can improve your business, keep relationships alive, inform the electorate and make a better society have been disproven again and again, but the thing keeps growing. It does that by suppressing the belief that there are alternatives.This podcast talks about how you, your group, your business and your friends can leave the toxic cesspit and find success and mental health in the decentralized world.Sponsored by Haven.Most security tools only know how to shout. Haven doesn't. It's a Chrome browser extension that spots phishing links and attempts before you click, and stays quiet the rest of the time. Free for individual use, at starthaven.com.
Transcribe →Episode 12.11 - The bad guys are in your smart TV. You can do something about it.
2w ago00:23:23Tap to summarizeThis week I talked to the good folks at the Digital Citizens Alliance about a report on residential proxies.Say what? Residential proxies? What the heck are those? They are the apps and hardware products people use to connect to the internet, and they are as secure as a sieve is water tight. The Wall Street Journal published a report on them June 15 and. Back in March the FBI issued an alert abut the dangers they pose. The DCA produced their own report that was, frankly, more informative about the problem.The podcast is sponsored by Haven, a free internet browser extension that protects you from phishing links and malicious sites before you ever click.
Transcribe →Episode 12.10 - The problem of configuration drift with Reach Security
4w ago00:19:07Tap to summarizeBack in April, Microsoft released an advisory about phishing gang infiltrating Microsoft Teams meetings. In stunning turn of events, it wasn't a weakness in the Microsoft product but in users turning off or bypassing multiple security controls for external users, and then forgetting to turn them back on. This is what is known as configuration drift. We talked with Reach Security's CEO Garrett Hamilton.
Transcribe →Episode 12.9 - Data brokers and health care with Rob Shavell of Deleteme
Jun 400:23:03Tap to summarizeThe data broker market is worth half a trillion dollars and growing at a rate of 7.3 percent annually through 2033. That means they don’t care that you want your privacy. They are making too much money selling your personal information to care. That lack of concern doesn’t just affect an individual’s privacy. It threatens their security and that of nation states.There is a technology niche dedicated to fixing that problem: the personal data removal and online privacy market. The problem is it’s worth a 10th of the data broker market so it doesn’t have the political clout of data brokers. And nowhere is the problem bigger than the healthcare industry, according to Rob Shavell, CEO of Deleteme.This episode is sponsored by Haven, a free browser extension that protects you from phishing links and malicious sites before you ever click.
Transcribe →Episode 12.8 - Marketing misinformation
May 2900:34:52Tap to summarizeA public relations firm in the United Kingdom, Whiteoaks International, said the quiet part out loud about cybersecurity marketing: that much of it is fiction if not outright fraudulent.I sat down with the rest of the Cyber Protection Magazine team, Patrick Boch and Joe Basques to have a frank discussion about this issue. Frankly, any journalist knew this to be true but to hear it come from a practicing agency was rather surprising.
Transcribe →Episode 12.7 - When scams are legal: a Chat with MirrorTab's Brian Silverstein
May 2600:21:28Tap to summarizeJust to prove that even the most secure practitioners, like your truly, can fall for the “free lunch” offer, I inadvertently signed up for a shady but completely legal “cash back” offer. Not only did I not get any cash back I got charged for it, had to cancel a debit card and walked through the process (which I described in Cyber Protection Magazine this week.But I also called up Brian Silverstein, CEO of MirrorTab (whom we talked with a couple of weeks ago) about how to be aware when these things pop up unexpectedly and his company's plans to deal with not just scams, but scammy deals.
Transcribe →Episode 12.6 - Reporter's Notebook on Breach Irrelevance
May 1500:42:36Tap to summarizeAT the RSAC Conference this year a new marketing buzzword appeared in several interviews, most particularly DataKrypto and Cy4Data Labs. They are doing important work, but my interviews with them indicate they need to lift their heads up now and then and look around. Their competitive field is bigger than they think. More on Cyber Protection Magazine next week.
Transcribe →Episode 12.5 - The Future of Truth, Stephen Rosenbaum
May 800:23:58Tap to summarizeI talk about the nature of truth in an Ai world with documentarian Steven Rosenbaum in advance of the release next week of his book The Future of Truth, not to be mistaken by the 2025 book of the same name by film maker Werner Herzog.
Transcribe →Episode 12.4 - Forward, into the past: AI makes legacy media relevant again
May 100:34:30Tap to summarizeThe dirty secret of digital media for the past two decades has been that it doesn't really work. It's just a lot cheaper and easier than actual marketing. Lou Covey and Joe Basques of Cyber Protection Magazine have watched it in its genesis to where it is today and talk about how AI has totally flipped the script, how it changes the metrics and purpose of content and how to make it work for your company.
Transcribe →Episode 12.3 -- $500/m security with MirrorTab/Haven and DNSfllter
Apr 2300:42:40Tap to summarizeThe great conundrum of business is how rare it is for a company to find markets they can dominate. Oh, they all say that’s what they want to do, but when asked about their business they respond, “Some of our customers are in the Fortune 100/500/1000.” That response always leaves us cold. The biggest companies will always buy one of everything just to make sure they don’t miss out.Cybersecurity is not immune to this case of tunnel vision. 90 percent of companies in the industry target 10 percent of the available market in the form of medium to large enterprises. Meanwhile, small to medium businesses (SMBs) can’t get cybersecurity companies to answer the phone unless they are will to spend six figures on tools and services. We don’t think that a very good idea. SMBs make up the backbone of any supply chain and without effective security, they become massive holes for the large companies that contract with them.We’ve been playing around with the idea of how much it really costs to make your SMB network secure and we’ve determined that it can be done for less than $500 a month. No, it’s not comprehensive, but even companies with million-dollar security budgets get hacked. Our idea is to plug the most obvious holes. Sure enough, we are finding companies that do just that. We are launching this campaign today with two interviews of security providers that have competint/overlapping services: MirrorTab and it’s new product Haven, and an old-guard company, DNSFilter. The services these companies offer will alert users to questionable websites or emails. Considering that represents 95% of all breaches, that pretty much covers your business like a blanket. The cost? Free to $5 a month.We suggest you call one or both of them today, but before you do, listen to our itnerviews with Mikey Pruitt, head of AI labs at DNS Filter, and MirrorTab CEO Brian Silverstein. You will learn some valuable information.
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